Long before Screaming Females and Gaslight Anthem earned New Brunswick the reputation as a fertile spawning ground for indie rock, the Hub City was known for its brawling, no-holds-barred hardcore scene. Venues like the Court Tavern and Melody Bar – as well as innumerable basements scattered across the blue-collar college town – helped give birth to bands like Ensign, Deadguy and Fanshen. Now add Chambers to that list. The band releases its debut album Old Love in June and are currently cutting a swath across the state with their bone-crushing sound and live intensity. James Damion caught up with singer Dan Pelic and drummer Vinnie Fiore to get the lowdown.

CHAMBERS WANTS TO GET IN YOUR FACE:
Old School Hub City Hardcore Is Back, and It Doesn't Want to Dance In The Moonlight With Sandy Anymore...

Dan Pelic: Vocals
Greg Kautz – Guitar
John Pinho – Guitar
Jesse Mariani – Bass, Organ
Vinnie Fiore - Drums

Interview and photos by James Damion

Q: Give me a little background on the band. How did the pieces come together?

Dan: Vinnie and Greg had known one another for a long time and had been playing together. I guess the vibe of the music could be considered Stoner Rock.

Vinnie: We were really just trying to do something different. There were a lot of different elements of Metal that were being done at the time. Math Metal for instance. We were trying to do something different. Add elements for the 70’s and 80’s. A little bit of G’n’R… Somewhere along the line of that classical style where you have the chorus, verse... something you could sing along to The classic structure where you didn’t have to know the music by heart to sing along with it. There’s a lot of stuff out there today that’s so intense. Has so many time signatures and so much going on. We just wanted to be a little more like that return to Rock. We had found the pieces in John and Jesse. Everyone comes from a different background. John comes from that 90’s Hardcore scene. Jesse’s influences come from everywhere. All these people coming together helped us come up with a uniques sound. When Dan entered the picture things kind of flipped. He came in with the aggressive vocals.

Q: So you (Vinnie) and Greg had known one another and played together. How long was it before you started to really gel with the other guys?

Vinnie: It all came together rather quickly. I’d say about three rehearsals. The base of those songs were done in about two months. The demo is available on iTunes. It’s on a label out of Europe called ‘Beer and Records”.

Dan: We had the demo in about two to three months. It’s called ‘The Earthquake sessions’.

Vinny: We played our first show in this guys basement in New Brunswick. He had been doing shows there for some time. He called the Gallows who were somewhere between New Jersey and Boston and happened to have an off date. They agreed to do that basement show. Selfish bastards that we are we put ourselves on the bill.

Q: That’s pretty cool considering they’re pretty established and playing on this big tour.

Dan: As a band that’s what they live for. They had told us that the basement show was the most fun they’d had in a long time. From there they took our material, tweeted about us, promoted us on My Space. We already had some of our stuff on my space and some people in the UK caught up about it. We were featured in Metal Hammer after a website called “Thrash Hits” discovered us. A guy named Raz discovered us. The Gallows spread our name around and got us involved with Peter White with
Beer and Records. Liked our demo and released it on iTunes.

Q: What made you choose Treehouse Studios to record the record?

Dan: We shopped a lot of studios in the area. He seemed to be the one who really wanted to make a cohesive record as opposed to just recording a collection of songs. They were the ones who wanted to work with us and put in the time to craft the songs and make them the best they can be.

Q: Do you think they brought out the best in you?

Dan: Both Jay and Wes who owns the studio and my friend who coproduced the record. Wes had some great ideas as to the drums. He went to Berkeley School of Music.

Vinnie: I’m not a classically trained drummer. I play by ear. He just brought in some great ideas.

Dan: It was just little changes. It was just suggestions and sectional changes. What made him really made us realize our full potential in the studio was Jay really helped me find my vocal range. He helped me find one consistent sound and consistent vocal tone to use. What Wes did was help to stylize the guitars and make sense out of the solos. He used the shredding to help the guitarists use their own ears to compose better solos.

Q: What about capturing that emotion and energy of your live performances?

Dan: That was the goal. The goal wasn’t about making a studio album per say. It was about capturing us as we were. There was no intention of going into the studio and tearing our song structures apart. The focus was taking us as we were and capture that in the recording. Collectively we’re very proud of the recording and feel we were able to capture the energy of our live performance on the album.

Q: Do you think the chaotic nature of your live sets will build in the future?

Vinnie: It will probably get more chaotic. We’re playing together more and more and getting to know one another.

Dan: I think it used to be a little too dangerous for people’s taste. When we first started playing out things would get a little violent. I have a lot of pent up aggression and we would get in peoples faces. People didn’t really know us and here was this person getting up in your face.

Q: Your set reminded me of going to see bands like Eye Hate God where you were taken out of your comfort zone. You were even afraid for your safety at times. Kind of what Rock n’ Roll should be.

Dan: I agree. I think you should be a little afraid of the band you’re going to see. But for us I think it was a little too intense in the beginning. In order to gain an audience you can’t go around punching audience members in the face.

Q: You would have to start worrying about lawsuits.

Dan: Well, we’ve got a few of those already. (laughs) We were playing at the Court Tavern and things got pretty wild. Apparently I hit somebody in the face. He didn’t like it so he started heckling us. So I kept punching and slapping him in the face. By the end of the set people were taking my picture and threatening to call the police. We don’t do that kind of thing anymore.

Q: One of the things that makes me nuts is a lot of the crowds these days hang out all the way in the back. They don’t interact with the band if they’re not best friends. You guys actually bring it to the crowd. I was amazed how you spent almost the entire set on the floor with the audience.

Vinnie: We feel if you don’t come to a show but you don’t want to see the band. We’re going to make you see us regardless.

Dan: I just feel people need to get their ears perked up. I think our music is good enough. Anyone who hears us is going to at least bang their head. They might not want to buy the record or be our #1 fan but at least they’ll bang their head. There’s always going to people who want to sit at the bar and get drunk but if you bring it to them and perk their ears up a little bit you just might win them over.

Q: Listening to the record and seeing you perform live really has me baffled as to how you manage to keep your voice.

Dan: There’s a technique to screaming just as there’s a technique to singing. Being able to maximize the production of your voice. A lot of it is breath control, taking your fuel from the right place and delivering it in the right amounts. If you come to me after a show I’m going to sound exactly the way I did before I started singing.

Q: Your sound doesn’t slide in to any specific category. What makes you stand out and want to stand apart?

Vinnie: We never set out to be marketable. We all come from different bands and backgrounds. What came from that was natural. Some of it’s more heavy. Some of it’s more Rock n’ Roll. It’s just the riff that comes out and how we feel on any certain day.

Dan: One of the things that makes us stand out is that we’re dangerous but we’re not reinventing the wheel. We’re looking to put out some really aggressive energy, pissed off lyrics and no filler. No time wasted, no interludes or artsy fartsy shit. Being so aggressive yet rooted in Rock n’ Roll makes us more accessible to a larger audience while still maintaining the dangerous element.

Q: I spoke to Vinny last night at the bar and he mentioned that Chambers might not be on par with the musicianship of the other bands on the bill. Judging from your set and the response from the crowd , that didn’t seem to matter.

Dan: The reason why we went over better that night was that these bands were shredding which was incredible. They knew every note and every scale ever played. Then we’re out there just killing ourselves for your enjoyment. Letting out our own angst and emotion. Most of what we saw with those bands was mathematics. I’m not saying that something like that is bad because I love all Metal but when you’re trying to reach a smaller crowd you want to connect. I think we did that just as
Tiger Flowers did.

for more info, visit the band at http://www.myspace.com/chambersrocks