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I’ll start with the name ‘Phantom Radio’. Where did it come from? There's no interesting answer to this question. We’re just named after a Mark Lanegan album that sounded like it'd make a good band name. We had a number of other ideas for band names, all of which are too offensive to list here.
Who would you say the band’s biggest influences are? People think that we are trying to be a throwback to the 80's but we see ourselves as more forward thinking than that, even though we do have a lot of 80s’ influences. We also like a lot of dance music, as well as being inspired by the goth discos of our youth.
You guys have played gigs all over the North East in the past couple of years. Where are your favorite places to play? We always seem to be better received outside of Teesside. The only gigs we seem to do locally are with Goosed Records… they’re always great. The rest of the local music scene have yet to catch onto us, despite the fact that every local gig we play is packed full of people. Radio play seems to go the same way. We like The Globe in Newcastle, which always seems to be full of people that get what we are doing, as well as Temple of Boom in Leeds.
How would you describe your shows to someone who has not seen you perform live before? Our gigs rely on our songs and our ability to play them. We don't focus too much on theatrics and we don't have much to say between songs. This makes us seem boring to the people who want more of a show but we aren't children's entertainers. If you don't like us, it'll be because you don't like our music. Which is fine by us.
You recently described your song ‘Behind Your Name’ as a song about people who think that their opinion is the only one that matters. What overall message would you like listeners to take from the song? We try not to be a preachy band, as we don't like telling people what to think. But if anyone should take anything from the song it’s that we are the hardest band around here and if anyone wants a scrap, they can come meet us in the Zetland car park.
‘Behind Your Name’ isn’t your only single, there’s also ‘Matthew 7:12’ and ‘Kings of the Town’. What can you tell us about the meaning of these two songs? The meaning people hear in a song is a lot more important than the actual meaning behind them, which makes us reluctant to talk about the literal meanings of the songs. Our songs have caused outrage in the past but the only solution would be to go through every song line by line and explain what they all mean. It’d kind of take the art out of songwriting if we had to consider every possible way a lyric could be taken, not to mention every person who might listen to the song. The reactions our songs get don't really matter to us, as long we get a reaction. We either want to be truly loved or truly hated, anything in the middle is of no interest to us.
Each song has come with a very interesting video. What is the creative process for your videos? We bought a green screen off Ebay and just keep thinking of things to do with it. Our videos aren't as slick as other bands but, in our opinion, they’re a lot more original. We could’ve hired a video production company and made a super slick professional video and it would have probably been a lot better received but, as with everything we do, we'd rather reach a few people at a deeper level than have a load of people think we are pretty good.
You’ve recently made new additions to the band with Harry Blakemore and Olly Compitus joining. Going forward creatively what do you think these two will bring to the music? Harry is always exited about everything and brings that energy to the band. Sometimes the chew on of booking gigs and organizing practices can get you down, but when you see Harry's little face getting all excited it makes it all worth it. Musically his influences fit with our own and he instinctively seems to know how to make a song better. He also happens to live in a massive house in the middle of a park that we can practice in. Olly did music at Uni so is more of a proper musician than the rest of us. He encourages more practicing and making sure we are tight before we play a gig, which has made us a better live band. He also drives which is useful, as most bass players need driving around everywhere.
Right now, for obvious reasons, gigs have been put on hold. Do you guys have much planned for when everything gets back to normal? We will be releasing an EP at some point. It’ll contain our first three singles plus two unrecorded songs, 'Waiting' and 'Wedding Dress'. People have been asking us for CDs at gigs so we’re just going to get fifty made and hopefully we'll shift them all. ‘Wedding Dress’ is a fan favorite live. ‘Waiting’ is a good song but if you’re playing in a pub, people don't have the patience with it being so slow. People just want half an hour of songs to get drunk and jump about to.
And finally what other North East acts would you recommend? There's a lot of good bands in the North East that make good mainstream music, however we're more into the weirder acts round here such as Horrible Porn and The Dead Beatles. You probably won’t see them at any of the big local festivals but if you wanna see the real underbelly of the local scene then these are the kind of acts to start checking out. There's also a load of underrated bands and singers like us who never seem to get on the local radio or the attention of bigger promotions such as The G.F. Bruce Band and country legend Lee McDade. We also like Holy Braille but they seem to be doing pretty well for themselves.
Links
Band Photos - Mel Butler