Tra i nuovi gruppi britannici devo dire che mi sto molto appassionando ai The Chevin.
Un tiro epico e decisamente avvincente, ma anche intensità e sapienza pop che denotano un buon livello di maturazione per un gruppo che deve ancora arrivare all'appuntamento con il primo disco.
Ma le carte in regola per rendera la nostra attesa trepidante ci sono tutte!
Ecco la mia intervista via mail con Jon.
Buona lettura.
(Ps...come sempre, grazie Federica!!!!)
- Hello guys, how are you? Just to begin with, can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
Hey Ricky, we're great thanks. We just played T in the Park in Scotland yesterday, which was amazing. The Chevin formed around one and a half years ago. We all grew up together and went to school together but only got together as The Chevin after all playing in various different bands.
- “Champion” and “Drive” are two epic songs, they’re captivating, full of choirs and really exciting, but in the “Champion” ep there are also songs that bring out other aspects of your music. Melody is always in the first row, but I like your acoustic arrangements, too, the ability to create atmospheres “in crescendo”, the capability to slow it down, the romanticism that I often feel: I think that through these songs you showed you have a lot of ideas that will be given shape in your first record, what do you think about it?
Yes we enjoy creating big sounding "landscape music" as well as intimate acoustic moments. We're all big fans of film music and classical music so we enjoy scoring string arrangements too. What we always say though is that a song should sound great when you play it in your bedroom alone with an acoustic guitar.
- I read a lot of references when talking about your music: U2, The Maccabees, Snow Patrol, Killers, Arcade Fire, just to name a few. Are you ready to follow these so successful bands’footsteps?
Obviously we hope to be successful, and if we become so I suppose we'll have to be ready!
- Reading some interviews done to even pretty famous English bands, it seems it’s their opinion that Guitar Pop isn’t really living a happy time. I think that the pop freshness and cleverness of such a band like yours is here to demonstrate it’s the opposite way: The Chevin won’t invent anything new, but what they do is full of sincerity and melody, and Guitar Pop that’s made this way can’t be but right. Am I wrong?
I agree. Their isn't much guitar pop in the charts right now, but maybe that's because there isn't that much of it around... or maybe it's around but nobody knows about it. Whatever the reason the bottom line is a catchy tune is a catchy tune whatever style of music it is.
- A lot of people is waiting for your record to come out. Are all these expectations making you nervous or are you living it up with a full positive boost? I’m always a little afraid whenever I see the writing “Next big thing”!
I wouldn't say we're nervous as we're proud of the album we've made - we just hope people like it! I think the phrase "next big thing" is thrown around so much these days that it's been rendered meaningless.
-Why did you go to the States to record the album? I love Fierce Panda, will the record come out under this label (it published your debut ep!) ?
We always knew we wanted to make the album in a reclusive place with no distractions where we could concentrate 24/7 on the music. Our producer, Noah Shain, heard our demos and wanted to make the album. He knew of Sonic Ranch, an amazing studio full of vintage gear in the Texas desert, right near the Mexican border and he booked us in. It was an amazing place and we hope we can work there again.
-It’s never easy for an English band to make it in the States, how did the concerts you played there go?
So far we've had a great response to our shows in the States.
-Thank you again for your availability. Which song would you choose as the closing soundtrack for this interview we’ve had?
Thank you too! Please play our next single Blue Eyes.