GoRadio-Sep12-620

“There was literally no communication at all”—Alex Reed and Steven Kopacz on Go Radio’s breakup

Formed after guitarist/vocalist Jason Lancaster left Mayday Parade, Florida rock band GO RADIO hit the ground running, with a record deal in one hand and plenty of buzz thanks to Lancaster’s history in the other. Two EPs and two full-lengths followed, including last year’s well-received Close The Distance, but earlier this week, the band’s fanbase was shocked when Go Radio announced their breakup seemingly out of the blue. While the statement issued on the band’s behalf read as amicable, frontman Jason Lancaster has taken to the offensive, most recently issuing a long blog post discrediting remarks being thrown his way—though quizzically not actually identifying exactly who was discrediting him. We caught up with guitarist ALEX REED and drummer STEVEN KOPACZ to try and get to the bottom of this, as well as see what the future holds for them.

People were surprised by the abruptness of Go Radio’s breakup announcement—it was kind of left field. Could you talk about what it was that brought this decision to light so quickly?
ALEX REED
: It’s something that the four of us have known was gonna happen or a little while now. Like we said in the statement, Jason came to us—he had been going back and forth with touring—I think he was getting burnt out from being on the road and doing smaller club tours, so he came to us and told us that he had hit a wall; he was getting older; he wanted to kind of move on and settle down. In that situation, we obviously as a band didn’t want it to end by any means. But in talking to him, he seemed pretty certain of his decision, so we agreed to finish the commitments that we had—which were the rest of the tour we were on at the time and Warped Tour. It became pretty apparent towards the end of Warped Tour that it was probably going to be the last tour. We had thrown around the idea of maybe playing a farewell tour or a farewell show but decisions had already started being made towards the end of Warped Tour. We would end it while we were on top at the mainstage on Warped Tour and really go out with a bang. It was one of the biggest crowds we’ve ever played in front of.

You said the genesis of the whole breakup started on the tour before Warped Tour, when you were out with the Summer Set, so this dates back almost eight months. Were you surprised when Jason first brought up the idea of leaving the band? Did you see it coming?
STEVEN KOPACZ: It was a little surprising. We weren’t on a bus so we were in really tight quarters. [Jason] likes to have his own space and stuff. It was a little bit of a surprise to us that he had made his mind up, which he indicated in his demeanor. When we had the conversation, we were like, “So, I guess your mind’s made up? It doesn’t seem like anything we would say could change your mind.” So it was a little bit of a surprise, but when you’re on tour, you can kind of tell—through demeanor and personality—when someone’s not into it as much someone else is.

REED: That’s definitely how I felt. I was pretty surprised by it, but in looking back, I can see that he was kind of distant. He had always liked his personal space, but he was more distant than ever in the weeks prior to the breakup. If I look back on it, it is something I maybe could’ve seen, but when you’re in it; you don’t really realize as much of what’s happening until you have the outside perspective.

How difficult was it to not tell people, while you were on Warped Tour, that this was going to be it?
REED
: That was a difficult thing to keep in for everybody, including Jason. We wanted support to go out the right way. We didn’t want people to come to Warped Tour and see us as a sad thing. We wanted people to come out the right way, under our terms, and not be this massive rumor mill of things. We wanted to play these shows with full energy and in a positive way. It’s not lying, but it’s hard when people ask when we’re coming back around and we say, “We’re not really sure yet.” At first, there was still a lingering possibility of a final show, but as we went forward it just seemed like the right time to cut it off was after Warped Tour. We had to keep it from our friends and family for a long time because the music industry is big, but it’s also very small. As soon as one small group of people knows, it’s hard not to talk about it. So, we kept it between the four of us, and a couple of other people who we really trusted, to let us be the ones who share it with the world.

