Interview with RADARS: ‘Jack has such a raw energy behind his voice’

Hull-based indie rock band, RADARS, released their latest single, ‘Get Better’, last week, a belting anthem about how everyone can get through an unprecedented year.

The band consists of Jack Moxon (vocals) Dave Measom (guitar) Sam Campbell (guitar) Calvin Casey (bass) and Joe Worrall (drums).

‘Me and Dave, we want to capture Jack’s vocals, some of his melody lines are amazing, so catchy,’ Worrall said. ‘In ‘Get Better’, there’s that little break before the chorus where you just have Jack’s voice and then it hits you. I’m dead keen to put those bits in. The song is molded around Jack’s voice.’

As the lyrics go: ‘No, you’re never gonna make it on your own, you gotta know, know when to use it, know when to lose it…when it’s my time, give me the limelight, don’t take it away.’

‘Get Better’ follows in the trail of their previous single ‘Same Page’, which came out in April, fusing foot tapping rhythms, racing guitar riffs and really big vocals. The song gets you right up on your feet when the faint opening guitar riff is blasted away by the full force of the band’s driving riffs, with the drums from Worrall and bass from Casey merging into a funk inspired dance groove. As the rhythm section carries the song into the verse, Campbell and Measom’s catchy guitar riffs work seamlessly with Moxon’s vocals, before his chorus hooks – ‘Do you feel like a ticking time bomb?’ – evoke the carefree feeling of pumping your fists at a festival.

Moxon’s voice and creativity shape all of their songs, according to Worrall: ‘We were practicing (‘Same Page’) and Jack sung this vocal melody in the pre-chorus and we thought it was bangin’. Then he changed his vocals a bit and it was even better. Jack has such a raw energy behind his voice, it’s just so good. You hear him in practice and think bloody hell, if he does it like that live, people will be blown away.’

Although Moxon is the main songwriter, Campbell also pitches in: ‘Sam, he’s come up with some good lyrics lines as well. Jack writes the majority of the lyrics but then Sam offers some changes and they’re even better,’ Worrall said.

‘Jack’s influences definitely come out in his voice’

I tell Worrall that I hear a lot of Eddie Vedder in Moxon’s voice: ‘Yeah, it’s true, you do,’ he said. ‘Jack’s influences definitely come out in his voice. He’s a big fan of bands such as Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam and Kings Of Leon. He gets very inspired by what he listens to. He might listen to Muse in the car and get some ideas. I went to music uni (in Manchester) and met a lot of vocalists who struggled with melodies but with Jack, it’s so instinctive. If I could trade my instrument, I’d like to be a singer (Worrall also plays guitar but not in the band).’

Like other bands, RADARS were hard hit by lockdown. When ‘Same Page’ came out, they had begun to book gigs at illustrious Hull venues, The Welly and Polar Bear. (Along with Hull Box Office, they are now facing closure, after the firm behind them, VMS Live, was forced to move two of its six operations into administration last month.)

‘That was a bit tough,’ Worrall acknowledged. ‘We’ve not played a live gig yet. We were supposed to play at The Sesh (a renowned weekly music event at The Polar Bear showcasing local, national and international talent). We’ve done individual bits of writing on lockdown but we like to write songs in the practice room together, which we couldn’t do. We did a cover – in parts – of Foo Fighters ‘My Hero’ though, like a Zoom recording. We got asked to do it by a You Tube channel. Calvin is a bit of a tech wizard and he organised it!’

They are currently mulling which single to release next. ‘We might release another single this year,’ Worrall said. ‘We’re deciding at the minute what to record next. I don’t think they’re quite ready to record yet. In my opinion, they’re good but they’re not on the level yet of ‘Getting Better’ and ‘Same Page’.

Hull’s thriving independent music scene has given rise to a wide-range of artists

Hull’s thriving independent music scene has given rise to a wide-range of artists, including Low Hummer, The Quicksilver Kings, Elwhaeko and Yasmin Coe, as well as popular 80’s band, The Housemartins. Worrall’s favourite is indie rock band Of Allies. ‘I think they’re the best rock band to come out of Hull in a long time,’ he said. ‘Their song ‘Ghosts’ (from their 2013 album, Tempers) is so good. It starts off with clean guitars as the vocals build up to this chorus with great harmonies and riffs and then falls back to clean guitars. That’s my favourite song of theirs.’

Originally from Doncaster, Worrall moved to Hull when he was 16 and feels that the city gets an undeservedly bad rep: ‘Hull is my home really,’ he said. ‘Everyone is quick to write Hull off, people think of it as a shithole but it’s not. It has a great music scene thanks to people like Mark Page, who runs The Sesh. Without him, I think the music scene would be practically non-existent. (The Sesh will move to Social on Humber Street, in the former Fruit building, which reopened earlier this month after a £1.2m revamp.)

Worrall is also a big blues and US country-rock fan, in particular of singers such as B.B. King, Jason Aldean and Morgan Wallen. Of Wallen, he said: ‘He’s quite new, he did a song (‘Heartless’) with Diplo, the hip hop DJ, which was a like a pop song with a country melody. Country is really just rock music with the southern accent. If you took the accent off, it’s essentially just rock music.’

‘We’re dying to get out there and gig’

Most of all, Worrall wants a chance to play live. ‘We’re all going stir crazy in the practice room,’ he said. We’re dying to get out there and gig. Once you start to think about a gig, you worry less about the individual songs, you just want to practice the set a few times to make sure it’s tight.’

If he could collaborate with anyone, dead or alive, Worrall would pick US rapper Post Malone and Johnny Cash. ‘I got into him (Cash) very early on when I was 15/16, when I saw the Walk The Line film about him with Joaquin Phoenix and loved the songs. At school, I was afraid to admit that, though. It’s hard, if your friends are just into the charts, so when they’d ask me what music I liked, I’d just say ‘same as you, mate’! It would have been really great to do a song with him. Some of my favourite songwriting was the stuff he did with Bob Dylan, so to collaborate with songwriters like that would’ve been amazing.’

(Photo, from left to right: Joe, Sam, Jack, Dave and Calvin)