An Interview with Admiral Radley, Tonight's Croc Headliner
Admiral Radley: (Clockwise from Top Left) Jason Lytle, Ariana Murray, Aaron Burtch, Aaron Espinoza
While Mercury Rev, Sparklehorse, Eels and The Flaming Lips all sonically fit the bill to some extent, the lack of biting self-deprecating humor left us eagerly awaiting Lytle’s next move. One band that we turned to during this bleak period of Lytle-free living was Earlimart, a group that Lytle himself included in his 2004 compilation CD titled Below the Radar.
In July 2007, our hearts were warmed once again when surprise-guest Lytle joined Earlimart at Chop Suey for an excellent "cloud-lifting" set. We were lucky enough to speak with Lytle after the show to learn about his relocation to Montana from his long-time home in Modesto, CA and his upcoming solo album. After that night, Lytle’s been back twice, once supporting Neko Case and most recently opening for Liam Finn - both dates that were on our calendar for months.
Fast forward to the present and we’re delighted to recommend a trip to the Croc tonight to check out Admiral Radley, the new side-project between Lytle and Aaron Burtch of Grandaddy along with Ariana Murray and Aaron Espinoza of Earlimart. As you might guess, the result is a sonic pop oddity filled with “beautifully mopey” numbers rounded out by upbeat, and uncompromisingly poppy tunes like the less-than-sincere “I Heart California.”
If you're anything like us, you'll greatly enjoy the evening of Lytle and his old friends warding off proclaimed modern day anxieties with brilliant pop music, complete with a toy-piano or two for good measure.
Before you head out the show, continue on to read our conversation with singer, songwriter and production mastermind, Aaron Espinoza, who kind enough to chat with us this past Friday about the band, the record and what's next.
Crocodile Cafe // 2200 2nd Avenue// 8 p.m. // 21+ // $12 adv
With such an extensive back catalogue from your previous/current bands and one album of Ad Rad material, what should we expect from your live show?
I don’t know what the fans would think of it but we didn’t want to go into Grandaddy material or Earlimart material. Not that that wouldn’t have been a good thing to do. Not that we’re trying to separate ourselves from that either - we know what we are.
We have this record and then a cover off the Sparklehorse Danger Mouse record. It’s timely and it makes sense. We are all big fans of Mark’s. I didn’t actually know him but (Jason) Lytle was friends with him. Very sad. With Mark’s passing, it’s kind of a homage. But that’s the only song we play that’s not Ad Rad.
How’s the tour been so far?
This trip has been fun. We’re a bunch of old buddies who got together. We still have our day jobs. We still have Earlimart and Jason hasn’t quit the Jason Lytle band yet. But we decided this would be the Ad Rad summer vacation. For the summer, we’re just doing Ad Rad with little breaks so we can work on our own stuff. In the summer vacation style, we have all this weird, fun sightseeing tourist attractions planned out. For example in Fresno, we went to the underground gardens, which is a place where this crazy guy in Fresno basically built a mansion underground and lived in it. Out in Merced we went to the Castle Air museum where they have 50 or so giant airplanes out on the field and you can go out and touch them. It’s really cool. And we’ve been to some skate parks and had barbeques in parking lots. Our time in Seattle will be good I’m sure. We’ll kind of be going by the seat of our pants. That’s the good thing about Google.
Anything in particular that you’re hoping to see or do in Seattle?
Super cheesy because it’s kind of chainy [laughs] but I like Anthony’s Fish and Chips. In a super touristy area but I think it's nice to sit on the dock and look out on the water. I used to mention Anthony’s when I was on stage in Seattle but then I found out it was a chain and I was like “aww, I’m such a douche bag.”[laughs] I’m up there like “Burger King, the best burgers, I’m telling you guys.” [laughs] I was trying to connect with the locals and they’re all probably like “what an asshole.”
How do you decide what will be an Ad Rad song versus something that would go on an Earlimart record?
For me and I can’t speak for Jason, it was really just timing. I knew we were going to book a week in the studio and we were going to get Jason a plane ticket down to LA and Aaron was planning on driving down from Modesto. So I knew that in X number of weeks, we were recording and it was whatever would be ready at that point. I would be fiddling with songs and whichever ones were behaving properly were the ones that made it on the Ad Rad record.
Although, as we got deeper into making the record, there were a few moments when we saw we had to switch some things up. It’s a fun record, but it’s not all jokes there were some serious moments and some goofball moments. At some points it was like, we’re way too weird Al Yankovic right now [laughs] and we need a bit more gravity thrown in somewhere. Then I would write some sappy songs to fill in a whole.
As you and Jason both have your own studios and have spent a lot of time behind the boards, how did your recording styles fit together?
Jason and I have both been recording for a bunch of years now, so while we’re always learning, we have a pretty good idea of what we’re trying to do in the studio. A lot of the record was recorded at The Ship, in LA, at my place. Just by default, I might have been steering the boat a bit more in that sense. Since it was all my gear and my stuff. Because of that, I probably ended up shaping it a little more sonically than if we were in Jason’s studio, it would probably be the opposite. But it really wasn’t like, OK, Aaron you’re the producer and Jason you’re the artist. We were in my kitchen, so I knew where all the spices were.
We had to do some more file sharing after the fact as we ended up having more ideas for songs. Lytle ended up recording some songs up in Montana and sending them to me. He’s such a unique talent and voice, and I don’t even just mean when he’s singing. No matter what he’s doing, whether playing the piano or drums or whatever, he can just put his stamp on things. You can really tell, or at least I could, that it’s him. That’s what’s so interesting about a song that I’d written and was singing that you can really feel his presence on. And hopefully vice versa as well. It’s been a really great experiment. It’s been fun. We worked together before. He worked on some Earlimart stuff years ago, so it wasn’t totally foreign. We were out of our comfort zones a bit but because we were such good pals it still felt safe.
Like with anything, some days were harder than others. But we’re not like the band that’s being together for eight years and every little thing would set one of us off. Our thing was really just friends hanging out and we happened to have recording equipment around. It’s pretty light. And we needed the sad songs. “I Left U” was super fun to do because we were doing it together. The whole thing was really fun.
Well, it comes through on the record. Congrats on the positive response and interest so far. You know you’re doing something write when NPR Music is in your corner from the beginning.
We’re fortunate. We’re a new band but we got a bunch of old veterans so we get a few more opportunities than most new bands get. But hey, we’ve been working for it.
