After wrapping up sessions for Mayday Parade’s A Lesson in Romantics on Fearless Records, singer and guitarist Jason Lancaster exited the group in April 2007. Exhaustion had prompted him to step back from music, yet the urge to perform returned swiftly; by 2008 he had launched Go Radio, a project whose sound echoed his prior work. Settled in Tallahassee, Florida, Lancaster enlisted bassist Matt Burns and drummer Steven Kopacz, and following two interim guitarists, Alex Reed joined the lineup in 2009. Within weeks the members chose to treat the band as a serious endeavor, resulting in the August 2008 release of their debut EP, Welcome to Life, a collection of emo-laced pop/rock.
The group promoted the record on the road alongside fellow Floridian rockers Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and others. In January 2010 Go Radio returned to Lancaster’s former label, signing with Fearless Records. Producers Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount—known for their work with All Time Low and Mayday Parade—helmed the seven-track follow-up EP Do Overs and Second Chances, which appeared in April 2010. Subsequent touring placed the band alongside A Day to Remember, August Burns Red, and Silverstein. Their second full-length album, Close the Distance, emerged in 2012.
