Interview: Radkey
I recently wrote about Radkey here and have been raving about them quite a lot since first stumbling upon their music. They're pretty much exactly what the music industry needs right now, just fresh, fast, adrenaline-fueled rock music. I was lucky enough to chat with Isaiah Radke in the midst of their UK tour...
I've heard that you are trying to "bring rock music back to the forefront" so to speak. If you could put together the perfect rock band, who would be in it and what would they play?
I've heard that you are trying to "bring rock music back to the forefront" so to speak. If you could put together the perfect rock band, who would be in it and what would they play?
Well Kurt Cobain would probably be on lead
vocals, and we’d probably have John Entwistle on
bass. Um, maybe John Bonham or someone on the drums and for guitar, I don’t
know, maybe someone like Jimi Hendrix.
2013
was a huge year for you with playing Jools Holland, touring and a new EP “Devil
Fruit” release. Do you have any main goals you'd like to achieve in 2014?
A lot more touring and to put out a new
album definitely.
What
was it like touring with Drenge?
It was really cool, they were really cool
dudes. They shared their green room and their beer and food with us, which was really
cool and it was just a really cool tour. I wonder how many people actually knew
that it was like an all siblings kind of thing.
As
far as "sibling bands" go, did your bands differ much?
Not too much, I mean it’s all pretty much
loud, guitar rock music.
Do
you think that your sound would be different if you weren't home schooled?
I definitely think so and I also wonder if
we would even be in a band.
Why’s
that?
I don’t know it just seems like school has
a lot to it that would distract us from deciding on doing anything like that.
I've
heard that you guys are into things like superheroes, comics and anime - if you
could have any super power, which one would you choose?
I think I would do teleportation just
because if I kind of put it in the real world it would help me escape quite a
few dangers I think and I could use it pretty well, so I would say
teleportation. And because of Nightcrawler I would want like the puff of smoke.
Everyone
normally chooses flying though…
Yeah, which you know I mean I guess if you
could fly really fast. I’m just trying to think of which would be like the most
convenient.
Your
song "N.I.G.G.A (not okay)" was recorded on tape. Was this in any way
influenced by Dave Grohl's recent choice to return to tape?
Yeah, that definitely made tape really cool
again, like it brought it back. I think a lot of people were really into doing
it again, at least like in the mainstream kind of way.
You
toured a lot last year and even went on a plane for the first time. After all
that, do you have your eyes on any festivals or countries that you'd like to
play in the near future?
Yeah we definitely want to play some of the
main UK festivals and we want to hit Japan too. We definitely just want to do
as much of that kind of stuff as we can.
Is there
any new up and coming talent from Missouri that we should be keeping an eye out
for?
Yeah I mean there are cool bands like Maps
For Travelers, Soft Reeds and The Architects and stuff like that, that I would
really keep an eye out for.
