Speaker 1Hey, what's going on? Welcome back to the James Kennedy podcast. I hope you've all been good. If you haven't gotten around to listening to last week's episode with the brilliant Stretch Co. Horvat, please, please, please go back and listen to it. That guy dropped some truth bombs that we all need to hear right now. It was a fascinating and important conversation that's got a ton of food for thought for the future that lies ahead of us all. And for those of you who are already fans of the awesome Stretch Co. Horvat, he actually dropped a podcast exclusive. Something I did not know is that he's got a background in punk rock as well. He actually played in a punk rock band back in the day who supported Converge. So that's pretty awesome. So go and check that out if you want a little insight into the guy's life that you may not have known about. But speaking of politics and speaking of rock and roll, we've got both of those things on the podcast for you guys today because we are joined by Mario Radetzky from the awesome German band Blackout Problems. Now, we actually recorded this conversation a few weeks ago before the band was due to start their tour with previous podcast buddies Ender Shikari. But I wanted to save the conversation to nearer the release date of their new album Riot, which is coming out this very Friday the 23rd. And they are currently right in the middle, neck deep of their incredible tour with the amazing Ender Shikari. So I wanted this conversation to drop at this particular time because I want to amplify all the excitement that the band got going on so that you guys can rush out and buy the album. But do bear in mind that when this conversation was recorded, the tour hadn't yet started. And that tour is very much underway as we speak. We're going to get into the making of the album, the music industry, life as a touring rock band, all that good stuff. So bear in mind the time difference between recording this conversation and the time that it's coming out. But otherwise, enjoy my conversation with the awesome Mario Radetzky from the brilliant, brilliant, brilliant band Blackout Problems. Mr. Radetzky, how are you, sir? Hey, James, how are you? I'm good, thanks, dude. And it's great to speak with you. You've got loads of stuff that we've got to delve into. You've got an amazing tour coming up with the badasses and Ender Shikari. You've got a new album coming out called Riot, which I like the sound of just by the title and loads of stuff going on. So, man, give us the lowdown, dude. What's happening? What's going on? Oh, yeah. So I
Speaker 2think for the moment, you know, it feels like it feels like there's nothing going on because the tour has not started and the release has not started. But on the other hand, there's so much going on. And yeah, we're we're really happy to have this fourth record right now. Riot is going to be our fourth one, which is unbelievable. We've been going for like a long time now. I think as a band and yeah, recording. I mean, I still remember vividly recording of our first record. And now that's the fourth one. And it's but it's a first in some in some parts because that's the first one that I've produced myself. And it really feels fresh. And we still feel like a newcomer band that's just about to start and about to maybe maybe to to grow a little little fan base or or whatever, you know. So let's see what happens.
Speaker 1Well, it's interesting you say that, man, because like, you know, you guys have been around. You've got four albums deep at this point. You've got a wicked fan base. You've got a badass tour within the Shikari coming up, a new record coming out with Sony. So I mean, you know, you're not a new band getting off the blocks by any means. You know, you're crushing it right now. But I wonder if it feels like that, because on this new record, it's a self-produced album. And I know from my own experience that when you're producing an album yourself and you're aware of all of the moving parts behind the scenes and the build up and the strategies and the tactics, it kind of takes some of the magic out of what is otherwise a roller coaster ride, you know. Is that how it feels for
Speaker 2you or is it the other way around? Honestly, it's a little bit the other way around because producing it yourself the first time is so exciting. And it's I don't know, it's that I feel like there's so much magic in that. And I'm way more excited about releasing the music. And I'm a little bit nervous about that as well. And especially with our last singer, you know, just a few weeks ago, we released a song called Funeral. And that's I think that's the poppiest track that we've ever done. And it's the most positive track as well on a very dark record, I have to say. I think that ride is really dark and it's really there's a lot of negative shit going on. And I get very personal and political at the same time. And it's I talk I talk a lot about stuff that I would probably tell nobody. But, you know, in the music, you can do that. And it's a lot of stuff that I would probably tell nobody. But, you know, you can do that. You can open up and I'm, I'm, I'm a bit like an introvert. But in the music, I there's just it's like my it's like my spot where I can be honest with myself and to everybody else in a way that that I couldn't be in normal life. And so this time, I think we went in really deep. And it feels so magical now, you know, it's it doesn't really it doesn't really take anything away, especially knowing each and every part about the record is so it's very intense. And it's very interesting to to to record your own stuff. I mean, as you know, probably there's on the one hand, but it's maybe maybe