St. Joseph, Missouri’s international kings of rock ‘n’ roll, Radkey, premiered the video for “Romance Dawn” via New Music Express on Monday. We were impressed by the vibrant video, and reached out to the band with some questions. Bassist Isaiah Radke was kind enough to respond via Facebook (because that’s how things get done in the modern world).
The new video looks amazing. Who did the work on it?
It was directed by Shaun Hamontree and Cyan Meeks. They rule.
There are elements of anime and comics — specifically manga — in the “Romance Dawn” video. Whose idea was that?
Shaun Hamontree’s idea. He found a great way to get all of that cool stuff that we’re into in a music video. He had us send him a list of like, all of the manga, comics and artist/writers that we were into.
Were you inspired by any particular title when the video was being put together?
It’s inspired by an anime called One Piece. It’s one of our favorites and that’s what the song’s about.
This isn’t the first manga / anime-inspired thing you’ve done. “Spirals” was influenced that way, too, right?
Yes, bigtime. Though that was more blatant. While the title of the E.P. and song are obviously One Piece inspired, the lyrics are a lot more obscure. You’d have to be pretty caught up on the manga/anime to get which arc it’s about.
Given that all these questions are about comics or cartoons, what are you reading these days that folks should check out, and why?
Still reading One Piece pretty religiously. And we’d totally recommend that everyone check out Attack on Titan, Kids On The Slope, and Sword Art Online. Get on Crunchyroll.com and watch that shit.
Radkey’s new EP, Devil Fruit, which features “Romance Dawn,” sees release on October 15, and you can catch them on BBC2′s Later … with Jools Holland on Tuesday, October 1, at 10:00pm GMT. Take a listen to another track off the EP, “Overwhelmed,” below.
