Biography

Meeting at the crossroads of adult alternative pop, alternative folk, Americana, and reflective folk-rock, Reina del Cid is the brainchild of singer/songwriter Rachelle Cordova. She and her band made their recording debut with blueprints, plans in 2012. Gradually fleshing out their sound but retaining an intimate, organic feel, their fourth album, 2019's Morse Code, featured guests on lap steel, keyboards, and more, with the partly remotely tracked Candy Apple Red following suit in 2022. A native of Fargo, North Dakota, Cordova moved to Minneapolis in 2006 to attend the University of Minnesota, where she studied English literature. She created her stage alias by combining the Spanish for "queen" and her nickname for her guitar. In 2007, she launched a video channel with a music series called Sunday Mornings with Reina del Cid, where she presented covers as well as original songs. After finishing her degree in 2010, the singer/guitarist formed a full band with schoolmate and prior collaborator Toni Lindgren as lead guitarist, Andrew Foreman on bass, and Zach Schmidt on drums. Calling themselves Reina del Cid & the Cidizens, they self-released the album blueprints, plans in 2012. The group's founding lineup held steady for the next several years, as they dropped the Cidizens moniker and started playing as Reina del Cid. They issued their second full-length, The Cooling, in mid-2015, following it in late 2017 with Rerun City. In the meantime, Reina del Cid's video series accumulated tens of thousands of subscribers. The group then signed with Last Triumph, which reissued Rerun City in June 2018 and The Cooling a few months later. That year, Schmidt left the band, and Nate Babbs joined as drummer. The updated lineup delivered Morse Code in October 2019. Following a move to Los Angeles for Cordova and Lindgren, the group's fifth studio album, Candy Apple Red, was a cross-country, multi-studio effort independently released in April 2022. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi