Since chatting with us in May of 2019, the raddest rock band to come out of St. Joe has released their second studio album, 2020’s Green Room, and continues to tour widely across the US and Europe.
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Radkey is Kansas City's contribution to the world of visceral, bare-bones rock music. Comprised of brothers Dee, Isaiah and Solomon Radke, the band draws influence from a wide range of hard rock and power pop forebears like Nirvana, Iron Maiden, Misfits, to name a few. Radkey recently released the No Strange Cats...Spiders EP, a strong collection of songs that serves as a great introduction to the trio. We're happy to share an interview with the band about the new music, their writing process and what's to come.
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Describe the road to your music recent album, No Strange Cats. How long had you been working on those songs? What do you feel you accomplished with this album that you hadn’t before?
We’ve been working on a few of the songs for a really long time, and some we wrote just a few months before we took them to the studio. We’ve always wanted to have a really personal record with songs more about our lives, and now after lots of touring and going through a lot we were finally able to come up with some personal relatable songs.
Tell us about growing up homeschooled in St. Joseph, MO. Was it a positive experience? Did you use your library a lot? How did this type of schooling fuel your musical education? It’s was awesome! Had a lot of time to focus on our music and other hobbies. I’d say it helped a lot
Who were your earliest musical influences growing up? Definitely Weezer, Local H, Nirvana and Led Zeppelin
How does songwriting work in Radkey? Who brings what to the table? Everyone pretty much does a little bit of everything, which is really helpful and it keeps things different. Everyone has their strong spots but together it all works out.
What music are you currently raving about? We’ve been really into the first few Smashing Pumpkins albums lately!!
What’s ahead for the band in 2019? Lots more shows and new music!!
Comics/graphic novels:
Batman: Death of the Family by Peter Tomasi
Wolverine by Frank Miller
Watchmen by Alan Moore
Secret Wars by Jonathan Hickman
Books:
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Gillian McCain and Legs McNeil
Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis
Movies: