Audioholic Media

Blackout Radio is a band that has no intention of hiding what they’re here for. From the first lyric of their song “Radio Negrille” (which screams now it’s time to bring the fucking rock!) to their loud, sweaty, high-energy rock show, there’s no doubt that they know what they’re doing when it is indeed time to bring the fucking rock. “We can get up there and fuckin’ rock out but we’re musicians and we know what we’re doing,” says Joshua James, the band’s bassist.

Blackout Radio isn’t just about noise and volume. Their music is actually good.
…. It just happens to sound even better loud.

Audioholic Media: Okay, so your music is rockabilly, but it’s not really rockabilly. It’s kind of punk, but not really. It’s not traditional rock, either. How would you define your music?

Joshua James: That’s a question that gets asked a lot. “What kinda music do you guys play, what do you guys sound like?” Well, we sound like Blackout Radio. We’re definitely not traditional; we’re not rockabilly, we’re not psychobilly, we’re not punk rock, we’re not metal. It’s dirty, fast rock n roll. It’s got an aggressive, kick-you-in-the-face attitude, and we have an upright bass. People just don’t seem to understand what that means.
I like to think that what we’re doing is we’re bringing back strength to original, American rock n roll music and we’re doing it in a way that is our own.

AM: Now seems like a good time to take advantage of that. With the music industry becoming more and more friendly to independent music, it seems that you have more room to maybe get back to the roots of rock n roll without having to explain yourselves to a label executive.

JJ: Yeah, and that’s something that we’ve really, really tried to stick to. We’ve had people ask why we aren’t on a label or why we don’t have a manager. We all grew up as poor kids in little towns. The boys are from Kodiak, Alaska, I’m from Roseburg and Grants Pass, Oregon. We don’t want to owe money to anybody. We don’t want to owe credit to anybody. We want it to be one of those things that is like, “it’s our deal, we did it on our own, and we don’t want to owe anybody shit for it.” If we make money, awesome. If we don’t, at least we can take pride in the fact that we didn’t promise anything to anybody, and then totally fucking fail. That way, we can only fail ourselves.

It’s a good time for independent music, with the Internet and digital media and everything. There’s no reason why a band that is motivated shouldn’t get themselves out on the road and do it independently like that and have success– if they’re decent at all.

AM: Does Portland play any significant role in why Blackout Radio is what it is, or is it just a place where everyone conglomerated and started a band?

JJ: Portland is a really good community. It’s a really good, artistic, tight community with some really cool people and some really, really fuckin’ talented musicians in it.

There have been a few songs that we’ve written that we’ve gotten some pretty serious inspiration from with things that have happened in Portland. As far as the impact on the band, I think Portland’s a really great central location. We’re not too far from California, we’re close to Seattle, we’re close to the Southwest, being on the West Coast. It’s a good place to be and there are a lot of good bands that come through there. It’s a big city, but it’s a small town, and we’re kinda like big fish in a little pond right now.

AM: How long has Blackout Radio been in existence, and how long have you been part of the band?

JJ: Blackout Radio has been around since 2003, I believe, and I’ve been with the band since July of 2007 so I’ve been with them for almost a year. We’ve been doing a lot. From what I hear from Ty and Lance, this last year has been a really big turning point for the band, in the time since I’ve been part of it. I think new blood will always do that to any kind of group because you get new motivation and new inspiration. Since I’ve been in the band, we’ve written five new songs and we’re working on a new album right now. We’re halfway through our first serious tour.

AM: Being that Portland is such a tight-knit community, do you ever really get the chance to hear the buzz about your band? Is that something you’re aware of within Blackout Radio?

JJ: We’ve noticed it. I don’t know how big or how small we are– I don’t know if we’re full of ourselves and think we’re fuckin’ cooler than we are, or if there’s some shit going on that we’re not aware of, but we definitely know that we’re on the right track. We understand that what we’re doing is different, and good, and it’s something that people really latch onto. I mean, we get a variety of different people that come to our shows. Our audience– we’ve got punkers, we’ve got bikers, we’ve got fuckin’ rich kids, we’ve got hippies, we’ve got greasers, we’ve got hip-hop kids that come out because– I don’t know why– and of everyone who’s heard our music, I’ve only heard maybe five people who’ve heard us or seen us play and were honest enough, I guess, to tell us that they just really didn’t like it. But there have even been older people who say, “You guys are fuckin’ loud. Maybe too loud. But you have a lot of energy and the songs are good.” But, you know, you can buy the CD and turn it down. [laughs]

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MySpace: myspace.com/blackoutradio