We Meet Up With Post-Hardcore Rockers, Chiodos
PUBLISHED February 26th, 2015 04:00 pm | UPDATED June 29th, 2020 03:44 pm
A sprawling mosh pit was forming with a throng of hands raised in the air. In the midst of the chaos were American rockers Chiodos making an impressive debut in Singapore. Legions of fans had lined up outside the venue for hours before the gig and they didn’t leave disappointed. Their chants of an encore was entrancing and not at all a surprise, given the great performance of the post-hardcore outfit.
We had the opportunity to speak with Craig Owens, lead singer, and Bradley Bell, keyboardist, in the backstage of TAB before the mayhem. Craig and Bradley made an impression on us with their sincerity and passion. Stripped of rockstar attitudes, these guys were genuinely great to hang out with and we’d definitely do so again if they ever return!
I believe it’s the first time you guys have visited us! How do you find Singapore?
Craig: It’s awesome, exciting. I mean I guess even recently I just had a different expectation of what Singapore would be like and it surpassed all of that. I really really enjoy it, so I’m excited to be here.
Bradley: I was always kind of, I guess ignorant to what Singapore was all about and since we’ve been here we’ve learned so much and in one day it’s kind of like an overload. It’s been awesome. Everyone’s been so kind. I’ve only ever been to Japan, and it’s cool to see the English culture over here.
Was it a culture shock in any sense?
Craig: A little bit, like when we were driving down in Orchard, I felt like I was back home in L.A. It was crazy! Even when we went to Universal Studios yesterday, I was like man! I forgot I was in Singapore for a moment. Y’know what I mean? I didn’t expect that! I expected more of a culture shock, but I feel at home. And I haven’t really seen any places where English is the first language. You go to some countries, and yeah they don’t speak any other languages besides their own. We’re from public American schools, so we’re ignorant. And when you go to Japan and things like that, there’s no English on any sign. So I feel more comfortable here. Anyway it’s 50 years this year right? See, we know all about Singapore! (Laughs)
What are your thoughts on the post-hardcore scene in Asia and have you listened to any Asian bands before?
Craig Owens
Craig: I love Cold Rain, they’re friends of mine from Japan and I love them so much. We’re not really familiar enough with the Asian post-hardcore scene to be honest. From afar, it seems likes its alive and well. I think that its more present than ever in the States y’know. Just seeing bands like Cross Faith and No Rain coming over and starting to build names, I know there’s an avenue there. I’m not sure what the local scene here is like.
Bradley: Cross Faith are our friends as well, we did Warped Tour with them. They’re really cool.
Craig, how do you keep your voice fresh after screaming every performance, and are there any implications for your throat?
Craig: I’m so weathered at this point, like we’ve been doing this for a really long time. It’s a little weird and it’ll hurt tonight after the show but by tomorrow morning it’ll be fine again. It does mess with my throat a little bit when I scream like that for a show when I haven’t in awhile. The best way I can compare it is like to the gym, if you haven’t gone to the gym in awhile and you go really hard and you work out, you’re really sore the next day. But the more that you do it, the less sore you are. So that’s how I would compare it. And some of my notes will be shaved off my singing voice. Some of my really high notes won’t be as clear and pitch-perfect but more sharp. It’s because I’m aggressively trying to get it out as opposed to soulfully being able to connect with it.
Bradley: It’s almost like you develop a callus or something like that.
Can we expect to see a different style of music from you guys in the future? Maybe acoustic sets?
Craig: I don’t really know. I guess we’ll see what happens.
Bradley: We do enjoy playing acoustic and stuff like that.
Craig: Yeah it’s fun to play acoustic. I don’t think we’ve really thought about it much. We’re just focused on doing our shows and making the best of them and enjoying ourselves y’know. And then we’ll see what happens, I don’t really know.
What was the best show you guys have ever played at?
Bradley Bell
Craig: They’re all great for different reasons. Sometimes they’re great because you look out and see a completely different culture. Sometimes they’re so intimate and the passion comes across and it’s overwhelming. Sometimes you’re at home and you get to play for a massive crowd in front of your fans. I mean there’s so many different reasons why shows are great.
Bradley: One that stands out for me was the last time we were in Japan playing at Punkspring Festival and it was an honour to do that. It’s really hard though to go through all and pick a favourite.
Who is the one person (fictional or real), you guys would like to see perform hardcore music? It can be anybody, even Obama.
Craig: I would love to hear Justin Timberlake perform hardcore music. That would be awesome, he would destroy it.
Bradley: (Giggles) Justin Timberlake?
