Band Interview: Simple Radicals
Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging life are pleased to bring you an interview with alt-rock band, Simple Radicals.
1. How did you get started as a band?
I developed the concept and wrote the songs for the “New Revolution” album and began laying down the construct of the songs in the studio such as the rhythms, lead beds, drums and vocal tracks. I reached out to John Griffin who I played in a band with a few years ago and asked if he would listen to the tracks and consider laying down the leads. He loved the tracks and laid down some incredible shreds and the rest is history. We brought on James Page on bass and Griff Johnson on drums and The Simple Radicals were formed.
2. How would you describe your sound?
We’re a retro-rock band that combines sounds and styles from some of our favorite classic/alt-rock bands like Pink Floyd, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Green Day and Cheap Trick. If you like those bands then I think you will like our sound.
3. What bands/artists would you say have influenced your style of music?
Eddie Vedder is my musical hero. I’m mesmerized with his writing and try to capture the messaging, passion and energy that he does in his songs. If I can even come within a million miles of that I’d consider it a success. Pearl Jam’s “Ten” album was life changing. Other bands that have influenced me over the years including Foo Fighters, Tom Petty, Pink Floyd, Green Day and Cheap Trick.
4. Has the rise of YouTube & music streaming helped or hindered you as a band?
We love doing videos. We just released a video to our song “Rich Man Wanna Be King” which provides a scathing lampoon on President Trump that just broke 175,000 views. We released a lyrical video to the title track of our album New Revolution which has already racked up over 60,000 YouTube views and climbing. A video to our song “Medicate” which features Vernon Reid from the band Living Colour on lead guitar. Platforms like YouTube and Spotify have been incredibly helpful to us. It provides us with a great opportunity to engage with current and new fans on an on-going basis.
5. What do you enjoy doing when you’re not making music?
I live for the outdoors…especially the mountains. Hiking, kayaking, running. And even just staring at the mountains. There’s something about the body in motion that helps stimulate my creative juices.
6. What are your future plans musically? Tours?
We have a lot going on and coming up. We continue to push our album, “New Revolution” which has the guitar-God Vernon Reid from the band Living Colour playing lead on the track “Medicate”. We’re about to release a wicked cover version of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” where we collaborated with an incredible husband/wife team called Che-Val. We’ll be releasing a quarantine video to our song “The Optimist”. And, we’re about to release a podcast called “Music & A Brew” where we crack open a cold one with musical artists including Kenny Aronoff (drummer for John Mellencamp and tons of others), Todd Sucherman (Styx), Vernon Reid (Living Colour) and Daxx Nielsen (Cheap Trick).
Links
Spotify | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
