Rivkah Reyes on Making Music, Sidestepping Marriage, & Embracing Sobriety

Rivkah Reyes always knew what she was going to do in life, but she never imagined how unique her journey would be.

“I was always going to be a performer,” she says, “and that’s taken on many different shapes.”

Currently it’s taken the shape of being a singer-songwriter in NYC’s indie music scene, as well as being an accomplished actress, and a writer.

Many know her name because of her role as bass playing kiddo Katie in the 2003 movie School of Rock, but Rivkah isn’t 10 years old anymore, and her creative journey has seen her walk down numerous paths.

“I did stand up and improv for a while,” she says, “After college, I was on that SNL kick, where I wanted to be on SNL, so I was doing Second City, and all of the improv schools and training in that way, and writing sketches, and getting a package together, and doing all the things I could do.”

When SNL didn’t come calling, she remembers, “I was just like – alright, maybe down the line I’ll end up hosting SNL, or being a musical guest.”

She notes she finally made an appearance on the show recently, saying, “This year I did make my SNL debut … in the background. (It was) Jack Black’s episode, but I was on screen behind him, and (during) the opening monologue.”

Rivkah, however, is a performer who is meant to be front and center, which is exactly where she was was this summer as part of a five-band bill at Arlene’s Grocery in the city.

Accompanied only by her guitar, her music tugged at the crowd’s emotions, while her personality brought a heaping dose of levity to the proceedings.

I recently caught up with Rivkah as she was spending an afternoon at The Hotel Chelsea, and she opened up about her creative journey, as well as the day she didn’t get married, and how inspiration is at the heart of her work. She also discussed her sobriety, and country line dancing to Charli XCX.

There is a radical honesty in your music. What was the most difficult aspect of going from acting, where you’re using someone else’s words, to writing and performing your own truth? 

Well, even in the acting world, I also write films and short-form content and short-form screenplays where I’m playing characters that are typically close to myself, and in the stuff that is other people’s writing I tend to be portraying a role that is close to myself, so that’s always fun.

I think the music is also a character. I try to treat it as, yes, it is coming from me, but what archetype of self is it coming from?

The recent pieces that I’ve been performing, like “Sick,” “Another Vice,” “Big League Chew,” those songs all are coming from the same breakup, so they’re all coming from that version of me that was in that relationship, or was leaving that relationship. Whereas stuff that I wrote in 2014 was coming from the version of me that was still drinking, still in college, and it’s going to come off a different way than, say, whatever I’m writing right now.

How often have you written a song and been like – man, I’m really naked here. This is exposing everything. 

Really, the one that felt the most naked was “Sequel,” which is not yet released, but I’ve been performing it at my live show. That came after a dry spell of almost two years where I wasn’t seriously writing anything, music-wise, and “Sequel” just erupted out of me because I had a muse. I literally found inspiration, and I just barfed that song onto the page in one sitting.

I sent it to one of my dear friends and collaborators, Georgia Maq, she’s an amazing singer from Australia. I sent her the bones of “Sequel,” and she was just like – oh, this is good. What if you added this line, and what if you did this with the melody, and what if this was the hook?

From there, I was like this song feels like the most raw, primal thing I’ve ever written, because it literally erupted out of me like lava.

And for now, people have to see you live to hear that song. 

Yes. (Although) I think there are a couple of little sneaky YouTube videos of it out there somewhere.

During your recent show at Arlene’s Grocery you made up a song on the spot using suggestions from the crowd, and an Emo poetry generator flipbook that you mentioned you bought on what would’ve been your wedding day. Is having this as part of your set a better outcome than marrying that person would’ve been? 

Yes. 100%.

I would say everything is a better outcome than I think marrying that person would have been.

On the day that I was supposed to get married – actually, it’s so funny that we’re talking while I’m here at The Chelsea hotel – I got myself a room here for one night. I brought my guitar, I booked myself a little spa day, I got like a facial and a massage at the spa here at the hotel, and on my way here I picked up that random book from Chelsea Market, and got myself a lobster roll, because I wanted that day to not just be the day I was supposed to get married, I wanted that day to be like a special, perfect “Rivkah in New York” day. What better way to spend it than at my favorite place in the world, The Chelsea hotel, doing what I love, playing my guitar, literally naked, going to the spa, eating a lobster roll, and finding inspiration in something as silly and mundane as a random emo poetry generator book?

I just sat in a room, and recorded a bunch of little improvised voice memos of me just using that book, and some of them inspired real lyrics in upcoming songs that are TBR – to be released.

Wow, that’s awesome! One thing that’s obvious from your shows is you have a lot of personality on stage. What have been some of your favorite results from doing this, and showing your personality? 

The kind of character that I play in-between my songs, when I’m sort of just doing my banter, it’s like a heightened version of myself. It’s like I turn up the volume knob on my anxiety a little bit, on my insecurity a little bit, and have fun channeling that into this character version of myself, almost like in a clowny way. One of my friends called it polished psychosis, which I really liked.

I’m going to lean into that a little more, almost to a point where it’s like I’m heckling the audience from on stage so that they can’t heckle me, which is always something that I’m afraid of.

