Radiation 4.

FUSING ZANY GUITARS, stop-start timings, and a wealth of influences, Radiation 4 has detonated onto the music scene with their debut full length Wonderland. When was the last time you heard screamy/operatic vocals, creative songwriting, and animals all on the same record? Vocalist Chris Negrete helped provide insight to R4's sensory destruction ...

Can you tell me how Radiation 4 became a band?

It started out as a project between our old guitarist and myself. We recorded a demo and we put together a full hand with some friends. The whole project was just kind of a summer thing back in '98; we did some shows with Botch and some other bands, and then called it quits. We reformed in March of 2001, and it's pretty much been the same lineup except for our guitarist change. We're now in search for a full time second guitar player; we've been working off of live guitarists for a while now. Chad from Taken and my childhood friend Joey from Noctuary have both been working with us.

What was the process like where you went through recording it once, and then remixing and re-recording a lot of it again?

We spent about seven days recording it, and we did 12-hour days. We stayed at Dan's house, which was an adventure of its own. The man is totally punk and I could talk for hours about that. We slept with vermin, and all sorts of interesting things. The Oakland vibe rubbed off on the recording, no doubt about that, which was a good thing. We did the whole thing in about 15 days, and we just got really burnt out being locked up for that long. We then went up with Matt [Bayles]; we went to Seattle for a couple days at Studio Litho. We finished up the record, headed to Avast studios and we mixed it for about four days.

How was it working with Matt Bayles?

Awesome. He was intimidating as all hell when we first started working with him. He's a workhorse, and pushes you to work that much harder, The vocals came out so much better with his advice on little parts here and there. He's a hell of a producer.

So how did you develop your vocal style?

I wanted to make my voice more like and instrument, and l try to get different sounds from it. I also have an effects board that I use that has delay, two Kaos pads, and a couple other toys. I wanted to bring a little more variety with may role in R4. I just wanted it to be different than the average vocalist who just screams. I've heard a lot of people call us "opera hardcore."

Opera is in.

Yeah, that's what I hear. People say some of the songs have opera vocals, go figure.

Have you ever sat down with a vocal coach?

No, I just sing a lot in the car.