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Birthdate: September 23rd, 1977

Sign: Libra

Culture: Rachael's mom is half German, half Italian. Her father is 3rd generation Japanese

Background: Rachael is part of  a small percentage of kids that grew up with divorced parents, but still had a great upbringing where the parents were great and supportive of her! Lucky girl!  Her mother lived in New York City, and her father in Washington DC. 

Schooling:  After graduating from highschool, Rachael studied French at Northwestern. She decided, after a year, to switch to Italian Theater as her major at the school Vassar.  When her theater coach moved to a new school, she went BACK to Northwestern to study in their theater program. 

How she "made it":  During her junior year in college, Rachael discovered the Chicago funk band, Bumpus. She became a big fan, and went to all of their shows... and even started attending their rehearsals. Eventually, they invited her to sing along with them a bit. That led to 6 years of writing, recording, and touring with the band! Rachael, however, had written a ton of songs that didn't really fit into the "funk" of Bumpus... and, ready to burst, she decided she needed to let them out... so, she went to an "Open Mic" night, and sang her heart out to all that would listen. The rest is history! In 2001, she left Bumpus and began working on her solo career. In 2002, she signed with Arista's Private Music, and her first EP was released in October (2002). After that, she worked on her full length album. The album, called "Happenstance" was released by BMG in June of 2004.

Sources:  MTV.com, Auralgasms.com, Blender.com