Rockers of Radio Silence Sing About Bullying to Raise Awareness

It’s a topic that’s in the news all the time these days – kids getting bullied and feeling helpless to do anything.

Four New York teens decided to take matters into their own hands to help raise awareness about bullying and its effects on teens.

Radio Silence formed last summer and includes Zach, the lead singer and guitar player, Dylan on guitar, Tim on bass and guitar and Wyatt on the drums. Their first single “Renegade” came out in November, 2010 and it is making a big impact.

In a partnership with www.DoSomething.org, an organization dedicated to organizing teens for social causes (that also happens to have a super-star board of directors), the 16-year-olds will embark on a 20-school tri-state area tour this spring to perform their song during an assembly about bullying.

While the band didn’t form to sing solely about bullying, their first song certainly works well for this cause. In an interview with Family First, Zach explained that the band members were brainstorming about song ideas last summer. He says they all sat down in a room and wrote down what they like and what they don’t like.

All of them wrote down “Haters” as something they all dislike. A hater, according to Zach, is someone who is negative about everything, who “hates on everything for no reason,” he says. Bullies can fall into this category since they are mean and usually there’s no obvious reason why they’re picking on kids.

While writing the song, the bandmates were thinking a lot about the tragic case of Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers freshman who committed suicide last year after classmates cyber-bullied him. “We’re calling you out…Hatred is the enemy,” is the refrain in the song.  That fits that situation, for sure.

Zach says it is hard for teens to stand up against bullying. “It takes inner strength deep inside to realize what’s right. It’s admirable,” he says.  Many times, kids won’t stand up because they’ll get judged and people will think they’re “lame,” he says.

Through their music and the assemblies with DoSomething, the band hopes to help make standing up and speaking out more acceptable to kids so they can help each other against bullies.

Besides the bullying tour, Zach says the boys are working on a full album together. The musical influences they site include Blink 182, Nirvana and Green Day, as well as legendary guitar players Eric Clapton, Duane Allman and Jimi Hendrix.  All the boys attend the Professional Children’s School in New York City, which allows them to attend school as well as tour.

Learn more about these rising stars at www.radiosilencenyc.com.