Bay recorded his entire 2014 debut studio album Chaos and the Calm at Blackbird Studios in Nashville, with producer Jacquire King. It debuted at number one in the UK charts and has been certified X2 platinum.

His second studio album, Electric Light, was released in May 2018. It peaked at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart and 21 on the US Billboard 200.

In the spring of 2020, Bay began working on his third studio album in Nashville at the historic RCA Studio A alongside producer Dave Cobb, and collaborated with Brandon Flowers of the Killers during recordings. He released the single “Chew On My Heart” in July 2020.

In 2021, Radial’s artist relations representative Jim Rhodes began working with James and welcomed him, along with his management and tech crew, to the Radial artist roster. James, a long-time user of Radial devices, has recorded and toured with Radial products since the beginning of his career. In-studio and on the road, James uses Radial DI’s, Reamp devices, and the popular Radial JX44 instrument switcher and JR5 footswitch.

JX44 V2

Concert Touring Guitar & Amp Signal Manager

The JX44 V2 is a guitar signal manager designed to handle four guitar, four amplifier with effects routing and midi control.

JR-5

Multi-switch remote

The Radial JR-5 is a multi-switch remote control designed for the Radial JX44 Air Control wireless guitar and stage amp switcher.

We are thrilled to have James on our roster and look forward to a long and supportive relationship.

To view James’s artist profile on the Radial site go to: James Bay – Radial Engineering

For more information about James Bay go to: jamesbay.com

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On April 9, 2018, Fleetwood Mac announced that Campbell would be joining the band to replace lead guitarist Lindsey Buckingham.

Mike also leads his own band, “The Dirty Knobs,” a rock outfit with influences including The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, and The Animals.

On November 11, 2011 Rolling Stone magazine included Mike Campbell on their list of top 100 rock guitarists of all time.

In June 2018, Mike Campbell agreed to work on an artist endorsement with Radial. Mike has been a long-time user of Radial gear, and while in preparation for the 2018-2019 Fleetwood Mac tour, Radial artist relations guy, Jim Rhodes, and Steve “Chinner” Winstead, Mike’s longtime tech, put together a list of Radial gear for Mike’s new rig with the help of Dave Philips of LA Sound design. Dave has been involved with Chinner building the pedalboard and system prior to the start of Fleetwood Mac rehearsals. At the core of Mike’s new rig is the Radial JX44 used to switch multiple guitar inputs and amp outputs. As Mike uses multiple guitars and amps for different sounds, the JX44 manages the switching of guitar inputs and outputs to amps, while maintaining levels and signal flow from the amps to Mike’s on stage pedalboard.

The Radial SGI44 is a studio guitar interface that sends guitar signals over long distances without signal loss or noise. With built-in send and receive functions for bidirectional signal routing when used with the JX44, the SGI44 allows Mike to manage his pedalboard signal while instrument switching and amp control are managed off-stage by Chinner. The SGI44 takes care of all the balancing, buffering, and impedance matching to ensure Mike’s signals are delivered without noise or distortion. Various Radial DIs are used on acoustic and piezo instruments where the Firefly, JDV and PZ-DI come in handy. For cleaning up signal and eliminating noise, the Phaser, JDI Duplex, Twin-Iso and MC3 are also on hand to solve problems.

We would like to welcome Mike to the Radial artist roster and thank him for the support over the years. We look forward to working together with Mike and Chinner as they start the Fleetwood Mac tour.

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Perhaps most triumphant of all: their multi-instrumentalist Jordan Honsinger has been added to Radial’s artist roster!

Radial Artist Relations representative, Jim Rhodes, caught up with Jordan to chat about gear, music, and making things work. He needed to streamline his live setup while maintaining a compact rig that could handle the rigors of touring, flying, trucking, kicking and screaming… All while sounding good doing it. For this, Jordan imparts the Radial J48 Stereo and Bigshot I/O on his touring pedal board.