it's, it's just something inside of blackout problems that it's that's for me, that is that is different than to any any other producers, because I do know each and every part of the record, and I, I did most of them myself. But on the other hand, there's still so much going on that I don't understand. Especially, you know, have you ever written a song and you have no idea how that came about? And, you know, that's like, wow, where did that came from? And that that that's something to me, that's very interesting, because being a producer for the first time, I really try to leave my body and, and take a look at our background, you know, and see what's going on. And band in a very um yet take an outside look on the band um just just for just for uh just to get what it is that i was trying to achieve with this this record and i i came up with the idea that our music is very the lyrics are very important for us um for our music to to um to i don't know to get intense we i need intense lyrics and i really need to feel that and but still there's there's so much coming from my subconscious that i have that i sometimes have no idea what that came from and and start writing and then there's there are lines where i think like whoa um i i would never
Speaker 1say that in uh in a normal in a normal conversation probably so yeah 100 i'm with you there man as a fellow introvert yeah i'm that's that's the one of the rewards that we get as artists isn't it is that we have an outlet for this that side of our personality that we don't often get to show in real life and also you know like talking about some of the things that we talk about in our songs it's not always appropriate you know in normal daily life um so yeah we're really fortunate that we have that outlet i suppose which so many people don't um so with regards to that outlet and this particular record and the things you're talking about let's jump into that the album is called riots does the world need a riot right now and if so why i think it has a lot of rights at the moment
Speaker 2and just uh let me tell you that we thought a lot about this this title riot and because it has some negative connotations um that we didn't really mean you know we thought that we have this one line on the record that says let's start a beautiful riot and we really we really try to find the positive inside of the negative and to um for example in in germany there's a very big shift to the right at the moment political wise and but on the other hand there's a big shift in the right at the moment political wise and but on the other hand there's a big shift in the right at the moment political wise and but on the other hand there's a big shift in the right at the moment political wise and but on the other hand there's a big shift in the right at the moment political wise and but on the other hand there's a big shift in the right at the moment political wise and but on the other hand there are millions on the street right now um that demonstrate just against that they riot against that they don't buy it they demonstrate very peacefully but um they are on the street and they show their support to um to for diversity for to to they want to live in a in a country that is not um dominated by the right wing um let's just politely call them and uh you know that's
Speaker 1you don't have to be polite you can call them assholes yeah right wing assholes yeah we've
Speaker 2got them here too man yeah yeah that's i mean that's a problem that we have not only in germany not only in the uk we have we have that problem in the world right now and i mean we we had we had that a while ago and it didn't really turn out that good so uh we should have learned from history but uh turns out we didn't i think i don't know um i think we live in very very very interesting times now and if you if you'd ask me that like 15 years ago um when i was just in school and i was thinking about the times that we live in i thought that our parents or our grandparents they lived in interesting times and and we don't because everything's safe everything's good but um i feel like after uh leaving school i feel like i just woke up to to the world in a way i thought that racism was something ancient something from the books you know but but if you walk around with open eyes and open ears you find that everywhere and um there's so much that we have to educate ourselves to see these things and to see how how have we been brought up and what what are our values that we have and and um what are the sorry sometimes i'm a bit lost for words because uh i'm not a native speaker but i do my best um yeah sometimes it's it's it's just you have to like um find out um where do we stand right now and at the moment i think there's there's loads of stuff uh going on i mean there's was the pandemic that really shook us um there's now the u the war in ukraine um there's there's gaza happening right now which is horrible it's just horrible and um on the other hand we have we have so much um crisis and we have the climate crisis going on and and you know that's there's so much going on and i think that we need some riots but we should we should take care that these rights are positive and they they really change something because if you get too negative about things you you're not really affecting the world in a good way i think and i really try to stay positive i'm i'm i may be far from being the most positive guy in the world but i i do my best and i think that um in in our music i tend to get pretty negative at times but there's always a spark somewhere love it man yeah i think that's very important point to make
