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Interview: Alex gets to know Bristol party thrashcore punks R.P.C.

By Alex Goose

That’s Radioactive Puppies of Chernobyl, in full!

Well, with a name like that, plus their excellent 2025 ‘Fuelled By Spite’ EP and a great set at London’s Endeavour last summer to boot, how could we NOT interview livewire Bristol crew R.P.C.?! I caught up with guitarist Jim and drummer Alfie for a chat.

How have you all been since that set at Endeavour last year?

Jim: Really good thanks! We did a European tour, and that went well.

Alfie: I wasn’t in the band then, but things have been great since I joined. When I joined, they already had about 25 gigs lined up, so that was a bit intimidating, but here we are.

J: We headlined most nights on the European tour, plus we technically headlined Blondies (in London) because there were no other bands! That was a mad one, someone got bodyslammed, lifted up and dropped. It’s a great venue, but it’s tiny. Perhaps not the best way to start a tour, but everything else went great.

How did you folks originally get into this kind of music? Did you have any gateway bands?

A: Well, in my case, I’d say that I’m definitely the least punk member of the band! My background is more in metal – I’ve been in metal bands before, starting in Birmingham, which is where I’m from. I was involved in the Birmingham metal scene, covering bands like Killswitch Engage, stuff like that – a lot of metalcore that hasn’t all aged well!

Then at some point I moved down to Bristol with the guitarist in my last band, and there we started a kind of progressive, math-rock type band. It was nice, but it wasn’t heavy at all, at least compared to what we were used to. We did that band for about two to three years, and afterwards we all wanted to do different things. I wanted to go back to heavier stuff, because although metal drumming is a bit of an endurance test, it’s also a lot of fun!

My punk roots come more from family members. I had a stepdad growing up who was this really tall punk guy from Coventry, and he got me into bands like the Sex Pistols, Ramones, stuff like that, and that’s where my relationship with punk started. And it’s grown since I joined R.P.C! That’s one of the benefits of joining a band where you’re not all into the same stuff – you discover each other’s influences.

J: Yes, I know a lot more about Coventry music now, thanks to Alfie! Originally I started out with metal too, because my cousin was really into Slipknot – it was the early 2000s. Later on, one of my previous bands in Ireland starting gigging a lot with local punk bands, so that’s how I developed my taste for punk. I still like, for example, the Dead Kennedys, because they always had their own way of doing things, which really appeals to me.

And why did you choose such a…unique name?

J: People often guess, but the truth is that Foz [R.P.C. vocalist] saw some meme or article titled “Do Not Pet The Radioactive Puppies of Chernobyl”, or something like that, and it stuck.

A: It is a cool name! We’re starting to use it more, instead of the acronym R.P.C, so hopefully it’ll be the full name on our future artwork and things like that.

Can you give us a short history of the band? Jim, you and Foz are originally from Ireland, right?

J: Yes, we were living in Cork when we started the band in 2022, with a completely different line-up. We gigged a fair bit in places around Ireland – Cork, Limerick, Galway, Dublin, Belfast. Then we dipped our toes in the UK for a couple of dates, which went really well, then went back to Ireland and did a couple more mini tours there. We decided we should be based in the UK, because there’s a lot more going on here, and we also had our first European tour. Then last year, we released our ‘Fuelled By Spite’ EP, and we also have a couple more singles coming out soon.

Tell us more about the ‘Fuelled By Spite’ EP – what was the inspiration and how did the recording go?

J: Existential depression was the inspiration – or so I’ve been told! The recording was pretty easy, it was originally just two days in the studio, and we had to book one more to finish the vocals. We did most of it in a live room, all together, because we wanted to capture what you’d expect to hear at a R.P.C. gig – not some perfectly polished artefact!

You’re based in Bristol now; how do you rate it in terms of venues, scenes, etc. for punk and hardcore?

J: There are lots of cool venues – I really like the Exchange, and Alfie used to play at a place called the Croft, which I’ve never been to, but is apparently a good spot.

A: That’s where I played most of my gigs with my previous bands. I went to university here, and I recently moved back here, so I know the place quite well. There are a lot of good venues, and some of the best ones only operate in the summer – for example, a skate park under a motorway. Every now and then, they do hardcore shows; I saw a video from there, with a hardcore band playing, and some people were riding in circles on these old-style bicycles, like a circle pit on bikes! It’s very Bristol, let’s describe it that way.

Any other particular highlights from your time together as a band that you’d like to mention?

J: That last European tour was pretty great! We did London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and then we did a festival in Ireland to cap it off.

A: That was my first time in Ireland! I loved Limerick, especially the spice bags [a popular Irish takeaway meal].

Finally, how’s the rest of this year looking for you? I saw that you’ve been confirmed for Rebellion Festival?

J: Yes! We’re really excited about that. We’re looking forward to the rollercoasters, donkey rides, rock candy, all that good stuff. So yeah, we’re doing Rebellion, and a couple of other gigs over the summer. We usually have about one or two gigs a month, if we’re lucky, and then our next European tour will be in October. We’ve still got a couple of dates to finalise, but that’ll be good to go soon.

A: We’re going a bit further east this time, not a lot, but a bit further than last time.

J: We’ve also been trying to get a promo video together for the last single – for ages!

Do you reckon you’ll do another EP at some point, or just the singles?

J: I’m not sure if we’ll do another EP at this point, because the three newest songs that we’ve written and practised are all very different from each other, so I don’t think they’d be very cohesive on an EP. But who knows?

‘Fuelled By Spite’ is out now – check it out and keep up to date with R.P.C. via the links below. They’ll play Bristol Golden Lion on 31st March (with Nothing Works, Grail Guard and Scare Bears) – details below and tickets available HERE.

All Photos: low.lighte

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