Jack the Radio - What's Next for the 2014 Last Band Standing Winners
This week we’re wrapping up our series on 2014 Last Band Standing winner, Jack the Radio. We’ve covered how they came together, interesting history and musical influences, and now we want to hear about what’s next for this up and coming band. Read the full article by stopping by our recent blog post.Touring/What's next? What can you tell us about your new upcoming release?
It's been a busy year already. We plan to continue playing shows regionally and hope to hit some new markets this year. Before, after and in between shows we are focusing on finishing up our first studio album in over 3 years entitled, Badlands, set to release August 11th, 2015. We are also working on some videos to coincide with the release as well as some social media tracked with #badlandsJTR.
Badlands is a two-act, musical journey through a sci-fi western, which starts on the dark-side with the listener waking up in an unknown, strange world. The first six songs of the album travel through an alternate universe or what could be a trippy, old west dream, which is musically represented by the band exploring darker and in some cases synth driven songs. This leads in to the swamp-side that represents her or his reawakening or return home, their old ways and out of the trippy-dream. This side will have more of the traditional Jack the Radio swamp-groove-rock sound complete with slide and a few guest surprises.
We wanted to debut the cover to Badlands by David Paul Seymour who has done some killer stuff for bands like the Sword, Red Fang and Burial Beer (Asheville, NC). He captured the two sides of the album and the journey from A to B in this image.
You can keep up to date with the album progress at www.JacktheRadio.com and get our latest tour schedule at http://jacktheradio.blogspot.com/p/tour.htmlWhat's the farthest place from NC that you have played?
George Hage: Probably Pittsfield, Massachusetts for the WordxWord Festival. Jim Benson and the fine folks invited us to their majestic town to play the VIP festival kick-off party on the rooftop of a 4 story building downtown. It's been a personal dream of mine to play a show on a rooftop ever since I saw the famous Beatles rooftop concert re-air as a kid. The event was a pretty picture perfect from the amazing people in attendance, our gracious host, the amazing food and beer and city and mountain views of the town. There's a great video capturing the event and the festival - https://youtu.be/bgVt0Rz5lUQ
What was the most unusual experience you've had while touring?
Danny: On our way up to NYC and the Northeast for a few shows, we rented a 15-passenger van from an "off-brand" rental company in Raleigh and headed out early one morning. We had no idea what we were in for...
This particular van emotionally protested when it exceeded speeds of 50 mph, exhibiting a violent shimmy that traveled all the way up into the steering wheel, and the arms of whatever brave soul was taking his turn wrestling it. Needless to say, it was a long drive to NYC and back. As band members took shifts driving, emotions ranged from confused to frustrated to angry, an eventually settling on borderline hysterical laughter.
This same van had been the victim of a stealthy "weather-stripping removal" customization on the back doors --- which we discovered upon the start of a 16 hour rainstorm on the return trip. Band members extra clothes were sacrificed for makeshift dams against the water, but by the time we pulled over, we had a bass drum flooded with inches of water, and lots of saturated gear. Between that and the storms (and the Jersey Turnpike), it was a 19-hour drive back home from NYC. We've never been so happy to see Raleigh, NC.
How do you keep the chemistry going between the band members and keep performances fresh?
Humor. Lots of sarcastic, idiotic humor.
But in all seriousness, for us at least, being friends in addition to band mates has allowed us become more of a family rather than a business. We've been a band five years and a few of us have known each other over a decade. Being that close let's us be open and push each other personally and with our music.