Radkey and Starcrawler, the two youngest bands in Foo Fighter Dave Grohl’s new documentary What Drives Us, could hardly be more different. While both are undeniably talented, the similarities basically end there. As the daughter of L.A. entertainment industry figures, Starcrawler’s Arrow de Wilde was already destined for success by the time she was finishing up high school.
One single in a limited edition of 500 was all it took for her glam-punk band to get signed to Rough Trade records and for Ryan Adams to produce their debut album. Radkey, by contrast, are a band of three brothers who grew up in St. Joseph, an hour outside Kansas City, Missouri. There, they were homeschooled by their mom and managed by their father, a former Walmart loss prevention officer.
So after a full decade of touring and recording under the music-industry radar, Isaiah, Dee and Solomon Radke — who are now all in their 20s — were blown away by the opportunity to tell their stories of slogging around the country in a feature-length film whose other interviewees range from Mike Watt of the Southern California punk band Minutemen to Ringo Starr from a band called The Beatles.
