The Chariot came to my attention only recently, with the release of their latest album, Long Live. I heard the album a few months ago and loved it immediately; its intricate, chaotic, and extremely heavy sound reminded me of a lot of metallic hardcore bands that I was into a decade or so ago, such as Botch and Coalesce. These days, with metalcore becoming synonymous with “mallcore” and the entire genre seemingly intent on sounding more and more like a carbon copy of itself, it’s rare to find a band who can remind me why I ever liked any of it in the first place. For me, The Chariot are that rare band. Formed in 2003 by former Norma Jean vocalist Josh Scogin, they have released four full-length albums since 2004, each featuring a slightly different lineup. At this point, Scogin is the band’s only original member, though the lineup has solidified in recent years; guitarist Stephen Harrison is the only current member of the band for whom Long Live is his first album as a member. Known, regardless of lineup, for insane live performances, The Chariot will be in Richmond next Monday at The Canal Club, performing as part of a bill that also features Haste The Day, Mychildren Mybride, and A Plea For Purging. In preparation for that show, I was offered an opportunity to interview the band. I had prepared to interview Josh Scogin, but ended up speaking instead to bassist Jon “Wolf” Kindler. This led to a bit of scrambling on my part, so the interview began with my impromptu attempts to figure out whether I could still ask the opening question I’d written specifically for Josh…
The Chariot came to my attention only recently, with the release of their latest album, Long Live. I heard the album a few months ago and loved it immediately; its intricate, chaotic, and extremely heavy sound reminded me of a lot of metallic hardcore bands that I was into a decade or so ago, such as Botch and Coalesce. These days, with metalcore becoming synonymous with “mallcore” and the entire genre seemingly intent on sounding more and more like a carbon copy of itself, it’s rare to find a band who can remind me why I ever liked any of it in the first place. For me, The Chariot are that rare band. Formed in 2003 by former Norma Jean vocalist Josh Scogin, they have released four full-length albums since 2004, each featuring a slightly different lineup. At this point, Scogin is the band’s only original member, though the lineup has solidified in recent years; guitarist Stephen Harrison is the only current member of the band for whom Long Live is his first album as a member. Known, regardless of lineup, for insane live performances, The Chariot will be in Richmond next Monday at The Canal Club, performing as part of a bill that also features Haste The Day, Mychildren Mybride, and A Plea For Purging. In preparation for that show, I was offered an opportunity to interview the band. I had prepared to interview Josh Scogin, but ended up speaking instead to bassist Jon “Wolf” Kindler. This led to a bit of scrambling on my part, so the interview began with my impromptu attempts to figure out whether I could still ask the opening question I’d written specifically for Josh…
Andrew: Hi, is this Josh?
Wolf: Actually, this is Wolf. Josh is sleeping, because he drove all night. But I’m able to do the interview if that’s OK with you. This is an interview, right?
Andrew: (laughs) Yeah, this is Andrew from RVA Magazine. Let’s see… when did you join the band, then, second album?
Wolf: Yeah, it’s been five years or so.
Andrew: Awesome, so you’ve been there for a while then…
Wolf: Yeah.
Andrew: The new lineup seems like it’s resulted in a change in the music, and I was wondering if you feel like that’s what happened, with Long Live sounding more chaotic and all that.
Wolf: I think that it may have a little bit to do with that. It has a lot to do with the fact that even Josh and I have different influences than when we wrote The Fiancee, or Wars [And Rumors Of Wars]. It probably has a little bit to do with the fact that there are different members, but we just kind of evolved as people and what we were listening to, so it’s probably a little bit of both of those two things.
Andrew: With half of the song titles on Long Live being named after different fans who won a contest, I was wondering, was there a plan to integrate that with the lyrics? Does it mean something more than just a contest? How do you guys view that?
Wolf: Of course, yeah. The whole idea of Long Live was really an opportunity to break down the barriers between musicians and the people who come to the shows. That’s kind of our goal in general, and so we tried to incorporate that into the record. As far as lyrics go, the whole record is about the fact that there’s no difference between us, and we’re all special under the eyes of the Lord. There’s nothing different about us, so the idea of creating a place for the names to be the titles was really just showing that that’s the case. We want the fans to be as involved as possible, and the only reason we’re able to do what we do is because of the people who come to the shows and support us. They kind of are The Chariot.
Andrew: What led you guys to bring in Dan Smith of Listener to do vocals on “David De La Hoz”?