Speaker 1because you know the world is changing and i think that's the most important thing to make you know the world is changing and i think that's the most important thing to make you know the world is changing and i think that's the most important thing to make you know the world is changing world is bleak enough as it is right now so you know it's really important as us as artists and people with a platform and an outlet to actually highlight these things but at the same time you know like people need a break from it as well you know so to have that spark and that lightness that you're talking about to add that balance and the entertainment value as well i think it's very important and it helps to deliver the message as well because you know a riot like you're talking about can be a positive thing because a riot symbolizes action it symbolizes getting up and doing something about the ills of the world rather than just being pacified by apathy which can sometimes happen when things just get too bleak and too heavy so i think that balance really helps the um the cause there you know yeah let me just add um the other side of
Speaker 2things because that that was like the political side but there's always uh there's also a personal side um to that and the personal riot that i went through in the last two or three years and that my bandmates went through in the last two or three years was pretty big as well because we we felt like this is a good title because it it not only uh you can not only talk about a ride in a political way but also in a personal way we had to um we had to like master things with ourselves within ourselves and there's there's um i did a therapy for the first time ever because i just i just ran against the wall um working too much and i was totally burned out and i had to get over that and progress a little and and change my um i don't know change my perspective on things and i really had to work on myself as as a human being and and take a look on reflect on me and and um yeah find out who i who i was and who i want to be and and stuff like that also happened because we um in 2020 we just lost our sense of purpose in a way when we couldn't play any shows anymore so um everything got shook up and it was it was a pretty um pretty intense time for us uh and we kind of lost ourselves in that um but writing this record brought us back together and um writing this record was an anchor for me to to have something that i i was working on and and producing the record was a big goal that i wanted to achieve so i think that the record not only has like this big worldly themes they all they also have it also has a very um personal side to it and if you listen to the record from start to finish you kind of go through my progress as well as as a person and that that was important for me because the record starts very aggressive um have you listened
Speaker 1to to the record yet yeah i was lucky i got a sneak peek from the pr so uh yeah it's it's it's
Speaker 2it's a banger man honestly it's badass oh thank you so much man so so you've heard like the first song starts with um i want to know more about the tears on your pillow and that's that's where i thought let's do the deep dive into personal and let's talk about things that um that really are that that's let's talk about the things in my uh from my subconscious or from from from me inside of me that i really need to get out and the last song when the last song stops there's there's this very beautiful nature sounds that i recorded and that was actually one of the first things i've recorded for this record i was in austria and just spent a few nights on a cab on a cabin on a mountain in a cabin on a mountain that's the way i wanted to put it and um yeah i've just recorded some birds and chipping and stuff like that and cows and uh that's that what's that's that's the thing that ends the record and it's very it feels like i've talked about and i've tackled problems and i've made some progress hopefully and i now want to walk away from that and not walking away from that um without tackling these problems but i want to talk about them for 11 songs and then at the end of song 11 i want to like get on a horse and ride into the sunset
Speaker 1i love it yeah right man hell yeah yeah i love it man brilliantly put as well i mean i totally agree i think like you know in terms of my own personal experience over the past few years and i think the collective personal experience over the past few years has been a strange and turbulent one hasn't it you know coming out with a pandemic which was just weird and all the political stuff that's been happening since then has been kind of crazy you know we're seeing the um the growth of the right which you mentioned earlier make it a big comeback as well i think that's normally a symptom of growing senses of disillusionment and people feeling powerless and not having an outlet for their anger i think these are all signs that society is feeling increasingly disconnected from any sense of empowerment or purpose i think and at that level you know like the personal experience that people are going through kind of mirrors the political experience you know we look at the nature of our politics around the world right now and then you see that reflected in the personal struggles that people are going through as well and the crises that people are going through you know these turbulent times man so i think the fact that you're highlighting both sides of that coin on this record i think is going to resonate with people on so many different levels
