Florida rockers Go Radio just released its sophomore album, “Close the Distance,” on Tuesday. The State Press spoke with lead singer Jason Lancaster about the album, their new music video and their national fall tour with SafetySuit.
The State Press: What inspired the material for your new album “Close the Distance?”
Jason Lancaster: The inspiration for this record is … as much as I want to say inspiration changes and everything from record to record, it really hasn’t … from “Do Overs” and “Lucky Street” and everything else. It’s really just everyday life. We write about the experiences that we have and try to be as honest as we can with ourselves and our fans about all of those things, so it really is just life in general.
SP: What was the recording process like for the new album?
JL: It was very different. I feel like every record you record is going to be different … because the emotion that was in the room when we were recording … every single aspect of it was different. It was really good; it was really refreshing to make a record that was so natural to make for us. We never felt like we were being led in a bad direction with this record.
SP: What track stands out the most for you?
JL: They all mean a lot but I think “I Won’t Lie” in an awesome song. I feel like stylistically and instrumentally and lyrically, it’s exactly what we wanted to do for a long time and it felt so natural recording it. I love that song and I love playing it.
SP: Are you shooting a video for the first single “Go to Hell”?
JL: Yeah, we actually just got done shooting a video for it. We did the lyrics video, but then we also did a … video for it not so long ago. We actually haven’t seen any cuts for it, we were talking about this last night, but I’m excited for it. It’s going to be a great video.
SP: Why did you decide to release that song as the single?
JL: It just kind of happened that way. Sometimes a song stands out as one that wants to be heard a little bit more than that rest of them, I guess, and that’s just the song that stood out for us.
SP: Go Radio has a lot of piano elements in the music. Was that a conscious decision for you?
JL: Not so much a conscious decision, just something that kind of happened in the writing process. When we sat down to write this record, we did a lot more with … literally it was just us in a room with monitors and electric drums and a keyboard, just writing together and figuring it out that way and I think a lot of that transposed over into the songs themselves. It worked out really well though. I really enjoyed the shift in it.
SP: Getting to the tour, how have things been? How are things going touring with SafetySuit?
JL: It’s good. We haven’t really gotten a chance to know those guys yet, but they’re a great band and their fans are awesome and they seem to get along well with our fans. It’s really cool to see them mixing up and it’s almost like you can’t tell whose fans are whose sometimes. They’re great, great … they’re an awesome band and it’s going to be a good rest of the tour.
SP: Since the album was just released on Sept. 18, how many new songs have you been playing on the tour so far?
JL: Yeah, I think we do four new songs off the record. We play “I Won’t Lie,” we play “Things I Don’t See,” we play “Collide” and we play “Go to Hell.”
SP: What are you, as a band, hoping that your fans take away from the new album?
JL: We’re hoping that our fans take away enjoyment more than anything. We want them to love what we do and get behind what we do. We also want our fans to, I guess, grow with us, like we feel like we’ve taken a step forward on this record and we want our fans to take a step forward with us and not say, “Oh, this isn’t the same pop-punk band that we’re used to,” and let’s listen to this and give this a chance and enjoy everything together and just transition into this.
Reach the reporter at okhiel@asu.edu
