Feature Interview: Chester French
Written by Tiffiny // October 19, 2009 // The Interview // 4 Comments
I am pretty sure that D.A. Wallach wants to meet every fan of Chester French. He regularly conducts chat sessions, responds to readers of his blog and Twitter, and even spent a day making phone calls to thank people who bought their album. At shows, he and bandmate Max Drummey graciously spend time doing meet and greets. To go above and beyond even that, Chester French has established a VIP Concierge Service (go sign up at ChesterFrench.com) that is designed to provide the ultimate fan experience at their live shows (D.A. will tell you more about that later).
Musically, Chester French has a compelling hybrid sound. Involving elements of pop and hip-hop, the band attracts a wide and diverse audience. As with many amazing bands, my partner in crime Melanie convinced me to check them out. I’m so glad I did. Love the Future is a must have. I love it a bit more with every listen. We’ve never steered you wrong, so take our advice and buy this album – and if you get the chance, go to a show and take the band up on the meet and greet – you won’t regret it.
What is the first album that you remember feeling passionate about?
Well, I first have to preface this by saying that I can only speak for myself because Max isn’t here right now, but the first album I felt very strongly about may have been Aerosmith’s Get a Grip. I felt very strongly about that.
Chester French – She Loves Everybody
What have you been listening to lately?
We’ve been listening to a lot of Motown on the bus and watching DVDs of The Temptations and the Four Tops, and listening to a lot of new stuff. Max has been listening to the Yacht album. We both like this band Beach House, they just put out their second record. And Grizzly Bear, I like their new record, and the new Raekwon album that just came out, some good music.
You are pretty involved with your fans.
Hell yeah, it’s a movement.
What has that experience been like for you, with so much personal contact?
It’s been cool. I mean, what we do is go around the country every day throwing these rock parties, and what we realized after a while is that it’s not any kind of press or magazine covers that’s really keeping people coming to the shows, it’s the fact that we know them and that they appreciate the music we’re making and the shows we’re putting on, so it’s just very important for us to make sure that they’re happy. And we think that a lot of the music industry has it ass-backwards because they think that it’s about the artists doing the fans a favor, and we really think it’s the other way around. So we really try to show appreciation, and give our supporters everything they desire.
You’ve been doing a lot of touring, what have been some of your favorite stops?
Well, we’ve done a lot of different tours, fortunately with a lot of different kinds of groups which has given us this luxury of performing for so many varied audiences. We’ve done Lady Gaga, Common, Pharrel, Gym Class Heroes and now we’re on this Blink 182 and Weezer tour. The cities that are consistently awesome are our hometowns, obviously – Milwaukee where I’m from and Boston where Max is from – very strong support centers. Detroit is always really fun. We did a show in Jacksonville, Florida that was just like, crazy – the audience was awesome. That’s one thing – it’s very different to go to a show…when I go to a show I would really prefer to sit down and take in the music but when you’re performing a show you realize that you want everyone standing up and packed in together and sweaty and losing their minds. Those audiences are the most fun, always. And they get a better show, too, because the energy that they send back is just so extreme that you can’t help but take notice of it and respond and play to it.
Is there anything that you’re looking forward to?
In life?
Well, we can do that too, but on the tour specifically?
