Falling In Reverse
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Falling In Reverse

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The über-inked heartthrob has nailed his musical craft fusing metal, rap and punk into a furious Radke brew, but that has come together only after a lotof turmoil. Firstly – his inglorious booting from the bourgeoning post-hardcore group, Escape The Fate, (due to “personal issues” but his imprisonment for not adhering to his probation requirements after being charged with battery that resulted in a guy being shot and killed probably didn’t help either). The zygote of Falling In Reverse was created during Radke’s jail time and, not surprisingly, hasn’t been without its upheavals (including lineup rotations aplenty). Still, the fans have eaten up his unique cacophony of sound and he has continued to work on his musicianship, taking his job seriously despite all else. The third release from Falling In Reverse – Just Like You – is likely to be as divisive and impactful as ever. His warmth and openness defies his tumultuous biography – the dude is really, really nice. “I lived here for so many years but it’s like a bad relationship,” Radke says. “When you’re living here, it all seems normal and then when you escape it for a while and look at it from a different perspective you think, ‘What the fuck was I doing there for so long? I need to get the fuck out.’ I’m in a good place with this album. No one ever tells me anything like, ‘It’s your year’, but people are saying that to me. Everyone – my label – they’re all saying this is my year. It’s really good to hear that, especially from your label, because they’re the ones putting the money into you. I feel this will be our biggest record for sure.”

Vocally, Radke has tried his hand at most every style on the past two albums. The diversity has been a blessing and a curse from the perspective of their audience – proving to be at once unique and jarring – but for Radke, it has allowed him to literally find his voice. This time around, he’s reigned himself in. “I wanted to test on the older albums and test my horizons,” he says. “I wanted to make things a rollercoaster ride going from metal to gangster rap and into hardcore. It was a bit much at first but now kids love that album. With this album, I wanted to strip that back and make sure I was writing the best song I knew how to write. The songs are genuine and the lyrics are genuine and I hope that people can relate to that.”

For many songwriters, their art is created once the storm has passed but for Radke, the songs are always written while the ship is sinking. “I write the best songs when I’m in the face of adversity or when I feel like my back’s against the wall,” he says. “Some people crumble when they get on stage if they’ve messed up, but if I’ve messed up I get on stage and I try to make up for all of that. My best writing is when I feel like people don’t believe in me.”

So does touring an album for years beyond that initial emotion trigger recreate those emotions? “It does. The songs are so diverse and so I feel kinda’ bipolar, it’s like a whole spectrum of emotion when I play shows but I’m proud to show who I am,” he says.

Through expressing these emotions, he’s to deal with another bipolar factor – the love/hate nature of stardom. “I feel that I have tougher skin than a lot of people, even than ‘80s rock stars,” he says. “They didn’t have the Internet and they didn’t see everything. It makes you wiser and able to analyse human nature. Humans when they’re hurting or when they’re afraid, they project all of that onto people that they don’t know. Some guy from London will tweet, ‘You’re a piece of shit why would you put out a fucking clothing line?’ You see that and you’re like, ‘OK this dude is not where he wants to be in life. He has literally admitted this and he’s attacking me because I have a clothing line.’ It’s all psychology.”

While Radke may not be the guy you want to bring home to your mum, countless kids do – in a way. How does he reconcile the role of role model? “People who look up to me know where my heart is and they know that some of it has been impulsive and that I know it was stupid,” he says. “People all make their own choices. I’ve had parents come to my shows and tell me, ‘You saved my daughter’. We all make mistakes but as opposed to another rock star who’s proud to post pictures of themselves doing cocaine or whatever to 13-year old fans, I’m not that person. I’ve messed up posting some pictures just to be funny, that have been taken the wrong way, just jokes, but it is what it is.”

BY KRISSI WEISS