Speaker 2yeah um i love that you say that and i just wanted to add that i've i was really sick um it was really it i was really sick of hearing about the pandemic for a while and uh i i didn't really want to talk about that and i really didn't want to talk about what it's like being a musician in that stuck in a situation but right now like a few years later and and we we've overcome that now um in parts i think it's so interesting what what a big effect that had on us and how that's now rooted in our systems for for um i think forever maybe and it really it really shaped a lot of music and a lot of you know how how do we put out stuff and and you know it's just it's just shaped our lives in in a very very interesting way and um yeah i'm very
Speaker 1happy that it's over for now hell yeah i mean how has that affected the music industry in germany because we had the double whammy over here with obviously we had the the fallout and the hangover from um the pandemic but we also then got hit with brexit and all the that came with that which is uh by the way not something that i supported but bands now in the uk have got to try and navigate this kind of new unknown world of like the carnays to europe and the visas and the um the 90 and 180 days rule and all this and that's just compounded the problems that we inherited from the hangover from the pandemic whereby you know now you can't get a bus because everyone's touring so the prices are through the roof um and obviously we're limited by what crews and things we can get domestically so the industry over here has been hit quite hard on several different fronts you know unless you're you know in that one percent kind of unfazed by any of this but how are you guys feeling things like that over in germany or on the mainland i mean are you still feeling the effects of the patent the pandemic um yeah let's
Speaker 2just uh talk about brexit just for for a second because um the carne that you've mentioned we have the same problem now um going to the uk is is a pain in the ass now um because last time we we went to the uk was in october i think last year and we supported noah finn's um for six states so we had to photograph every single piece of equipment each and every cable the gaffer everything you know everything and that's that's uh the gaffer that's not a that's not an english term right yeah you know yeah sometimes mix that up you know um yeah um but uh these rules that we have now filling in the carne and stuff that's so that's so hard and it it wastes money for us you know um yeah we that we needed someone to come to our studio to to look at each and everything and they really they checked every everything they checked the numbers on the guitar and and they um there was one serial number that was wrong on one guitar so we had to like we thought we we can take this guitar now and yeah and this there are they make troubles and problems that we really don't need at the moment so um please get back into um the eu if you can oh man yeah you know it would make life very much
Speaker 1easier for us now oh you're telling me yeah what we we should we should but we can't because half
Speaker 2of our population are dickheads it turns out yeah that's um um that's you know you know what's funny uh there was the first brexit um date happening somewhere in i think 2019 is that right 2016 yeah i think that brexit had like this or there was the vote or anything i i don't remember uh i don't recall that but we played in the uk at that moment and uh we were supporting royal republic from sweden and everyone was a bit like nervous about what's happening now what's happening now right and uh that was just a night when we left from i think we were went from london to paris or something like that or to to amsterdam so we um crossed the border everyone was like we need to cross the border before um 12 because yeah yeah yeah nobody knows what's happening now and basically nothing happened i think yeah but then uh that was the real brexit date and that was in 2020 i think and we played manchester again wow so we were in the uk again um yeah yeah there was there there was a brexit party going on next door where we played jesus and uh or fuck off brexit was what's the name right right that sounds more like it yeah
Speaker 1yeah um any reason to celebrate you know any reason to drink i think it's more our problem
Speaker 2yeah but it was every time we're in the uk you know it's it's fascinating um it's so we we are people are so nice to us and we we just love going there and that's probably why our next tour in our next tour starts in october we will be on tour in october november december i think and most of the that if there's uh i think the uk is the country where we play most of the shows
Speaker 1so yeah we really love playing why is that i mean you've got all of europe you know right there on your doorstep you know you can play france and spain i mean i mean is there a thing with the uk obviously i don't know because it's all i know i live here you know but when i've toured in europe in the past i've had the opposite thing i've always like oh man the crowds in france were amazing we had a great time in italy and i come back home it's like oh the fucking uk so it is that is it just because i'm from here or what's what's what's it like for you guys coming over
