Rising Stars: Meet Bradley Riot

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bradley Riot.

Hi Bradley, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m originally from Central Florida, where I grew up in the downtown punk, hardcore, and indie scene. After high school, I went to college, but shortly after, dropped out to study music and received my degree in Audio Recording Engineering. I moved to Los Angeles in 2006 to pursue the audio industry and soon after, landed a job at a local recording studio. I was given the keys and told that I could run wild, staying after hours to record anything that I wanted.

I started to release some of my punk-inspired acoustic songs and after playing solo shows around town, I eventually got a band together. We called ourselves The Blackhands, a three-piece acoustic punk outfit made up of distorted acoustic guitar, upright bass, and drums. (Picture Violent Femmes and Green Day meets Against Me! and Tiger Army.) We released three EPs, had some great regional success, and even took to the road for some US tours before we split up in 2014.

After the band’s demise, I found myself looking for danger in other areas of my life. I started a motorcycle company and rolled all of my punk inspiration and need for speed into one. I began building vintage café racer motorcycles that were loud, fast, and stripped down to the bare bones, embodying the punk rock of motorcycles; Riot Cycles was born. Although we gained worldwide popularity through our unique attitude and style, I was still itching for more.

In 2018, I launched a resurgence of The Blackhands with a new lineup of members and all electric instruments. We recorded three songs and I was excited to be on stage playing punk rock again. Sadly, the project was short-lived, and it was back to the motorcycle shop with a broken heart.

Without music in my life, I didn’t see much of a point. Feeling completely burnt out on the daily grind, I turned to drugs and alcohol as a form of escapism. Sending myself deeper and deeper into a downward spiral, I started to lose my grip on my sanity.

Just before my darkest days, one thing that kept me going was a film project. A director friend of mine asked if I had any songs I was working on and if he could film me playing them live. I agreed to travel with him to remote, desolate locations around Southern California and we filmed a series of songs, each of them consisting of only one take. In my inebriated state, I can barely remember most of the filming, but it turned out to be a beautifully dark film. We called it, “XXII: A Portrait of Descent.”

After the film, I did my best to keep working on a new solo album, but I was so far off-center that I could barely get the words out when I arrived to record. By the beginning of 2022, I had officially hit rock bottom and needed some serious help.

I got sober and reapproached my life with a clear head; I put all my effort into completing the album. Getting back into the studio and listening to the recent recordings, my songs sounded like they were sung by a drunken sailor. Not a bad vibe, but not the vibe I was after… I re-recorded almost everything. The result was the most personal and vulnerable songs to date, a brutally honest reflection of the descent of my mental health. My new album, “Dark Side of the Road,” was complete.

Upon releasing my first single in over a decade, my long-time friend reached out and asked if I’d be interested in playing with a band again. I truly missed the excitement and comradery of being in a group on stage, so we began building ourselves into a new four-piece band. So far, we’ve played a handful of killer local shows and at the moment, we’re gearing up for the recording studio. We plan to have a new EP released in the beginning of 2024 under the name: LA Crimes.

Although it’s been one hell of a journey, I’m grateful for what it has brought me and I’m excited for the road ahead.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Smooth is the OPPOSITE word I’d use to describe my journey. Besides the ups and downs with music and motorcycles, the most recent battle has been with sobriety.

At the start of 2022, I was drinking two bottles of whiskey a day and racking lines of cocaine just to get out of bed in the morning. Now that I’m stone-cold sober, I wake up to matcha and yoga. It’s wild.

I had to pick up the pieces after my life fell apart. Sadly too, I had to make a choice of what to mend and what to leave behind. It’s amazing how to clear your goals become once you emerge from the wreckage.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m mostly known for my ability to transform a story into a song, but my fast strumming on guitar and gritty vocals are pretty identifiable attributes too. My main specialty lies within my songwriting skills; the way I convey an emotion or a feeling really sets me apart. In a genre where it’s common to yell every lyric, I find it’s actually more effective to use controlled melodies and mixed vocal techniques to get the point across.

I’d say my favorite thing to do when writing is to texturize a love story with the tragedy of a graphic underbelly. My new record tells the tale of losing everything and wrestling with the void once it’s gone. Since the theme of the album is based around my darkest moments, this group of songs is definitely my most honest and forthcoming work to date. Also, since it’s my first time releasing an album on vinyl, “Dark Side of the Road” holds a very special place in my heart.

What matters most to you?
Authenticity resonates with me the most. So many artists today are mirroring what they see on social media, expecting to be the next big thing, and giving up when it doesn’t happen. The problem with that is when every artist is doing the SAME thing, the audience gets bored… and so does the artist. You’ve got to be yourself to truly stand out; in fact, you’ve got to be your truest self. It’s commonly advised to be different, but we’re all different, so if you’re AUTHENTIC, you’ll already be ahead of the curve. You just have to keep being you; that’s where the real power lies.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bradleyriot.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/BradleyRiot
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/BradleyRiot
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5DGYIITBDclHMqLF4tA8ih

Image Credits
Errol Colandro, Borja Peña Gorostegui, Zach Iddings, Erin Isabella, John Pingry, Lee Timms