If you haven’t yet heard of Seattle based band, Danger Radio, I can predict that by the end of the Pacific Sunwear Tour you will. On the tour’s first stop at The Brewery in Raleigh, North Carolina, the boys of Danger Radio livened up the crowd significantly with their energy concentrated performance. Through the sounds of their self proclaimed (via MySpace headline) “hardcore funk,” they won over the audience, encouraging them and succeeding in having them jump up and down and throw their arms in the air. I even noticed that only two songs into their performance, the man standing next to me walked away and returned with a copy of their EP.  Their contagious energy and catchy songs leave you with no choice but to dance and tap along with them. After bearing witness to their effect on the crowd at the Brewery, it will be no surprise to me to see these guys gain some much deserved attention and expanded fan base throughout this tour.

Not only are the guys of Danger Radio armed with talent and an undeniable stage presence, but they also have the personalities to match. After their performance I got a chance to sit down and talk with the guys to try and find out a little more about how they got started and what the future has in store.

Okay, so first I’d like to have all of you introduce yourselves, the instrument that you play and an interesting fact about yourself, if you can think of one. Or if you want, you can give an interesting fact about someone else.

Andy: I’m Andy and I play guitar and um, I uh, I’m very bad under pressure. Oh yeah and I uh, sleep with my eyes open.
Spencer: My name is Spencer and I play the keyboard and an interesting thing about Marvin is that his girlfriend is really hot.
Marvin: Can’t say that same thing about your girlfriend…ohhhh
(Everyone laughs)
Nico: I’m Nico, I play the drums and um I’m from Finland.
Andrew: My name is Andrew. I sing and I sleep with a stuffed penguin.
Elan: My names Elan, I play the guitar and I have a twin and I like the backstroke.
Marvin: My name is Marvin, I play bass and I’m addicted to World of Warcraft, level 70 Tauren Hunter.

You guys have a very unique sound; there seem to be a lot of different elements that go into it. Who are some of your influences?
Spencer: Wow, there’s a lot. There’s so many. I mean In general…
Elan: The eighties as a whole.
Nico: People put us into the eighties a lot –
Andrew: We don’t sound anything like that.
Nico:  But like when I think of eighties I think of like…
Andrew: Tori Amos. Tori Amos is the eighties.
Nico: No. Cool, like funky pop that came out of the eighties. You know, like Stevie Wonder. I don’t know I guess we like pop music a lot. But I mean everyone from Seattle, like Gatsby’s American Dream was a huge influence on us when we grew up.
Elan: Everything really is an influence.
Nico: Yeah that’s so hard to define because there’s so much out there and we all come from so many different backgrounds too.
Andrew: I really only listen to N Sync, that’s all I really listen to.
Elan: Vanessa Carleton, Michelle Branch
Andrew: I love Michelle Branch, dude.
Nico: Daft Punk is a must
Andy: Oh hell yeah, Daft Punk for sure.

How would you describe your sound to somebody who’s never heard you play before?
Andy: Baby making music.
Elan: Pinch yourself and see what it feels like.
Nico: I had a quote once I forget it, what was it? It was like…
Andy: Sophisticated dance rock.
Nico: Something like that.
Spencer: We have a lot of energy usually, or try to have, unless we’re really tired. Then we drink a lot of Red Bull…and then we get energetic.

How did the band originate?
Spencer: Well, I started the band.
Marvin: Yeah, Spencer actually uh…haha.
Spencer: No.
Nico:  I guess like the very first was Andrew asked me to play in a talent show, Blink 182 covers
Andrew: Hell yeah.
Nico: So yeah, we did that a bunch…and then we started a band called Chasing Tomorrow and Marvin joined, and we made a bunch of songs, recorded and then -
Marvin: Joined? I was an originator bitch!
Nico: well yeah, in Danger Radio, but yeah we recorded and then we went through some member changes and then became Danger Radio at some point. Elan and Andy joined and Spencer joined. But this group has been together for like three years now.
Elan: Four
Nico: Four years? Wow, time goes by so fast.
Elan: Since me and Andy joined
Spencer: Andy and I
Elan: Sorry, I haven’t gone to school in two years. Give me a break.

What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you on stage?
Andy: Haha oh my god, I think we’ve all fallen.
Nico: My snare breaking in the first song.
Elan: It’s not so much the stage, but well yeah, it was pretty embarrassing. I came from a soccer game one time when I was in high school and I was late to the show and I missed like the first 3 songs and I ran on the stage and played the entire show in my soccer uniform. Like with my cleats on. My jersey and everything, and I looked like a frickin’ idiot and I felt so stupid up there. Everyone was like what’s this dude running on stage in a soccer uniform playing music for. I looked like such a ridiculous person, I was so embarrassed.