Additionally, Jordan uses the Tonebone PZ-Pre. The PZ-Pre is a dual channel acoustic preamplifer and DI. It features an EQ with feedback-eliminating notch filters, a combination boost/effects loop, and multiple output options for the PA system, monitors and tuner. Jordan says “The PZ-Pre has simplified my life on stage and in the studio! It has super flexible routing options, sounds great with my banjo/acoustic guitar, and it’s built to endure all kinds of punishment!”

When he’s not on the road with Cold Creek County, Jordan also writes, engineers and produces other artists in his home studio. There he uses the Bassbone OD, a Radial JDI, X-Amp, and an EXTC 500 series module for blending in guitar pedal effects into the signal chain.

We are thrilled to be working with Jordan. We would like to welcome him to the roster and wish Cold Creek County all the success in the future.

For more information about Jordan Honsinger, please visit jordanhonsinger.com

For details about Radial, please go to radialeng.com.

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Bonobo is the stage name of Simon Green, a British musician and DJ now based out of LA. While the music he makes is primarily electronic, most of the compositions consist of traditional instruments. The bass, guitar, piano and synths are performed by Simon in the studio before they are “sampled” – creating a style that is unique to Bonobo and breaks the conventions of a typical DJ. He even goes to the extent of recording string sections and horns in the studio.

To recreate this in a live setting, Bonobo enlists a full band. This requires DI boxes to get the sounds cleanly from the stage to the mixing console – and we are thankful to Simon, the band, and the crew for choosing Radial.

For more on Bonobo.

For more on Radial.

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Jim Rhodes here (Radial’s artist relations rep). I recently had the chance to check out Thomas Rhett’s show in Abbotsford, BC and show the crew and band members some new gear.

Thomas Rhett is a singer/songwriter and the son of country music icon: Rhett Akins. Thomas has already released two studio albums—It Goes Like This (2013) and Tangled Up (2015)—which have produced seven number 1 songs in the country music charts. In addition to this, Rhett has also helped co-write singles for Jason Aldean, Lee Brice, and Florida Georgia Line.

While at the venue on show day, I connected with Ken Thomas, formally the Production Manager for Florida Georgia Line and Kevin Twist who is now also a PM for Thomas’s 2017 tour. I noticed the tour was carrying four SW8s (Radial’s popular backing track switcher), two JX62 switchers (used for switching guitar inputs and amp outputs), four SB6s (our Stagebug compact stereo isolators) and numerous DIs. The band and crew were very happy with how the gear was working out and invited me to stay and catch the show. Tons of catchy songs, a kickin’ band and a great sounding mix… I thought Rhett’s show was excellent.

We want to thank TR, his band and the entire crew for their hospitality and support of Radial.

For more on Thomas Rhett.

For more on Radial.

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Dallas Green, Canadian vocalist, guitarist and songwriter for Alexisonfire is perhaps becoming better known for his folk-style act City and Colour. Radial Artist Relations point person, Jim Rhodes checked in with their tour stop at the QE Theatre in Vancouver.

I’d spoken with recording engineer, Karl Bareham and FOH/PM Stu Shuster a few weeks before this 28 date tour to discuss their specific needs. Karl was charged with recording the performances and he and Stu thought to turn to Radial to look after the necessary increased signal distribution requirements when you are not only sending signal to monitors and FOH, but wanting to also record all the shows. They were looking for a mic split and needed clean, transparent signal, reliability, and enough channels and separate outputs. We settled on a Radial OX8 with Jensen transformers.

When dropping by to check in with artists and crew on a piece of gear they picked up specifically for a current tour, it’s still cool to see evidence of why they choose to reach out to Radial when they need a solution. In this case there were the usual suspects all over the stage including Radial JDIs, J48s and ProDIs. Despite years of terrific feedback on these reliable tour team players, the crew at Radial and I still get a kick seeing the gear stand up to the ‘rigors of the road’ as we put it.

For more on City and Colour

For more on the Radial OX8

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Adam Janis here—taking stab at writing for ‘Tales from the Rhodes’ about a recent visit Jim Rhodes and I made to the Father John Misty tour at Malkin Bowl on a beautiful Vancouver night

Prior to our visit, the Misty crew had requested a few pieces of Radial gear which included the new Key-Largo keyboard mixer. The keyboardist, Kyle Flynn, needed a more robust device than what he currently had to adjust the volume of his three keyboards and plethora of guitar pedals that were on a stand directly above his Mellotron.

