In an attempt to cover more musical genres in the Jersey City scene, I put out on social media that I wanted to take a “hip hop” break and get on the rock n roll side of things. Upon seeing my status, Josh Bartchs, the drummer from Cicada Radio got in touch and sent me his band’s music. As soon as I clicked the link to one of their videos shot on a rooftop in our area, I was rocking out in my seat. They have such an awesome energy so I responded back right away and said “When are we jamming?”
They invited me to a studio in Hoboken where they practice, which is actually in the same warehouse where The Big Hair Girls and I did our “Goth” shoot. I had a blast getting to know the guys, they have such great energy, and you can tell they play music for the fun of it and not for the glory. I was so pumped when they gave me a private show and I got to hear one of their new songs!
What are your names? Patrick Keef, Michael Keef, Brandon Baron, and Josh Bartchs.
What do you do? (Patrick) We play in Cicada Radio.
What is Cicada Radio? (Patrick) An alternative rock band (laughs)… (Brandon) Indie Alternative from Jersey City!
How long have you guys been in band? (Michael) 7 years, but we obviously changed we started as a 2 piece messing around in a garage and then we added the pieces and we kind have changed lineups since then. We have a newer lineup which is Josh and Brandon.
(Josh) It’s been a year and a half for us.
What are your roles in the band? (Patrick) I’m the song writer, Mike does the booking, and the business aspect of the band….
(Josh) They play guitar… they are also brothers. That is how Cicada Radio started, with these two.
I love it! (Michael) Brandon and Josh are bass and drums.
How is it working together as brothers? It’s fine, we played music since forever, since we were in high school.
(Brandon) I was hesitant at first, Josh and I are in another band together and that’s how we ended up with Cicada.
Well you guys seem very chill…
So why are you called Cicada Radio what’s the story behind that? (Patrick) The story was, that all the names were taken (laughs) so I always admired the insect, because they live 17 years underground but live 2 weeks above ground, it’s kind of poetic.
I thought of the Golden Cicada like the shot for the bar in Jersey City? We love that place.
How would you guys describe your music? (Michael) We always like the juxtaposition, upbeat sounding song and we make songs with thought-provoking, deeper lyrics that aren’t so upbeat…
What inspires you to write? (Patrick) All sorts of stuff, I find inspiration from anything.
Do you have anything coming up? We actually have a tour coming up, we’re going to the Midwest, we try to do it a week at a time but we are doing Nebraska, Chicago, Kansas city, Michigan, Ohio, and we’re doing everything DIY, and we are going on tour with Decir Decir, a Jersey City band. We’ll meet up with them in the Midwest and we are going to do some shows on the way back.
What about Jersey City, do you have any gigs? (Michael) Yeah, we are actually playing Pushing of the Daisies, on May 16th, it’s for raising money for the cemetery, and the goats (laughs) we’ve been doing this for 4 years, there’s usually Jersey City bands that do this.
Do you have an album out? (Patrick) We have 2 EP’s and 1 album out now, we just put out an EP with these guys before we went on tour last October it’s called Crime Waves, it has 6 songs.
I saw the video of you guys on a rooftop it’s cool it looked really nice out. (Michael) It was really cold that day it just started getting cold….
(Brandon) and that was before we went to play The Fest last year, which we can announce that we are going to play again this year and that’s in Gainesville on October 30th.
I like the chemistry you got together are you guys like BFF’s? (Michael) We are around each other a lot…
(Brandon) It’s a funny thing, we worked really quickly.
What do you guys love about being on stage? (Patrick) I just like the opportunity for people to hear our music, especially going out-of-town, that’s why we like playing “The Fest” so much, people get to experience your music and it’s really cool.
Anything else you want people to know about the band? (Brandon) We don’t do this for the money, we are here because… I laugh so hard when I hang out with these guys. We crack up all the time. In the end we get on stage because it’s the most fun you can possibly have. It’s a pleasure to be with these guys who put the music out there…
Nice what is your favorite Jersey City hang out spot? We would select the Lamp Post but, we don’t want to talk about that. We like Lucky’s, the Keyhole, Barcade, Hollywood Fried Chicken, Gypsy Grill, Left Bank.
(Josh) I like that Crepe place.
(Brandon) I knew this interview would end up in talking about food!
That’s our motto eat good, drink good, and play Rock and Roll.
That is the perfect ending.
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