How did you guys get involved in joining up with the Pac Sun tour?
Andrew: I guess our booking agent probably. We actually weren’t originally going to tour because we were going to finish our record. Then we just hadn’t toured or played a show in so long and our booking agent just kind of called and asked if we wanted to. And it was really cool because we’ve already toured with the Envy guys before and we’re really good friends with the My American Heart guys too, we just think the world of The Audition dudes, and so we just kind of decided, let’s do it.

Your EP “Punch your lights out” is available now -
Elan: on ITunes, the 29th in stores.

Haha okay thanks. When do you plan on releasing your full length album?
Andrew: Probably sometime in early summer, that is what we’re hoping for.

What can fans expect from the album?
Andrew: Probably by a good pair of dancing shoes, is all I can say.
Nico: It’s really diverse.
Elan: Much more sophisticated in general. It’s much more mature, it’s much more, uh balanced.
Andy: It’s much more you’ll like it more...much. Haha.
Nico: We don’t even know what the tracks are yet. We have about 25 songs to choose from, so we don’t know what’s going to go on it. We’re going to start recording after the tour and then we’ll have a better idea of what to expect. But so far everything is sounding really good.
Spencer: It’s probably going to be the greatest record of all time.
Elan: You can quote that.
Nico: Angels and Airwaves action going on   
Elan:  It’s comparable to “The Wall” by Pink Floyd.
Andy: We are the ambassadors of the Seattle rock revolution. Quote THAT.
Spencer: Yeah, all that. Starting a revolution.

In what direction do you see music headed in 20 years?
Spencer: It’s going to go back to disco.
Elan: The thing is, is that music is getting progressively more and more diverse I think. People are influenced by so many different things that it’s kind of creating these crazy super genres, a bunch of different things combined. I think it’s just going to keep going that way and I think music is just spreading out so much that I can’t see superstars really existing because there’s going to be so much music out there. That’s just my opinion.
Andrew: I think boy bands are coming back.
Nico: Rock bands are the new boy bands of today.
Andrew: So we’re pretty much N Sync.
Spencer: Repackaged.

What are some things that you can’t live without while touring?
Spencer: Andy
Andy: I bring myself.
Elan: I have a big stuffed animal dog, and it’s my pillow, and it’s gone on four or five tours now.
Andy: Compliments of me.
Elan: Andy bought it for me.
Andrew: I practically live on my computer, so…
Spencer: oh yeah.
Elan: That’s a necessity.
Spencer: My phone.
Andrew: Yeah, my computer or phone.
Nico: Technology in general. Can’t live with it, can’t live without it.
Andrew: We probably couldn’t leave without our van.

Do you guys have any guilty pleasures?
Andrew: I tend to like cheesy movies. I mean I just love watching movies, and like sometimes I’ll watch some real cheesy movies.
Elan: I like to rap. I write rap music and you know as ridiculous as it sounds, I can’t stop doing it. I keep doing it and keep making more. It’s just like I write and it always ends up being this vulgar, grotesque rap about, you know, sex and drugs. And I love it. It’s pretty raunchy. It’s a guilty pleasure.
Spencer: Alka Seltzer.
Andy: People watching.
Andrew: I love people watching.

What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever experienced while on tour?
Andrew: This girl almost raped me in Arizona.
Elan: Nico got kidnapped one time.
Andy: That one by far takes the cake.

Haha, do you guys want to explain that a little more?
Nico: I don’t remember much, but it was in general, just uh…
Andrew: We were with these crazy girls and we were just partying at this house and a bunch of us left to go get food and they’re like “Nico, you can come with us we’re going to get food too,” but they never brought him back!
Nico: They said we were going to McDonalds, and they drove me to their house and it was like 1 am.
Élan: To their parent’s house.
Nico: And then somehow you guys found me.
Andy: No, luckily, one of the girls at the house knew where they lived. And I would call those girls and be like, “dude, bring back our drummer.”
Elan: You see a lot of weird stuff just driving. We’ve seen cars on fire, semi trucks rolled over, and we get in road rage battles with semi trucks a lot. You know, normal stuff like that.

Anything else you want to say?
Elan:  Come see us. Come watch us on tour, come have fun with us, and keep your eyes posted for new upcoming events.
Spencer: We have a lot of new merch.
Elan: This year is going to be huge for us; a lot of things are going to happen.
Spencer: We’re really stoked, and come by our merch.