A short talk with Chime School on the self-titled record, Johnny Marr, and The Girl On A Motorcycle.
Diogo: There's a certain feeling of happiness that arrives with the first chords of "Wait Your Turn", the opener for your debut. However, this "happiness" is tinted with nostalgia. This "nostalgic" element doesn't seem to originate from the similarities to '80s jangle pop. Instead, I'd consider "nostalgia" a characteristic inherent to the sonority itself.
Andy: The song describes one of my favorite feelings, riding a motorbike on a clear wintry San Francisco day. Fall and Winter are the best seasons here. Our notoriously windy, foggy, almost muggy air is finally still, crisp and clear. The sun is low in the sky all day, breaking the relentless gray and filling it with color. Also, it's finally (sort of) actually cold, which I love. It was also sort of influenced by the film Girl on a Motorcycle, which despite its incredible campiness, was somewhat influential to me in my early 20s. There's a scene where Marianne Faithful sneaks out of her house in the cold wintry morning and rides off on her motorbike, which kind of stuck with me as I had just started riding mopeds and hadn't yet traded up to a real motorcycle-- I still craved the feeling of being able to just ride anywhere.
Diogo: There's this paranoid hurriedness in your delivery when accompanied by the arpeggios, although the melodies are very upbeat and catchy. In a way, Chime School can be a relaxingly anxious record.
Andy: Mike at Slumberland really nailed it when he wrote that the record sounded like a "lifetime's worth of pop fandom waiting to burst out." When I was writing and recording the record there was this kind of ecstatic feeling that I was able to be creative at all. I think I felt like I had to get as much out of the faucet before the water ran out!
Diogo: "Gone Too Fast" almost sounds like an "attempt" to recognize this state in Oneself, slowing down and concentrating all its energy on the hook.
Andy: The lyrics to this song were written in the Summer of 2020, very much deep-pandemic lockdown where every day was sort of the same, and everything was kind of awful. Sonically I wanted a more spaced out, dynamic sound to round out the record.
Diogo: Offtopic: What is it in Johnny Marr's peculiar guitar technique and beautifully-written melodies that earn The Smiths a place in the heart of the new indie Romantics; that gives the band this immediately recognizable sound?
Andy: You don't have to dig too deep to find an interview where Johnny Marr describes his playing style as eschewing hypermasculine rockerism that so defined rock 'n' roll and punk by the 1980s. That means almost never bending a guitar string, rarely chugging a power chord and mostly playing with lots of open chords and a capo; and finding the jangle in chord phrasings that combine fretted and open strings. That's what's interesting to me about the guitar and it's what I try to do.
Diogo: Chime School, where will you be heading next?
Andy: Sadly nowhere due to Omicron. I've had several shows canceled already, but I am scheduled to play San Francisco's Noise Pop Festival with labelmates Papercuts in late February. I'm also starting to put together a live group, and have a bundle of songs written that I plan to start recording soon.
Part 2 - Alienation Through The Lens Of Art
Diogo: It seems to me that culture became more homogeneous with the arrival of the Digital Era. Everyone is connected via social networks and tastemakers control the direction of trends. Is this a real threat to micro-niches, DIY culture, and the old habits of music sharing? In what ways?
Andy: I don't think the proliferation of the internet and digital media deserves all the credit in this regard. It's true there is a sense of being overwhelmed with all of the access we have, and we do lose some context that comes along with needing access to actual people, places, and physical media in order to discover music. But there are so many corners of taste and history that are accessible now with the proliferation of digital media, I see it as a net positive. In my opinion, the biggest threat to micro-niches and DIY culture is late-stage capitalism and crushing inequality. It's so hard to find space and time to do any kind of art when capitalism has monetized practically every square inch and second of life.
Diogo: Oscar Wilde once wrote, "Life imitates art far more than art imitates life". May I have the benefits of your thought on this quote?
Andy: I haven't read the essay that this quote comes from but I bet Oscar Wilde would be on my side when I say that I'm much more inspired by art than I am by life. Most of life is spent doing shit you don't wanna do! Art is an escape! Way more inspiring than life!
Diogo: I believe art is the grandest form of expression. I can't see it as anything other than a reflection of the human spirit. Where do you think this visceral necessity of creating art comes from?
Andy: I know this sounds pretentious but I tend to be most interested in art for its dialogue with other art. How influences are picked up and blended with other things and spun into something new or unique. I don't claim to know anything about the human spirit, but absorbing, and rearranging influences seems essentially human to me.
Diogo: Do you think that the creation of art has somewhat of a practical function in a community? How so? If the production of music reflects the human spirit, listeners will be able to recognize themselves in it, turning this form of art into a communal experience.
Andy: Absolutely. Like I was saying above, while it's totally accurate to point out all the things I've lifted from the canon of pop music, I can't understate the influence other bands and musicians in San Francisco have had on me. Other artists in the community definitely inspire me to push myself harder creatively. There's sort of a competitive camaraderie, at least in my mind. Whether it's individual performances at a show, their recorded output, or just appreciating musicians who are incredibly talented, there's a lot I've been influenced by here and I can definitely say the Chime School record would not be possible if it were not for the "water" in San Francisco, so to speak.
Diogo: Speaking of "community", what's your favorite album of all time? And what about your favorite album released in 2021?
Andy: Favorite album of all time is pretty impossible to say. Teenage Fanclub Songs From Northern Britain? Go-Betweens 16 Lovers Lane? Lightships Electric Cables? Side 1 of the Ronettes LP? The My Bloody Valentine Ecstasy and Wine compilation? Sea Urchins Stardust comp? Primitives Lovely? Shop Assistants s/t? PET SOUNDS? haha.
Speaking of "community" - Massage Still Life and Lane Lines got the most plays for me this year; followed by the Telephone Numbers Ballad of Doug; Flowertown Time Trials and "S/T"; Hits Cielo Nublado. I love all the Reds, Pinks, Purples stuff but Anxiety Art got me first and pushed me to try way harder on my own record so it's my favorite of the bunch so far. The Umbrellas debut is great. I really dug the Semi Trucks record and their amazing set at my record release show a while back. April Magazine is more of a movement than just a "2021 record" but they're on the list too. The new Sad Eyed Beatniks live group was terrific this year and a welcome example that you can have a band that's different from your records and great in its own way. Although we didn't release anything in 2021, my bandmates in Seablite are always inspiring. There are a lot of great up-and-coming groups like Torrey, Aluminum, Children Maybe Later. There's just so much great stuff happening right now!
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