Band of The Day Interview – Simple Radicals

Happy Sunday everyone! It’s time to meet another artist in our Band of The Day Interviews! We welcome Simple Radicals to Almost Anything Music today. Let’s dive straight into it!

If could introduce yourselves for us, who are you?

I’m John Malkin, Vocalist/guitarist for the Chicago-based band, The Simple Radicals.

2. How did you all meet?

I developed the concept and wrote the songs for the “New Revolution” album (https://open.spotify.com/album/4rgBmqnv7h3p5gYPGjiXfU) and began laying down the construct of the songs in my home studio. My fellow Radical, John Griffin and I played in many bands over the years and I reached out to him on Facebook and asked if he would listen to the tracks and consider laying down the leads. He loved the tracks and laid down some absolute incredible shreds and The Simple Radicals were formed. We then brought in our drummer Griff Johnson and bass player James Page to lay down their tracks.

3. How long have you been playing?

We officially formed the band in 2019. I actually started out as a drummer earlier in life and then moved to guitar.

4. What three words would you use to describe the music you play?

Retro. Alt. Classic-rock-sound. (Ok, I cheated).

5. What are your musical influences?

Eddie Vedder is my musical hero. I’m mesmerized with his writing and try to capture the messaging, passion and energy that he does in his songs. If I can even come within a million miles of that I’d consider it a success. Other bands that have influenced us include Foo Fighters, Cheap Trick, Pink Floyd, Green Day, and Tom Petty. If you like the sounds of those bands then I think you’ll like our band and sound.

6. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen during a show?

We were playing a festival in the Chicago area and the band that went on before us was dressed in a horrific combination of Kiss meets The Cure meets…I’m not sure. The crowd just stood there in total shock at this sight. Nobody moved. We had to follow that act and somehow turn it around. Thankfully we did. And without any makeup!

7. Being away from the stages since last year, where is the one place you’d visit when the restrictions are lifted?

I’m waiting anxiously to go see live music anywhere and at any time once the apocalypse is lifted.

8. What’s the one record you own but wouldn’t ever admit to owning?

Air Supply “Lost in Love”. C’mon we all need a good make out album, right?

9. What have you been listening to in the last few weeks?

I’ve actually been spending a lot of time listening to Tom Petty. I’m a huge Petty fan and I’ve been paying a lot more attention to his song writing style and how he writes and uses bridges in his songs. It’s a fantastic combination of simplicity and complexity that has produced some of the most incredible music.

10. Are there any releases you have planned in the near future?

We have a lot going on including working on new material. We continue to push our album, “New Revolution” (https://open.spotify.com/album/4rgBmqnv7h3p5gYPGjiXfU). We released a song and video called “Rich Man Wanna Be King” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehjT9RZdpe4) which provides a scathing lampoon of ex-President Trump. It was just released on YouTube and it’s already racked up 190,000 views and climbing. We’re about to release a wicked cover version of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” where we collaborated with an incredible husband/wife team called Che-Val. We recently released a quarantine video to our song “The Optimist” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJkzHY77WD8). And we just released a podcast called “Music & A Brew” where we crack open a cold one with our favorite musical artists. Our first show featured Kenny Aronoff (drummer for John Mellencamp, Paul McCartney, Smashing Pumpkins and tons of more) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1np3s_EoBA&t=2111s. Our next show features Todd Sucherman, drummer for the band Styx.

Check out The Simple Radicals video for ‘Rich Man Wanna Be King’ below.

John Malkin also runs Factory Underground, a series where he talks to musicians and music industry folks while discovering some of the best craft beers from breweries across America.

Check out the first episode from December 2020 below.