|
| Hint: Have a band you'd like to see interviewed? Tell us. | Inside AP.net
| Positive Chaos - 10.25.11 | The following is a mini interview of generic questions that we posed to all bands that wanted to answer:
Positive Chaos
www.positivechaos.com
www.facebook.com/positivechaos
1. How did you get your band name?
Chris (bass): When we first started, we were using the name Symptoms. A quick Google search showed that there were many bands using the same or a similar name. We were talking on AIM one day and it was something our guitarist Brett just thought of.
Brett (guitar): Yeah, don’t ask me how I thought of it. I seriously just pulled it out of thin air. At first I was apprehensive about telling people our band name. It felt childish, and it takes a long time to say (We like to shorten it to PC). As the years passed, it really has become our life style, and the name has grown on me. Positive Chaos; Life is chaos, you might as well try to keep it positive.
2. How did this band get started?
Dave (vocals/guitar): I had recently left another local band as the drummer. So I decided to give Brett a call to get together and jam in his garage. We played around for a little while and decided we should practice more often. So we started getting together on a regular basis. In the summer of 2005, Brett and I decided that we needed a bassist. At the time, Chris worked at grocery store in our home town so we went up there one day and decided to ask him to play with us. From there we just started playing more and more shows until we split up for college. Then, while in college, we kept playing and recording. We decided to add our drummer, Pat, to the mix. Been the same ever since.
Brett: We put out our EP when we were 17-18. It was absolutely terrible (and I still have 30+ copies hanging around). As a band we were very young and we were all so wrapped up in the fact that we were hearing our own songs come out of our radio that we didn't pay as close attention to detail as we should. Our producer was a student, and the studio we recorded at doubled as a broadcast for a Spanish radio station. From there we just tried to write as best we could.
3. What bands are you influenced by?
Chris: Although we grew up listening to different types of music, we as a band draw pretty heavily on post-grunge bands. Our biggest influences are probably Breaking Benjamin, Chevelle, and Three Days Grace. Personally, I used to listen to a lot of blink-182 growing up, so Mark Hoppus is why I started playing bass. You can still hear that in some of my bass playing. And I definitely model my screams after Pete Loeffler.
Brett: Guns and Roses, ZZ-Top, RHCP, STP, Breaking Benjamin, Shinedown, Coheed and Cambria,Fair to Midland.
Pat (drums): My sound is influenced by John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), Stewart Copeland (The Police, Oysterhead), and Ginger Baker(Cream). I first started playing after listening to Neil Peart (Rush), but found a simpler drum style fit the band better. Recently I have been listening to a lot of SOAD and learning some metal to branch out my style.
4. If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?
Brett: Breaking Benjamin. Positive Chaos started off as a Breaking Benjamin cover band. Unfortunately BB is not with us anymore, so we will never get that chance. As for bands currently touring: Alien Ant Farm/Chevelle/Shinedown - These band fit our genre the best. And all of us in the band have grown up listening to these tracks. Also, Fair to Midland because they’re incredible.
Chris: Every time I see something posted by the band 10 Years on either Facebook or Twitter it’s always hilarious. I bet they’d be a blast to hang out with.
Pat:I would love to tour with Primus.
5. Best food to eat on tour
Brett: Taco Bell, wings, pizza and beer.
Chris and Dave: and Puffcorn
Pat: Puffcorn topped pizza.
6. Why should people listen to your band?
Chris: On our new album, Lab Coat Arbiter, we did everything except the engineering. Writing, producing, performing, artwork, management, etc. Lab Coat Arbiter is filled with raw energy that you can’t find much of anymore. It’s also a concept album and tells the story of a man who crosses every line for the sake of revenge. It’s something relatively new to this genre of music.
Brett: Our music is easy to listen to, the choruses just stick in your head. I also haven’t heard another band like us. Our style is very unique, i think everyone should take a listen to our stuff just to see if they like it or not.
Pat: I’ll agree with Brett and say that some of our choruses are very catchy, and Dave has a distinctive voice which drives them.
