Brit-flavored rock group tries for
commercially viable subversion
The Boston-based band Chauncey came together almost three years
ago by what guitarist Jake Zuckerman, 28, calls the “Alice in
Wonderland effect”: the band started out as two people and picked up
other like-minded musicians in the Boston area along the way. What
keeps them driven the band members’ respectful, supportive
relationships.
“When you’re in a rock and roll band, there has to be magic on stage,”
Zuckerman said. That’s a really important part. But also, you have to
be able to get along with those guys when you’re on an 18-hour van trip
and you barely have any room to breathe.”
Chauncey—who got their name from Peter Sellers’ character Chauncey
Gardiner in the 1979 movie Being There—have been playing colleges and
rock clubs in the Boston area; towards the end of 2001 they released a
self-titled debut record with Change Records. They opened for Midnight
Oil on their last American tour with Guster, and they spent most of
2003 working on their new, as yet unnamed 11-track new album, which
they’re starting to shop to various labels.
Zuckerman described Chauncey as being heavily influenced by British pop
from the Beatles to Radiohead, and also 1970s Classic American soul
from Stevie Wonder to Lynyrd Skynyrd.
“We’ll be in the van and some people bring old stuff or new stuff—it’s
always interesting to see who brings what,” Zuckerman said. “Maybe one
week we’re listening to Brian Eno a lot, and then we’re listening to
the new Fruit Bats album that I’m currently flipping out over this
week.”
They recorded most of the new album in Chicago with producer Steve
Albini, who previously worked on Nirvana’s In Utero and the Pixies’
Surfer Rosa as well as with P.J. Harvey, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant
and Bush.
“He’s very opinionated, and people in the business either hate him or
love him,” Zuckerman said of Albini. “I’m on the ‘love him’ side. I
respect him almost more than anyone I’ve met in the music business. He
is a true punk-rocker, not only in music styles but also in ethics, and
how he sees business. If you do an album with him and it only sells one
copy or sells a million, he doesn’t give a flying f—.”
Zuckerman characterizes Chauncey’s sound as “commercially viable raw
indie rock.”
“Sometimes indie rock gets a connotation of being sloppy or messy or
all about energy—which is the best part about indie rock, the
energy—but some of our stuff is a little more controlled and
arranged. We put a lot of emphasis on melody. That’s important for us.”
According to Zuckerman, Chauncey’s songwriting process always begins
with the music.
“The music and the melodies are always first,” Zuckerman said. “Then we
ask, how does this music make us feel? How should the lyrics represent
that.”
Bassist Jon Bistline describes Chauncey’s subsequent lyric writing
process as having “one to two writers and five editors.”
“We work in different combinations, which is great,” Zuckerman said.
“Someone will write something and then get together with another member
and be like, ‘What do you think?’ Then they’ll work on it, and present
it to the band. And it’ll get knocked around for anywhere from two
weeks to eight months.”
Zuckerman maintains that Chauncey’s democratic camaraderie comes
through on stage.
“We’ll work together and we’ll stand behind each other for what needs
to happen,” Zuckerman said. “I think that really comes across in our
songwriting, and even more so in our live performance with our energy.”
One song on their new album, “Beautiful Lie,” about a failed
relationship, takes place in a dream the narrator does not want to wake
up from, and a horrible car crash with hopeful ending is the subject
matter for “Diamonds in Your Crown.”
“The ‘diamonds in your crown’ gorily represents pieces of glass from a
windshield in someone’s head,” Zuckerman said. “the chorus is a
call-and-response between an EMT team talking to this injured person,
and the end is an uplifting message, you know, ‘everything’s gonna be
all right.’
One key aspect of many of Chauncey’s songs are their lyrically
subversive nature.
“If I didn’t tell you ‘Diamonds in Your Crown’ was about a car accident
you might not know, unless you really spent some time listening to it
and thought about it. It’s a real positive message, but you know, in
the context of the song it’s saying to this injured guy or girl, ‘hold
on, you’re gonna make it.’”
Saturday night’s show (with Paranoid Social Club and Everyday Visuals)
at Milly’s will be the bands second performance in Manchester, which
they now plan on playing frequently due to the positive response they
received.
“It was a great surprise for us; we’re looking forward to coming back,”
Zuckerman said.
In the short term, Chauncey is concentrating on shopping their Albini
recordings to record labels and touring; next month, they’ll showcase
for a record label in New York City. They’ll soon be opening for The
Thrills, and on June 24 they’ll be playing the side stage at the
Tweeter Center for the Aerosmith and Cheap Trick concert.
The long term goal as far as fame and money isn’t as easy for Zuckerman
to surmise; he just wants as many people as possible to listen to
Chauncey.
“I want as many people to hear it as they can,” Zuckerman said. “And
hopefully they’ll like it, and people that don’t [like it], that’s fine
too. I’m happy to get it to as many people as possible, and then they
can pass judgment.”
