Joel Reardon - Rare Words 'My Empowering Cathartic 'Antidote' for Living with ADHD'

Brisbane at-rock quartet RareWords have been coming up the ranks since their formation in 2014. From their early movements to now, the band have honed in on their signature sound and following the release of their latest single, they've started turning heads in the post-hardcore scene.On the subject of their new track 'Antidote', frontman JoelReardon shared how the song was inspired by his undiagnosed treatment of ADHD, and his story behind navigating his internal thoughts.

"The song talks about how trapped and lost I felt - always crying out for an ‘antidote’ to feel more normal. It's been a super cathartic experience reflecting back and seeing how much change I’ve been able to make within myself over the last 12 months of understanding and treating ADHD."

With a sound that blends post-hardcore with anthemic stadium rock instrumentals, it won't be long before RareWords start tearing up bigger stages as they continue on their climb up the ranks.Until then, we grabbed Joel to chat about his experiences, the creative processes and what's yet to come for the four-piece...Rare Words you've made it from our playlist to the pages of WoS - before we get started, give us a quick rundown of your legacy from 'Demons' to now!Hey hey! Thanks so much for having us and supporting our band, we appreciate it a lot. It’s crazy that we’ve been a band for nearly 10 years, and there has been a lot of change for us to get to where we are now.After we released “Soul(d)”, our first EP, we have played almost every single venue in Brisbane and have been lucky enough to play a few interstate shows as well. It’s been really cool to meet as many people as we have over the time we’ve had in this band, and also that we’ve managed to play with some really cool international and Australian artists.Apart from all the shows that we’ve played, we’ve released a few singles and an EP called “Disconnect” a few years back now, and we’re starting to shape the next phase and release of the band, with Antidote being the first piece to this puzzle that we are still trying to figure out. You're back with the new single 'Antidote' written about your undiagnosed experience living with ADHD. Did you find it hard or cathartic drawing from this experience and what did you learn about yourself in the process?It was definitely cathartic revisiting the topics in Antidote, but it was also empowering at the same time. I feel as though I’m almost a different person to what I was writing about and it was really rewarding digging deep and trying to reflect on how far I’ve come. That being said, it was far from easy, lyrically I had a huge amount of help from Luke and Matty which is not something that typically happens in our writing process. It was hard to communicate my feelings and emotions, and also it was really hard to make the song relatable to people who might not have had the same experience as I had. It was a lot of fun though, and I love that we were able to make something that can resonate with anyone who has felt like something just isn’t right, addressing the problems and overcoming it all in the end. The track itself is killer, hearing post-hardcore/emo/stadium rock elements throughout - who would you say are your biggest musical influences that helped shape your sound?Thank you! I think all of those things you’re hearing are spot on to what we were going for on Antidote. I know as I’ve gotten older, I’ve not been as interested in a lot of metalcore or heavy music as such, so I’m always trying to bring these more emo/post-hardcore and rock influences into our new songs. Specific artists that I tend to pull influence from are bands like Nothing But Thieves, Don Broco, Bring Me the Horizon and The Neighbourhood, I’m sure you’ll be able to hear almost all of those in this one song!You've bounced back with quite possibly your strongest release to date, does this single give us an indication of Rare Words' signature sound going forward?I think it does, we have always experimented with every release we’ve done and I think that is what is so fun about this band. That experimentation has gotten us to a really cool spot musically and I think we actually have found our sound and direction which has been a load of fun to see take shape with some of the other songs we’re working on too. https://www.instagram.com/p/C7oNIR7yIiw/?img_index=1Talking about music, what's the current plans with new material and live shows in future?There’s definitely a release of some sort in the works. I’m not sure what that looks like or when it’s going to be done, but we’re getting everything together and just want to make sure that it is perfect. We have had the opportunity to give Antidote a run at a few shows before it was released and we’re really keen play some more now that the song has been released. The closing lyrics 'Buried inside by a state of mind / And holding on just ain't ever enough' struck a chord with me. As someone who has internal mental health struggles on a daily basis, it's hard to process the brain's way of thinking or understanding sometimes.It’s been really interesting hearing which lyrics for this song have resonated with different people. That line was something that came to me at the very end of recording Antidote. I felt the song just needed a bit more of an ending lyrically, and that line just felt like the right one to close off and summarise the story of the song.If someone reading this feels like they can relate to the lyrics and your story, what advice would you pass onto them if they're also undiagnosed and in the dark about their condition?It’s a little cliche, but it’s a cliche because it’s correct - speak to someone and put a plan together to make sure you come through the other side. I know I was personally really ashamed about looking to medication for ADHD or speaking to a professional about how I was feeling, but it was easily the best thing I have ever done and as soon as I did it, I just wished I had addressed it earlier!Any final thoughts?Thank you to everyone who has heard the track, it means a lot to us! Hopefully we can catch as many people as possible at a show soon, and that we can get even more new music out as soon as possible. Interview by Paul 'Browny' Brown@brownypaul

Rare Words is Joel Reardon, Brent Ottley, Luke O’Toole and Matt Bertucci

Stream 'Antidote' and Follow via Linktree

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzheJf0YqyA