Jason recently did an interview with the Gunz Show and said that there were things in the statement released by the band that were not true. But he also said that there was no bad blood in the band? Do you have any insight as to what he thinks you are saying that’s not true?
REED: That’s a tough one. I did hear that he had an interview with the Gunz Show, but I didn’t have a chance to hear it. That is interesting. I think we were very delicate with the statement to not create any bad blood. Only a very small snippet of the statement has anything to do with what Jason did or didn’t do. We were never trying to be malicious or anything. We always just said that we wanted to be open and honest with people, without divulging too much personal information. It’s not about what he said or she said. This is honestly where the core of it came from when he came and told us. He had recently gotten married and things weren’t going the way he had seen them going for Go Radio in this record cycle. The gist of it that he told us was that he had gotten married and he wanted to spend that time. You know, I don’t know the inner workings of their marriage too much. He lives in Orlando; she lives with him, but when he came to us, he said that it was his decision. He said he was tired; he wanted to be able to have a house and a more consistent money flow. It seemed like he had a certain longing for the next step in adulthood and that maybe he was being held back from that by touring all the time. That was the core of why he wanted to leave the band. He was longing for the next chapter in his life. I used that very word, “chapter,” [in the statement] because that’s what it is. It’s the end of a chapter, but we’re all going on to do different stuff. It’s hard to interpret because maybe he meant something different—to the three of us. Maybe he meant to convey something differently, but all three of us were under that understanding.

KOPACZ: I’m definitely on the same page with everything that Alex said. We had the initial conversation in the hotel room, on the Summer Set tour. Jason was like, “Hey, can I talk to you guys?” At that point, we could have been very angry with him because it was unfair to us; there were still three other people involved. [But] we weren’t angry at him in any sense. We were never angry—maybe disappointed because the band was coming to an end. But we understood his decision. That’s why when we wrote up the statement, we tried to keep it as vague as possible but with also telling a side of the story instead just being like, “Go Radio broke up.” We wanted to make sure that the story was out there without pointing any fingers. Like Jason said, there’s no bad blood. There never was any bad blood, but we wanted people to know a little bit of the reasoning without making it seem like there was any bad blood. Like Alex said, I haven’t heard the Gunz Show interview either, so it’s kind of strange that he would say something like that. The little blurb about Jason in the statement we made is so small, but it is true. It’s exactly what happened. So, I’m kind of caught of guard with his “it’s not true” statement because that makes no sense to me. >>>

Jason also went on to say that he didn’t know the statement was coming out. He said he was completely taken by surprise when the statement was released. Why was everyone not in the loop?
REED
: Once Warped Tour had come to an end, he flew home, and we hadn’t heard a word from him—our management hadn’t, nobody. Jason has been living in Orlando with his wife for some time now. There was literally no communication at all between the three of us and him. You know, I think it’s kind of human nature when something like this ends to step back a little bit and kind of let it breathe. Like, we were never told that Fearless was ever informed [that we were breaking up]. We had to hear from our management that our record label already knew. That was a big surprise. I mean, we were taken aback by that; in a sense of why weren’t we involved in the conversation with Fearless? To this day, none of us have any clue what that conversation [between Lancaster and Fearless] entailed. It goes even further [when we] catch an Instagram post that all of a sudden he’s doing a solo song on a Fearless comp.

Once Warped Tour was done, our team came apart. Everybody moved on. So at this point, it’s just the three of us—and him in Orlando. The band’s over; we all wanna move forward with our careers, whichever way those careers go. And, you can’t do that if there’s still this anchor and this stigma that we’re all in this band together. You want to bring light to the situation, so I’m sure that’s what was going through his head. He wanted to get some closure, so he went ahead and called the label. With this, we hadn’t heard anything; we contacted certain people and never got a response. So, when we were thinking about posting it, Matt [Poulos, bassist] wasn’t even really there. We told him right before we posted it. He looked over it really quick and we just went through with it. Steve and I are really trying to move on and move forward and get the next thing going. In a musician’s world, if you take too much time off, it gets kind of scary; you disappear. There was no malicious statement behind that. My perspective on it was he was handling his things, in Orlando, by having his own personal conversations with the label and starting his own solo project, from what I can tell. But none of that was communicated with us, so I just saw that as him moving forward, and that made us feel comfortable to announce it.

There has been this push back from Jason via both the interview he did with Gunz, and also he retweeted his wife’s recent Instagram post where she said, “I’ve been severely hurt in the last couple days by lies said about me and Jason from people considered in the past as ‘family.’” It comes off as she and Jason vs. everyone else. Do you have any sort of idea of what it is that she could be responding to?
KOPACZ
: It doesn’t feel like it’s coming towards Alex and I and the rest of the band. We felt the statement was very professionally written; very well written in a way that everyone looked fine at the end of it. No one could say that people were attacking them in a certain way. So, I’m not sure if it’s towards us. I personally haven’t said anything more than, “Here’s the statement, now we’re going to be moving on and moving forward.” We have no reason to slander anyone else. We’re not trying to talk bad about anyone or any family or anyone we’ve known in the past.

