“Trump had just stolen the election and we all really wanted to play some punk rock.”
Adam Phillips is the drummer of Radar State, a Kansas based rock band. The band is the punk rock lovechild Phillips and Josh Berwanger (The Anniversary) with Matt Pryor and Jim Suptic (The Get Up Kids).
“We all grew up playing shows together and seeing each other around. Josh made his first record in my basement when we were kids,” said Phillips, “Then, at a certain point not very long ago, we all just had a little time open up in our other bands schedules and this just seemed like too good of an idea not to give it a shot.”
We chatted with Phillips as the band was “barreling through Kansas” catching up to support Say Anything on part of their In Defense Anniversary tour. This will be the bands first tour.
The band has released three singles thus far including “Spinning Wheel”, “Drugs in the USA” and “Double Speak”.
“It’s just a bunch of fun-a-f songs. Some people have told me that this sounds like all of our other bands combined. Other people tell me it’s nice to hear us doin such a departure from things we’re done before.” Adams said, “Hard to know what to make of those contrasting reviews. All I really know is that It’s super fun to play and I’ll be a sweaty smiling mess at the end of our set.”
“Drugs in the USA” is a catchy single with a chorus one can’t help but sing along the first time hearing it. Berwanger claims the song is a reaction to Miley Cyrus’s single “Party in the USA”.
“I guess everyone has had different experiences with drugs. If they haven’t had any, they probably have different expectations or ideas about what it’s like. So, I guess that depending on where you’re coming from, you might hear different things in the song.” Phillips said.
When it comes to inspirations behind the music, Phillips makes a very humbling point.
“Holding myself up on the same pedestal as my idols is not fair.”
However, the band draws a lot of inspiration from politics.
“A lot of the stuff we grew up listening to, The Dead Kennedy’s, The Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, The Specials, etc… they were all super political and even though we didn’t really understand what they were singing about, those songs hit us hard and helped us and stuck with us.” Phillips said, “Now that politics in the country are completely sideways and the shit has hit the fan, we all “get it” a lot more than we did before.”
The band will be on tour with Say Anything for a part of the In Defense Anniversary tour through December 19th.
As for the upcoming new year…
“If we can avoid the impending nuclear war, we would love to have an album out and a couple hundred more shows booked.” Phillips said.
Be sure to follow Radar State on Facebook and Twitter to keep an eye out for upcoming shows and music! Take a listen to their music below.
Kailey Howell can found on Twitter @kailey_howell, and for continuing music coverage, make sure to follow The Pit on Twitter at @ThePit_SE.
