So about two weeks ago I posted this interview with The Radical Sons in advance of their New York City shows. Well Blogger decided it would be a good post to delete despite me having permission to post the mp3's I did. Well even though I have been diligently saving all of my posts to re-up them once they're taking down I missed this one so it took me a little longer to get back up and I forget what my intro was. Whatever, the band e-mailed me about why it came down and seemed upset that it was taken down so it's going back up with this new intro! Please don't delete my post again!
PTST: You guys hail from St. Louis which isn't necessarily thought of as a musical hotbed. How did you guys come to form a band, and what led you towards the indie aesthetic as opposed to emo or alt-country or something more prevalent?
Radical Sons: I think the reason I was drawn towards indie rock was firstly because I really disliked the kids in school who were into the whole Nu Metal tough guy rap stuff. And I equally disliked the whiny emo stuff as well. I just didn't fit in with either category. I wasn't really into music until I was about 12. Within the course of a month I got into The Velvet Underground, Television, White Stripes, Nirvana, & a bunch of other great bands. Once I would get into one band I would immediately look up their influences and download that stuff. File sharing definitely played a major part in my music discovery.
PTST: How did you guys get together? Is this your first band?
Radical Sons: Radical Sons formed originally as The Overtones when we were like 15. I had wanted to start a band for a long time and had been using the Overtones name for a while for various projects with different kids I knew and just my home made demo stuff. We all met through mutual friends and began hanging out in the St. Louis loop skateboarding and recording shopping and other stuff like that. Around that time I decided to get serious about doing the band and asked those guys to join. About a year and half ago we decided to change the name to Radical Sons because things were getting more serious with the band and we all agreed The Overtones was a really lame name.
PTST: You guys are fairly young but you've already opened up for some pretty cool bands, who was the coolest band you've had the chance to open for so far?
Radical Sons: I would say the coolest band we played with was definitely Be Your Own Pet just because we went on to become really good friends with those kids and got to play with all their other bands after that show.
PTST: A lot of blogs are tossing around a lot of comparisons when talking about The Radical Sons, I myself likened you to The Velvet Underground and Television. Do you guys generally consider these comparisons to be accurate? Were these bands big influences of yours? What modern bands do you feel are influencing you guys right now?
Radical Sons: While we are totally into the whole velvets NYC 70's rock thing, that is definitely not the only stuff we are into. We are also super into weirder early 80's no wave noise stuff as well as old 50's doo wop records . As far as modern bands go I think Deerhunter is really doing some of the best stuff out there especially that new EP they just did (Rainwater Cassette Exchange). Bradford Cox is just a really great performer as well. I saw him with our bassist Geoff a few years ago during the Cryptograms Tour and he scared the shit out of us. He was in a dress, screaming, and crawling on the floor banging a guitar. I had never seen anything like that before or felt that way at a concert. It was one of the best shows I have ever seen. His solo Atlas Sound stuff is great as well.
PTST: Is there a St. Louis music scene that you guys are a part of? Who are your favorite bands from your hometown?
Radical Sons: The St. Louis music scene is weird. There definitely is a group of indie rock bands there and somewhat of a community, but so many of the bands who get really good get discouraged and just break up after a year or two. St. Louis is really overlooked by the national music blogs or magazines, so the bands who don't tour just get stuck in this rut of playing to the same people all the time at the same clubs and get bored. There is definitely a lot of great music coming form the city though. I would recommend So Many Dynamos, Jumbling Towers, & Cameron Matthews. Those are some of my favorites.
PTST: You guys are releasing your debut EP on St. Ives, how did you guys come to sign with them? How do you guys feel about being on the label so far?
Radical Sons: We played a show in Bloomington Indiana last winter and some of the guys from Secretly Canadian came out to see it and we got to talking with them about doing something with their St. Ives label. We jumped at the chance to do it because we are huge fans of past bands they have worked with. They have been great to work with and are a great label. We couldn't be happier with the way the record turned out. They will be for sale at our shows this week!
PTST: Are you guys excited to be playing up here in New York? Outside of playing your shows is there anything you're looking forward to seeing/doing while in New York?
Radical Sons: We love NYC and can't wait to just hang out with our friends who live up there. There is also always coo' shows to check out and we can't wait to see Girls, Paper Chase & Free Energy at Mercury. That will be great, we always love checking out the other bands we are playing with. Our only complaint with NYC is that most of the shows are 21 up. Besides that it is the best. So much musical history took place here and its a lot of fun to read stuff about the Velvet Underground, Ramones, Television, Cro Mags, etc, then walk around where that stuff happened.
PTST: After these New York dates there seems to be nothing left on your schedule, do you guys have any plans for the summer?
Radical Sons: After this tour our future plans are to start demoing some stuff for a full LP and then just keep setting touring and plugging away at Radical Sons.
Listen: Radical Sons - "I'm So Sick of the 21st Century"
Radical Sons - "Throwing Knives"
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