V1: Craig Owens - Chiodos


Chiodos
 
Origin: Davison, Michigan, USA
Years Active: 2001-Present
Label(s): Equal Vision
 
Members:
Craig Owens - Vocals
Bradley Bell - Keyboards
Pat McManaman - Rhythm guitar
Matt Goddard - Bass guitar
Jason Hale - Lead guitar
Derrick Frost - Drums
 
Discography
Albums
2001
The Chiodos Bros. EP
2002
The Best Way To Ruin Your Life EP
2003
The Heartless Control Everything EP
2005
All's Well That Ends Well
- Producer Marc Hudson
2007
Bone Palace Ballet
- Producer Casey Bates
Links:
Your second album Bone Palace Ballet has been out for a while now and it’s been a clear success. It has outsold your debut full length, All’s Well That Ends Well, and is a certain step up from your past releases. After a successful first album there is always this anticipation and pressure behind a bands second release; will it live up to the debuts greatness, where will the band go next etc.
Did you feel this added push on yourselves to live up to expectations that were put on you by fans and media a like? Were you concerned about falling ill to the second album syndrome?
Oh god yeah. We call it the Sophomore Slump. I was always thinking about it before and during the writing. It’s scary you know.
You feel the pressure before you even begin to think about writing the next record. You really feel it.
Do you feel more secure as a band now that you’ve had two well received albums? You’re now obviously not just a one album wonder and are in this for the long run?
Not really because we know that failure just is not an option to us. We’re going to succeed no matter what because that’s the only choice we have.
After the record was created I felt a sigh of relief. Not because of how it was perceived by others, it was how well I perceived it.

Casey Bates (Forgive Durden, This Providence) produced Bone Palace Ballet. How important do you think production is to the success of an album? Do you think a producer can make or break a record, or do you think that all lies with the original base written?
I really believe that Casey had a lot to do with this record; the way it sounds, the way it came across and the structures on it. Casey even plays a little guitar on the record, just very simple stuff. Pat would be sleeping or something and Casey would just say Fuck it I’m just going to play it.
I really think Casey added that little bit we needed.
Casey is the only producer I listen to. I generally don’t listen to the production value of a CD. I can’t really tell the difference between - well I mean obvious differences I can tell - but I can’t tell the difference between say a bedroom recording and a studio recording. I just pay attention to the music. Casey Bates is the only producer that has ever stood out to me and the only one where I could put on a Casey Bates record and say that’s Casey Bates, Casey Bates did that.
He has this eclecticness attached to what it is he does, and throwing him on top of what it is we were doing already I knew that it would come out the way that it did. I was happier than I ever thought I would be with what Casey did to it.
Was it your choice to work with him?
Yes, this is the biggest record Casey has ever done. He had only done local Seattle bands or friends records. He did This Providence, and worked with bands that didn’t even fit with our style or genre at all. He just had this certain something about him. I heard that we had so many huge, huge producers offering to do it, but we chose Casey. You just know. You know like that quote un-quote girl you’re supposed to meet. You just know.
 
Your writing influences come from everywhere, classic literature and media especially. The band name Chiodos came from a trio of filmmaker brothers with the surname Chiodo, American poet Charles Bukowski plays influence to many of your lyrics, Shakespeare’s words appear in your lines and your debut album title, as well as words from Bob Dylan songs and many others including even Wayne’s World.
We’re all kind of into our own thing. We are all who we are because of what we’re surrounded by. I just don’t tend to look into my own but I have those inspirations that did make me who I am.
I like that you researched your stuff. At least you didn’t come here and ask me What’s your bands name? Once those sort of interviews started happening I just said only give me the ones that really matter, from people who actually care.

Your live show is incredible. It was hard to imagine how your recorded sounds would transfer live, and personally it was something I worried about a little, but you capture it amazingly and now when I listen to your record I imagine your live show.
That’s where we believe a lot of our cult fans have come from.
Your style as a front man is quite unique, maybe not unique but you certainly have something about you that just draws eyes and ears towards where you are. Front men play a huge part in a bands live show, and style is something which I think is quote important.
If you look at a lot of Pop Punk bands, new and emerging ones especially, you see these similar moves across the board. Take Danny from The Audition for example. His swagger is something that is echoed in many performances.
Let me tell you something funny about Danny from The Audition. We grew up in the same place and actually for a long time we played local shows together. You see The Audition aren’t that big in the US, but they are huge here.
You know MySpace? Well, Danny used to have pictures of me under his hero’s section for about four years. It’s ridiculous!
That’s just a funny fact.
Danny’s style is something that has been copied many times over, and is a style he has borrowed from someone else. Have you taken your moves/influence from anywhere or is it all you?
I would definitely like to think that it was all me. But you know a real good front man studies. Danny took everything he knows from Adam Lazarro (Taking Back Sunday) and Adam, who is a friend of mine, took everything he knew from Cedric [Bixler-Zavala] (The Mars Volta, At The Drive In) It’s Cedric Bixler plus Adam. So it’s Danny, plus Adam – you know what I mean - equals Danny’s stage presence. It’s Adam plus Cedric’s mic tricks; all of that he stole that from Cedric.
It’s funny because I’ll take mine from artists like Joe Cocker; the older school. You see them just sing - it’s not the movement, I’m not worried about the movements - that’s not what I steal, that’s all me, I don’t really do anything that’s that intense. The stage presence that I was influenced by was people like Joe Cocker. When you watched him sing you would get chills. Not because of the moves, not the crazy move he did with his neck and the fucking worm on stage bullshit. He would just have the microphone in his hand, his eyes were closed and he meant every word he was singing. You’d just get these chills. That’s where I get my inspiration from; people that meant what it is they were singing when they sang it.
Do you feel like that every time you go on stage?
Almost every time. Everyone has a bad day.
Do you find you feed off the crowd and their responses to you?
I used to a lot until we did a recent tour with Linkin Park. The fans didn’t really know who our band was. In the US we may be absolutely huge and really successful, but we still have no radio, video play or anything on TV at all. We’re very DIY. We’ve fortunately surfaced through the underground though.
I used to feed off the crowd until that tour. That taught me a lot. It gave me experience and it showed me that these people don’t know who you are and that not everyone is going to know who you are. You really just need to relish in what it is you’re doing.