It’s like, if I’m being chaotic and messy in the banter parts, and then the music is really solid and polished and practiced, I feel protected by it in a way.

I have a really fun time doing these live shows. I almost feel as though it veers into the space of performance art, and not just like this is a concert. Like there is a level of … not stand up, not one woman show, but something in-between.

When I was going through some of your socials, I noticed on TikTok, someone wrote that you’re the reason they began playing guitar. Is that something you’d ever imagined you'd read? 

I’ve been getting that a lot. It’s a common thing for me to hear because you can’t talk about me being a musician, or an actress, without talking about School of Rock.

Basically, ever since I was 10, I guess I was 11 when the movie came out, I’ve had people saying – I started playing bass because of you. I picked up an instrument because of you, or my sister, my daughter, my friend credits you with being the inspiration behind them picking up an instrument.

I just think that’s so cool, and that was ultimately why we made the movie, to inspire kids everywhere to follow their passion, and follow their inspiration. If that’s to be in a rock band, that’s sick. If it’s to be a master chess player, so cool.

That was always the goal behind making that movie, and it still kind of is my goal. If somebody sees my work, (they could decide) to leave an unhealthy relationship because they’re inspired by my experience of doing that, or somebody’s inspired to stop drinking and using drugs because they hear my story and they relate to it so much, or people are inspired by me to get on stage. Like, hell yeah, I love that.

If any of your heroes, or inspirations, had TikTok accounts, who would you be leaving those kinds of comments for? 

Avril Lavigne, for sure.

When I saw her, and she was like, you know, kind of like punky, although she would say she’s not punk, she’s just a rock chick. Seeing her with her crazy eyeliner, and her little neckties, and the camel pants, I was like – that girl is cool. I want to be kind of like bratty like that.

Acting wise, Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality.

A little bit of that, I think, was me having a crush on her, but I think a big part of it was she went from playing this like kind of like, I don’t give a fuck, tomboyish, one of the guys girls, to being a literal beauty queen, and still stayed true to herself.

That role specifically, I was like, I want to do that kind of acting work.

I’m still holding out hope that the day comes that I get to be in like a rom-com where I get made over, kind of like a Taming of the Shrew vibe. Even just doing that play, that would be fun.

You noted earlier that you’re sober. What went into the decision to become sober, and what has sobriety meant for you? 

Yeah, I went pro early, and I retired young.

I got really, really good at hiding the fact that I drank, and did drugs every day, until it was actually really hard to hide it. Then people started to be worried about me. My family was worried about me, and once enough people are like, “Hey, are you OK?” you start fighting back, and you kind of listen to yourself, or at least this is what happened for me. Not everybody is this way. Sometimes other people intervene, but for me, it was more of a divine thing where I started hearing the way I was talking about myself, and listening to the thoughts I was having about myself in my life, and then looking in the mirror and going – wow, I really thought that things would be different by now. I thought I would like myself by the time I was 25.

Then there was just one night where I looked in the mirror and I was like, I need help, and then began my journey to find it.

It took me a couple of tries. It took me finding that I couldn’t do it alone. It took me finding that I couldn’t do it halfway. I couldn’t just stop drinking and continue to do other drugs, or other substances. I had to quit everything, and I had to find a level of support and community around it.

Now, seven and a half years later, all the accolades and awards and numbers on TikTok and whatever is really cool, but the only number I care about is the 24 hours that I’m in, and if that is a 24 hours that I can stay sober, that’s incredible.

I also care about other people’s welfare. A good portion of my friends are on that sobriety journey, as well, and we’re always taking care of each other, and checking in with each other, and making sure each other stays sober, and accountable.

That’s awesome. And congratulations, that’s a great accomplishment. 

Thank you.

To end things on a much lighter note, what’s this about a country line dancing night that you host in Brooklyn? 

A couple of years ago I was living in L.A., and there was a huge strike going on, SAG and the WGA were striking, so none of us were working.

A bunch of my actor friends and I, and film industry people who were all out of work, started going to this queer line dancing party called Stud Country in L.A.

When I moved to New York, one of my friends from Stud Country who had also just moved to New York was like – hey, there’s interest in us starting our own night at this bar in Williamsburg called Desert 5 Spot.

I had a relationship with the Desert 5 team in Los Angeles, so it just felt like an easy thing to say yes to because I love the vibe there so much. It’s so cute, and country, but like cool, laid back country, with a skosh of Americana. It’s not like a Cracker Barrel. It’s like coastal country.

We host a beginners class on Wednesdays, and a more intermediate advanced class on Sundays. Baby Buck is the beginners, and Buck Wild is the more advanced, and it’s just so fun.

It seems like every month there’s new places to go dance, but ours is, in my opinion, the most fun because the DJ is really hot – me. {laughs}

We also prioritize line dancing to songs that are not country. I definitely insert my taste into the playlist. One song will be like a classic, you know, “Country Girl Shake It For Me,” followed by “Vroom Vroom” by Charli XCX, followed by Depeche Mode, and then back to more modern country, like Shaboozey. It’s a nice eclectic mix.

For more Rivkah Reyes, check out her Linktree.