Yeah, we’re nearing the end of this tour with Blink 182, it’s been such a great opportunity and it’s the first time we’ve played venues this size – we’re playing to 15 – 30,000 people per night, so it’s really on a tremendous scale. We lived in LA for a year and those audiences are cool and we have a lot of supporters in California so we’re always excited to get back there, and Seattle is a city where they’ve been playing our song on the radio a lot so it’s going to be fun there too. Obviously Denver today as well. What is your favorite thing about a live performance? Damn, the coolest thing about a live performance is if you get an audience that vibes with what you’re doing. It’s almost a form of mass hypnosis and people just lose control, and then they make you comfortable also losing control, and it can be like a very cool, energetic and free experience. When that happens, it’s really awesome. Most of the time for us especially when we’re opening for people, we’ve gotta give them their first taste of what our group is all about. So that ends up being a more controlled and deliberate presentation of what we do, but if you have an audience that is really energetic and really giving their all, then you can have the flexibility to kind of lose yourself in the performance and just say things you wouldn’t say and move how you wouldn’t move, and you end up hitting notes or coordinating your actions in a way that you didn’t even think was possible, so that’s very cool. Are there any interesting stories from the tour that you’d like to share? For this tour there aren’t too many super interesting stories. The Blink 182 guys all have families, so they’ve had kids out on tour. It’s been a very warm and friendly environment and that’s been great, you know. Obviously they’re touring at such a successful level that the comforts of home are really with us everywhere on tour – we’ve had great food every day, and comfortable dressing rooms and there’s nothing to complain about. It’s not very inconvenient so that’s been great – a relief. What experience would you like people to come away with after listening to your music? Well if they listen to our album I think…you know, the experience I always want when I listen to a new album, that I’m always yearning for, is not only something that’s incredibly sublime and aesthetically pleasing, but also something that has a sense of freshness and creativity to it. I also want something that sounds like it took work and had a lot of passion put into it, so we try to spend a lot of time making the records. I don’t want people to ever hear them as being overproduced, but I think music’s a form of communication and it’s a way of letting people see what’s inside of our minds and what we feel strongly about – our take on the world. So I’d just like them to walk away feeling positive and inspired and happy. You know, we don’t want them to be depressed after they hear the album or anything, so that’s always a victory. What do you like to do in your off time? Well, in our off time we like working on music, obviously – in fact I think coming up with new songs is most fun when there’s not any pressure. We started out doing this as a hobby just for fun and the more that we can replicate that state of mind when we’re creating now, the better the product’s going to be, because the more fun and genuine the expression is. We like making music. I like mountain biking, and hanging out with friends and drinking beer and going home to Wisconsin, so, hell yeah. What are your favorite restaurants? Well, Max really likes Dunkin Donuts. He’s a newly committed vegan, so I’m not sure what remains that he can eat there, but he used to really love the donuts and the breakfast sandwiches. For me, when I’m home in Milwaukee, I love a place called Beans and Barley, which has a lot of good healthy food, I like a place called Pop’s which has a ton of unhealthy food – custard, burgers, grilled cheese – I mean, that stuff is pretty irresistible, and smoothies – very highly delicious. What are your favorite books? Well, I’m so glad you asked that. I’m reading one of my favorites right now. It’s a book that I just started reading called The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene, and I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It’s all about the nature of space and time. For someone who’s got more of a secular perspective as I do, I think it’s the closest thing I’ve read in a long time to something religious that really shines a lot of light on the nature of existence and the nature of the universe, but is also grounded in very current and experimental science. I love it, it’s great. What’s next for you guys musically? We’re starting to work on our next album, which may just be the next edition of our free album, which is called Jacques Jams Vol. I: Endurance, which is a free rap album that we produced. We decided to release it in addition to our debut album Love The Future because we have a lot of fans from different parts of the spectrum of taste. It has Diddy, Pharell, Jermaine Dupri, Bun B, N.O.R.E., Jadakiss, Talib Kweli – a lot of rappers on it. This next album might be the next chapter of Jacques Jams, so we’re just trying to work on that and see where that’s going to go. And we’ll be touring – doing a headlining tour hopefully pretty soon, and just trying to enjoy life and spread positivity, and get people excited. Is there anything else you’d like to add? Yeah, we really want your readers to check out ChesterFrench.com. We actually have something called a VIP Concierge Service. We try to think of our supporters as the VIPs of this operation so the concierge service is designed to provide them with anything they might need, be it music, backstage experiences – really whatever they’re looking for. So I invite people to go to ChesterFrench.com and join that – it’s free. Chester French is D.A. Wallach and Max Drummey. Love the Future is out now (buy it at ChesterFrench.com. Follow Chester French on Twitter, MySpace or Facebook.
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4 Comments on "Feature Interview: Chester French"
Really, he loves Brian Greene? This guy just officially became beyond awesome in my book.
“And we think that a lot of the music industry has it ass-backwards because they think that it’s about the artists doing the fans a favor, and we really think it’s the other way around.”
Best. Statement. Ever. for anyone who has an audience that’s allowing them to do what they love. I’m a little in love now.
Ha! They’re both Harvard alum. You smart people would totally get along great.
I’ve totally fallen for bands over comments like that.