Dead Town Radio are a reaction against the glut of landfill indie bands and the identikit Topshop standardisation that seems to be ultimate cul-de-sac of indie guitar music ideas at the moment.
In a previous (although successful) musical incarnation, Dead Town Radio were also guilty of the above crimes to musical homogeny. However, after a period of discontentment at being another ‘hotly-tipped, skinny-jeaned indie-electro band’, the guys broke away. They changed their name, image and outlook on the industry and have been swiftly rewarded with a refreshed fanbase, energised live shows and a welcome return to their songwriting best.
It was their core agenda of dynamic songs and furious live delivery that made the guys a stand-out band in the first place, before the pressures of conflicting ‘advice’ from A&Rs and other industry folk supposedly in the know left them confused. A harsh but important lesson was learned - follow your heart and listen to your fans, don’t wait for babbling label guys to put their money where their mouth is… blame it on the market, blame it on the recession, blame budget cuts, blame it on the boogie.
Luckily, confusion turned to clarity, and so born was Dead Town Radio -an agenda where content and performance is key.
Lead singer Dom Otero says; “The idea was get back in touch with the performance and theatre of live performance by creating slightly tragic-comic figures of ourselves, fragile but hard like china-dolls, hence the white-out faces and big red eyes. And then to set it off with big billowing trousers, almost turn of the century Sunday-best to shatter the current skinny jean staple silhouette”.
The roots of Dead Town Radio echo in their favourite 80s bands like The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen and New Order, which rings true with the music that they play. It’s a play-on being plastic-authentic, making themselves up to be larger than life by going back to vintage clothes reminiscent of an era that valued quality and craftsmanship and white make-up portraying the transparency of their genuine sound. Dead Town Radio care about good tunes and poignant showmanship.