What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences and are they the same as when you started out?
Chris (Dennett, Vocals and Guitar): I read once that Matt Skiba (of Alkaline Trio) when coming up with his band’s name, went into a dictionary and just picked out words he liked and put them together, or something along those line. I basically did the same, I wrote down words I liked the sound of, put them together and Radio Aftermath just stuck out to me.
Rob (Burns, Bass): I listen to a lot of different music, my main influences are probably Every Time I Die, Reuben/Jamie Lenman, and Elliott Smith. I’ve been loving a lot of Defeater as well recently. Been on a real melodic hardcore kick.
How do you approach songwriting?
Rob: I mostly stay away from lyrics so any themes I’m looking for are purely musical. I’ll either noodle until I hit on something I like or if I’m feeling a bit stuck, I’ll set myself some rules – either play a particular chord/scale/tuning whatever. Weirdly constricting yourself can be more freeing, you’re not paralysed by an abundance of choice anymore.
Why do you write the music that you do?
Rob: I like headbanging and screaming along to loud noises. A lot of this stuff just resonates with me in a way that nothing else has. Also, I can’t rap for shit so becoming an MC was out of the question…
How do you decide what songs to play live?
Rob: We play everything we’ve got at the moment, so it’s easy to decide what to play! Going forward it’s going to become a lot more of a struggle as we have a lot of new stuff in the works that we’ll be looking to debut on stage soon. The most important part of the songs live for us is flow, so we tend to start with a couple of fast aggressive ones to hit the ground running, have the slow jam in the middle, then close out the set with the big finish. Give the crowd the old razzle dazzle.
What plans do you have for the future?
Rob: We have another single due soon (exact date to be confirmed). Then it’s the EP baby! Still being mixed at current, but it’s coming along and we’re hoping to have it out around July/August at the latest!
Chris: We have material set out for another EP straight after this is released so I imagine we’ll get to work on that immediately so we can keep up the flow of new material. Hopefully then we can gig and tour. Loads. I would love to try and play some shows around Europe at some point. But it’s difficult now we can’t roam free. Remember when we could do that? What a time that was.