RADIANS
More
often than not, garage rock bands have fairly short life spans. Already
at the disadvantage of treading a well-worn path, they make their mark
on whoever chooses to listen, and then disband before risking boring
themselves and/or the audience (because, let’s face it, garage rock
fans are just as guilty of next-big-thing-ism as indie rock fans, if
not more). A few singles and an LP or two, that’s it. However, that is
not to say that there was no surprise when Lethbridge’s Endangered Ape
broke up in 2009. With their rising reputation as an unbridled live
band (or at least an unbridled lead singer) and a few EPs and tours,
their demise at the cusp of greater success was unexpected.
Fortunately, the man who started Endangered Ape, frontman Paul
Lawton, has been keeping busy since then. In addition to being in the
Myelin Sheaths and Moby Dicks, he has also started a new band, Radians, with Ryan Grieve from Endangered Ape and Fist City on drums, and James Stewart on guitar.
As it turns out, the Radians start right where Endangered Ape left off.
“Near the end of Endangered Ape, I was working on our full-length
and I had a bunch of songs in demo form. That band was exhausted from
touring and called it quits, and I just decided to use the songs for
something new. Radians started with my favourites from those sessions, and then James brought in a few of his and we were off,” says Lawton.
However, despite the many connections to his former band, he is
quick to note the differences. “Endangered Ape became pretty unwieldy
with seven members, and touring was always challenging because the van
was pretty full most of the time. Radians
replaces the grandiosity of Endangered Ape with an emphasis on economy,
focused less on wall of sound and more on trying to make sure every
part counts.”
With only three members instead of seven, Radians
should, by all means, have a more streamlined sound than his former
band. When playing live, they are more to-the-point but overall, their
music has been starting to go in as many directions as Endangered Ape –
which makes sense, with Lawton at the helm of both bands. “I think I
wanted Radians to be really poppy, but we are moving in all these different directions at once,” he says.
“I'm in ‘genre’ bands, like Myelin Sheaths who are definitely
mining a very specific territory, which makes things enabling because
we always have a starting point, but also maybe constraining in that
sometimes I am interested in different sounds. The Sheaths cover a lot
of ground, but we still know what is or isn't ‘Sheathy.’ I imagine Radians
being somewhat promiscuous when it comes to where we are willing to go
musically. There is no defined ‘sound,’ outside of songs being played
by us. Also, my voice acts like a bridge between everything,” he
continues.
Even with his confidence in Radians’ direction,
Lawton still sees his band going through an uphill struggle to win over
an audience, something he is okay with. “It might be hard for people to
figure out what kind of band we are, but I always assume people will
hate anything I make, so I'm fine with that,” he says. For the
foreseeable future, there will be no rest for the band, with five
singles to be released (the next one due late summer), a July tour with
Tonstartssbandht and Run DMT, and a fall tour as well.