From the moment they met at a party in 2012, Emma and Nic Clark have been bound together by music.
“My friends were like, ‘Oh, Emma plays music,’ and his friends were like, ‘Nic plays music,’” Emma said. “I don’t know if they set us up, but it was kind of like, ‘You will like this person.’’
If you go
Radar Gold: “Fortune Teller”
🗓️ 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 29
📍 Healer, 3631 E. Raymond St.
🎟️ $17 advance; $20 at door
The pair spent the rest of the party playing music for each other on a guitar they found there.
And the music hasn’t stopped. Nic, 37, and Emma, 36, married in 2018. They then played in local bands The Ramettes and Cherrys. They shifted their focus to Radar Gold when Nic found himself writing music that sounded like its own special project.
“A little bit of time went by where we just slowed down and started recording new songs,” Emma said. “And then, we were like, ‘Let’s just come up with a new name.’”
Radar Gold recently celebrated the release of its sophomore album, “Fortune Teller,” with a Small Studio Session with WFYI in May and a show at The 808 in Broad Ripple in June. They released their debut full-length in 2020.
Radar Gold will next perform at Healer on Indy’s south side on July 29 and will have copies of “Fortune Teller” available for purchase on CD and cassette.
In addition to Emma Clark on guitar and vocals and Nic Clark on bass and vocals, the band also includes Nick Smith, 38, on guitar and Jacob Kozlowski, 28, on drums.
They are part of the psych rock scene happening in Indy right now, along with fellow bands like Cairo Jag, Hyper Tensions and Moon Goons.
“It’s what we dreamed about when we were younger,” Nic said. “When I was a kid coming up and playing in high school bands, we would have killed for a scene like this to be a part of.”
“For us, the band has always been a really important thing, like having an awesome band with musicians that just rip,” Nic said.
Emma and Nic said their time playing together has allowed them to learn each other’s musical language as well.
“We speak the same language now,” Nic said. “Now, we make stuff for each other more, where I’ll write something and am thinking specifically how it’s going to sound with Emma. Whereas, before, I might have just made something that I thought sounded cool. Now, I’m like, ‘How do I gear this toward what our blend is?’”
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations. Sign up for our free newsletters.
Seth Johnson is a Mirror Indy freelance contributor. You can reach him at seth.johnson4291@gmail.com.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
