Radkey’s opening slot on a major tour is just the ticket

These days, the brothers Radke — 21-year-old guitarist Dee, 19-year-old bassist Isaiah and 17-year-old drummer Solomon — are rarely at home. Their lives now take place less in the St. Joseph home in which they were raised and more on an endless stretch of road to gigs. They play all over the United States. And they tour Europe, where their band, Radkey, claims a dedicated fanbase.

Radkey kicked off a tour September 9 in support of Rise Against and Touché Amoré, both veteran rock bands with a substantial American following — a following that seems ready to help make Radkey big in its home country. The tour stops at the Uptown Theater Monday, September 22, so The Pitch dialed up Isaiah Radke to chat about the band’s forthcoming album and its hopes for the future.

The Pitch: It seems like you guys have been working on an album for a really long time, and I know it’s due out in January. What does it sound like?

Isaiah Radke: It’s halfway done now, and we’re really, really excited about how it’s coming together. There’s definitely a different vibe to it, but not that different from what we’ve already done. We’ve also experimented with some things, and I think it’s worked out really well. Working with Ross Orton, the producer from Arctic Monkeys — he basically made it really easy for us to experiment and come up with really cool things. Doing that in San Francisco with him was big for us. Writing songs is easier now.

I think people want to hear simple, catchy rock songs. I think they always have, and I think, inside of people, they’re just built to react to it. And there’s a strong lack of that kind of music these days, and I think that’s why we’re successful. We’re just trying to make our songs memorable. We’ve written some of the best songs we’ve ever written, and we’ll be playing two of those in Kansas City.

How do you talk to one another about shows before and after they happen? How do they unfold?

We try to just make it where there are no rules and we just feel it out, and whatever the vibe is, we just go from there. We just try to have a good time because that’s what’s natural. I’ve been told that I look pretty happy onstage a lot, and I think that’s better than trying to look like a badass or whatever. I think that makes people more open, as well, if you’re watching a band that’s happy to be there.

You operate at such a high level, but you’re still young to be in the game and doing what you’re doing. It’s some pretty adult shit.

Yeah, it’s very odd. I guess you just kind of have to be yourself with all of it. I usually let the management handle stuff and just eat whatever food they bought.

I mean, you start a band, and you’re jamming in your little hot green room or whatever, and just people getting interested at all is the weirdest feeling. It’s really strange. And it’s really cool, too, but it’s almost like it’s never real, you know? Like you can only look back on these things after they’ve happened as opposed to living in them. It’s very strange for us.

You’re on tour with Rise Against and Touché Amoré. That’s a huge national tour. How did it happen?

Well, apparently, they told us that the lead singer [of Rise Against] had seen us live, and it all went from there. It was really cool because I’ve known about them ever since I was 12 or something, and it was kind of weird how things happened. We just played the first show with them, and it was really cool. Touring as support is definitely a different experience, and being the first of three bands, we didn’t expect to play to anyone. But there were so many people there early, and it was insanity.

They [Rise Against and Touché Amoré] have a lot of fans that are into the kind of music that we play, so I think this [tour] will be what does it for us in America, finally.

One thing about Radkey is that you guys are huge in Europe, and your following here is not quite what it is over there. What do you make of that?

In Europe, I tell a lot of people that we’re actually a real band. It’s a great experience when people come to your show, and they know who you are. They’re excited to see you. Then you come back for an American tour, and it just fucking smacks your ass right back down to the real world. It’s interesting.

There’s not a better feeling than people coming to see you specifically. Playing this tour is amazing, and it’s great to see all these people, and hopefully it gets us further here [in America], but things like the show that we played at the RecordBar [in December 2013] — that meant more to us than anything. The people in Kansas City and Lawrence were the first to really welcome us, and so those are easily the most important people to us.