About the Musicians

Rachel Bass (she/they) was born into a musical family and began singing in choirs and studying cello in the early 1990s. Later influenced by her best friend in grade school, she began playing guitar around 1996, with formal lessons mostly in classical techniques and repertoire (favorite composers were Brouwer, Villa-Lobos, and Lauro).
Rachel began creating original music as a teen around the turn of the millennium, and since then their songs have touched on themes of relational angst, social-political disappointment, and the specter of death. Outside of classical, their playing and songwriting have been influenced by a range of artists like Leo Kottke, Amadou & Mariam, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Buffalo Springfield, the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir, Yes, Little Dragon, Soundgarden, and much more.
Rachel’s past musical projects include bands from indie to prog to Assault City Hardcore to post-punk (Hat Trick Hero, The Newlywed Intercoastal, Ladies & Everyone, A.W.O.L., Night Owls, and Difficult) and choirs (the Syracuse Children’s Chorus and various school or community ensembles). With a nearly lifelong career of sorts in early classical music and vocal performance, you can also actively find them as lead soprano in Schola Cantorum of Syracuse and occasionally doing solo or small chamber gigs in the Central NY region.

Anthony Poletto (he/him) is a self-taught drummer from Syracuse. He started in 1997 with influences ranging from the eclectic styles of Weather Report, to Primus and Van Halen - moving in and out of various musical interests and styles - but always leaning toward jazz-laden comping and erratic phrasing. Through many years of stylistic muscle-memory, leanings of Max Roach, Joe Morello, Tony Williams, Clyde Stubblefield and Levon Helm can be heard.
Past bands of note include Ladies & Everyone, American Glove, Formidable Duke, Amorous Radio, Onehundredmetronomes, etc…
After an unrelated medical recovery from 2020-2024 he’s recently gotten back on the drum stool, and now finds himself undergoing daily self-therapy for Focal Dystonia, a neurological disorder that is normally a career-ender for musicians.

A Brief History

Know Nothing was originally formed in 2006 as a new creative outlet between two close friends, Rachel Bass (guitar/vocals) and Anthony Poletto (drums/tech). Playing together since 2003 on bass and drums in an instrumental prog/math trio, Ladies & Everyone, the two branched out and started a different musical project to encourage Rachel, who hadn’t played or written much original music since ~2002, to exit that long dormancy and keep up with her original instrument. With their unusual and very divergent musical upbringings and influences, coupled with their individual playing styles, Rachel and Anthony have managed to create songs and generate analog soundscapes that can entrance listeners while keeping them on their toes.

Know Nothing’s timeline has been interrupted by long hiatuses (active from 2006-2008, 2012-2013, 2024-?). Yes, life and regression/progression have happened in the in-between. You can make your own assumptions about it, but – while the creative journey has been rocky – they keep being drawn back to it and to each other. Both in an effort to make sense of the existential dread of “these times” and to fill an existential void the only way they know how.