“This life I'm living does feel like some alternate timeline that I entered a cheat code to enter into.”

Eric Radloff is a musician and teacher living in LA who records under the name Okudaxij. He also happens to be a good friend who I’ve wanted to interview like this for a long time. Eric first became known as the front man for Bear Attack, a band he started with friends and classmates while studying at the University of Southern California in LA. The band developed a sizable following, and even landed some of their music on the hit TV show Pretty Little Liars. Even though that project is no longer active, that doesn’t stop almost 45,000 people from streaming them on Spotify every month.

When Bear Attack ended, Eric started a new project called Okudaxij - we’ll explain the name near the end of the episode. Pitchfork has hailed his new project as “joyfully capturing the oddities of life in a way that’s genuinely sentimental.”

In our conversation, which is dropping on the same day his first child is due, we talk about how parenthood may recontextualize his career, how he thinks about success as an indie musician, what going on his first national tour was like, and his relationship with social media as an artist.

Music featured in episode

Courtesy of Okudaxij

• Easy to Love


• Beautiful Animal


• I Think We Could Do It


• Who Knocks?


• We Belong Together

Eric’s recommendations

• Mitsky


• Muna


• Snail Mail


• Requiem (Gabriel Fauré)


• I Think We Could Do It (Okudaxij)


• Lou Roy

Connect with Okudaxij/Eric

• Bandcamp: https://okudaxij.bandcamp.com/


• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0wIxPvolrHsK2udiqMME3h?si=qdidcT0-T5u0lztNKvFnjA


• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/okudaxij/


• Twitter: https://twitter.com/okudaxij


• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/okudaxij


• Bear Attack: https://omgbearattack.bandcamp.com/

Connect with the show

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ConnectRequest


• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connectionrequest/


• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@connectionrequest


• TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@connectionrequest


• Email: connect@shrugcontent.com

Connect with Joel

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/joelleeman


• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jleeman/


• Instagram: https://instagram.com/joelleeman

About Connection Request

Connection Request is a podcast about career journeys. Hosted by Joel Leeman, a producer and strategist who has spent the past 10 years making media for the Internet, the show profiles a variety of fascinating people, digging into how they spend their waking hours, what they’ve learned along the way, how they make decisions, and why they do what they do. In Season 1 we hear from a drummer turned coffee entrepreneur, a journalist who popularized the term “doomscrolling,” an executive who’s plotting her next chapter, and much more. Listen wherever you get your podcasts: https://pod.link/connection