Wolf: We met Dan at a festival in the summer called Cornerstone. We became pretty good friends with him, and thought what he did was really neat. So we asked him to come be a part of something. We just kind of told him the idea of the song, and the concept behind the song. He wrote up some words, and it fit together really nicely.
Andrew: I was curious about the video for that song, which I thought was really interesting. How’d that idea come about, to do the whole big production?
Wolf: We were just sitting in the studio… actually, I think we were in a Waffle House. We were just talking about the idea of shooting a live video. We like to record a lot of things live, and we wanted that to be incorporated into a video. Really, all the details and everything that were involved in the video kind of unraveled as we brainstormed about it, and even on the day of [the shoot]. We wanted something to be one continuous shot, and for everything to be played live. We decided we wanted to be spread throughout the whole studio. It was just everyone thinking of ideas, and cramming them all together. We didn’t really have that much time to pull it off, either, because we knew we wanted the last part to be outside. The sun was going down, and the camera’s aperture wouldn’t reflect enough light for us to see the big banner that we’d made. I was on the roof of the building spray-painting “Long Live” on that banner ten minutes before we actually recorded the take that we used. (laughs) Everything [was] thrown together. But that’s kind of how our band is. It’s either a trainwreck, or something special, and either way it’s interesting to watch.
Andrew: So was that the first take?
Wolf: It was actually the second take. The point where the confetti goes off was our point of no return, because we only had one shot of confetti. So when David, our drummer, and Matt Goldman, the guy that recorded and produced us, were playing drums in the kitchen, they didn’t feel like it was as on as they could have been, so they called it off right before we blew the cannon. But the second take was the one we actually used.
Andrew: That was one of the things that I was curious about, was who the additional musicians were. I knew Dan from Listener, but there are a bunch of people playing on that video that aren’t in the band, right?
Wolf: Right. There’s Matt Goldman, the producer, and he played drums to the left of David when we were in the kitchen. And of course Dan Smith of the Listener. And we had Timbre Cierpke, who is a singer/songwriter from Nashville, and she plays harp, and she sang. We had a couple of other people; this guy named Matt McClellan, who did the SOS in the control room. Then we also had some friends cutting hair in the main recording and tracking room, just all kinds of friends involved, playing instruments and things.
Andrew: Yeah, a bunch of kids playing video games. I liked that.
Wolf: Those were friends of Dan Smith’s, people who were with him when he came up. It was just a big party, really. It was really fun.
Andrew: Awesome. Speaking of live recording like you were before, how much of the album was recorded live?
Wolf: The way that we recorded this record was different than we had ever recorded before. In the past, The Chariot’s recorded whole live albums. Originally, we wanted to go live to reel-to-reel tape, but when we got in there, we decided that all the sounds and things that we wanted to accomplish weren’t really feasible with that route. But the way that we recorded most of the songs is that we would go in with David, our drummer, when he would track drums, and we’d just all play along with him in the tracking room. So everything would be live at that point, with no click [track], and everything felt really natural. The progression of the song wouldn’t feel formulated. So we did that, and then we would go back, and be like, “Well, we like that guitar track, we’ll keep that that way. And let’s rerecord bass, and do this,” you know, or “We’ll add some tambourine here,” something like that. So what we would do instead of the traditional… not traditional, but the way that bands record now, recording all the drums, and then going in and recording all the guitars, and all the bass, and all the vocals, we would just finish one whole song. We’d do about a song a day, or maybe one song took us three or four days, but we would complete a song. And so, a lot of the song is live, and it gives the song an opportunity to be its own original piece, rather than it feeling like one section of an album. That’s what it feels like to me on Long Live. Each song sounds a little different, it feels a little bit different, because of the process, and how we recorded it.
Andrew: On the first song, “Evan Perks,” at the beginning of the song, when you’re playing one chord over and over, is that triggered? It sounds like a loop of some kind.
Wolf: Right. Yeah, we originally did it all together, played it live, and it just wasn’t getting the feel that we wanted. We wanted it to sound like a skipping record, in a sense. That’s kind of the idea of the whole song, just getting something through your head. That’s the reason why we started the record off with that [song]. But yeah, we went ahead and triggered it, as if someone was pushing a button over and over and over on the same note. That created the feel that we wanted way more than the original sound. That’s kind of what I was talking about. We wanted to record this album live to tape, but ideas like that were conflicting with that process, so we had to not do that. But yeah, it’s just triggered, for lack of a better word.
Andrew: What about the “Atlanta, Atlanta” record at the end of “Calvin Makenzie”? Where’d that little snatch of music come from?