Speaker 2to play here yeah maybe maybe um that's that has something to do with that i mean for us as a german band we're playing in france and we're playing in france and we're playing in france and we're playing in france and we've always been influenced big time by bands from by english-speaking bands from the us from canada from from uh australia and from the uk obviously and i mean we listen to a lot of uk bands and it for us singing in english being from germany and then listening to english-speaking bands all our lives and then playing some shows there is like it's mental and it's very it's very nerve-wracking on the one hand because i i really um i have a big respect for for for any crowd but now in the uk everyone understands each and every word so my lyrics are exposed i'm like it's different playing in france and france you know you always have some people in the in the crowd that do not understand each and every word that you sing but in the uk it's like it's like singing in german in germany and that's um to me that's very interesting and very inspiring and yeah i i tend to get nervous a bit but i really love that and um the feedback that we get i think in the uk is it's pretty good so it's it's better than we thought it would be so um yeah we love coming back and we just right i'm really looking forward to playing our own shows there and we did a couple um and we did a couple of support gigs and yeah it's it's just great to to i feel like people really and that's that's interesting because you've you maybe have a different point of view there but i feel like people really love music over there a hundred
Speaker 1percent yeah and yeah it's the one thing we do well i don't we don't do a lot we don't do much well our food sucks our weather sucks our politicians suck but we do music really really
Speaker 2well yeah you know about the weather and about the food i probably disagree a little bit because i've had like amazing food and amazing weather in the uk i won't argue with the politician but um yeah i i feel like um yeah i love it there i just love it there i i could live in brighton i could live in wow yeah there's so many cities that that i'd love to spend time and and going from one city to the other you have something in the uk that we really love uh sometimes we the navigation system sends us over these weird routes that where we see these little towns and and stuff like that yeah yeah um and i love that it's so beautiful and um on the other hand your what's what's it called um if you want to take a rest um on the street um the gas stations in the service station right yeah the service stations they're like a big mall each and every time you know there's different food options and have you ever been on a get on a service station in germany yeah i don't have the i
Speaker 1had the exact experience you're describing like we'd just come out of italy which was carnage and um yeah the first service station we came to in germany was like an airport it was fucking ginormous they had every type of food there really had showers you know big bathrooms for like five euros for as long as you like it was amazing it was civilized it was huge and i was like oh man like this is what touring in germany must be like it must be like this everywhere no yeah that's what i thought all of germany was like no that's that that's just not the
Speaker 2case um it's yeah it's to me it's it's totally different i mean maybe that's just the different perspective that we have and maybe it's just for us it's a bit uh you know um more exciting to be over there and and for you it's more exciting to be over here that's right yeah because each and every time i'm in italy i love the stations as well because um there's the best coffee that's right that's the best coffee and i love the italian espresso of course um i mean who doesn't
Speaker 1oh yeah isn't that the isn't that the coolest thing about being in a band though i mean like there's so many struggles in this game you know like there's financial instability there's a mental health problem you know there's a lot of hardships and struggles that come with this industry especially now when you know people aren't buying music the same as they used to but that's the real reward i think is the fact that we get to see the world we get to meet people from all over the place have these adventures have these stories i mean you can't put a price on
Speaker 2that yeah and i totally forgot about the negative side of things and now talking about stations with you um i yeah i i really i really love doing what we do and i'm probably i really have great respect to the for the crowds and i i have i really love playing music with the guys and especially with our crew because we we're not professionals we're just friends who do that and we we grow up together and we progress together and that's maybe we turn into professionals a little bit more and a little bit more here and a little more there but but in right if you break us down that we're just a bunch of guys who really love each other and um that go and tour together and um yeah we try to do our best and we really put a lot of effort into into um the things that we do but it's it's never been about having a master plan it's never been about anything else than just expressing yourself expressing your feelings it's always been about making music making art making some visuals artistic things and you know with all the music videos and the photo shoots and and stuff like that we always tend to like love the creative part of things and stay creative and don't um change in any way that that we don't want to change and we we've changed over the last few years but i i look at that more as we've prog we've progressed a bit um we don't we don't try to fit into anything at the moment we just try to make the best version of blackout problems that we can make and that's that has nothing to do with like mainstream or being um being a big hit on tiktok obviously or anything like that you know that's that's not what our band is about our band is about emotions and about um expressing feelings and expressing things and saying things on stage that we feel like saying and it's yeah we don't we've never had a master plan and that's maybe because it still