Chelsey and the Noise, one of the most promising young bands of the dark electronic scene, has released a very inviting track, “Make It Hurt.”
Below is our interview with the duo about the advantages of Craigslist and visual inspiration, experiments with extreme music and future plans.
How did Chelsey and the Noise form? And what’s the musical background of you two?
Brent: I came from a punk rock background in high school and started getting heavily into electronic music production in college. Later I joined a rock/shoegaze band playing bass. The band needed a vocalist so we put an ad on Craigslist. A few days later we met Chelsey and she was a perfect fit for the band with her instant vocal melodies and unique tone. We immediately started writing more songs together and playing shows all over the Bay Area. When that band broke up Chelsey and I decided to start our own adventure, mixing our rock band background with electronic sound sources.
Chelsey: When I “auditioned” for Brent’s other band it was the first time I ever really sang in front of people or with any kind of band. I’ve always loved writing songs on my guitar but would get really crippling anxiety whenever I tried to play and sing in front of anybody, it felt like something I could never do. I had just moved to the Bay Area and I think I felt empowered by the anonymity of living in a place where I didn’t know anyone and felt inspired to try things I had been too scared to do before. I just kept telling myself “I never have to see any of these guys again, it doesn’t matter if I suck, there’s no reason to be nervous.” And now I’ve seen one of those guys every week for the past couple years and music has become a huge part of my life. So the risk definitely ended up paying off. Thanks Craigslist.
You have your own vision of music production and you use memorable vocal techniques. How did you come to your style and what are your influences?
Brent: When I first started making beats for CATN I always wanted to capture the sound of a heavy rock band through synthesizers and sequences. I never thought we would be considered Industrial but people defined our distorted sounds as some sort of nine inch nails inspired project. I’m flattered by people listening to our music in general and they can label it whatever they want :)
Chelsey: Brent and I both listen to a large variety of genres and I think our music is a culmination of what we grew up listening to from pop, to hip-hop, to punk and metal. Industrial is a really cool genre for us to be in because there is so much room to experiment with all of those influences. Vocally I’m probably most inspired by all the forms of punk music I’ve listened to- I’ve always been more drawn to vocalists who were distinctively themselves more than they were “good” singers. I don’t have the strongest voice and am not trained, so I feel like the differentiator I can have is just being myself and letting my voice do what it wants to do. Not being tied to having to sound pretty or be perfectly in key allows me to not take myself too seriously and try different things.
What’s the process of songwriting like for you? Do each of you have specific roles and responsibilities?
Brent: We had more defined roles at the beginning of the process. I would make the initial beat or synth lead and send it to Chelsey. As I added more and more layers to our songs Chelsey would write vocals but we always ended writing the songs together. For our second EP “Blank Frames” we wrote the majority of those songs together and I think it shows through the stronger conveying of feelings and emotions in each song. Our last two singles “MAKE IT HURT” and “Mercy Kneel” were written almost entirely together and it’s allowed us to experiment and challenge each other to try new things.
Chelsey: We’re also starting to take turns with creating the initial production for song ideas, which I think will keep our output interesting because we both start tracks from totally different places. It’s a cool way to keep us both exercising different muscles and not get stuck in a formula.
You make impressive visuals for your releases. How do you come up with the concepts of them?
Brent: Chelsey is the visual powerhouse of the band. I really just help with bigger ideas when needed but Chelsey is able to visualize the larger concepts through execution.
Chelsey: When we write songs I always write from a visual place. As soon as we get a working title for a song my mind creates a specific image and environment to work from. When I’m thinking of what kind of instrumentation I want I look at that mental image and suggest sounds based on those parameters. Those images and the lyrical themes of the song are then used to create the visuals. As an example our newest song MAKE IT HURT is about acts of fixing and destroying- particularly in a relationship that feels broken beyond repair. The instrumentation reminds me of both hammers hitting/construction sounds and things breaking/shattering so I wanted to play off of that contrast. The imagery of tools came to me because they are used to build and repair, but can also be used to hurt or threaten- which led me to create the accompanying characters seen on the cover. They were initially inspired by construction workers but I wanted them to have a darker almost horror vibe and represent a gross over characterization of emotional extremes in relationships. The song to me feels very bright and abrasive so I chose to use primary colors. I always naturally gravitate towards dark colors so it was a fun challenge to use vivid, cheerful colors and apply them in a way that still captured our darker, more unsettling style.
There was a pretty bold part of growling in your previous release. Do you plan to experiment with extreme music elements again?
Brent: I’ll never forget when Chelsey told me she wanted to scream in “Mercy Kneel”. Once we finished the track I told her that “Producing a track with screams in it has made my high school self extremely fulfilled”.
Chelsey: I’ve always loved metal music, the vocals especially, but could never figure out how to do it. I decided to start trying to figure it out again and one day it just clicked. Brent told me to record myself doing it so he could hear and Mercy Kneel was the song I was working on at the time. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and it was really awesome to hear people react positively to that song- we weren’t sure how it was going to be received. I would definitely love to include more of those influences in our music in the future and get better at that vocal style.
How do you feel about the modern darkwave/industrial/gothic scene? Would you collaborate with somebody?
Chelsey: I think it’s a really cool, creative scene and it’s been awesome getting to connect with other bands and the people in that community. It feels like we’re able to not worry about having to sound a certain way to be accepted into it. We’re looking forward to meeting and working with more people from the industrial world this year.
Brent: I would love to collaborate with someone in the future. We have a very particular sound so finding band with a similar writing style may be a little tricky but I would be open to a remix, collab, or a feature in the near future.
Tell us a little about “MAKE IT HURT”. And what are your future plans?
Brent: “MAKE IT HURT” was one of the second wave of songs we had written at the beginning of “Blank Frames” but it had a slightly more digital and rougher sound. We came back to it after Chelsey had written some preliminary vocals and we started layering more and more heavy elements on top. Eventually we added the live bass you hear pumping throughout the song and we ended with the breakdown with the heavy guitars. When I was writing this part on Guitar Chelsey leaned over and said “What’s the most metal thing you can play?” Then the ending guitar part was born!
Chelsey: We have a dropbox folder full of song ideas so our future plans definitely include releasing more music, but we’re also working on our live show and are looking forward to playing shows soon. We’re super appreciative of everyone who has shown us support and feel really motivated to work hard to create as much as we can.
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