The Chewers: “Off-kilter, deadpan avant-rock”
Introduction: Alejandro De Luna
Q&A: Carsten Petersen
Meet these wackos. They call themselves, The Chewers, a duo coming from the desolated streets of West Virginia that bring dissonance, cacophony and madness to your inner peace. And for the benefit of our disturbed mental health, they have a new album called, Chuckle Change And Also.
If you think in Captain Beefheart when you listen to a handful of songs, you´re right. The sound is perverse, disturbing, horrific, but contradictorily pleasing and humorous. Just listen to perturbing tracks like “Can´t Sleep”, and you will think that this is the song that Primus let go. Clearly there´s no Les Claypool, but what the fuck? Or what about “Teeth Lock” that sounds like a jazz-like jam of pure and fucked up mess.
They define their sound as “off-kilter, deadpan avant-rock” or “avant-post-wave-glitch-witch-sandwich.” You name it. This is raw and perverse off-key-like music without any objective than to squeeze your skull into a sea of unpleasant sounds.
You been advised, so go and meet the sound and story of these lunatics.
What´s the story of the band? Why The Chewers?
We’re two people: Michael Sadler, and Travis Caffrey (myself). We’re from West Virginia, but The Chewers was born in Nashville, TN (where we still live). I was living in relative isolation for some time, learning to play the guitar. Michael had coincidentally been learning to play the drums, and had bought a lot of recording equipment. I followed him down to Tennessee, and was very interested in building layered, rhythmic arrangements. We had similar tastes and intentions, and found that we had a strong and easy musical chemistry. We started making songs, and haven’t stopped.
It seems that you been listening to loads of Captain Beefheart, Primus or even Tom Waits. Are these important influences?
Yes, particularly Captain Beefheart. I love Doc at the Radar Station. Johnny Dowd is another very important influence, but unfortunately he’s not as well known.
How would you define the sound of the band?
Off-kilter, deadpan avant-rock, with swing. Or maybe avant-post-wave-glitch-witch-sandwich. We’ve been called everything from Swamp Rock to Jazz Punk.
How did you come up with the artwork and aesthetics? Any other certain artists you used as an inspiration? Maybe horror films?
The cover artwork for Chuckle Change And Also is a painting I did independently of the music, but seemed suitable. It was inspired by that Francisco Goya painting , Saturn Devouring His Sons. Other than that, we’re kind of making the aesthetic up as we go along. The big teeth-head look seemed like a cool, blatant visual. For some of the past artwork, I did pen and ink drawings, and Michael colored them digitally.
Does West Virginia have any influence on your sound?
I would say so. Isolation and alienation factor heavily into our songs, and West Virginia, at least in my experience, is a pretty isolated place. Its very rural, and there’s a kind of mystery and a sort of spookiness to all the woodland and hills, not to get too grandiose. A lot of our characters tend to come from this kind of backwoods or small-town environment/mindset as well.
Who write the songs? What about the lyrics? Are you a democratic band or are you dominated by one self-destructive yet genius songwriter?
Its very democratic. Whoever has an idea (musical, lyrical, or conceptual) kind of leads the way. For the most part, the music is created first, or at least without specific lyrics in mind.
You are giving concerts of a regular basis? Any special incidences that you like to share? Something really awesome or maybe absolutely terrible?
We’re gearing up to start playing regularly; its been kind of intermittent lately. Mostly, our recent shows have been in our basement venue, The Mouthhole, but we want to start getting out a lot more. I can’t think of any incidents, really, the only thing I come to is that we played a dive bar in New Orleans on the evening of the Mayan Apocalypse.
We really tried to not ask this question but it is torturing us too much as it is absolutely central in providing an overall, wholesome picture of your personalities as well as your understanding of music and its place in the universe. What about groupies??
The only groupie I’m aware of lives at the end of my left arm (she frets the guitar, though, so I guess technically she’s part of the band).
Any other interests? Religion? Sex? Drugs? Politics? The decadence of human race? None?
Movies, comedy, and thinking about inevitable death.
Who are your heroes?
Johnny Dowd is our mutual musical hero.
When can we expect something new from the band? Any deals with a record label?
Yes. We are extremely close to finishing up a third album, and I think the material is very strong. We’re working with Cimmerian Shade Recordings, who just released our latest album on CD. We also put together a little bonus thing called The Chewers: LIVE in the Mouthhole, which is only available as a bonus download with the CD.
Changing direction, are there any artists you really hate? Or just plain dislike? Who, in your opinion, is the antithesis of what good music in your understand is about?
I just don’t really like things that are middle of the road. Its hard to qualify as any kind of rule. Things that are outright “bad” generally at least have some kind of identity. Things that stick closely to trends, or superficial emotionality grate on me. I think music, of all the entertainment arts, is tied to genre the tightest, which is unfortunate, and it leads to a lot of redundancy when bands try to sound like a genre instead of letting the genre-tag be a result of the art.
Tell us a joke…I have this other writer and he is a total expert. Just wanted to know if your humour can even closely match his…
A man with a big, round orange head walks into a bar, and sits at the counter. He orders his drink, and the bartender says “Hey, buddy, I’m sorry, but I’ve gotta ask: what happened to your head?”. The man sighs, and says “Well, the thing is: I found this lamp, right? And I rubbed it, and sure enough this genie came out, and he said he would grant me three wishes. So first: I asked him to give me the sleekest, fanciest car in the world. That’s how I got that car parked outside. Next, I asked him to grant me the most beautiful, loving woman in the world, and that’s how I met my wife over there. And then, for my third wish — and I think this is where I might’ve gone wrong: I asked for a big, round orange head.”
Other than that, the only joke I can really ever remember is: Why did Michael Jackson go to rehab? To quit his eight year old crack habit. That one’s in bad taste now, of course (RIP).
Could you fill these sentences?
We hate…(that’s the end of the sentence)
Rock n´Roll is…comatose
The USA is…under my ass as I type
The current music scene is…doused in kerosene
The album that changed my life…Cruel Words by Johnny Dowd
The song that changed my life…“House of Pain”, the opening track of Cruel Words