feels like just starting out after being in this band for more than 10 years now and having released um four records so you know each uh every time we did we did a record and we we started a new one we wanted to break with everything that we've done before you know first record was called holy after holy we did a record called chaos when we when we released the first single of chaos we tried to release the biggest shocking song that was so different from everything that was on holy um that that was just like we we really wanted to show that there's another side to us that you probably haven't seen yet and we want to show that and um we want we just want to do what we want to do and with this record for the first time i could look um upon these old these old uh records um holy chaos and dark and look at these records and really be a bit like um proud is probably the wrong word because um but yeah i was a bit proud on these records and and i could like accept that i i've seen these records and i thought um you know that's a part of us and now we don't have to break with that we can pick and choose songs and styles and sounds and um expressions and and things that we've did in the past and just implement it into our 2024 version of our band and because we are all these things and all these songs they they belong to us and that's that's our story and we don't have to break with that yeah but of course um the new record sounds nothing like any other record in a way but on the other hand it's like if you listen to all our records um you you end up here and it's like yeah this journey makes sense i think and
Speaker 1let's see where it takes us next i love that yeah that's the cool thing when you get to look back over your back catalog you can see your own personal journey like i can look back at albums i did years ago and be like i can remember where i was at that time i can see i'm not that person anymore there's that growth you know um yeah it's really interesting again it's it's one of the the jewels that comes with what we do i think isn't it we get to have that journal of our own personal journey you know through music so i think it's a beautiful thing man um well we we've got to talk about the record because you know that's what we're here to do and i've got to let you go soon i feel like you know i could talk to you for ages about you know service stations and politics and stuff like that you know because uh i think we're on the same wavelength there but uh we've got to talk with the record man so when you say it was a self-produced album do you mean the whole band or was it just literally just you doing the whole thing that was me doing it but i had help
Speaker 2and um there was we we have a co-producer and engineer um who's called karen he's been helping us for a while now and he's yeah he's been with us on this record and i had um geister they do like the the programming and sim stuff so that's um that's the thing that i've um got help with and um yeah and we had a great mixing engineer obviously i didn't do that myself uh yeah yeah um moritz
Speaker 1anders and yeah that's that that was the team awesome yeah i think that's a great way of doing things that's that's the way i do my records as well at some point you've got to like if you've got producing and you're aware of all the you know the finer details of every song at some point i think it's really healthy to pass it over to somebody else who can kind of you know do the mixing and mastering and get a second set of ears on it because otherwise you can just tie yourself up into never-ending rabbit holes of perfectionism or you can oftentimes make things worse as well i think sometimes it's just having that outside perspective really makes a difference so it sounds like you've got a great team there and the quality of the album certainly uh demonstrates that but did you like that process is that something you think you'll do again or was it just more work than you needed
Speaker 2um i i really love doing that because having the mixing engineer that we have is um moritz anders he's amazing at what he does and he's like the the last quality check station or something like that uh for me and it was uh it was a goal to work um to record everything that good so i could pass it over to him and he's he's been mixing a lot of great records and a lot of like really big records so i knew that at the end of the day it's going to sound good but on the other hand he's not he's not the kind of mixer who goes into detail and changes all your guitar sounds um and he just takes to the eyes and re-amps that or anything he just takes what you give him and i've um i don't want to go too far into detail but i think it's a really good mix and i think it's a really good mix um i didn't give him any uh di tracks for the guitars at the end of the day because um i mean he could he could have um he could take the di tracks and re-amp the guitars and make a whole different sound but i just i just bounced stereo files and and passed it passed these over to him because i knew that he's gonna mix the record analog so um he's gonna have something like 24 tracks i think at the end of the day and that's i passed him something i've had these these projects of mine were really big i've had more than 120 tracks i think um in the songs which is right pretty common at the end of the day if you record a band and do some stuff and and record a lot of guitars i bet that other bands have like two to three hundred um tracks that's crazy man yeah which is crazy of course um but yeah i've i really i really loved uh having him as a mixing engineer and i really love that he he respected my rough mixes so at the end right of the of the