Regarding getting on Radio and TV etc; you’re signed to Indie Label Equal Vision. Now, if a band is signed to a Major Label, in most cases, they are pretty much guaranteed to get on radio and TV just purely because of the fact that they are signed to a Major Label and they have a huge push and power behind them. That’s certainly the case here, if you’re on a Major Label you’re going to be played on Radio 1.
What sort relationship do you have with Equal Vision, and as the band grow do you have more feel more temped to go down the Major route?
We have a lovely relationship with them. We’ve been turning down Major labels for seven years now. We got our first Major label approaches before Equal Vision and we continue to get bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger, offers as we grow. We just don’t want anything to do with them. We want to continue doing what we’re happy with. This is all we could ever ask for.
You know, when the time is right we’ll take that step forward or who knows with all the bullshit and hearsay - I hate even talking about it - but the decline in record sales and so on and so forth. I think a lot of these Majors are going to become Indies soon enough anyway. We’re just going to stick it out and keep writing our music, applying ourselves and hopefully people get it.
With Majors you may lose your freedom as a band and decisions of where you want to go will no longer be yours.
With Equal Vision we get a lot of freedom. We’re the biggest band they have. We’re big fish in a small pond with them, as opposed to being a small fish in a big pond, which is not something that caters to you very well. In the long run Equal Vision have definitely given us more than any Major label would.
There are rumours about various bands being put together, Boys Like Girls for example. It’s just people speculating how a Major Label band can have that kind of success so fast without something suspicious going on.
We were on Warped with Boys Like Girls. We like to joke around a lot. So we decided to start a rumour that they killed a dog in the parking lot. And it went round to everyone. We never said we started it. So that’s a funny Boys Like Girls story for you.

Recently in the press, especially over here, there has been a lot of talk over teen suicides and emo bands; My Chemical Romance has definitely bared the brunt of this. You music can and has been associated with the emo scene, and you have been really open with the personal problems you yourself have experienced. What is your stance on this whole escalation, negative press and the tabloid tales?
With me I have to be open, it’s got to be like that if you want to control the story.
I think that it’s all complete bullshit really. I think that emo music; The My Chemical Romance’s, the everything. Gerard Way made a statement at the end of their record. He quoted himself saying Be Strong blah blah…I don’t remember the exact quote.
You know its funny because as a child growing up and having suicidal thoughts, just like any normal child. Even the parents that are now blaming this, that and the other, went through this; they’re just cookie cuttering the minute. Being that child, I remember listening to Alkaline Trio’s Sorry About That; you know sad songs, very sad songs. If it weren’t for those songs then I probably wouldn’t be here. That’s what my escape was.
I have a side project set up called Cinematic Sunrise and one of the songs is called Umbrella’s and Elephants; that song is about escapism. My parents would argue a lot. I grew up very poor. I would jump out my two story bedroom window, down the tree and hide in my parents car while they fought; this really intense stuff. I explain this at Cinematic Sunrise shows and I let fans know that before I had music I found an escape through that; that’s what this song is about. I remind them that you need to find an escape without music as well. You need to have the music there, something to run to, but you need to have something that’s always going to be there. You may have parents who will listen these stories and take away your music, and then what are you left with. You need to find an escape. It’s all about escapism and music just happens to be one of the main forms in this world.

