Rich Restaino has been self releasing original music for most of his life. Raised on a diet of doo-wop, Beatles, and Dylan, he started playing guitar at around 12, following the well-worn path of his older brother and their father. By the time he moved from his native New York at 25, he was a multi-instrumentalist and home recordist of quickly-improving capacity.
Once he found his way into a dark corner of Austin’s fabled music scene, he spent time playing guitar, drums, bass, and mandolin in various outfits, including the reggae collective Mr. Brown, the indie-folk band The Lennings, and string-band folkies Sara Shansky & the Titanic Dance Band. He also co-founded (along with Zimmy T.) the dirty doo-wop-punk outfit The Late Fees. He led his band, Rich Restaino & the Obits, for about eight years, and their power-pop soul was featured at the International Pop Overthrow Festival and on college radio around the country.
More recently, Restaino has released a string of albums under his name (including 2024’s Mixtape and 2022’s Trying to Remember a Dream), two collections of instrumentals as Shrugging Bird, and produced records for other artists (Junebug by Mightyites, Hillbilly Apocalypse by Tex Offenders, and Enjoy the Ride by Sara Shansky & the Titanic Dance Band, among others). This relentless activity was all accomplished in the hours while not teaching high school English, which he has done for nearly two decades.
Always a dabbler at sketching, Restaino recently took up painting, and one of his original works is featured as the cover art for Mostly We Lie, the latest in a series of EP-length releases that he has favored lately. This one holds nothing back in terms of addressing current events, both political and personal, a hallmark of Restaino’s work throughout his catalog, and even with the short length, he finds a way to pack in several shifts in style and tone.
Restaino plays shows less frequently than in past years, but he does still pop up in solo gigs, occasionally with a band, and as a sideman on guitar, drums, or whatever else is needed.
