A post-humpday Band of the Day for you, this time from the good ol’ Yew Ess of Aaaaaaaayyyy…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We are from Houston, Texas.
How did you meet?
We met at a tattoo shop in Ohio. Michael was a tattoo artist at the time and Kristin was the client.
How long have you been playing as a band?
We formed in 2008 and started playing live in 2009.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
When we started The Radio Broadcast in 2008/2009 MySpace was the biggest social media site. Our Primary objective was to come up with a band name that wasn’t already on MySpace. We had several names that we came up with that were not names on MySpace and that would have worked out but nothing stuck with us like The Radio Broadcast. Imagine you are flipping through your music library and you come across The Radio Broadcast. You tune in to listen and at that point we (The Radio Broadcast) become your radio and you are listening to our broadcast and thus The Radio Broadcast.
What are your influences?
There is a lot of inspiration and musical influence to be found in the world and for us as far a music goes there are two major electronic groups that have stuck out the most and helped shape our minds to develop the sounds of The Radio Broadcast and that would be Crystal Castles and Innerpartysystem. We love the DIY approach IPS takes when it comes to stage lighting and we love their heavy and raw electronic feel. With CC they come across sort of mysterious. We love their punk attitude in the electronic scene. We really like their lo-fi gritty electronic sounds. We study these bands and many others to try and better ourselves as a band. We try to align ourselves with similar sounding artists but we do our best to remind ourselves that other bands and musicians are just like you and I and to tune into them as a reference or inspiration and not as a guide. But as crazy as life can get it is always a good idea to take a step back and take a little time out and immerse yourself in nature and tune in to the frequencies of the planet, clear your mind, and realign yourself. Once your mind is clear and your body is well tuned it will be a lot easier for your creative ideas to flow into more comprehensive complete ideas.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We can only describe what we want to project but in reality it is up to the listener to describe our style. We have always been stumped by this question because we do not feel we are one certain style. We perform a variety of electronic styles of music because we enjoy a variety of music. We have created tracks that are more synthwave or synthpop sounding and we have created tracks that are more wichhouse, trap, and dub influenced. We do not create with one sound or one style in mind, we create by what we feel and not all creations are intended to be released on an album. With electronic music it is very easy to find a groove and a sound that works and just stick with it. We do not work like that. We do not want all of or music to sound the same. We try to stay fresh and current and we are continuously evolving and experimenting with new sounds and ideas. So for us to label ourselves as one particular style is quite difficult and we think that is definitely one thing that makes us unique.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
There is not a common theme for the album. Each song is different in their own way. Our music isn’t really written towards certain topics. We aren’t trying to push any certain views or thoughts. We write based on the feelings that are felt when developing particular tracks. Lyrical ideas come from all over the place.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
You can expect to feel rewarded and fully entertained. With our music being very diverse there is something there for most everybody. We are always told by fans and other musicians that it is really cool to see us create the tracks live right there in front of them. Something that a lot of other electronic artists are not doing. The energy projecting from the stage will keep you moving the entire time. As soon as the bass drops TRB comes alive. Between Kristin’s bouncing and crawling around on stage and Michael’s non-stop flow of body rockin’ dance rhythms you will be sure to have a good time! Not only will our music and energy keep you entertained and dancing but our stage performance will as well. We understand that we are performers and there is more to performing than just the music. We have put some time and dedication into creating some pretty cool visuals from massive arrays of led lights and lasers to mesmerizing graphics on led screens and a 3ft by 10ft led “TRB” marquee. We are constantly coming up with new ideas for stage setups.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
We have seen a band set up on stage, tear down, reassemble on the floor in front of the stage, tear down again and reassemble across the room and then repeat the process several more times throughout the event space all during their performance while playing. We have no idea how they did this and so seamless and effortlessly.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
As far as music equipment we have several pieces we use in studio and then we have several pieces we use for live performance. For live performance Kristin is using a Yamaha MX49 Keyboard, an electro harmonix vocal processor, Audix vocal mic, and a Korg KP3 Kaoss Pad, an Apple iPad Mini 2 running the XAir app for the Behringer XAir mixer. Michael’s live set up consists of the Roland JDXi, Korg micro Korg or Novation Mini Nova depending on the tracks that are performed, Novation Launchpad, Behringer XAir mixer, Apple iPad Mini 2 running the XAir app for the Behringer XAir mixer and the Novation Launchpad app, Apple iPad Pro running the Novation Launchap app, the Behringer XAir app and sometimes the Traktor DJ app by Native Instruments depending on tracks and set up. We also have en extensive lighting set up that is constantly changing to keep things fresh.
What are your plans for 2019?
We started out the year building and pushing our online presence and we are continuing the effort to grow our online fan base daily. There is still a lot more work to do but we are hoping to build a larger online audience. We have already started to see results so that’s a plus. We realize how big of an online market there is for musicians and it is almost as big if not bigger than the “real life” presence of the artist. With the way life is today for an artist to not make use of the online market is foolish. It’s another work load that’s for sure but if you can build your online presence you will definitely feel rewarded. So we are hoping to grow our online fan base and connect and meet with like minded individuals.
We are also currently working on a new album that we are hoping to release this Summer along with a tour later this year to follow.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
We would love to be a supporting act for Crystal Castles and have an opening act of our favorite local chiptune artist.
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