REED: That’s the same with me. I don’t think that she would be considering us as family. We’ve had the opportunity to be around her a little bit. You know, they live in Orlando and, with the exception of her coming out with us for a few days here and there, we’ve never had any actual time to hang out. I haven’t read her tweets or anything. We wanted it to drama free, so I don’t look at those things. That’s why in the statement; the majority of it was talking about the good times and looking forward to the future. I don’t think I’ve taken enough psychology courses to really divulge into that and really decrypt that code. Maybe because we said “his wife” in the post, people are trying to fill in the rest of the pieces of the story. Maybe that’s the downside to being a little vague. Maybe she felt like she was getting attacked on her side of things. That would bum me out because there’s no malicious action there.

 

Looking to the future now, you both are filling in live with different bands. Steve, you’re playing drums with Anarbor. Alex, you’re going out with Stages And Stereos as a second guitarist. Are you treating those as hired guns positions? Are either one of you thinking about joining either one of these bands?
KOPACZ: Christian, who is with our guitar tech on Warped, was tour-managing Anarbor over in Australia. He knew of our situation on Warped Tour, because they’re on the crew. We couldn’t not tell those people because that’s their livelihood. He came up and told me that Anarbor were looking for a drummer for Warped Tour [Australia]. I get along with those guys really well; they’re awesome; we hung out with them pretty much every day of Warped Tour. It was a surprise, but it was a good surprise. As far as a permanent role in the band, I haven’t even thought about that. I’ve just been honed on going to Australia again; touring and playing drums again. I’ve been concentrating on my clothing brand and really pushing hard on that. But as far as drumming goes, I’m more of a hired gun right now.

REED: I actually live with Daniel, the singer [of Stages And Stereos]. He and I have been roommates for the better part of four years now. I’ve known all the guys for a long time; we’ve done tours together. It was actually pretty uncanny timing. Daniel actually called me about three weeks away from the end of Warped tour. He knew what was going on because he’s my best friend and Jason’s brother. He was like, “Hey, our guitar player got a great job working for his dad and left the band. We have a spot we need filled.” It was an opportunity to immediately get back on the road. Touring is one of my favorite parts about being out on the road; that camaraderie you build. So for me, it was kind of a no brainer to accept the tour, but as far as future endeavors, if I don’t have anything going on, I’ll fill I for them as long as possible. But nothing has been official as far as joining personally. I’m kind of keeping my [options] open; Steve and I are writing a little bit together and we’re talking about maybe collaborating on an EP or some music. As far as touring right now, I’m open for offers. I just want to stay on the road. That’s still an option I’m looking for myself.

During Warped Tour, Go Radio had a good reception and were bumped up to mainstage quite a few times. Take me back to that last show on Warped Tour in Houston.
REED
: Oh man, there were a million emotions going. In general, on a tour of that magnitude you make so many friends. It’s that summer camp feeling. So that’s overwhelming as it is. We did get bumped to mainstage that last day, so we were the second band on. I remember that 45 minutes before we were going on, [I was] hit by that realization this will be the last time the four of us are all onstage. And we’ve kept a steady crew of the same guys over the years and built them up, so that was really hard to say a goodbye to them. I remember being full of emotions. I remember five minutes before we went on, I looked at our merch guy, Derek Buell, and we had this hug in the semi truck, and I remember squeezing him as tight as possible and getting teary eyed. I remember going on stage that day pretty close to a full sob fest. But as soon as I got out there I gave it as much hell as I ever have.

KOPACZ: I agree with Alex. That last day was so different because when you get onstage, you’re looking at these fans and they don’t know, but it’s the last time we’re going to be onstage. We always do our chant and after that we bump fists. It was one of those days where by the time I got onstage, my knuckles were hurting so bad because I bumped fists with everyone so hard. No one said it, but everyone knew it. We were just like, “All right, this is it. Let’s go out with a bang, we’re on mainstage.” It was the last moment us four would be playing on stage as Go Radio, and we knew that and no one else did. I just went for it that day. I think I smashed my fingers up a couple times, but it was worth it. ALT