Meet Dead Radio: Rock Band

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dead Radio and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dead Radio, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
We started this band as a way to pursue our passion for creating music and connecting with others. The band started as a small project with Daniel and myself (Brandon) doing acoustic open-mics 2-3 times a week in the IE. The excitement of performing live became addicting for the two of us, so we continued doing open-mics for the next year until we found our drummer Dennis to finally become a full band. We performed all throughout Southern California as a 3-piece for the first half of 2018, but were lucky enough to recruit our current bassist Tyler, who went to high school with Daniel and Dennis. Adding Tyler gave us the final piece we were missing to really fill out our sound since Daniel was able to move from bass to rhythm guitar. We’ve had some amazing experiences performing in front of new crowds and making some lifelong friends along the way. Our music group has established a fun little community of like minded artists and musicians that share our passions. 

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
We’re a 4-piece rock band from Riverside, CA that loves to perform at bars, breweries, clubs, and backyards. It’s been a long arduous journey to get to where we are now. There were a lot of growing pains as a young band trying to book shows and perform well. One of the biggest hurdles we’ve had to face is producing high-quality music since everything we’ve done has been DIY. At this point, we feel that we’ve done the best we could and the next step for us would be to get involved with a professional sound engineer to take our music to the next level. 2020 was also a very difficult year for us, just like everyone else. We had been consistently playing at least 1-2 shows per week for 2 years straight from March 2018 – March 2020. Once the pandemic hit, we all had to find a new normal where we wouldn’t be performing live anymore with our friends and local community. It’s really given us time to reflect on what’s important in our lives and the next steps we’ll be taking moving forward. We do still continue creating new music and developing ideas, but it’s difficult when the live aspect of performing is no longer an option.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Lucky for us, Southern California has some of the best spots in the world for entertainment! It’s definitely more difficult to have an entertainment filled week with COVID, but there are a wide range of options still available. Southern California beaches and parks are always a good time for relaxing, hiking, or site seeing. There are also a ton of food options in LA and Orange County. One of our favorite cities to go to is San Diego. They have a fun downtown area with plenty of bars and restaurants. Many nice small and large breweries are located in the northern area too if you want a more relaxed environment. Also, you can’t beat the weather! When it’s crazy hot where we live in Riverside, San Diego is always an awesome place and it’s only about an hour and a half away. But if you ask Daniel, the best place to go without a doubt is Disneyland. We just need to get COVID handled so that place can finally reopen!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We’d like to dedicate our shoutout to a few people that helped us get started with our first opportunities and some lasting friendships. Some of the main people that come to mind are Buddy from Versus Verses, Hodge from The Vault in Redlands, and JR from the now-closed Brew Rebellion in San Bernardino. In addition, our friends and family who’ve supported us the whole way through are very appreciated by us. Without their support, this journey would not have been as enjoyable. Buddy gave us a ton of stage time when he hosted open mics in Redlands, which allowed us to get a lot of practice performing in front of people at the very beginning of our journey. Hodge also booked us for a bunch of shows at the Vault in Redlands, which was always one of our favorite places to play. JR at Brew Rebellion’s San Bernardino location really gave us a home to perform and book our own shows with our friends in other local bands. This place became our go-to meeting spot for shows, hangouts, and good times. Here we established ourselves as a local band in the IE music scene and worked with the music community to bring people together.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deadradioofficial/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deadradioofficialband/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPKDC71q5kmpuQAzzTnvsew

Image Credits
Gabe Martinez @oldboygabe on Instagram!