Exploring the merge between grooves and jazz, RADIOHOP is an Amsterdam-based fusion/hip-hop group with members Johnny Biner (Guitar), Joshua Lutz (Keys), Joel Svedberg (Bass), and Euan Jenkins (Drums). They look to push and explore new sonic areas, whilst maintaining the legacy and feel of the greats, gaining inspiration across the spectrum from Herbie Hancock to Kaidi Tatham to Azymuth. Before their session at Hidden Gem Studio, we took a moment to reflect on their journey together, current debut album tour, and exciting upcoming projects in the near & far future.
Hello, we are Radiohop. Euan, Joshua, Joel, Johnny. We are a four piece jazz, fusion hip-hop band based in Amsterdam, and we are just about to play in the Hidden Gem Studio a nice set for an intimate audience. It's all going to be fully recorded. We're really looking forward. All the songs that we're playing tonight are from our new record "All We Do", which just released about a month ago and is also available on vinyl. It was released on Wicked Wax Records, and yeah, we just want to get some really nice takes done now with some really nice video, in this studio, of some of our favourite songs from the album. We just had our album release party two days ago at Melkweg, and it was a very good night. We are all a bit in recovery.
How do you feel in this current chapter of your life, in your music, in your art?
Joel: It feels to me like something we've been waiting a bit for since the pandemic lifted. It says a lot where we started playing and started working and we recorded one EP at that time. We had a pretty bad experience with the mixing engineer and the studio and all this, so that never came out. But now we got to do it properly in our own way. I'm very happy about it. I think we all are.
Joshua: It's literally that. It's been years now since we've been working on music, making music, trying to record it. And since the moment we started recording it, it's still another year to finetune it, mix it and all these things, and it's just been so much time and it's so nice to finally have this own first record. It's also kind of like the start of something. A lot of stuff is going to come after this still. I'm really happy to have set this start with such a nice one.
Johnny: I would say at the moment we're riding the wave a little bit. We're starting to ride the wave because we played our album release tour, and now this summer we got some things coming up, some festivals, concerts, jam sessions... It's looking good, and we hope to keep the momentum as long as we can.
How would you describe the sound of RADIOHOP?
Joel: I would want to say dreamy and atmospheric. We do pay a lot of attention to sonics and I think we all do that on our own but we kind of get a lot based on the composition or whatever and it's kind of easy to decide what sound you should bring to the thing and I feel like that's something that really has grown over the years.
Joshua: I'd want to add punchy as well though. It's dreamy and very sonically ambient sometimes but then we always especially you two guys are adding that punch and that funk.
Johnny: I think our sound comes from beats, but also inspires beats even more. I think it's a bit like what also these names we just dropped what they would maybe also listen to, or what they get their samples from. Jazz, Brazilian music, funk, soul, R&B, 80s fusion, whatever. All kinds of stuff. It's kind of like RADIOHOP's like a radio a little bit, there's a lot of genres mixing. Like a whole radio station.
Euan: We have a beat side of us but then also kind of what would create these beats is like the more compositional things. Like the sample behind the beat. For example 'All We Do' has more compositions and arrangements and melodic things, a lot of harmony as well, with rhythm in that. But it's not a beat tape, or it's not just pure hip-hop beats, but then we also have that side to us. So we kind of go back and forth between. We had our first album that was called 'Kill Your Darlings', which was more beats and now we have 'All We Do', which has more compositions. Now we're gonna go back to beats again and then I'm sure that the next thing will be you know another album of compositions and arrangements, or whatever...
Joshua: Probably more broken beat direction, I would guess.
Euan: Soon we will start writing I think. In August we have a week where we're gonna write.
Joshua: We organized a writing session because we want to write more new songs and see what kind of direction we're going. It's gonna happen. New music.
Is there a message you’d like to convey in your music?
Johnny: First of all, it's all instrumental music, basically. So the message is always a bit more unclear, I would say. But as good lyrics are not super clear, pointing something out straight to the point, they maybe hint certain things. And also music can hint topics, hint conflicts, hint love, everything. And we try to do that through music. So it definitely has for me personally meaning, but I think it doesn't make sense to share it because I think everyone else has to experience it on their own and find their own meaning in it.
Joel: It's in the eye of the beholder anyway. I also really feel like there's a real power in the freedom you have in music because you really can do anything you want. People talk about all these genres and styles and whatever, but those are only guidelines. There isn't really a box to go outside of.
Joshua: I spoke about it at the release show in Melkweg as well, and I think it also fits to the music that the moment we play is just kind of a super ego-free moment where every one of us is just living the moment as much as possible. And it's a very special moment to be part of as a band, all for people working on the same image, on the same sound in the moment. I think that way really shows the trust that we have in each other and the power that brings.
Euan: I would say it was all summed up pretty much. But also for me, love and unity and the connection you make with the people you work with.. We work so much together, but then I also really appreciate our effort to work with other creatives. And that's also a message for me, is to use art in its whole form with actual art or graphics. We also have spoken word artists, rappers, singers, on the album. I just love the community you can find with music. And also linking to trying to avoid this ego area, really appreciating everybody's contribution. Wanting to share your art with others who want to share theirs. So yeah, I think that's really important.
What’s in store for RADIOHOP in the near future?
Euan: We've still got a bit of a summer left. We have still a few festival shows coming up, Grachten Festival. We're also going to play, we play Lago Lago Festival next weekend, today is also going to be a really nice show.. And for the rest of the year, some gigs here and there every month, but we really focused a lot on this summer to kind of have this moment. And a big thing that's coming up, we're going to be working with an amazing dance crew soon, very, very soon. They're called The Ruggeds, and right now they just finished the tour of their current production, Groove The Show, where they worked with Ghetto Funk Collective and they had a kind of hybrid music dance show. For this show, the dancers were also playing instruments, and now for their next production, they wanted a real band, so they asked us to be the band for that show, which is going to be really crazy. We're so, so grateful for them to want to work with us. We've always loved working with dancers. We've done it before in a breaking festival competition, and this is going to be an amazing opportunity where we can create this show right from the scratch. We build the music, and they're going to build the choreography. We work with each other. And so that's going to tour in February / March next year. So also for the rest of this year, we have that coming up, the whole production of that and the rehearsing.
Joshua: And speaking of music, we already have done some more studio sessions for an album after 'All We Do'. It's maybe more going to be like some EP's. But we're working on a beat tape of instrumental beats. Real hip hop instrumental beats, really inspired by the likes of Karriem Riggins and Madlib, Dilla, Pete Rock, the PeteStrumentals, for example.. And, yeah, it's just really the RADIOHOP essence. We've been going to the studio for two days and we jammed all the time. Two days of straight up jamming and just collecting the nuggets out of this studio session, and we've already found a lot of them. So it's going to be a really fun EP I think.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Joshua: I feel like what I just said just also goes in general, just this being in the moment. I've been thinking about it a lot lately and I feel like the more you realize that things that are around you, the things that you experience in life that you have, when you really start to appreciate that, it's gonna be the way that leads you to more happiness compared to being caught up with what you want or what you did wrong in the past. Lately it's just all about being in the moment.
Euan: I hope you enjoy the Hidden Gem show. We're happy to play here. Thank you to Hidden Gem. Thank you to Steppin' Into Tomorrow for having us. Thank you to Kay, Tijmen, Lucas, Leslie, Max, and just the whole crew. And if you want to check out the whole thing, the link will be in the description.
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