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.
He quickly followed that up with a solo-piano career retrospective called 88s and Heartaches, which features only Restaino’s voice and piano giving new life to songs from throughout his catalog.
Restaino has also recently joined up with two bands led by friends and fellow travelers of the Austin music scene. He plays lead guitar and sings backup in Admiral Sound, a band led by Pj Christie that harkens back to ’90s indie rock, and plays lead guitar and synthesizer with King Amy, an eclectic band led by violinist/guitarist/vocalist Amy Blackard. Both bands are also working on recordings set for release in 2026. Restaino also continues to play solo and in other incarnations.
