“COMIC
BOOKS. BOREDOM. ROCK N ROLL. VIDEO GAMES. MISFITS. RAMONES. WEEZER.
THE MIDDLE OF AMERICA. THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. NIRVANA. PIZZA.
DAD'S RECORD COLLECTION. SKATEBOARDS. AFROPUNK. MORE PIZZA."
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"A QUEST TO END FALSE ROCK.
That, in a nutshell, is Radkey. Def: Rad-Key.
As in:The Key to Rad-Ness” Photo Credit: Vinny Dingo
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Song River: There is unquestionably a connection between Radkey and the Ramones. What is it Isaiah about their sound and that point of time that you as brother identified with?
Isaiah
Radkey: We always loved how straightforward they were. They're pretty
much the perfect band for teaching you how to write pretty cool
simple songs. We grew up on their sound.
Song
River: How did you get the gig opening for Fishbone back in 2011?
Isaiah
Radkey: The crazy thing is the original opener dropped off the bill,
so our dad hit up the promoter and got us on the show. The promoter
never asked if we'd ever played a show or anything before. Just if we
could fill 30 minutes, which we lied about. We wrote enough new songs
to fill the slot and we played our first show ever.
Song
River: Did it dawn you what that would come to mean? Fishbone isn't a
small name.
Isaiah
Radkey: We honestly thought that we were famous afterward. Turns out
that's not actually what happened. Playing that show though meant so
much to us. Our very first show having been with them automatically
made us a band that you could take seriously and book on shows even
though we were super young. Really since our first show was so big,
it pretty much made us want to chase that feeling and feel it again.
That show kept us going for our whole career basically. We were
really lucky.
Song
River: 2015 took you all over to Europe on tour. Did you notice
anything in particular different between the way Europe reacted and
accepted your music by comparison to the states?
Isaiah
Radkey: Definitely. European crowds seem to really understand
American rock music and just really love it a lot more. I always tell
people that it feels like we're an actual band over there.
Song
River: What was it do you think Ross Orton brought to the Radkey's
that you couldn't bring yourselves?
Isaiah
Radkey: He taught us so much. He showed us that we could take our
music into a lot of different places. A lot more than we knew at the
time. After working with him on songwriting it became easier. We
feel that we understand music so much more. Working with him really
helped us become the band that we've always wanted to be.
Song
River: If you would describe your album's, "Delicious Rock
Noise" sound.
Isaiah
Radkey: Super loud, heavy, catchy, rock music. The kind that we grew
up on and always wanted to make. We wanna bring back the classic
style of crazy guitar solos and big crazy choruses.
Song
River: How much of it feels like it is still who you were, but more
importantly who you are now?
Isaiah
Radkey: The album is definitely everything that we are. We put
everything into it. Listening to it is to live inside of our brains.
Song
River: Your music has basically been your whole life. Where did the
influence come from that jazzed all three of you to take the music
road?
Isaiah
Radkey: Dad brought home the movie School of Rock, and he had pretty
much all of the music that was in it. Stuff like Ramones, Led
Zeppelin, AC/DC. It's pretty weird, but it's an awesome movie that
really inspired us to play music and got us into a lot of awesome
stuff.
Song
River: Most probably don't realize how long you've actually
been playing. Looking back yourselves what has been most challenging
so far?
Isaiah
Radkey: The road is really hard and long but we're really used to it,
and we actually love it. Everything else has pretty been fun the
whole time.
Song
River: What is the back-story to "Dark Black Makeup?"
Isaiah
Radkey: It's pretty much a song inspired by the X-Men villain
Apocalypse. Imagine if there were a being that woke up and punished
everyone for being lame and boring. It's a song about waking up and
enjoying life before it's over. Don't go to a show and be lame and
quiet. Party and enjoy it instead of trying so hard to look cool.
Song
River: Is you dad still managing you?
Isaiah
Radkey: He is!
Song
River: Three brothers, playing punk-rock, all songwriters, living the
rock n roll dream. Do you all ever look at each other and go,
"THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME!"?
Isaiah
Radkey: We definitely do. We always think back to jamming in our hot
green upstairs jam room. Writing stupid songs and playing to annoyed
cats. We were homeschooled so we've seen nothing, really. Then some
jams basically took us around to see the world and get some serious
life experience.
Song
River: How has music been a personal journey for all of you?
Isaiah
Radkey: It's the first job we've ever had, and we've been doing it
since we can remember doing any kind of actual thing. It's really
wild, because we've met so many people, and a lot of things would be
totally different if we never started this.
Song
River: Writing, recording, dropping singles, videos, touring what
else is in the scheme for Radkey and where do you want 2017 to go?
Isaiah
Radkey: We pretty much want to keep writing and get to work on the
next record. And to tour and play as many shows as we possibly can.
Song
River: You've just been given the chance of a lifetime. You get to
choose where you want to play and who will be sharing the stage with
the band... where do you want to play and with whom?
Isaiah
Radkey: The Bottleneck in Lawrence, Kansas with Nirvana!!!
Band Lineup
Dee- Guitar/Vocals
Isaiah- Bass/Backing Vocals
Solomon- Drums
Radkey Information:
"Dark Black Makeup"
"Parade It" Live from Coachella 2015
"Out Here in my Head" 2013
Another Century (Century Label Group/Sony) and just released their label-debut, 'Delicious Rock Noise' on November 11th.