*If you would like to have you or your band considered for Under The Radar, email Daly @ ryan.daly@timminsradio.rogers.com with the subject “Under The Radar”…if not, be cool & start a band.*

London’s Red Arms released their first “true” 7″ in March and are gearing up for a summer of shows including a stop at Montreal’s Pouzza Fest! Roberto joins Daly on Under The Radar to talk about the versions of the band leading up to this one, how playing music with new people is a lot like dating new people, the importance of pressing physical copies of your music, and a LOT more, scroll down and enjoy the interview!

*Some NSFW language below*

Daly: Say someone has never heard of Red Arms before but they wander into a show, what are they going to be in for?

Roberto: I think a really good way to describe what we do is a kind of noise pop kind of band. We go from really really aggressive rock/ punk, post punk kind of stuff but it’s also pretty melodic. We feel that’s pretty important because you need that hook in there, but we are noisy as fuck.

After describing how the band has known each other for years & how they started making music (full interview in podcast below)…

Daly: Do you think it’s better to have someone in your band if you’ve been friends before hand, like it’s just not the same as if you put an ad in the paper like “Looking for a new guitarist”?

Roberto:  Well that’s a very interesting point. I think it depends on the personality type that you are, um… we’re all kind of like sensitive dudes..

Daly: [Laughs] And honest dudes apparently

Roberto: Ya we’re pretty honest but we’re also pretty sensitive. So the thing is we sort of internalize any negative criticism and of course when you’re working with somebody new there’s that sort of awkward stage. Where you’re not entirely comfortable with them, you don’t know how far you can take a joke, or what exactly is sacrosanct in terms of their viewpoints or in terms of their musical influences.

So for me at least when I’m meeting new people to play music with it’s kind of like dating. It’s really is. You know you’re excited but at the same time you loathing a little bit because you really you have to get to know a person and then there’s all these sort of quirks you have to work around.

Daly: Everyone has the same goal; you want to make make music or you want to have a relationship but you’re just not sure if it’s the right fit?

Roberto: Yeah

Daly: That is hilarious, I’ve never thought of it that way

Roberto: it really is, because we’ve met some frigging awesome people – and we’ve had a couple  membership changes and these are – well… we’ve had some pretty great people in the band, we’ve had some…difficult personalities too. But the hard part is when you have somebody who is a solid person, you really like them. But just musically it’s just not a fit because you know, “it’s not you, it’s me”. It’s like “we want more saturation and you’re just into folk so I don’t see a future for us”

Daly: Your latest release, Let Every Nation Know, it sounds great and I saw that you have a few pressings of it, even some specific to Pouzza Fest. It’s expensive to get vinyl pressed, especially for upcoming independent bands, is it important for you to have that physical copy?

Roberto: Honestly, I think that physical copies – that’s a hard sell right? Because it depends what type. If you do CD’s those are really hard to move but some people still want CDS. Tapes, people want tapes for some inexplicable reason.

Daly: I still don’t get that

Roberto: I still don’t get that, they sound terrible, but sure why not. But at least with the 7” or something physical that’s how you can get people to buy in – literally. To buy your music. I’m not saying you should be doing it necessarily for the money but you should at least be able to somewhat support your habit with sales of some sort.

Of course since everything is online it’s really hard to get paid for the actual music you make. So the 7” is a nice format because people like to collect these things, whether or not they listen to that version over the mp3 version is immaterial really.

Daly: It’s so worth it though, nothing compares to holding that record in your hand and there’s just something cool about buying a 7” and having to wait until you get home to listen to it, you know what I mean?

Robert: Oh I totally do. And I think that’s a great experience for anybody. And just especially for me being able to look at this thing and have this smile on my face and be like, ya finally – I got something! And it’s pretty great, I’m really happy about it. It sounds awesome, if I do say so myself.

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We left a LOT for the podcast. If you want to hear the full, uncut interview listen below or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!

https://soundcloud.com/dalyry/redarmsfin

RED ARMS

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Thank you for listening. Come back each Friday for new music you SHOULD be paying attention to. For more music and arbitrary thoughts follow me on Twitter @DalyRy or visit me on Facebook.