The Chevin Interview

Music News caught up with the boys to get the low down on their new single 'Blue Eyes', and to find out what really inspires their signature sound...there's been talk of Hanson, that's all we're saying.

Music News: So how did The Chevin start?

The Chevin: We’ve been together a little over two years, but we’ve known each other a lot longer; some of us played in a band at school for a while, we were in different bands, but eventually we got together as one band.

MN: Were you rival bands?

TC: Yeah we were kind of. One half thought we were rivals, but really we were really nice to the other band. We played a gig with them once and they accused us of sabotaging their equipment, because one their amps didn’t work when they went on stage, but it was a long time ago – they’re still bitter about it [laughing]

MN: Blue Eyes is out this month, tell us a bit about it

TC: It’s a song, which wrote itself really. Whilst messing around on the acoustic, the melody just came out from start to finish. It wasn’t obvious at first what it was going to be, it was just a melody that I was playing around with, but when I actually sat down to write lyrics for it, thinking it would just be a verse, it ended up being the whole song, and then it was just done. It’s one of the more straight forward songs we’ve recorded, and it really did just write itself. Now it’s being released we can be proud that people are getting to hear it – it’s the most ‘Americana’ song on the record overall.

MN: So how does it sit on the album?

TC: ‘Blue Eyes’ is there because it’s different enough from the other stuff on the album to give the record a break, it’s a nice break from the big drums, but it’s also just a great song, so there wasn’t any doubt as to whether or not it was going to be on the album. Also, when we play it live it’s always the song that gets people dancing – they like doing a little jig to it – it’s got this rail-road train shuffle thing going on, but it’s always really fun to play live.

MN: You seem like a very anthemic band; is that your ‘thing’? Is it an intentional sound?

TC: It’s not such an intentional thing, not at all, we’ve just always written big sounding music, and that comes from the influences of the music that we listen to. Growing up listening to a lot of Opera, combined with Rock, and Americana and stuff meant that the music I wrote was always quite big. I’m also a bit of a belter when I sing, so I think we‘re just naturally drawn to making and singing big choruses and big sounds. We never really sit down and decide to do anything on purpose, we’re just influenced by what’s going on around us, what we’re listening to and generally there’s just very little about our music that’s too contrived – we’re natural.

MN: So what are you listening to at the moment?

TC: There’s a whole bunch of stuff, it’s pretty varied. We like the new Beach House album, Edward Sharp, Nicky and the Dove, and lots of other things.

MN: Do you have any guilty pleasures? Who likes Hanson?

TC: [Laughing] There’s loads! Actually we’ve seen Hanson, one of us has, but we have loads of guilty pleasures, we’re fans of melodies, so a lot of the time there’s lots of great Pop songs which may not be the coolest thing in the world, but we’re suckers for a good melody and chorus. We do listen to anything though, pretty much. We did a Cheryl Cole cover on BBC2, and we really like that song. We ended up listening to the Top 40 for hours trying to decide what song to do, and initially we were thinking about Nicki Minaj or Katy Perry, but decided on Cheryl Cole. It’s just a love of music though, whether it’s Rock, Opera, Pop, or whatever, we’ll listen to anything other than perhaps really really heavy metal.

MN: There’s a lot of talk going around about you bringing back the Nineties/Naughties rock and roll, does that feel like pressure to perform?

TC: Not at all, it’s nice that people are saying that about us. We’ve always focused on the songs, that’s the most important thing, and we’re just lovers of music and melodies and that’s the thing that’s timeless – sonically, you can do what you want to a piece of music, but the thing that makes it timeless is the quality of the song and the melody. We love classic songs, from Cat Stevens, to Elton John, to the Beatles, and so the songs that we work on ourselves are usually the most classic, strongest songs out of the ones that we write. So, if we’re being coined to bring back well written songs, then that’s fine by us.

MN: Which, if any, are songs in history that you’d wish you’d written?

TC: Argh! There are billions!

MN: Okay, well what’s the one chorus that you’d want to make your own?

[One by one]

TC: Probably Beethovan’s 9th Symphony, Ode to Joy, then there’s Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da by the Beatles has a brilliant chorus too, and We Will Rock You by Queen.

MN: You’re hitting up the festivals this summer – good luck with the weather - where are you headed?

TC: Yeah! We played T In The Park, it was a great gig, one of our favourites, and we had such a great crowd, we filled the tent, but the weather was unbelievably bad. We felt so bad for the people that had been camping all weekend, because by the time we got there it was just one big mud swamp. People were sleeping in the mud the night before we got there and apparently half the people had left. After our set we went out to watch Keane and after being stood still for all of five minutes we’d sunk into the mud and couldn’t get our legs out. You could tell there were some people that had just given up – they’d been out there and slipped once, got a foot stuck, slipped again, and then just gave up any self respect or care and were head to toe in mud running around.

MN: So what are you up to next?

TC: Blue Eyes is out August 6th, and the album’s being moved about at the moment, but we’re aiming for around fall time, early September. We’ll be releasing more singles as well, so that will be good, and we’ve got The Letterman Show in America, doing a couple of dates out there, then back to the UK for some festivals, and then our official tour, but look out for the dates.

The Chevin’s single ‘Blue Eyes’ is out NOW!

For more information check out www.the-chevin.com