Interview

Interview from the online-only magazine Still Writing published June 31st, 2022.

SW: Who is you?
Chased: …Ah, do you mean who are you?

No, I know who you are, the unknown artist known as Chased. But who is you? Y’know, the curse of You? The title of this album and one of your songs?
Oh! Sure, You is me, it’s us, it’s you. 

Me? You is me?
Yep, could be. 

O….K, maybe an easier question with hopefully a less obtuse answer, if that’s alright with you?
And You?

Quite. When did you write these songs, when did you record this?
These songs started coming together in mid-2019 and should have been released at the start of 2020 but I wasn’t happy with many elements of the original recordings. I’ve been working pretty much ever since to complete them…

…to your exacting standards?
Maybe. I ended up down the rabbit hole of production and mastering, keeping on massaging the recordings, adding and subtracting; and then, during lockdown, signing up to an online course focusing on just one facet, a process of smoothing out the high and low frequencies called Compression. It’s actually very interesting –

No, it really isn’t. Because nobody listens to albums these days, so why didn’t you just release a series of singles like everyone else does? 
For one, not everyone does that. Pop people do, hip-hop artists, big stars teasing an album due in 11 months. I’m none of those. The album is still the primary way to present a full kaleidoscope of where an artist or musician is at in a certain period of time. Everything from trying to build a consistent sound across all tracks, to developing an idea or a concept that is interrogated and debated in cross-referential lyrics, to sequencing a song order that creates a sonic and emotional journey for the listener. That last bit alone took me months of trial and error, removing and inserting songs, changing starts and endings so they flow. 

You removed songs? How many? Why not more?
I started with around 14 suitable tracks, reduced that to the 10 ‘best’, then replaced one of those with an extra track I wrote late in 2020. Why? It’s all about the flow. Some just didn’t fit. In the days of vinyl singles, these songs often appeared as ‘B-sides’. Why not more? I grew up listening to records or cassettes featuring 10 songs in under 45 minutes, so this was always going to conform with that.

Enough already with the album talk, old timer, tell me about your collaborators. Who did what, and why did they bother? 
That got weird at the end, but fair question. My main collaborator for this album was Kirste Grant, a very old friend and musical foil who is also a beautiful singer, player and arranger. Kirste provided vocals and keys for four songs here, and everywhere she touches them there’s sparkles and lightning, I reckon. Her arrangements lifted dull, poorly formed drafts to full statements. I was also lucky with lyrics. I was working on finishing a song called Runaway Fiancee but it needed a bridge, so my friend and former bandmate John Mobbs suggested the lyrics and chords for what became Love Like a River.  John also contributes vocals, as does Melissa Wilcox. Thanks to all these guys. Not entirely sure why they bothered, trying to silence my nagging, or selflessly feeding my narcissism perhaps?

Mmmm, perhaps. Not being rude, but I have to raise this, you literally can’t sing well. Why did you choose to sing these songs yourself rather than getting a friend in or paying someone to do it?
Look, I understand your exasperation. It would be better, for sure, if it was that easy. I don’t know a heap of singers, and it’s a decent-sized commitment anyway so I’d want to pay them, and I probably couldn’t pay them enough. More convenient to do it on my own, quicker and cheaper, but yes, there’s no mistaking my limitations! I honestly worried about my voice a lot across almost 4 years of this project, nearly abandoned ther whole thing more than once, but eventually steeled myself to see it through. I was buoyed by thinking of that line from the Silver Jews song: all my favourite singers couldn’t sing. Using a variety of measures, and influenced by other non-singers from bands like IDLES, Fontaines DC, Shame, Porridge Radio, and Savages, I used double-tracking, self-harmonising and harmony with others, speak-singing, ‘burying’ the voice in the drums or other instruments, even a splash of autotune when it got really pitchy. If it’s good enough for Cher…!

Who? You’re comparing yourself to Cher?
No, of course, no. It was about the autotune. But it’s very common in music today. Who knows what Shane McGowan or Billy Bragg or even Patti Smith would have sounded like if the vocals on their records were ‘cleaned up’! All these singers have distinctive voices, I don’t, so I’ve tried to make the most of my natural sound, used those tricks I talked about, folded the vocals into the other sounds and singers, and just hoped it all makes sense.

How did you make this? If you can’t afford a singer how could you afford a drummer, bassist, a recording studio, a producer and engineer? 
Don’t need all that these days – all in one computer. Has negs but lots of possies

Let’s get into the tracks. Some peculiar titles here, Dud Revolution? We Saw the Signs? How is somebody supposed to work out what they’re about from those titles? 
A title can mean a lot or may mean nothing. 

With so much new music being released every day, why should our readers listen to yours? 
Its by me
Its only 41 min length of a commute

Last question, why the silly stage name? You’re not even appearing on stage, or so you say. You embarrassed of your true self or something? 
No.