Craig: Yeah! I think Justin Timberlake would destroy it! But visually I mean anybody too. Visually it would be funny if it was like Queen Elizabeth or something.
Bradley:I’d like to see Stephen Hawking perform hardcore music. (All Laugh)
Craig: (Laughing) Wow Brad! I guess it would be like a T-Pain thing where he like auto-tunes his voice.
Bradley: The future of hardcore.
What was the craziest thing you guys have done on stage?
Craig: One time, my ear got hit and I started bleeding really badly. I took the blood and I wrote on my shirt. So that was pretty cool, like hardcore.
Bradley: Yeah, I think I smashed the keytar one time.
Craig: I don’t know, we’ve done a lot of crazy stuff. Like we’re typically pretty crazy. I’ve ridden midgets who were rollerblading on stage.
Bradley: You’ve done that multiple times too!
Can I have an example of your craziest fan?
Chiodos rocking it out
Craig: Every once in awhile, you get the person who is screaming along and is into it more than any other band member and they’re just in their own world. They’re over enthusiastic and it’s a little intimidating, cause their energy’s so strong. It’s mostly in the moment of passion, and it’s endearing. Cause you see like what something you’ve created means to someone else, so it’s cool. But if they were like that casually, it’d be scary you know what I mean? If we’re talking outside of shows, I’ve had people show up to my house at 3am. I’ve had people blocking my car tires with spelt messages. I’ve had people travel across the country just to knock on my door in the morning. I actually had this happen where someone knocked on my door at 2am-3am, and tweeted me to answer the door. And the person kept on knocking.
Bradley: That’s pretty scary (Laughs)
Craig: I’ve had people put receipts with my information online. Well, it’s everything! Like I have to hide at this point. In Michigan it was worse, L.A. is a bit easier to disappear. I was always thankful, but sometimes it’s just a breach of my boundaries y’know?
What are Chiodos’ plans for the future?
Bradley: We’re just kinda at the end of an album cycle so we’ll just sit back and figure it out.
Craig: We’ve been doing this for a long time. There was the separation and whatever but overall we’ve been on the grind. And we’re not old by any means, we just started really young, so we feel like we’re super old but we’re actually not compared to a lot of other bands. I think right now, we just want to figure out what the right move is without just jumping into the deep end. So we’re gonna take a minute and look at everything now that we’ve kind of resolved this album cycle. And we’ll just see what’s next.
Inspiration is everywhere, so what serves as your the biggest inspiration?
Craig Owens
Craig: Usually for me it’s life experiences like feelings, those conversations where you have with people where you’re glowing, almost elevated, and movies. Movies for me is massive, I think it’s been since the beginning. That’s how we’ve kind of written our stuff, we describe a movie setting. And that’s why I think we seem so theatrical to a lot of people, because a lot of what we do is just very visual. Visual in a sonic form if that makes any sense.
So what’s your favourite flick by any chance?
Craig: I don’t do favourites with flicks, we gotta break it down to the sub-genres if you’re gonna do that.
Cheesy Horror?
Craig: Cheesy Horror? If it’s Cheesy Horror, right now my favourite is Ginger Dead Man. Jack Frost attack, and the Mutant Killer Snowman are one of my favourites. In the second movie, he goes to Hawaii. It’s so unbelievably bad! I mean we got our names from the Killer Clowns From Outer Space. If you’re gonna go for a psychological thriller, I’d do like a David Lynch movie or an Elephant Man or a Razorhead. I mean if you’re gonna go for a slasher film, I’d probably go for an 80’s version of The Hitcher. I’m just obsessed with movies, I literally own thousands of them and every movie that comes out, I pretty much need to see. Anyway Horror movies aren’t supposed to be like eye-candy. It’s supposed to make you uncomfortable. That’s why I love David Lynch. I can be eating a bowl of grapes, the most beautiful grapes and halfway through the movie, the grapes taste awful because I’m so uncomfortable. That’s a Horror movie! Something that makes you uncomfortable in the safety of your own home.
Lastly, is there any love you’d like to give to your fans?
Bradley Bell
Craig: Yeah of course. This is our first time here and I’ve already met some awesome people, and we’re just really excited to be in Singapore. I don’t know exactly how long people have been listening to us over here because I haven’t been able to hang out and talk yet, but I’m assuming it’s just as long as anywhere else. Thank you for your support in any way and for even caring about us at all.
Bradley: It’s crazy to even travel around the world and do this. So I’d like to thank anybody that cares about it.
Photo Credits: Dawn Chua, Darren Tan, Shaun Tan, Reuven Tan
