StudioA: Metal band Radkey unlocks the door to success
Band of brothers: Radkey is three brothers — Dee (age 21, lead vocals and guitar), Isaiah (19, bass) and Solomon (17, drums) Radke ("Radkey" is a musical play on the family name) — who hail from St. Joseph, Mo. Home-schooled, they raided their father Matt's eclectic record collection populated with everything from The Beatles and Nirvana to the Misfits and Ramones.
After seeing the movie School of Rock, Dee and Isaiah got guitars. When Dee began playing in a cover band using Isaiah's bass, that struck a chord with Isaiah. He told his older brother, "We're going to start a band so I can get some attention and play my bass," Isaiah says. "It just kind of worked out from there."
Bang the drum all day: The youngest brother, Solomon, cycled through several instruments before finding a home behind the drum kit. As he and Isaiah improved, the music gained a breakneck ferocity that jells with Dee's resonant vocals.
Since assaulting ears at South By Southwest in 2013, the band has released two EPs Cat & Mouse and Devil Fruit — both available on iTunes and Radkey.net — packed with fast-paced garage-punk tracks. But one song for Radkey's upcoming first full-length album, Feed My Brain, suggests that the band can still bring the fervor at lower gears.
On the road again: Already international road warriors, Radkey has been to the U.K. four times, including an appearance on BBC's Later ... With Jools Holland. Earlier this year on its first European trip, Radkey shared the bill with Metallica at Belgium's Rock Werchter Festival, which drew a crowd of more than 80,000.
Next month, Radkey will be playing a trio of Riot Fests in Toronto, Chicago and Denver before a stint as U.S. openers for heavy punkers Rise Against. In between gigs, the brothers are putting the finishing touches on the album. A recent visit to San Francisco to work with producer Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys) "broke this wall in our brains," Isaiah says. "Now I feel like we can just write songs all day long."