Radley Perspective on Solace
My name is Radley and I've been making music as long as I can remember. I make music as an outlet to process my emotions and enjoy bending my favorite genres and influences to create a sound that is unique and speaks to both my feelings and those of my supporters.
I grew up going to warped tour with heavy influences in pop punk and alternative rock/metal genres as well as hip hop, r&b, soul, and older pop music. As my sound and voice has developed through the years I have grown closer to this influences by combining the sounds of some of my favorite genres and artists to create something of its own. This new song "Solace" both represents my evolution as a human delving into the topic of finding positivity in trauma and my evolution as an artist. Whether you like hip hop like juice wrld/mac miller, or more alternative artists like the wonder years and neck deep, this song has the ability to fit on anyone's playlist as a fun jam or introspective healing guide.
Driving in my dads truck from job site to job site listening to classic rock on the radio as a young child.
I had always wanted to be a performing musician, but never had the follow through or courage to put myself out there and believe in my voice. Later in high school I was in a very dark place and less than sober to say things lightly. I happened to be awake late in the night/morning and listening to "Acid Rap" by Chance the Rapper when I decided "I could do that" and with nothing better to do broke out my old Apple headphones (you know, the ones with the tangled up cords that never quite fit in your ear) and opened up garage band for the first time. I found a beat and recorded a rap song despite very much wanting to be in a metal/punk band and after posting it on SoundCloud it blew up for small town standards. I had people I didn't even know coming up to me to tell me about how much they liked my music and I was hooked.
Hip hop, cloud rap, alternative pop, and punk, with a hint of emo and indie.
It hs become much more authentic. In my early rap career I caught myself in the trap of "marketability". I thought as long as I could rap faster, have more dynamic flows, and say the most striking bars I could imagine that I would be a success. As my career when on I realized that the content of my lyrics and the style of my sound was very disingenuous to who I am as an individual. Once I came to that realization I started to really focus on finding my voice by writing about my feelings and life hurdles and as I did I started to incorporate more of my childhood influences into developing my style. I've now learned so much about singing, started playing the guitar again, and started making music that I genuinely love to play daily.
My bios all start with the same simple statement: "Music is my therapy."
my music thematically is a stream of consciousness that provides me an outlet to process my emotions. All the themes of my songs have become a way to reflect on my life and events (mainly painful ones) and also to process how it has effected me and how I should go about coping with those often conflicting thoughts to grow as a healthier individual. Whether it's reflecting on my relationships gone south, or my recollections with my own under demons, I am always writing music to help process what we often bury in our subconscious to bring it to light and hopefully help others in doing the same for themselves or at the very least feeling as though they have someone or something they can relate to and feel understood by.
Probably Post Malone if we're talking about artists that are still alive. I've loved to watch his progression from a "main stream" rapper to a human facing his own demons through song, to his current catalog of music where he explores fun and creative ways to pay homage to his roots. Aside from that he seems like a very fun, kind, and down to earth person that I would get along with on a long tour and one of the most unexpectedly phenomenal performers I've been lucky enough to see live.
To quit my day job and spend my life doing what I love and seeing the positive impacts it has on all the new people I meet around the world.
"Color Blind" coming in 2025... it is one of the first songs I wrote on guitar and a deeply emotional song for me as after one of the hardest losses of my life I finally was able to move on after writing the song and hearing what my heart needed to tell me to gain that ability after two long and painful years.