7. If you could be any athlete, which athlete would you switch places with?
Dave: Brian Wilson. That dude is fucking Insane. He’s unhittable and his beard is the most glorious thing on this earth.
Pat: David Ortiz. Sit down for 90% of game and hit dingers.
8. If you won a Grammy, who would you thank?
Brett: Producers, Fans, Owners of houses we practiced at, mom and dad, my family.
Pat: The makers of Puffcorn.
Dave: My toilet, for putting up with all of my crap.
9. If you could change something about the music industry, what would it be?
Brett: The fact that bands get shit on by record labels unless they’re huge. The bands are the ones doing all the real hard work, writing the songs, making everything perfect in the studio, and the record execs are just soaking up all the income. I also don’t like it when bands / artists have writers for their music. At that point, they’re just the puppet master, and concerts really just become ‘shows’.
Pat: I think that labels have degraded many local music scenes by telling the public that only the big name bands are worth going to see and it makes it really hard for fresh talent to be recognized unless you fit a very specific role. That’s too big to change, what isn’t is adding us onto one of those labels.
10. Memorable tour experience?
Brett: Album release party - Dave went to smash an old acoustic guitar while we were wrapping up “Killing in the Name”. He hit the guitar on the ground a few times not really realizing how hard he needed to swing it for it to break. He took a step back, wound up, and slammed the acoustic on top of a folding chair. The neck separated from the body at the same time the bridge pulled the front veneer off the body from the force of the strings. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.
Pat: Dave grabbing pieces of my drum set and jumping in a pool.
11. What does AP.net mean to you?
Chris: My ex turned me on to AP a long time ago. At the time, I had no idea how to really find information on bands, besides checking every artist’s website. In the days before Facebook and Twitter, it was amazing to have so much information aggregated into one source. AP has always had a certain personality that really separates it from more mainstream sources of media, and that’s something I’ve come to really appreciate. AP has helped some great unknown bands gain recognition, and has been doing so for so long.
12. What is your favorite song to play?
Brett: Ours: Sense of Renewal. Cover: Simple Man
Chris: When The Hammer Hits
Dave: Neural Shutdown
Pat: Choke
13. What is your vacation spot of choice?
Brett: My Aunt’s lake house on Winnepesauke. There’s this red couch there where I just sit at 7:00 in the morning and play my acoustic before everyone is awake. The entire setting is so peaceful and serene. My mind is so free--I get so much inspiration. "The Chase" and "Death of an Angel" were written on that couch in the same weekend. As well as 3 or 4 others that the band is currently working on.
Chris: Dave’s house in Florida.
Pat: Dave’s current house in Florida, which is also my old house in Florida.
Dave: Ya know even though I live there, I’d have to say my place in Florida as well. If only I treated it like a place to do work instead of a vacation spot...
Brett: Also, Dave’s place in Florida.
14. What music reminds you of your childhood?
Brett:Any rock and roll from the 70’s-80’s. There was a radio station called 106WHCN. They played all the good classic songs. Aerosmith, Guns and Roses, Bachman Turner Overdrive... Me and my father would work on projects in the garage and that station would always be playing. Unfortunately 106 turned into 105.9 “the River” and now it’s not half as good.
Chris: blink-182. My brother and I started playing guitar and bass together when we were 13 and 15 respectively, and we learned every single blink song we could. We drove from CT to SC a few times at that age, and listened to the entire discography the whole way.
Dave: First and foremost, Charlie Daniels. I’ve seen CDB 19 times in concert; the first time I was 6 weeks old. My dad and I also listened to a lot of Kingston Trio, Brian Setzer and Nirvana growing up.
Pat: Music from the 60’s-70’s, it was all my Dad played in the car. Lots of Beatles, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, and a bunch of other artists.
15. If you could have any super power, what would it be? Why?
Chris: Flight. You would save so much money on gas.
Brett: Mind Control - Not so much in the fact that I would make people do things they don’t want to do, but to get inside their head to know exactly what they’re thinking. Also I think it’d be sweet to make people see things from my point of view, and vice-versa. Think of that gun from “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.”
