KP&TMR

RDGLDGRN are currently on their European tour, amidst the waves they are making in the industry with their unique style of indie rock and go-go music. Their EP is out now and the group has already worked with Pharrell Williams as well as Dave Grohl. I caught up with the trio before they hit the stage for their very first show in England, at The Cockpit in Leeds. “The tour’s been great so far,” Red tells me, “The responses, the kids that come out, everyone’s really happy to see us and that’s kinda surprising. We didn’t think they’d be so happy to see us. We’ve done just 2 shows so far in Dublin and Glasgow.”

One of the things that fascinates me about RDGLDGRN, apart from the amazing music they make, is their love for soccer. I asked Green about where his passion for Chelsea FC came from, “We love England and we love football so we’re glad to be here. It’s Chelsea for me because of Didier Drogba, a black man who could put the ball in the back of the net. I’ve been a fan for probably 3 years, not even that long. I played FIFA and the World Cup was always a big thing in America.

“Everyone thinks they know about soccer once the World Cup comes around. I remember 1994, for some reason if you’re from the South or Centrals of the Americas, you root for Brazil. Now there’s so many teams and you can like more because you know more about the history. I’m a Chelsea fan because I’m a Chelsea fan. They had an alternate green jersey, the first time I saw them and that’s why I’m a Chelsea fan!” Green laughs.

As a Manchester United fan myself, I was glad that Red had picked the right team to support to match his color, “Sir Alex Ferguson of course, is the reason why hands down I’m a fan of the team. His face was there the whole time. For me, you’ve got the red teams, there’s Arsenal, you’ve got Liverpool, all these teams and it came down to whichever one I was deciding to like, back whenever it was and I chose them.” Gold is originally Romanian and tells me he always supports the Romanian teams or teams with Romanian players, “I like Juventus too and I love the sport. It’s amazing and I hope it gets picked up and loved in the States because it’ll connect us more to the world.” Red adds, “We have a lot of athletic people in the country and they’re playing other sports, like basketball or football or hockey. If they come and start playing soccer, then America as a footballing nation can benefit from that.”

Green goes on to tell me about how this would really work, “We’ve tested this and proven it. RJ, our drummer, we took him to play 5-a-side, he played goalie, first time as a grown man playing goalie: saves all day! He only got scored on twice and we played probably like 30 games and he’s an ex-running back. So he just knows how to go, duke, get the ball and stop the ball!”

RDGLDGRN are still American though and being from Washington DC, they love the Redskins as well as the Wizards and the Nationals. Green was born in Boston and is a Celtics fan and his face when I tell him I’m a Knicks fan is just priceless, “Fuck you. How are you all around just not about me?” We can’t all help laughing about that one. When I tell the guys it’s time to talk about the music Green just says, “That’s boring. Let’s talk about the sports.” I’m inclined to agree but RDGLDGRN are making music like no-one else right now and it’s only fair that I ask them about it. Dave Grohl is certainly something that needs to be discussed, with the Foo Fighters frontman doing all the drumming, with the exception of the track ‘Million Fans’, on the group’s forthcoming album.

“It was nuts to see cos one, you meet the guy and get over that, or don’t really ever get over that, then you see him playing the drum beat we had lined up for ‘I Love Lamp’ and various others. It’s a drum beat that’s regional, that Washington DC, Northern Virginia kind of area and to see him play that beat, with little to no problems, just reaffirmed that one, he’s a magnificent drummer and he’s a drumming authority as far as like, his abilities go. It was just really crazy to see. We were falling all over the floor everywhere, just laughing and having a good time, the studio was a great place,” Red smiles.

The band also worked on ‘Doing The Most’ with Pharrell Williams who Green describes as, “Humble, professional. He has anecdotes and he just breaks into them, it’s great.” The album is dropping in the late summer and after hearing their debut EP, which just left me wanting more, it’s something I am really looking forward to. Any collaborations that might be on the record are a secret for now but Green does reveal, “It’s not Andre 3000, I wish it was. Dave Grohl and Pharrell were amazing, I still don’t believe those so Michael Jackson?” he laughs. “Maybe that could go down.” Gold jumps in, “Tupac still has material coming out, right? Hip-Hop created that; you can still collaborate with people even after they’re deceased.” Red adds, “With all due respect to all of those artists.”

With RDGLDGRN working and living together, I have to ask the band to divulge a strange fact about one of the other members. Green decides to share Red’s toilet habits, “He takes 10 hour shits!” he laughs. “And he’s not even really taking a shit. We don’t know what he’s doing! He takes 50 hour shits!” Red reveals what he is doing with his down time, “It’s a time when there’s nobody there, I can peruse literature, I can look at things, educate myself. I wanna spend some time away from these two!”

Red then tells me about Gold, “Walking around our house, it’s a small condo; you are destined to find strands, locks of Gold’s hair in the most random places. On MY toothbrush, my bathroom is not even near his bathroom, in the fridge somewhere, like on the bread, his hair is everywhere.” Green says, “In the cereal that’s not even open.”

“He’s lactose intolerant, he doesn’t even drink milk,” Red laughs. Lastly, Gold tells me about Green, “The first thing that comes to mind is that he misplaces things, like his glasses. Anytime we’re going somewhere, he’ll put them down and they’ll be in the most random place. Like the back of a TV, under the couch, he’ll just be talking to you and he’ll put them somewhere and walk away. He definitely leaves things in the fridge all the time, his glasses are in the fridge, check the most peculiar places and you will find his stuff there.” It’s almost show-time but before they go, the band tells me about some of their favorite musical moments because as Green says, “We can’t pick one, there’s too many. Working with Pharrell and Dave Grohl, signing a record deal and the show we had last Saturday was amazing because I’ve never seen that many people.” That was the DC 101 Chili Cook-off show in Washington. Red tells me that apart from meeting me, his favorite moment was, “Getting that first check that we got when we didn’t have jobs. We’d quit our jobs to focus on this and we’d made money off music, that first check was a special check. The other day I woke up in Scotland because of the music we’ve made, it’s weird, it keeps happening, the best day of my life is just every day.”

Finally Gold shares his favorite moment, “I used to work for a corporate company, I’ve been fired from a lot of jobs. We ate lunch with Dave (Grohl) during one of the sessions and I was telling him how I worked at Tower Records in Fairfax, Virginia and I heard that he worked there. During my interview, a guy named Bob who kinda looked like Homer Simpson, he came in and looked at me and said ‘You kinda look like Dave Grohl’ and I was like that’s awesome and he said ‘He was a shitty worker.’ He told me that all Dave ever cared about was his band and that’s funny because that was me at the time as well. In high school, I used to listen to ‘Color And Shape’, the Foo Fighters album, still one of my favorites of all time and I had a picture of him holding the red guitar from those days. For me, to meet him at Sound City, just walking into the control room, that was hands down, before we even worked together, that was the best moment for me. In my musical career and as a human being.”

I tell the guys that this is just the beginning, that down the line their favorite moments will be winning that Grammy award, being on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. They will be playing Madison Square Garden at which Green laughs and replies, “That won’t happen. It’s like playing in Dallas, we could never play in Dallas. That’s another thing about us. We really dislike the Dallas Cowboys.” Gold adds, “Hail to the Redskins!”