recording and producing um progress i did a rough mix inside of my um inside of my um daw send it over to him and um send over all the tracks and the end result really sounded like the rough mixes i did just a little better or not a little sometimes pretty pretty much better but um he really really respected the the vision that i had for the record and that was something that um to that was something that i i was eager to do um i i had a vision for the record and i had a vision for our band and i wanted us to sound very um in our own way you know very um um sorry i really i'm i'm lost for words again um i wanted us to sound very unique that's that's what i want to say right and well you got that you definitely got that man thank you and that you know with unique i mean that i don't want us to sound like the perfect band i really want to take tracks and record tracks and record guitars that sound different and they that not sound like the i don't know the perfect acdc guitar or something like that i don't want us to sound like the i don't know the perfect acdc guitar or something like that i don't want us to sound like the i don't know the perfect acdc guitar or something like that i don't want us to sound like the i don't know the perfect acdc guitar or something like that i don't want us to sound like the i don't know the perfect acdc guitar or something like that i don't want us to sound like the i don't know the perfect acdc guitar anything like that we don't need that yeah the rawness yeah realness yeah yeah i wanted to i've i've recorded most of the guitars just um just into my interface and then just recorded everything like without any amps without any big microphones or anything i just put on some reverb and that's it so we have this one singer called gloves um that is a pretty pretty pretty important song for us because uh we have raul reynolds of enter shikari on that track which is like a life goal for us as a band and all the guitars are just the eye tracks um where i've put some reverbs on them so so that's
Speaker 1well it sounds amazing man and that's the way i i prefer to do things that's the way i think makes sense you just shove it into the side of a fuzz pedal get the sound right at source get it right once and then you have to live with it you know that is the sound you know another scrolling through menus for days on ends or you know a thousand possibilities for changing it afterwards now just get it right and then live with it that is the sound that's the personality of the track warts and all you know and to have something like a bass line like that and then to have rao on top
Speaker 2that's a real magic formula i think right there yeah that made me nervous big time but his part is his part is just crazy he sent me over this part um and the first take that that he sent us is the one that's on the record because it's we we were blown away by that and he has so much
Speaker 1energy in his in his voice it's yeah he's such a dude man and that segues perfectly into the next question when i ask you because you're actually going out on tour with the mighty and shikari
Speaker 2um in february is that right yeah yeah that's right in about i think four weeks or something like that wow man are you stoked are you ready yeah i'm i don't know if i'm ready but i'm so stoked i'm so stoked because we've been on tour with uh shikari in the uk and in germany before and these shows were pretty small um and now the shows are massive and i think that the production that and shikari do this it's always it's always amazing and i've been a fan for a long time and i've actually once traveled to the uk to see them in london at alice wow wow yeah and i think it was in 2017 um we were four guys just being yeah the biggest shikari fans and and we we thought let's let's do this trip let's see them in their hometown and it was mind-blowing and their production was so much bigger than the production they used to have in germany um which was just great to see and but the shows in germany are getting bigger and bigger now and they've sold out the palladium in cologne which is which holds more than like i think it has a capacity of 4 500 people or something like that which is massive so they're crushing it yeah i think the production is going to be really really good on on this one and they've the last records that they did were perfect so yeah i i love them and the best thing about meeting them was that they they were so nice to us and they really i don't know they were so nice and i really respected us uh and yeah made it possible for us to have the best time ever so um being this the opening band you know that's that's they were really respectful and yeah i'm gonna take that away from from from from these tours
Speaker 1i really um yeah and they know how to do it man i mean like rao was on the podcast before their the new album came out um because for the whole world so he was on the podcast just before that came out and they were talking about their tours and everything so it's interesting it's like a full circle moment that i'm now talking to yourself just before your record comes out before you go out with them touring that album but rao actually told me um something that you said earlier about they don't plan to be you know the biggest band they're not worried about you know climbing the stadium band they're they're just focusing on they're doing their thing doing the best job they can to give a kick-ass show to their fans and do the best they can to to express their music and that's all they think about and it's doing them great because they're crushing it so i mean um the fact that you're now going out with those guys again i see a very similar journey
