Radiation City is a Portland, Oregon-based group. They write soulful songs with great hooks and catchy harmonies. They just played the Record Bar October 26th. Cameron Spies recently wrote in to discuss how Radiation City came together, lyrical inspiration and their songwriting process.

How did Radiation City first come together?
Lizzy and I (Cameron) had been playing music together in two other projects for about a year when Rad City formed. We felt somewhat ridiculous about adding a third group to an already hectic schedule, so this one became more of a passion project, and less of a serious thing. We played our first show as a duo in Oct of '10 after releasing a split tape of 6 of our tunes on Apes Tapes. We added Randy on drums for our next show, which went so well, that we decided to record four more songs for a full-length. Matt came on board to play bass for the release show for that record. Patti joined the band just recently, about two months ago to fill out the female harmonies and play keys.


What do you enjoy most about the music scene in Portland?
House shows are a fixture of the Portland scene, which are a wonderful outlet for kids who may not be over 21, but still want to see shows, as well as being such a fun environment. People pack into unfinished basements while the bands whip them into a sweat-soaked frenzy. There is really no show experience like it.


Do you remember your first time onstage?
My first time on stage was playing "stairway to heaven" in front of my fellow campers at Science Camp in Eastern Oregon. I must have been 11 or 12.

How old were you when you first started writing your own songs?
I think I was writing from the time I really got the hang of the guitar. Of course, the songs were all terrible, but you have to start somewhere. This was around the same time as the science camp experience.


Did you come from a musical family? Were your parents musical?
My parents put me in piano lessons when I was tiny, but it didn't stick. I thought it was horribly tedious. I preferred drawing at the time. To this day, i wish i would have kept with it. My themselves didn't play anything, but there is definitely music in my family. My cousins on my mom's side are all incredibly talented musicians. My grandmother played the cello for years as well.


How does your songwriting process work?
There is definitely no songwriting formula in this band, although it typically goes something like this: one of us will bring a seed of an idea to the table, whether it be a single riff, or two or three parts with lyrics, and we hammer out the arrangement and parts until it's a full song. We occasionally jam the songs out as a full band to make sure the arrangements flow well enough, but we also begin recording parts of songs and piece together the compositions in our tracking software. We like maintaining variety within our process, because different methods can garner interesting surprises. Its great to have a specific idea about how something will end up, but happy mistakes are just as important to us. That's why you here so much found sound and background noise in our recordings. We love the tectures they bring to the album. I can't speak to how song or riff ideas come to the rest of the gang, but they usually come to me at random. Our world is so full of stimuli, that anything can be inspiration for a song idea.

What inspires you lyrically?
Typically our lyrics are an abstraction of things happening in our lives. As much as I hate to say it, tumult and stress are incredibly inspiring. Songwriting is cathartic for all of us, so, for instance, not knowing how we will pay next month's rent, can provide a sort of canvas for a song.


You have great vocal harmonies. Do you try to capture your songs as live as possible?
Most of the harmonies on the record are overdubbed by Lizzy, who has incredible musical instincts. Randy and I provided some of the male voices in the recordings as well, but only in a handful of places. To answer your question though, all the vocals are overdubbed. On the next record, we have a few tracks that employ a technique of everyone singing into one mic, but that will be the exception to the rule.


What has been your strangest moment on tour?
Well, our tour buddy for this trip, Riley, took off his shirt toward the end of our last song in Cincinnati last night. He then proceeded to drop his pants to his ankles and jump around the room, wielding a chair over his head and screaming. We expect no less from Riley.


What albums do you always find yourself listening to?
We have been listening to the Unknown Mortal Orchestra record a lot on the road, as well as a tape of the Dirty Dancing soundtrack (we just found a tape deck that works in our van for $4 in Pendleton, OR, our first tour stop). Other tour mainstays include, but are not limited to: Beck's "Midnight Vultures", St. Vincent's "Strange Mercy", The Beatles' "White Album" and "Abbey Road", Caribou's "Swim", Why?'s "Alopecia" and Elephant Eyelash"


What have been the biggest challenges you've had to overcome in your career?
Persevering when it feels like it's going nowhere; finding a sound that feels inspired and genuine. It's taken years and years to achieve the latter. The former is always a challenge, but we finally feel like it's not totally a lost cause.


What advice would you give to artists just starting out?
1. If you truly love music, don't ever give up. Make sure it's the thing you love the most though, because it is VERY difficult to succeed in this business. It also seems necessary to dedicate your life to making music. (ie we managed to quit our day jobs and get freelance work to make ourselves as flexible as possible for touring and recording).

2. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Being conservative usually renders banal results.

3. Make music that you love, not music you think other people will love.