Biography

Rebel and a Basketcase are Evan Rachel Wood and Zach Villa. The duo collaborated on the song 'Oh Yeah' as a one-off project, and loved collaborating so much they continued writing until they had created what evolved into an entire album of music and a new band. The two artists met performing in a John Hughes Cabaret with the company For The Record where the actors re-enacted scenes from the director’s most famous films while singing songs from the soundtracks. Evan played the role of Basketcase and Zach played the role of Rebel – both in reference to The Breakfast Club characters originated by Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson. The idea of working together musically stemmed from both artists’ desire to keep pretending to be in a John Hughes movie – so they started a band. The band counts a diverse array of acts including David Bowie, The Eurythmics, The Cure, Garbage, Radiohead, The xx and M83 among their influences. Their debut track 'Oh Yeah' is inspired by the internal conflict of finding one’s identity, whether it be ideological, sexual or other. For Zach, it has an underlying message about classicism and one’s place in life. For Evan, the song is about breaking through barriers and refusing to make one’s self smaller. Both knew it would be the first song the band would put out into the world together.