This time five years ago Radio Berlin’s three main albums, Sibling, The Selection Drone and Glass, were re-issued digitally after all being long out of print. For one month you can now download these albums for FREE. Radio Berlin was a band I played in from 1998-2005, with an overview about it below:
I moved to Vancouver in the summer of 1997 from a small town on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. After moving I got involved in the punk/hardcore scene there and met some fellow musicians that were into trying something new. We all had in interest in what I’d call “80s alternative” which covered post-punk, “goth” and synthpop so we started a band on that concept. That was the summer of 1998 and we called ourselves “Radio Berlin”, mainly as it sort of sounded distant and European; a continent none of us had never been to before as it was pretty much on the opposite side of the world from where we were. (Note: An exception for Chris here, who lived in Amsterdam before that for a bit).
So I got a few effects pedals for my guitar and we picked up a Roland Juno 106 somewhere in the newspaper classifieds section for not much money. We recorded our first demo in the concrete bunker basement I was living in at the legendary “Frances Street Punk House” in Vancouver on a Tascam 7-track (it was an 8-track but one was broken).
I was 19 at the time and for the seven years afterward we did some pretty cool stuff. We released a few albums on some labels in Canada and the US. We had some memorable experiences and monumental misadventures on the numerous tours we did throughout North America. Played with some great bands: The Faint, Add N To X, Trans AM, Interpol, Turn Pale, Ted Leo and a bunch more. Sometimes we were on the road for a few days, some tours up to 2 months. We got used to van life a bit.
Towards the end we got interest from a UK label and tried writing a record for that. But at the time we were all busy with different projects and started to have different ideas and things sort of ran it’s course. Radio Berlin dissolved sometime in mid-2005.
It all started at the beginning of this post-punk revival that continues to generate tons of amazing bands to this day. It was a totally memorable experience being in that band.
As all of the records went out of print and the labels that put them out dissolved, I opted to re-release them all digitally on BandCamp five years ago to this day. We could have gone doing the “re-issue” route properly on physical formats but it’s a lot of time to do, a lot of admin and correspondence… a lot of work! We’ve all moved onto new jobs, bands, art projects and families in four countries across two continents. Also, let’s face it, we were a bit obscure.
So as it’s the five year anniversary of the re-issues, you can download anything from the Radio Berlin BandCamp for FREE or pay as you want. It lasts until 10th February 2020.
Anyway, reflecting back on a big chunk of my personal history there. Much gratitude for all the experiences we had, the friends we met, the places we visited and of course my former bandmates for all of those crazy times. Enjoy!
Glass
2003
The Selection Drone
2001
Sibling
1999