Wolf: That whole song is basically a thank you to people, and kids… obviously, we’re from Atlanta. That whole song is talking about… one of the main lyrics in that song is “We are all the crowd,” referring to us and everyone involved being a crowd of something bigger than ourselves. Not the crowd looking to us [the band], but us all looking to something else. It’s thanking people for allowing us to be involved in that. And so, “Atlanta,” that clip, that song, is a tribute to that. Matt Goldman actually brought that song to our attention when we were sharing that idea with him. We wanted it to kind of cut in, almost like an afterthought, like it wasn’t supposed to be there, but kind of coinciding with the same idea and concept as the rest of the song.
Andrew: The new album’s on Good Fight, and you’d previously been on Solid State. How’d the decision to switch labels happen?
Wolf: Our contract with Solid State/Tooth And Nail was fulfilled, and we shopped around, and talked with other labels. We even received an offer from Solid State. We just felt that Good Fight was a really good place for us. We’ve known Carl [Severson] for a long time. We actually talked to Carl when he was running Ferret, about signing to Ferret. So we’d thought about that, and it just seemed like a really good fit for us. They really understand our band artistically, and they’re really supportive of our band. They’ve been coming to our shows for years, even though we weren’t on their label. And Solid State’s a really good label too, they treated us very well. But they didn’t really see our vision as well as the folks at Good Fight did. Also, Solid State being a Christian label, and Good Fight not being one, we were excited about stepping aside from the Christian label. Not because we’ve stepped aside from our faith, because in fact, that’s kind of grown as far as the way we view our band. But it’s kind of us being set apart. We’re the only ones representing our faith, rather than some multi-million dollar corporation that makes a lot of decisions for us. There are just lots of little good things that are part of the Good Fight thing, so we decided to walk in that direction.
Andrew: I don’t know if you came up with it, I would imagine not, but the skull logo that you guys use… what does that symbolize?
Wolf: Like you said, I didn’t come up with it. The first time that was ever used for the band was on our Unsung EP, which was our second release, and that was right before I joined the band. But it was used as a small icon, and there were multiple really tiny icons all over that EP. We kind of revamped that when we came out with Wars And Rumors Of Wars, the record right before this one. It obviously is fairly iconic, and you can just place something like that on an item and know what it [refers to]. But for me what it means is “death to self.” I think that’s what our band’s overall plea is, for us to be removed from the picture so that something bigger and better can be represented. So that skull to me kind of represents “death to self,” and maybe even “death to this world that we are doomed to chase after.” I don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s the idea that instead of serving yourself you serve others. This band is only an opportunity to point to something bigger than ourselves.
Andrew: I’ve only got one more question. I’ve never seen you guys live before, and I’m doing this interview in preparation for seeing you for the first time when you come to Richmond in a couple of weeks. I’ve seen the video for “Teach”… should I wear a helmet or something? Are your shows always that crazy?
Wolf: (laughs) I mean, I’ve never seen anyone at a show with a helmet, but it doesn’t sound like the worst idea. Like I said, we like to erase the barrier between the crowd and us, and part of that’s jumping into the crowd. We write our records to play live, we like the live show, and it’s an opportunity to be free. That’s kind of our proclamation. We want to be free, and we want people to feel free, and if that means them coming onstage and singing our songs for us, or playing our instruments for us, or us playing half of our set in the crowd, or not even playing on the stage at all, just bringing everything down onto the floor and playing there… we just want it to be organic and free from what we’re supposed to do. Maybe you should bring a helmet, I don’t know. Maybe not, though. There’s more freedom in not wearing a helmet.
Andrew: (laughs) No, I hear you. Have you broken anything during a show?
Wolf: As far as people, or…?
Andrew: …equipment?
Wolf: The bass that I play every night is the first bass that I’ve ever owned. I’ve broken it a couple of times, but we’ve learned to be able to put things back together. So, we break things, but we put them back together. Our intention isn’t necessarily to break anything. We don’t have any desire to be destructive, necessarily. That’s not really what this is coming from. But obviously, things happen like that. We’ve been really blessed not to hurt too many people, or to be hurt by too many people. Overall, it’s usually a pretty good time.
Andrew: Cool, I’m looking forward to it.
Wolf: Yeah, it’ll be fun.
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Come see The Chariot in Richmond on Monday at The Canal Club. The show is $15, and tickets are available from The Canal Club here. Or you can get their latest album, Long Live, from Good Fight Music.
