Future Sound: Radhika
Our column celebrating new music continues with Radhika. Raised deep in the heart of Glasgow’s dream-pop heritage, she was born to write languid indie songs. Fiona Shepherd talks to her about having an influential dad and why making music is more than just a job
‘I’m going to live in Glasgow forever; I just know it,’ says Radhika with disarming certainty. The 21-year-old singer and guitarist is part of a noble indie lineage in the city, with an additional blood connection through her father Sushil Dade, the redoubtable Soup Dragons/Future Pilot AKA man who made sure his daughter had the best start in life. ‘When I was born, my dad played this Indian prayer, a drone sound,’ she says. ‘Music has been with me since the day I entered this realm.’
Dade has since passed on his eclectic music taste to Radhika as well as encouraging her songwriting. She vividly remembers writing her first song ‘on my baby pastel pink guitar. I had learned bar chords which was quite a stretch for your fingers but I remember being saturated in the process and something clicked in me that night. It just felt so magical.’ That first song ‘Future Me’ appears on her debut album Cine-Pop along with tracks written through her teens. ‘I like to think of it as a story of my life throughout the years,’ she says.
The album is a feast of gorgeous, languorous indie pop, squarely in the Glasgow dreamers tradition, with two themes (one written specifically for David Lynch, the second for Lalo Schifrin and Laetitia Sadier) reflecting her love of floaty, airy retro soundscapes. Meanwhile, her cover of Strawberry Switchblade’s ‘Since Yesterday’ is even more wistful than the original. Cine-Pop features guest vocals from an august trio of Glasgow indie veterans: former Teenage Fanclub mainstay Gerry Love, Camera Obscura frontwoman Tracyanne Campbell, and Mitch Mitchell of The Pastels who Radhika describes as her ‘personal heroes’. But her closest musical compadre is her dad, with whom she promotes monthly residency The Hangar at Paisley Arts Centre. Guests so far include Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub, BMX Bandit Duglas T Stewart, Stuart Braithwaite, and My Bloody Valentine bassist Debbie Googe.
‘Me and my dad are very close; we’re like best friends,’ she says. ‘Without his bass on this album, it would be very bare. His bass playing isn’t standard, it’s very melodic and dynamic, almost chordal, like he’s playing lead guitar lines. When we’re onstage I look to my left and think, “how lucky am I? My dad’s playing with me”.’
Radhika also honours her Indian heritage by incorporating the drone of tanpura and harmonium, and the mournful flutter of bansuri (Indian flute) on the album. ‘I want to show the world how beautiful these sounds are,’ she enthuses. ‘Music is the most grounding thing. In Hinduism, we believe that “om” was the first sound on Earth and I think everything goes back to music. Songwriting has always been my guidance and support. I don’t really like it when people say it’s a job. It’s more like a friend.’
Radhika plays Glasgow Mela at Kelvingrove Park, Sunday 5 July; Glas-Goes Pop at GUU, Glasgow, Friday 14 August; Hug And Pint, Glasgow, Monday 24 August; picture: Laura Meek.