Shake, Rattle & Know: Arkaydia

Siggy’s All-American Bar is set to experience the rock ’n’ roll masterpiece known as Arkaydia with a performance at 9 p.m. Friday. A relative newcomer to the music scene, Arkaydia is already drawing comparisons to some of the area’s rock ’n’ roll legends. Comprised of Anthony Rose (vocals/ guitar) Jeff Hatcher (guitar), Clarke Reilly (drums) and Dallas James (bass), Arkaydia is a throw-back to a time when hair bands dominated the airwaves.

I spoke with Rose about the band’s style, its future and its recently released EP. So let’s Shake, Rattle & Know: Arkaydia.

SRK: You guys are pretty young, yet the music you play is reminiscent of older style rock ’n’ roll. Why did you choose that style?

Rose: All of us listen to music by bands like Motley Crue, Guns N’ Roses and stuff. Music today just sucks. The older rock ’n’ roll is just more exciting. It’s more fun to play, more fun to write, and it just comes out better. The shows from that time period are better too. You go see a show like Panic at the Disco, and its OK, but then you go to a Motley Crue show, and there is pyro and everything else going on. It’s just an awesome experience overall.

SRK: Were any of you in bands prior to Arkaydia?

Rose: No, not really. Nothing serious at least. Jeff and Clarke have been together since they first learned how to play music.

SRK: How did the band come together?

Rose: Our first bass player knew me in middle school and invited me to join. He left us shortly afterward. We went through another bass player when he found a girlfriend. We had become friends with Dallas and started out just jamming with him, and then asked him to join.

SRK: Tell me a little about your new EP.

Rose: We wrote all the songs on the EP. The song “Push Me Away” was one of the first songs we ever wrote. We wrote the song when we were at UCF together. A lot of our songs stared out by us just jamming and finding a riff that worked for us. Songs like “Promise Land” have more of a dance vibe to them. We like the EP because each song has a different sound to it, but it still blends together well.

SRK: You are known as an original band, but do you feel pressure to be a cover band to get gigs?

Rose: The better gigs are the ones where you get booked as an original band. Its nice to be able to go I and play your own music for an hour and be done. With cover gigs, you have to play for three or four hours at a time. We do a lot of cover gigs, but we play the music with our own style, and we only do songs we really enjoy ourselves.

SRK: What is the band currently working on?

Rose: We are always writing new music and playing gigs. We have been thinking about moving to Orlando, because there are more opportunities there. With everything going on in our individual lives it’s not always easy to stay focused and find the time to do all the things we need to do, but we will keep it going strong.

SRK: What would you want people who don’t know about Arkaydia to know about the band?

Rose: That we always play for fun, and we play the music we want, the way we want. We are best friends, so our music never comes across as forced, so when you see us play, it’s for real.

If you have an artist/band you’d like to recommend for review, contact Nunez at myspace.com/shakerattleandknow or fantasyforecaster2005@yahoo.
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