Spending an afternoon with Christian King of Reddix-Young is like getting a song stuck in your head, in the Fight Club sense: a scratch on the roof of your mouth that would heal if only you could stop tonguing it. You can’t. And you start obsessing over who would share the perfect bill with him. Hours after leaving his presence, one thought sticks: Miranda and The Beat is the answer. The California-cum-New York-cum-New Orleans band, led by guitarist-vocalist Miranda Zipse, with Dylan Fernandez and bassist Alvin Jackson in her wake, would perfectly compliment this Queens of the Stone Age meets Fu Manchu duo of misfits. (Drummer Dylan James completes the terrific twosome.)
As one naturally does in the year 2025, the author scrolls through the band’s social media, raising an eyebrow not just at the brave souls who’ve dared to share a bill with Reddix-Young’s hip-shaking, swaggering chaos, but at the general lack of rock ’n’ roll in the Crescent City landscape. Every band needs a gimmick, but this one comes guileless and full of guts. It’s a “love letter” to rock ’n’ roll,” as frontman Christian King calls it, sealed with sweat, distortion and zero apologies.
OffBeat asked King to unpack the band’s je ne sais quoi, reflect on his work as an audio engineer at Marigny Studios and to share what’s ahead for Reddix-Young on the horizon.
Photo by Chris Wickline
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How did you come up with the name Reddix-Young? Who are your influences and how did you meet Dylan?
The name REDDIX-YOUNG came from a grave at the St Vincent DePaul cemetery in Uptown. When I first moved here in 2019 I lived near there and found myself wandering the neighborhoods and this grave just stuck out. Most of the graves are white marble or concrete gray but this one was painted all black with a white marble marker that read boldly “REDDIX-YOUNG” – I loved the stark contrast and the defiance it had.
Dylan and I met through a mutual friend and his then bandmate, Dreux LeBourgeois, at one of their shows. Shout out [to] The Painted Hands. Dylan is originally a guitarist and I’m originally a drummer- I had been looking for a drummer that wasn’t a drummer for about 3 years at this point, we talked and he said he was interested in jamming. We got together and played some Nirvana songs, stuff I had written and when we landed on what would become our first single, “In My Time of Dyin,” we knew we had something that made sense. That was October 17, 2023 and we’ve been running it ever since. Dylan is the reason this band is what it is and has the monstrous thunder it does. I am ever grateful he’s my partner, my brother and my friend in this. He also tells me to chill the hell out when I start running too hot so let’s thank him for that.
We’re big Queens of the Stone Age fans so that’s a big one for us. There’s so much lineage of the music we listen to that bleeds into what we do together- we’re metal heads, love sad cowboy songs that make you want to drink and punch your dad and of course, love some good ol’ sex, drugs and rock-n-roll music. We’re a blues-punk band playing songs from 1928 by Blind Willie Johnson all the way to throwing in PJ Harvey and Rage Against the Machine covers so it’s really a love letter to where rock music started to where it is today.
You work as an audio engineer. How does that translate into making your own music?
This band started off with me playing and recording all the instruments myself. We still record and mix everything ourselves so it’s been integral to our sound and developing the band. I’ve been an engineer at Marigny Studios since 2019 and that’s where I really cut my teeth and worked with some amazing New Orleans artists. Mind you this was not a lot of rock music- it’s mostly brass bands and jazz trios but when all those people are playing together in a room, that conversation is being captured live which creates such personal music that I believe you can hear and feel the difference in. We track together live to get drums and then I go in and do the guitars and vocals. Then I set up my 1970s TEAC Model 5 mixing board and mix straight through there. I’m currently trying to fix my TEAC 3340s tape machine so we’ll be mixing to tape on this next release. Having the freedom and time to make music the way we want to hear it is something I wouldn’t trade for the world. And God Bless Rick Nelson from Marigny for being so supportive and letting us use the space to make this happen. Love you, Rick.
Your shows seem to be very high energy. Did you always play that way and how are you able to channel that into recording?
Needless to say- I got fired from and hired for a lot of drum gigs when I was still playing for my stage presence. I was a Tommy Lee fan as a kid so it was stick tricks, standing on my drums shaking my money maker and other general tomfoolery was always how I played. I really believe the show is so important. If you aren’t having fun then why the hell would the crowd be having fun?
When we play, we embrace the mistakes and the chaos. We don’t use a setlist. I always try to do something new every show and 90% of the time I don’t even tell Dylan what I’m doing so there’s genuine surprise for everyone. It’s an experience and we want you to have fun because we’re having fun. I think the biggest thing I’ve learned from years of performing is that when you give yourself permission to have fun and let yourself go, the audience will follow suit.
That mentality does bleed into our recording. Good enough is good enough, ya know?. There’s no surgical editing. It’s usually 3 takes and we pick which one we like and build off that. It’s so easy to get lost in “perfection” with the technology and the extremely sterile music that we hear today because we have the ability to change every last little detail in Pro Tools or Logic. Look what Kurt Cobain did from ‘Nevermind’ to ‘In Utero’, he heard what perfect was and said f—k that. Let the music be human. Being human is cool, we aren’t perfect and art shouldn’t be either.
Tell us a little bit about the upcoming album.
So we’re working on a six song EP that’s slated for release in October. We just finished up tracking drums, guitars and even threw an organ in there. I’m going to lay down vocals and start mixing it in June. These songs are some we’ve been playing for awhile and a mix of some of the most recent things we’ve written. Taking songs on the road before you record really helps you find the direction for the sound you’re trying to capture and see what works and what doesn’t. We’ve played some songs that had zero response so we scrapped them. After our single ‘Health’ came out, we learned too late that it didn’t translate well for the audience so we don’t even play it any more. Lesson learned. Write music for yourself and let your audience tell you what resonates.
We’re very excited to share these. They’re much more refined as we’ve played more together. The title will be SICKLOVE/LOVESICK and it’s going to punch you in the teeth and kiss you on the forehead afterwards.
To find out when Reddix-Young is set to punch you in the teeth and kiss you on the forehead, follow their adventures on Instagram @reddixyoung
