GERONIMO
The RADATTACK Interview
In a span of just two years, RADATTACK might have single-handedly saved rock ‘n’ roll as we know it. Bandmates Henry Faux Velour, Leonard Velour, Duke Warner, and Izzi Salvador are bringing their show-stopping trademark rock ‘n’ roll muscle pop across the country and don’t plan on slowing down any time soon… unless of course it’s to catch up with Chi-Town Sounds. Read on for a behind-the-scenes look at a band poised to take center stage.
From left: Duke Warner, Henry Faux Velour, Leonard Velour, Izzi Salvador
Claire: To kick things off I want to take it back to the pre-RADATTACK days. When did you all first start playing?
Henry Faux Velour: I guess individually I started playing guitar when I was nine. Writing music, I’d be like five years old running around my living room playing air guitar.
Duke Warner: I started playing around the same time, maybe when I was 10.
Leonard Velour: I think we all started on guitar, too. I probably started in middle school, end of elementary.
Izzi Salvador: I started playing bass when I was maybe 12.
Henry: Yeah, me and Leo would jam together. I think we’ve been playing together since sixth grade, we’d just do it all the time playing Wave songs or FIDLAR, just types of music we liked. We’d learn those songs and I’d play drums, he’d play guitar, or he’d play drums, I’d play guitar. I’ve known Izzi since I was in kindergarten and I think that’s great. It’s really lucky that we’re all so tight and we’ve known each other so long. Duke asked me to join his band, Comos, and that’s how we got tight. It was classic high school, I was a sophomore and he was this scary motherfucking senior.
Duke: Henry was in a bunch of bands before I was in any bands, so I was actually looking up to him.
Henry: When I joined his band it was kind of an introduction to that scene. When you’re still in high school the older kids are kind of an impenetrable class of people. But he threw out a little line and we got pretty tight after that. I mean I had been writing RADATTACK songs for a really long time at that point and it got to the point where I couldn’t keep sitting around on these things. So it was like Duke, Izzi, Leo wanna be in my band? I think it was kind of an inevitable type of thing. We were already clicking as people and it worked out musically, too.
Claire: It definitely did. Outside of your respective influences on each other, who were your personal musical icons?
Leo: Nirvana, of course, from a really young age. The Stooges with Raw Power.
Duke: For me definitely Nirvana’s up there. Love Zeppelin. Van Halen’s great, I don’t care what anybody says. Minus all the stuff outside of the music. The music’s good but the band sucks [laughs].
Henry: I really like The Stones. And like Leo said, The Stooges. But I think for all three of us, I think when you’re like 13 or 14 and you’re really starting to dig into music on your own terms instead of what your parents listen to, that’s when you really develop a taste. And at that time, we were all super into the staples of the rock scene like FIDLAR, Twin Peaks, The Orwells and all those guys. As we were maturing that was kind of the soundtrack of our lives, which is a gateway to The Strokes and other bands.
Claire: I thought for sure the Ramones were going to come up. Your show at Donato’s Basement must’ve been what CBGB was like at their first show in ‘74.
Henry: Oh yeah, we all dig the Ramones a lot, too.
Duke: Yeah, that’s just a given.
Henry: We like the Clash, you know, Johnny Thunders. We really dig the ‘70s punk scene in New York a lot. I think subconsciously we’re taking a lot of style and attitude from that. But also, you know, it’s kind of nice because it’s just something we kind of manifested ourselves. It’s not like, “Oh I want to be like the Ramones.” I like to think that we’re not walking around fronting that we’re like that.
Duke: And if it comes across that way I’ll take it. But we’re not consciously saying, “Okay this is what we want to do.” We’re just doing what we want to do.
Claire: After forming RADATTACK and combining all these influences, how has your music evolved from your first recordings?
Duke: It’s moved from basement to big production. You can actually sit behind a monitor and tweak everything, you know? I think there’s a thing of character that we’re still trying to find because in a basement where you’re practicing every single day, you get comfortable. That’s where you’re going to sound your best.
Henry: And we’re playing on bigger and bigger stages so it’s kind of something where we figure out how to take this attitude that we’ve developed so heavily playing bars and clubs and transfer it to playing a stage like the Newport or a festival or something. I really like a band that can play like a tiny-ass club and it’s a super intimate, sweaty, fun show and then can turn around and play the Newport where you have this physical barrier between the artist and the people in the crowd but you still get this intensity and vibe from them. So we’re always trying to develop our songs. I think just sound-wise we’ve gotten more comfortable with how each other plays. We have a very hectic brand of rock so the better we’ve gotten at knowing what the other is doing and we can kind of bounce ideas off each other better.
Duke: It’s interesting because it’s not like you play a bigger place and it sounds better.
Henry: I think it’s more of a personal thing. Because you’re standing there, and you’re elevated over a much bigger crowd and you have a barrier between you. Usually we like to get up in people’s faces. When someone’s moshing in front of me I like to be able to reach out.
Duke: There’s just more energy there, you know?
Henry: And you can actually physically feel that energy and feed off of it. When you’re playing a bigger stage it’s much more insular—you have to grasp onto what’s going on in your belly and make that come out.
Claire: As you’ve graduated to these bigger venues have you made up any pre-show rituals or traditions?
Henry: I think we drink a little too much.
Izzi: I can do the splits, I’m proud of that. I can almost nail the jump into it, too.
Leo: We used to play Euchre a lot to get out of our heads.
Henry: I think it’s more fun not to have one ‘cause if the show is really shitty you can blame it on not having one.
Duke: Walk out there and just do it. That’s the ritual.
Claire: Perfect. Just out of curiosity, how did you decide on the band name?
Henry: I was having an intense dream and woke up… they were in my room for some reason [laughs]. But I woke up and just said “Raaaad…” ‘cause the dream was dope and Izzi was just like “Attack.” It just came to be.
Claire: Sounds like fate. So, what’s next for RADATTACK? From what I’ve read you guys are essentially trying to take over the world, right?
Duke: Yeah.
Henry: It’s fun to dream.
Leo: I mean, I’m going to Cane’s tomorrow… [laughs].
Duke: Caniac.
Henry: We’ve already written a handful of disco songs. Dancing is the shit and not enough people dance anymore. Think like the Clash, you can dance to lot of Clash songs, that’s what we try to dig into. We have a music video coming out for one of the staples of our live set, a song called Instant Kiss. We have another track that we just recorded, we’re actually finishing it up in the studio tonight after this interview. We have tons and tons of new songs, I think we’ve been learning a new song every practice. Oh, and we collaborated with our friend Joey Pizzurro and Schizoid magazine.
Claire: You guys obviously keep yourselves busy. What do you do in your free time?
Duke: Music.
Izzi: I recently took up yoga.
Henry: Yeah, music. And I work at a diner, that’s my actual job. And we do stupid shit.
Claire: [Laughs.] Care to share an example?
Duke: Yeah… but we probably shouldn’t.
RADATTACK’s new release Archie Gets Laid/Ace Geronimo is available on all streaming platforms.
Get to the gig – catch the crew at their back-to-back shows January 2 and 3 at Misfit Manor in Columbus and Nashville’s Private Idaho. No excuses—admission is free.
Photographs courtesy of Liza Cooper at Liza Joan Photography.
