Roll of the Dice: 10 questions with Cascade Riot

Detroit’s punk, power-pop, alternative, and rock & roll blending Cascade Riot has just joined the PNWK Records family. Before their upcoming album drops, the trio were kind enough to participate in the latest of our Roll of the Dice interview series. Check it out (and the video for “Ruby” below).

Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Congrats on joining the PNWK Records family! For the uninitiated, could you tell us a bit about yourself, your sound and how you want fans to think of your music?

Ryan Failla (Vocals/Guitar): We grew up playing music together. I first met Adam in middle school and Adam and Alex are brothers so they have known each other even longer. Our music tends to be a blend of alternative rock, punk, power pop, and classic rock with an emphasis on melody. We’d like to think we bring something familiar but fresh at the same time. 

What album or band or significant singles made you go “Yeah, this is what I want to do” Not just an influence but who or what was the catalyst??

Adam Brady (Bass): The Colour and the Shape by Foo Fighters was a hugely influential album for me. Insomniac by Green Day was another. KISS was also a big part of making me want to do this. I was and continue to be a huge fan of Alive III which is a criminally underrated live album.
Alex Brady (Drums): Enema of the State by blink-182, Nimrod by Green Day, and Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge by My Chemical Romance all made a huge impact on me early on. 
Ryan: I grew up listening to a lot of classic rock bands from my Dad’s record collection. Bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. That’s what got me interested in playing music but hearing Dookie by Green Day was the game changer. I’d never connected with an album like that before and it had a huge impact on me. It taught me how to write songs and was a gateway for so much other stuff I would go on to discover. 

What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences with the band so far? What’s been the most unexpected? The weirdest?

Alex: Getting to open for Billy Talent was pretty wild and surreal.
Ryan: At that point we’d only been playing shows again for a few months after reforming and that was a pretty big gig to land. Another memorable moment was right around that same time period when a promoter reached out and asked us to come play a show in Toronto. We thought that was pretty cool and we were super pumped to go play our first show in Canada. Just a few seconds into our first song, my amp blew a fuse bringing everything to a halt. 

As mentioned, you just signed with a new label, What was it about PNWK Records that made them the right fit for your music?

Ryan: We knew we wanted label support at some point to help us take things to the next level. We didn’t want to blindly get ourselves into a situation where we may have to change who we are or give up control over what we wanted to do. We met with Sam & Robert at PNWK and during the first conversation it felt so comfortable and like we’d known them forever. They emphasized that they wanted us to continue being exactly who we are and just wanted to provide support because they believed in what we were doing. 

You guys took a 6 year break and returned in 2022. What was going on that got everyone back together and ready to jump back into the scene?

Ryan: Simply put, we missed playing music together. Various life circumstances had made it difficult to be active for those 6 years but eventually enough time had gone by and the stars aligned to make it possible again. There isn’t anything any of us love doing more and we came back determined to make up for lost time. 

What was going on that led to the creation and writing for the new single “Exit 55”?

Ryan: “Exit 55” was part of a batch of new songs that was written for our forthcoming album. We liked that it had a semblance of what we had done previously but also introduced some new elements. It’s a little heavier and more aggressive in tone. We actually just dropped a new single called “Ruby” which leans into our poppier side a bit more in contrast to “Exit 55”. We’ve never wanted to be known for just one thing.

We all have a few, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn’t take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?

Adam: The biggest regret for me is that we couldn’t find a way to make this work earlier and that we didn’t push harder in the past. We have so much history together and it does feel like we lost a lot of time where we should have been playing together. 

One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found most important on a personal level. Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should?

Alex: Everyone should check out Greywind, Silly Goose, and Keep Flying.
Ryan: Timeshares, Rozwell Kid, LOSER, Mean Jeans, The Beths, Iron Chic, Downhaul, Pinkshift to name a few. There are also a ton of smaller DIY bands doing really cool things. Too many to mention. Pay attention to what’s going on in your local scene. I’d also like add that when people complain about there not being any good new music, particularly as it relates to rock or rock-adjacent music, it’s nothing but ignorance. We are living in a golden age and the issue isn’t that there isn’t good new stuff, it’s that there’s probably too much and it can be difficult to wade through at times. But that’s a good thing. Just because it may not be getting shoved in your face and you may have to look for it a bit doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Getting off my soapbox now.
Adam: Honeyknife and Footballhead are two bands I’ve been jamming a lot. Shout out to our label mates Potionseller as well. 

Once the world has its hands on the upcoming full-length, what’s next for Cascade Riot?

Ryan: We have no plans of stopping anytime soon, so the world can expect more new music after the upcoming album and then more new music after that. We’d also like to play more shows and hopefully come to your city. We want to take this thing as far as we can. 

Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?

Ryan: We’d just like to say how much we appreciate anyone that has taken the time to check us out. Your support means the world to us.

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Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.