Cinematic Sunrise is very different from Chiodos. When you’re writing how do you know which project you’re writing for? Do you sit and think OK today I’m writing for Chiodos, or Cinematic Sunrise, or my journal, or is it much more organic than that?
Cinematic Sunrise is like my happy side.
Right let me count. I have four folders. When I write I just know. I have the Chiodos folder; I’ll write and be like ok that goes into Chiodos. Cinematic I just know That goes there. I’m doing a Folk/Acoustic record, when I’m writing that goes there. It’s the different styles. The fourth I’m writing my new novel. So you can tell which one goes where.
Chiodos is very artsy and dark, and it has to be almost literal in some sense. Cinematic is just straight to the point happy, not even necessarily happy, just very straight to the point. I think it’s the actual different words I use in vocabulary. The folk project is something that I’d love to use for Chiodos but it doesn’t really fit. There are just little things that don’t really fit with it. Then the book, there are words with five or six syllables – how can I sing those? Or it’s a story that’s too long that it would hurt me to take apart. It’s like five paragraphs, I can’t put that in a song and I don’t want to chop it up so I just put it there. There are just four different files I put everything into.
Do you find yourself writing all the time?
It’s a curse. All I do is write all the time.
Is this something you’ve always wanted to do, is it something you always saw yourself doing you know Chiodos and writing music, or was there something else?
I wanted to be a Meteorologist for a while. I’ve never really told anyone else that except for maybe an ex-girlfriend. Yeah, so a weather guy for a couple of years.
Writing is something I’ve always done, forever. I’ve just never thought I could make money out of it until I was about 14/15 when we started this band. Then I was told I was the singer, I had no choice. You can sing, you’re doing this. They gave me every solo; you’re going to do this, you’re going to do that. So that’s how it happened.

Your ex drummer Crosby Clark made a very strong statement when reflecting on the band. He said in an interview; I don't believe in what we did. The only reason Craig wanted to start the band was to attract 17 year old girls, I didn't want to be apart of that…so I left. That's not who I am anymore.
Crosby just had a baby, I think. I’ve not spoken to him.
I get that. It’s obviously not true. That’s funny because the actual reason Crosby quit the band is - I remember the day he left - we got in a water fight. Everyone was throwing bottles of water at each other just outside and we were throwing balloons and everything like that. So I hit him with a water bottle and he spit on me. So then I just poured a bunch more water on him and he spit on me again. So I punched him in the face and then he quit the band.
Anything that will make me look bad people will take stabs at. You know I do like the female race. I love sex. I love intimacy. I love everything about it. I’m completely forward about that. As any man is, or female for that matter. I don’t hide that fact. I’ve never hidden that fact. I don’t take the way I carry myself or the way I dress or act. I’ve got a very flirty personality, and that’s just who I am. I don’t write or listen to music because I want that. It’s something that comes along with it.
If you did it for that you’d be writing shit music anyway.
Exactly. And I’d probably make myself more available. I wouldn’t be so reclusive when it comes to Warped Tour and things. I didn’t really go out at all. You know all the advances I would get, or that I could get when going out into the crowd, I don’t do that as much.

Once you’re done at Download what are the bands plans?
We leave here tonight at 1am. Oh my gosh, it’s ridiculous! It’s so funny because I slept the whole trip. I woke up in England. I fell asleep before we even took off and then I slept eight hours, woke up here. I came to the bus, had one drink and then woke up this morning. That’s a little too much sleeping for me.
You’ve now reached the stage where you’ve got a fancy tour bus with showers and beds etc, so different from the shitty van days.
Everybody thinks that we just blew up out of nowhere. We’ve been in it for a long time. We did 13 headline tours by ourselves, from ages 16/17 to 20. We just recently, just three years ago, starting touring in big buses. The more comfortable you are the happier you are; which is healthier for the band. It’s better musically.

Are you planning on watching any other bands on the Download line up this year? Do you listen to a lot of music that’s around now?
A lot of todays music is just complete shit, I’ve go to be honest. I mean I check out other bands, all the time. Today I think the only other band I might want to see is Children of Bodum. Although I’ve seen them so many times it’s kind of lost it for me, especially when you meet them. You meet your idols, or you meet bands like that, and from that moment you will never like that band again. They’re not always what you’re expecting.
My favourite band I ever met - we just took them out in the States - are MXPX. I looked up to them growing up so much that being able to tour with them and hanging out with them, they were exactly the way I wanted everyday.
I think ego comes into play a lot with bands. They’re told every day how brilliant they are that their heads just expand, especially when they’ve had quick fame.
Quick fame gets you way more. People who have been doing this forever, they just don’t care anymore. They don’t really pay attention. They loose all focus of what it all is and they just go out and play their music. They don’t focus so much on who they are and what it is they’re doing. Either that or they become really, really bitter. A lot of older bands are really bitter.
The Download line up this year is pretty weak. Although Kiss are headlining and they are an epic Super Group. There are very few bands emerging now that you can see having that kind of longevity. Bamboozle USA for example, by the end of the weekend all the bands seemed to merge into one. I mean there is nothing wrong with these artists, and I am a fan, but it’s hard to see them lasting longer than two albums.
A lot of bands that you won’t see making a second or third album and quick fame has a lot to do with that.
People ask us how would you describe your band? Which genre would you put yourself in? We’re just a band. We are what other bands should be doing. We are creating our own sound.