Speaker 2happening for you guys that's so that's so funny that you say that because looking upon and shikari is like they they really seem like a band that have everything under control and planned out and yeah they seem like a band that have had some master plan you know but yeah yeah maybe maybe it's sometimes good to have no master plan at all because then you can be surprised each and every day and yeah see where you end up and sometimes that's maybe even better than anything you've ever expected because we've never expected to be on a lineup like that we've also have um fever 353 as the second support band which is amazing as well and we like this we feel like um yeah we feel like just starting out now um going on this tour and then releasing our own tour after that or maybe even before that i think we'll be releasing new tour dates um in a few weeks now and right yeah there's going to be a lot of uk on that as
Speaker 1i mentioned so hopefully we'll see you in person there yeah come to wales have you have you have you played in wales before we've played cardiff cardiff right yeah
Speaker 2that's my hometown right perfect oh nice one nice one we played at the garage no no not the globe the globe yeah sorry not the garage yeah the globe is a good one man yeah we'll come back
Speaker 1dude you know we'll have you anytime you guys are always welcome in cardiff all right it was so good
Speaker 2to play cardiff and we've we've never been there obviously and that's that's just uh what you've mentioned earlier it's it's great to see new places and to get to meet new people and um we
Speaker 1enjoy that every time but you've got a whole year of that coming up man because you guys are playing where um with a new record to celebrate and play the hell out of new songs and talking about issues that are going to resonate with people on the personal level and the political level the album kicks absolute ass riot is out on february the 23rd through sony records people can check you out wherever like you're on instagram twitter facebook you're all over the place it's just simply blackout problems i think it's the handle they can go to blackoutproblems.com where they can pre-order the new record it's available in gorgeous stunning red vinyl with an awesome hardcover book as well full of lyrics and artwork and photos and all that good stuff man you've got a great year ahead of you dude and much deserved as well because you've got a kick-ass record it sounds amazing the music rocks the lyrics are really relevant and timely and um yeah i just wish you nothing but the best for the year ahead man and what a fucking year
Speaker 2you got coming thank you so much again for taking your time and listen to our record it's really it's it's an honor um being on the on the podcast and um anytime uh you're in germany please let us
Speaker 1know 100 percent and like we said we're going to be back next week and we're going to be back next week and we're going to be back next week and we're going to be back next week and we're going to do it keep us posted maybe i'll see you at one of the shows but you gotta go so thank you so much for this mario radetsky from the amazing blackout problems best wishes bro i will speak to you really really soon thank you so much see you man see you bro it's been a pleasure talking to you best wishes with everything mario radetsky ladies and gentlemen put it together for him so there you go what a dude as we speak mario and blackout problems are neck deep in touring with ender shikari they're already kicking it um so all of the details you heard there about the tour and the live show and the plans and everything else that's going to be there for you guys so thank they're underway with that as we speak but the album will be out in two days time if you're listening to this on wednesday which is when this podcast episode drops the album comes out on friday the 23rd of february it's available to pre-order right now but you might as well just you know pick the bad boy up straight away it'll be available everywhere you can get it from their website at blackoutproblems.com you can go and see them live they're playing absolutely all over the goddamn place there's no excuse not to go and see their insane live show you can follow them on the pages at blackout problems the new record rocks i'm really privileged to have had a sneak listen to the thing so take it from me you need to get that in your ears and in your life the album is called riot but they've also got three previous records which you can go and check out and you should as well i hope you enjoyed the conversation i hope for all you blackout problems fans it was an interesting insight into the um background to this record the production the lyrics and the thought process that went into it and if you're new to the band i hope i've just introduced you to a kick-ass new soundtrack for the next few weeks and i'll see you in the next the rest of your 2024 before i bid you farewell i'm gonna ask you one more time to have you subscribed to the podcast you know you must be getting bored to fucking tears of me saying it right now it's the same drill every time but all you gotta do is click a button man the podcast is free there's no advertising just click follow click share click subscribe click like give me a rate and whatever you gotta do i'm gonna keep nagging you till every single last one of you does it i'll be back next week with another awesome guest in the meantime have a great week get blasted in the blackout problems new album riots and i shall see you on the Flipside. Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. Love you loads.
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