Success Hasn’t Spoiled Raynes

Staying true to one’s values, be they creative or moral, can be challenging over the course of time — especially in the entertainment industry, where fame can be fast and fleeting.

University of Mary classmates Joe Berger, ’16, and Mat Charley, ’16, formed the band Raynes with English musician Mark Race, in 2017. Within a year, Raynes signed a recording deal and their breakout single, “Lemon Drop,” earned critical praise and millions of streaming views on Spotify, Apple Tunes, and YouTube.

Since then, the trio has emerged as up-and-comers on the pop music scene without abandoning their artistic integrity and small-town roots.

“Authenticity goes a long way in this world,” Berger says.

Birth of a Band

Berger and Charley first met in North Hall on the University of Mary campus in 2014.

“I was pretty sociable and outgoing,” says Berger, who was a track scholar-athlete majoring in marketing and business administration. “I’d never seen this guy before, and he looked cool, so I just went up and started chewing the fat.”

At that time, Charley had already tested the waters of the music industry, fronting several local bands and moving to Los Angeles for a short time—all the while writing songs and delving into music production. With his efforts in California failing to generate interest, the Minot native enrolled at Mary, majoring in Catholic studies and theology.

Their friendship was born long before their shared musical interests were revealed.

“I was living off campus with one of my brothers,” says Charley. “I was always skipping class to write songs, and I realized Joe hadn’t told me that he played guitar. After I figured that out, he would come over to my apartment, and we would just jam.”

That’s when things began to click.

“I had instruments all over the place,” Charley says. “I would grab an accordion, and we started playing covers. Then Joe started recording these videos and posting them on Facebook, and we started getting some attention.”

They continued to hone their sound after graduation, and their online fanbase continued to grow. By 2017, they were performing in front of several thousand people and gaining attention from record companies. The musical talent was there — but the duo realized they needed a frontman with a strong, commanding voice.

Providentially, Charley was scrolling Instagram and came across a video of Race, a vocalist from Durham, England.

He showed it to Berger. They knew Race was the one — but could they to convince the Brit to join a couple of unknown American musicians across the Atlantic Ocean ?

Race was attending Durham University on a vocal scholarship and playing gigs at a number of regional pubs. Charley messaged him on Facebook, shared their story, and said they had a team set up and a “pub” [publicity] deal ready to sign. Race thought they had a pub residency at local bars, which sounded fun.

Within 10 days of their first exchange, Race was on a plane to Los Angles. Not long after, they signed with Sony Music Publishing. The trio chose the name Raynes after rejecting more than 1,500 alternatives. Race remembered a childhood classmate names Raine; they swapped the “i” for a “y” and added an “s” at the end. It looked good on paper and sounded cool, so they went with it.

Breaking Out

Charley, the band’s primary songwriter, wrote “Lemon Drop” in 2019, a pop tune describing their experience of living in Los Angles and the ups and downs of breaking into the music industry.

“That was our debut single,” he says. “Not that it was an international smash, but that one really did take off in a way that laid the foundation for everything else.”

That collaborative relationship has continued to work, as Raynes has pumped out six singles and two extended play (EP) releases.

“Since day one, we’ve had no compromises,” says Charley. “We are doing exactly what we want to do. It’s interesting: When we came on the scene, we were good, but we had just started. We were good because we were good individually. Now we’ve jelled and developed a very intimate, constant, personal relationship.”

“I'd say right now we've never been more confident together, in each other and ourselves as a whole,” says Berger. “We believe in what we can do, and we know that we're going to keep going until we accomplish our goals, then create new goals and accomplish them!”

On the group’s website, raynesmusic.com, they are described as incorporating elements of folk, Americana, and baroque pop with Celtic and world music. Their latest five-song EP, d “’49,” was released in the fall of 2024. It was inspired by the 1849 California Gold Rush.

That may seem like an unusual theme for a pop album, but Berger says the group is staying true to who they are.

“That's never been a big issue for us,” he says. “If you don't get our music, that’s alright, sayonara. And if you do get it, great!”

In the early years, as they built a catalog of original music, they played cover shows in small bar venues to pay the bills — and they paid their dues on the road. In 2023, Raynes played nearly 80 gigs across the US and the United Kingdom. Exposure in “People Magazine” and several music industry websites and publications contributed to steadily growing online streams, so the band decided to drop cover shows and exclusively perform original music.

“We always ask ourselves, ‘Does this make the boat go faster?’” says Berger. “Doing cover shows was good money, but we're not in this for the money. Now we're doing only Raynes shows, and we've been fairly steady on the road. We didn’t hit 80 shows for 2025, but y’know, that's alright.”

Bismarck Homecoming

In the fall of 2024, it was old home week for Charley and Berger as Raynes played the Marauders Homecoming Dance at the Bismarck Event Center.

“Everyone was dressed up and looking great,” Berger says. “We started to play, and everyone rushed the stage. Whatever song we played, two seconds in they were jumping to it and singing every word. That night, we were all on the same vibration and frequency, experiencing this beautiful thing together.”

While in town, the two North Dakota natives gave their English bandmate a tour of the campus and showed him the exact spot in where they met in 2014. Even though the band is technically “based” in Nashville, Berger and his wife live here in Bismarck, while Charley now lives with his wife in Phoenix, Arizona and Race lives in Miami, Florida. With the use of software and mobile recording equipment, the three can connect anywhere to record new music in between tours.

But even as Raynes continues to grow in popularity and life on the road becomes second nature for Berger and Charley, their thoughts return often to the campus high on the bluff overlooking the Missouri River valley.

“If I could do everything over again, I'd still come here,” Berger says.

“You would come here because I would be here,” says Charley.

Raynes returns to Bismarck accompanied with a string quartet on March 5th at 6:30PM at the Belle Mehus Auditorium.