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Oct 01, 2010 Admiral Radley By Aaron Espinoza

(Under the Radar’s Summer 2010 Issue is a special issue named the Wasted on the Youth Issue that features musicians and actors talking about their childhood memories and things they loved when they were kids. We’re also posting web-exclusive essays that were not printed in the issue, including this one by Aaron Espinoza, who plays in both Earlimart and Admiral Radley.)

1984-85 (New Wave, Hair Gel, and Sex)

So, I was an only child, with no older brothers or sisters to get me into stuff. The closest influence I had growing up in the mid ’80s was my best friend David’s older brother Matt.

Matt was probably six or seven years older than us. He was the coolest! And we copied every little thing he did—from wearing K-Swiss shoes to Dep hair gel to pegging our pants to listening to the same New Wave records he was into. Depeche Mode, The Cure, Duran Duran, Yaz, Howard Jones, a-ha, The Thompson Twins—the list goes on and on…

I was pretty young at the time, nine or ten years old. Probably a little too young for the subject matter of some of the stuff I was singing round the house. I’ll never forget my mom asking me what I was singing when she overheard me singing the following lyrics one day:

There’s a new game
We like to play you see
A game with added reality
You treat me like a dog
Get me down on my knees

We call it master and servant
We call it master and servant

It’s a lot like life
This play between the sheets
With you on top and me underneath
Forget all about equality

Let’s play master and servant
Let’s play master and servant

I told her it was a Depeche Mode song called “Master and Servant.” I had no idea what the hell the lyrics meant, I was just into it. Oh, innocence.

I also remember around that time a girl from school had given me a tape she dubbed from her influential older sister. It was The Cure—I think it was The Head on the Door. The tape also came with a little love letter with very cute, big bubbly pink cursive handwriting. But at the end of this little note, she wrote something that was utterly terrifying. She added that “she wanted to fuck my brains out!” It was a phrase that she most likely picked up from her older sister. I was scared to death! In no way did I want my brains fucked out.

I think I conveniently caught a cold and had to stay home from school for a while. But eventually, I had to return. I hid, I fled, I dodged her at every recess and I don’t think I ever talked to her again. The fear of having my brains fucked out of my head, all over the classroom floor, was horrifying, and it stuck with me for a very, very long time. Well maybe just until the next summer, when I learned what that actually meant.

(Aaron Espinoza is a member of both Earlimart and Admiral Radley. The latter also features Earlimart bandmate Ariana Murray, along with Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle and Aaron Burtch. Admiral Radley’s debut album, I Heart California, was released back in July on The Ship. Earlimart’s last album, Hymn and Her came out in 2008 on Shout! Factory/Major Domo.)

(www.earlimartmusic.com / www.admiralradley.com)