For most people, work commitments begin and end at their full-time career. Members of Jack The Radio, a Raleigh-based Southern indie-rock group, aren’t like most people.
The band, which includes two N.C. State alumni, managed to record its third full-length album, Devil In Here, which will be released August 6, while working full-time in Raleigh.
“It was the fear and excitement of ‘Can we pull this off?’ that made it interesting. The biggest thing coming out of it is the fact that we were able to pull it off,” said George Hage, frontman and co-founder of Jack The Radio.
Jack The Radio recorded Devil In Here live, a decision Hage said is rooted in sound rather than ease.
“We wanted to focus on the original form of the song,” Hage said. “We wanted an opportunity for people to sit down and really hear the vocals.”
Devil In Here also includes a string section that Danny Johnson, a multi-instrumental member of Jack The Radio, said adds ‘class’ to their blend of southern- and indie-rock
“We were starting to get a sense of our musical instincts, which is a nice thing to have when trying to define a sound,” Hage said.
As the date of their album debut nears, Johnson says the band is focusing on how to perform while going about their everyday lives.
“With all of us having full-time jobs, it has forced us to question how to get our music out there without hitting the road and coming back in a year,” Johnson said.
Jack the Radio was formed in 2005 when A.C. Hill, a computer and electrical engineering major at N.C. State, and George Hage, a graduate student in communication media, teamed up to begin writing and performing their music together.
The band, which has its roots planted in Raleigh, describes its music as “the type of music to blast from your porch on early summer nights to help inspire the sweltering season to come.”
“Going to school here, we would see a lot of shows with a more Southern influence,” Hage said.
The band plays everything from an electric guitar to a glockenspiel to a banjo. Using variety as a way to bring the music to life, Jack the Radio succeeds in bringing a different tone to each song they play. Whether you are listening to the bluesy grit in “Truck Stop Man” or more of a smooth alternative sound in “Realize,” each song provides a layered experience and resonates to a deeper place.
It’s that sound that has led the band to perform at 2011’s Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh among larger tours and concerts around the country.
“I think it is one of the genres of music, as a group, that we all have in common. To me, Southern indie rock is … you can throw up any Rolling Stones song and the whole group goes, ‘OK, that works,’” Johnson said.
Jack the Radio will release their album with a show at The Pour House on Friday, Aug. 9 at 10 p.m.