Pat: On the show “Heroes”, there was a girl who could watch anything and learn it instantaneously and do it perfectly. I would absorb every cool drum skill ever recorded, then learn how to play guitar in like 20 mins.
Dave: I have to agree with Patrice on this one, that would be so sick.
16. Any pre-show superstitions or rituals?
Brett: Dave and I sing “Black water” by in the car ride up to gigs, but only the chorus because I haven’t bothered learning all the words. At the album release party, I did my first ever kegstand 30 seconds before the set started. It was one of the best shows yet; that may or may not continue in the future.... Also, we generally try to write a set-list in 5 minutes on the way to gigs.
Chris: Then we don’t use it.
Brett: True, we really don’t. We’re a fucking mess.
Pat: I assemble my drums and say a little prayer that they won’t fall apart during the show.
Dave: I generally try to get a good coating of alcohol in my stomach before shows to try to deal with all of this.
17. What is something that most fans don't know about you?
Brett: Back when I was playing Little-League ball at the BAW, (Baseball Association of Wolcott) Dave and I were talking about music after a game. I knew he was a drummer from school band, but he didn’t know I dropped the Saxaphone to play Guitar. He insisted I listen to some band called Breaking Benjamin. I FINALLY did, and they instantly became my favorite band. Dave brought his 1960’s Gretsch drum set over to my house one day (wrecking havoc on my bedroom in the process) and we’ve been jamming ever since. All in all, baseball has brought this band together, and it’s one of the things that continues to keep us so close.
Chris: There are approximately 12 Positive Chaos official magnets in existence. I made them out of stickers in the back of Dave’s truck on the way to a show, and we sold out that night.
Dave: I’ve written a good amount of lyrics on the spot, in the studio.
Pat: I have a 5 foot tall cardboard pint of Guinness in my room.
Brett: There are currently 3 songs on our album that were written in the studio. Or outside on the picnic table, or in the car on the way to the studio...
18. What is your assessment of the current state of radio? Do you think it's a place where your band could flourish?
Chris: Tough to answer. In Connecticut, where we’re from, there are only two real stations that play music in our genre. One constantly plays the same crap all the time, so that really leaves one station in the entire state. But, there’s a current trend on digital music, whether it’s buying music on iTunes or streaming songs from Pandora or Spotify. I think THAT is where we could do really well. With Internet radio, you don’t need to fit into a specific genre anymore. Fans choose their own stations, or listen to music in their cars on their iPods or smartphones. This is the place that bands that aren’t “radio-friendly” can thrive. You don’t need to have that generic sound to be popular anymore, because listeners don’t settle.
Dave: Backing up what Chris said, every time I go to another state I’m stuck listening to the same 9 or 10 songs. Radio stations need more variety.
19. What do you like to do in your spare time?
Brett: At the moment I’m pretty much addicted to World of Tanks (America FTW). And I make Half-Life maps for a game design website. I enjoy reading too, but I rarely make time for that because I work full time and am a part-time electronics engineering student.
Dave: I play a lot of baseball. I started a club team at Florida Institute of Technology and I am watching them flourish. We got a bunch of young pitchers that are going to succeed at the college level and it’s exciting to see it come together. I also have quite a fall-back career I’m working on, I am currently a Mechanical engineering student.
Band: Drink and Watch Baseball
Pat: Play drums.
Chris: Ask me once the album is released.
20. What kind of hidden talents do you have?
Chris: No one can waste as much time as we do in a studio, yet still somehow get it all done.
Brett: Thanks to my electronics education, I can build my own distortion and effects pedals.
Dave: Nothing to be proud of, but I can shotgun a beer in 2.5 seconds.
Pat: I can do 10 push ups in 2.5 hours.
|
|
|
Displaying posts 1 - 1 of 1. |
No one has commented on this interview.You can be the first. |
| Options
More From This Author Buy the Music |
Browse Interviews
Alphabetized Listing
Most Popular Interviews
View Artist Profile
View News Articles
Buy the Album or MP3s
Follow This Interview