The only problem: there had been a power outage right before we showed up.

It actually turned out OK! While we made our way around the darkened stage, checking out the loads of Radial gear the band uses, we were serenaded by Josh Tillman (Father John Misty) and his band as they acoustically practiced (aka: soundcheck when there is no power) on a grassy knoll a little ways away.

While exploring with Front Of House engineer Trevor Spencer and Monitor engineer Ryan Doordan, we saw JDI Stereos and Duplexes were being used on their vintage keyboards, a JDI was on Tillman’s acoustic pedalboard, an active J48 was hooked up to a Lapsteel guitar, a Pro-D2 on the electric drum pads and an older JDX was being used on the bass amp. They had also ordered a new JDX48 to replace this, as the new revision of the pedal features the Bass Extension for deeper low frequencies and the option to plug into 300 watt amps.

We noticed they were not using any backing-tracks which is rather rare in this age of stadium touring. Instead, the band featured an impressive 6 piece string section, a 3 part brass section, 3 multi-instrumentalists, a bassist and Josh, who often played acoustic guitar during the set. Trevor insisted that they would likely never resort to using tracks.

Once the power came on and the concert (fortunately) began, it became clear why. Even without a soundcheck, Trevor Spencer did an excellent job of balancing all the sounds of the vintage instruments, which were masterfully played arrangements that added excitement to the studio recordings. All the while, Josh’s voice sat perfectly clear over the ensemble, allowing his cynical yet clever lyrics to be heard.

While the concert went on flawlessly as the warm sun set, Tillman admitted that the night was “almost a shit-show” due to the power outage and unfortunately since the concert started late, a few songs had to be cut early.

Before playing the “spontaneous” encore, Josh apologized: “One of the problems of living on an electric grid is that sometimes you have to miss a few minutes of a folk-rock concert.”

Thanks to Trevor, Ryan and Tom for taking the time to talk with us and check out some new Radial gear!

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Singer, songwriter and guitarist, Melissa Etheridge, is touring her 17th album (Memphis Rock and Soul) which included a stop in Vancouver on May 5th. Melissa has long appreciated Radial products so it was an ideal time for me to pack up our latest products and head to the River Rock Casino. After 6 platinum albums, several awards including two Grammy’s, Melissa’s sound is unmistakable to most folks but she doesn’t shy away from trying something new. Years of accolades, nominations and a star on the Walk of Fame hasn’t phased Melissa, a gifted musician and well-known activist for several causes.

It was a real treat to get to spend time with Melissa, her band and crew. We talked music, gear and what Radial gear is so well know for: solving problems! Melissa was nice enough to invite me to her pre-show meet & greet. However, after sound check, I got so busy talking with her crew that I was late for the M & G! Thankfully, she was completely understanding and wasn’t fussed about it… Whew! What a gem of a human being!

Melissa and her band are longtime users of Radial gear with numerous JDI and J48 DIs found around the stage. Melissa was eager to put her hands on the new devices that I had brought with me and even tried out the Tonebone Regency, North-Star and Texas Pro overdrive pedals.

Of the three overdrive pedals, Melissa really got into the subtle drive and warm tone of the Tonebone North-Star overdrive pedal. In fact, she liked it so much that she put it on her pedalboard and used it for the show that evening. Now that is instant gratification for our team at Radial! We know the trust in our product is high but we never tire of artist feedback and having the North-Star take up residence on Melissa’s pedalboard was a shining endorsement!

For more information about Melissa, go to melissaetheridge.com

For more information about the North-Star.

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I recently caught up with John’s tour and spent time on site at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on April 29, 2017, checking in with longtime stage manager “Feelie”, legendary guitar tech Rene Martinez, guitarists Dave Ryan Harris, Isaih Sharkey, and a few of John’s band & crew members.

