Red City Radio

18 May 2015 | 3:31 pm | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

As Red City Radio’s eponymous album dropped not too long ago, we had a little chat with Red City Radio’s frontman and moustache extraordinaire, Garret Dale.

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It can be hard losing a band member, but for the dudes in Red City Radio, they had to move on instantly and knuckle down on writing. When guitarist/co-vocalist Paul Pendley left the outfit last year, instead of stagnating, the band just kept at what they love to do – playing loud rock music, goddamnit. As Red City Radio’s eponymous album dropped not too long ago, we had a little chat with frontman and moustache extraordinaire, Garret Dale.

Garret, how are you dude?

I’m doing really well actually. We’re just in Philadelphia on the Strung Out tour and having a good time.

Sick man. With the release of the self-titled album, are there any plans to get out here to Australia anytime soon?

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We’ve been planning to go to Australia since we started this band. I would say the time is getting sooner and sooner. We’re definitely getting closer and closer to coming out and partying with you guys.

Good to hear man. How does it feel to be supporting a band such as Strung Out?

Man, they’re so good! They’re really cool guys and it’s so cool to be able to watch them play each night. We’ve been having a wonderful time on this tour, and we just went to Canada for the first time, the shows there were wonderful. Can’t wait to go back. We do have a couple more weeks with these dudes, so am really looking forward to it.

So are you big fans of the band?

Yeah, though I wouldn’t say we have like tattoos of them on our faces or anything like that, but we definitely grew up listening to them. So it’s awesome to play with them everyday.

Cool, did you ever want to tour with them?

Well, we’re open to touring with all bands, so I would say that if a band that’s great live, are fun human beings, and have a fun positive vibe, then we want to tour with you. So yes, Strung Out are definitely a band we want to tour with.

With the sound of the record, were you guys nervous that your sound was going to change slightly with Paul [Pendley] leaving the band?

Absolutely not. I’ve been the main songwriter of Red City Radio, and if you’re a fan of our band and our music then you’ll see that it’s a natural progression. We wish Paul the best, he’s about to be a dad any day now. But he didn’t have a lot to do with that kind of stuff. If you listen through Tiles, you’ll see there’s only two songs sung by Paul and then the rest are sung by me, and the new album is that progression. So we weren’t scared of anything, and people have been responsive and very positive about the new album. We hope that people listen to it, that they enjoy it, and that they give us all of their money.

(Laughs) right on. With ‘Two Out Of Three Ain’t Rad’, it’s got a pretty positive message behind it, and so, do you ever find that the band is quite a positive band?

I wouldn’t say that Red City Radio is always about positivity, I mean, some of us our definitely about that bass, no trouble, and some of us are not…

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(Laughs) I don’t know what I’m talking about man. I would say that Red City Radio is about writing the songs we enjoy playing and we’ll kinda be doing whatever we want forever. Maybe the next record will be a dance/techno record. I can promise you that it’s not, but our band is going to change. We’re going to play music that makes us want to play music and travel.

Yeah, I will say that a lot of our lyrics are positive, because we’re positive guys. We don’t like focusing on negative shit, we just wanna kick it. The message of the song is that people argue, and that people are different, but just remember that all you have to do is to be happy with yourself. That’s the only way that we’re going to evolve as people is if everybody can make each other happy and just accept people for who they are, and can make the people they love happy.

For real, man. As for the future, you guys are heading back over to the U.K. next month…

Yeah man, we were just their about last month and now we’re heading back to do some festivals, and once again, we’ll hopefully be over to Australia, I’ve heard it’s beautiful there.

As long as you can come in Spring or Summer man, it’ll contrast strongly with what you see in Europe and U.K.

Oh, I bet dude. I’ve never been to Australia or that part of the world before, it’ll be so kick ass.

Well, when you come over, if you could play with any band, big or small, who would it be?

…Silverchair (laughs).

(Laughs).

No, I would say AC/DC, one hundred percent. AC/DC – please, please take us on tour with you! Keith Urban is another one (laughs). I think he and I would have a lot in common so we could be pals. We do love The Smith Street Band and Bodyjar, those two bands are supper kick ass. I’d say all of the, but mostly Keith Urban.

Keith Urban…didn’t expect that.

Yeah, nobody does man, nobody does.

Well, look Garret, that’s all I’ve got for you today, thank you for your time man.

Awesome, thank you for the interview man, appreciate it. Hopefully we can hang out soon.

Red City Radio's self-titled album is out now via Cooking Vinyl Australia. Read our review here.