Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Danger Radio - part 1


Let’s see if your moves are good enough for Danger Radio. If you haven’t wanted to hit the dance floor before the release of Used and Abused, you will now. Having a fairly diverse audience and not catering to a specific demographic, Danger Radio has come to help you find your groove. With a line-up consisting of Andrew De Torres crooning, Andy Brookins and Elan Wright on guitar, Marvin Kunkel on bass, Nico Hartikainen taking charge of the drums and programming, and Spencer Phillips on the keys, the band has quite a rigorous touring schedule. Luckily, after chowing down, Andrew was able to take a few minutes and discuss what makes Danger Radio tick.


Sorry to interrupt your eating time.
I was just literally about to order and then you called. Sorry about that.


How did the band come together?
Let me exit out of this place. It’s kind of loud. And then I will fill you in on all that.

Okay. Well, pretty much how it started was Nico, our drummer, Marvin, our bassist, and I, all kind of knew each other from our childhood. Sometime around like 7th or 8th grade, Nico and I were in jazz band together. I just kind of ask Nico if he wanted to do some talent show stuff with me. Yeah. T just kind of went from there. We were a cover band for a pretty long time. Then Marvin joined. We had two other guitarists that we went to highschool with but they left for school and all that. I knew Andy and Leo and then Spencer came pretty much right after them. The current lineup is only about two years old.


Where did the band name originate?
I wish I had a better answer for you to this question (laughs). Pretty much we had to choose a band name. I got really really bored one night and wrote a bunch of band names down on a piece of paper and took them to the band the next day and said “you know these are the names I came up with and if anyone has any suggestions just let me know.” And we just picked that one because it was the one they liked the best I guess. It just stuck around.


What has music meant to you?
Oh well. I would say that music has played a huge role in my life. I started playing trumpet in the fourth grade. It’s such an extremely amazing escape and then to be able to put your entire life into something. Especially with lyrics, being able to tell people stuff that you’ve gone through and see them react to it. It’s just an extremely life changing thing.


Who are your musical influences?
I really like Justin Timberlake a lot. Like Michael Jackson. I love John Mayer. Those guys right there are probably my biggest influences. I love Stevie Wonder. I love the Beatles – that’s pretty much why I started playing guitar in the first place.


Can you describe your song-writing process?
I think for the most part. Nico and I will come up with a concept or a main idea. Because we live together. Yeah then once we have the song all mapped up we bring it to the band and they tell us what they like and don’t like. And then we agree on everything and it becomes a song.


What is your favorite song from your material?
I think my favorite song on our new album would have to be the title track, “Used and Abused.” I think it’s one of the most diverse songs we’ve ever written. It’s really child.


What do you consider to be your greatest musical achievement thus far?
Aw man. I don’t even know. I have no idea. I kind of just feel like being able to survive on the road. And having kids come out to see us. For my friends that are in bands…I feel like there are so many bands trying to do the same thing. And to actually be able to go out on the road and have kids come see you is great. I feel very accomplished.


What are your thoughts on the current music scene?
I think that especially from when I was getting into this. I feel like the music scene has changed a lot…not necessarily in a bad way. Right now bands are huge. The Fall Out Boy’s…when I was growing up it was all rap and ‘Nsync – those were the only bands that were really making big. And it’s coming way from that direction. It’s given a lot of the bands an opportunity to live off something that they love.

Do you have a favorite aspect of touring?
I really like...just meeting people. Like I really like the fact that we go to a new city every night. We all try to mingle around and talk to all of our fans. Some of the coolest people I have met in my life, I have met on the road. You never know when you are gonna make new best friends.

Least favorite aspect of touring?
You don’t get the opportunity to eat very well. There’s just not a lot of time. You’re just forced and you’re very limited.


Upcoming projects/tours?
We’re heading out with Jonzetta and Meg and Dia. And there will be exciting stuff coming up in the fall.


Thank you.

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