Of course we spent most of the time talking about gear and, in particular, how Radial products have provided solutions to them. John, being one of the most respected guitarists of our time, has endless options available regarding which gear he can use so, needless to say, it was great to see John continues using Radial JDI’s and a JD7 guitar switcher – devices that he’s had since the beginning of his touring days.

Some other pieces of gear they’re using includes JDI’s on keyboards and J48’s on acoustic guitars. Due to the rolling risers on stage, cable lengths often exceed 120ft, so Isaih Sharkey uses the Radial SGI TX/RX for driving the signal from his pedalboard back to his amps without signal loss or added noise. The band and techs are able to communicate directly with each other using the Hotshot DM1’s and Hotshot ABo’s. An SW8 switcher was also in use like most tours around the world today.

We want to say thanks to John Mayer, his band and the entire crew for their hospitality and ongoing support.

For more information about John’s tour click here.

For more information about Radial.

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Just like many bands, Tom Cochrane & Red Rider owe their longevity to many years of hard work, a few membership changes along the way, a great break or two, a few hit singles and a general bulletproof resilience that, if it could be bottled, would outsell any super-duper adhesive easily. The band has been around since 1975 but my tenure with them came right on the heels of when they officially became known as Tom Cochrane & Red Rider and shortly after they released their self-titled fifth album in May 1986. This was around the same time Capitol released a compilation CD titled Over 60 Minutes with Red Rider, covering the band’s first four albums. It was a good year to become part of the TC/RR family. That same year they were nominated 11 times for Juno Awards (Canadian Grammys) and nailed down the Group of Year award.

It was a very heavy tech gig at the time. At one point when I was doing guitars for them we had 41 guitars and basses on tour. They used most of them in the show between four players. I was handling around 25 guitars and 2 basses a day, myself. There were tons of tunings. I’d start doing guitars around 9-9:30 each day till around 3-3:30 just to keep them all re strung, set up and ready.

Fast forward 27 years and I found myself headed to Abbotsford to catch up with the band, crew and catch the show. My time with TC/RR just predates the start of Radial Engineering, but the venerable JDI shows up in several places in their current set up. There are currently two JDIs on the Kurzweil keyboard, another JDI used on Jeff Jones’ bass direct from his pedalboard. They have a laptop connected to two more JDIs and they’ve got a JDI and ProDI set up for opening acts’ bass and acoustic guitars.

There’s also been a little Radial tone dialed in by guitarist Kenny Greer who still uses the original Tonebone Classic (distortion pedal with the 12AX7 tube) on his famous sounding pedal steel guitar – and not only as part of his live rig, but the pedal was used in some recordings as well.

I brought some new Radial gear to do a little show and tell with Kenny (guitar), Jeff Jones (bass), guitar techs Gary & Poosh, FOH Ken and Megan Patrick’s band members.  Megan’s band is opening for them this time around. Jeff’s giving the Tonebone PZ-Pre (acoustic instrument preamp) a test run for the next little while and see how he likes it for his acoustic guitar session work as well as live gigs. It also happened that drummer Davide Direnzo was needing a custom snake made for his home studio so we put in an order for a 25 ft x 16 channel snake. A lot of folks don’t know that the Radial brand was originally developed for a range of cable products. The custom shop has been producing solutions for some of the most demanding customers in countries around the world.

It’s always great to pull off the highway (of sorts) and check in with old friends who are still cranking out solid shows. My time with the band wasn’t my first gig..more like the 8^th or 9^th pro touring band. It was a going concern keeping the band’s gear show ready but we also knew when to ‘throw the ball around’ so to speak – to decompress. Tom and I were big baseball fans and I recall we organized a game of hardball on a day off with the band and crew during the Victory Day Canadian tour. Tom pitched for his team and I pitched for mine… I pitched a no hitter (cause I used to pitch minor league hardball)… Tom yelled at me from the dug out… “hey Rhodes, let us ****ing hit the ball, this is getting boring!”… I didn’t, we won. He was pissed at me for days after, but we made up.

Watch the video below for a quick glimpse of the show.

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