Home Tours Videos Interviews Reviews Photography Featured Artist Contact THEME

INTERVIEW: Colin Burrowes of Chachi On Acid

image
Chachi On Acid are a punk band from Listowel, Ontario, Canada. The group, who are dedicated to sharing their love of music with anyone who will listen, aren’t your usual punk rockers, as their sound encompasses multiple genres that combine to create a sound that is nothing short of unique. Recently, I was able to speak with vocalist Colin Burrowes about everything from the group’s recent tour to his hopes for the future.

How would you describe your sound to those who have never listened to Chachi On Acid before?
Our music is a gracious gift that we ram down the throat of the world; guttural garage punk screams of love.

Who were your musical inspirations growing up and how do you think they’ve influenced the music you’re making now?
Our musical inspirations were vast, so I thank God that there are narrow people who have kept us in check – otherwise, we might have done something interesting by now. Some big influences [for] me over the years were people like Shane MacGowan, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones and The Beach Boys – many generic, paint by numbers punk influences. We also take our fair share from little known bands like Sockeye. Some of the derivative bands doing the Sockeye thing suck real bad, but most are a lot of fun. That is just something you might want to search up on YouTube if you are into lowbrow humour and lo-fi music; fun for some, but not for everyone.

Devo make us happy, as do 80s hardcore bands like Black Flag and Minor Threat - again, pretty generic reply, but we love them. Early 90s Lookout Records really got me going as well: Screeching Weasel, The Queers and Mr. T Experience. Steve Albini’s bands always give me a good aural kick in the ass: Big Black, Rape Man and Shellac. I like of lot of really old blues and delta music from the 20s and 30s – hell, we even steal pop sounds from a lot of generations, but I don’t comprehend modern pop music though… guess we’re old now. [Other influences] include Jerry Jerry and the Sons of Rhythm Orchestra, The Grusomes, My Dog Popper and Deja Voodoo. There’s lots of great music on this planet.

I’m glad you didn’t ask me about books. They’re even better than music.

You’ve been a band for a while now. What would you say is your biggest accomplishment thus far?
That’s an interesting question. I think the simple answer is in the question; our biggest accomplishment is that we’ve held it together this long. I’ve seen many bands disintegrate over the years. Some people seem to think you can’t balance everyday life with a band and keep it going, but I say you can.

Your music has a real sixties feel. Is there a specific reason why you decided to take it in that direction?
I don’t think the sixties feel is intentional. We do listen to a lot of music from every decade since the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, so I’m not surprised those sounds slip in. There was never a decision made to take it in that direction – it just happened. Other people hear a lot of 1980s hardcore as well. I’m also happy with that, but that was never our intention either. I think what both those eras of music have in common is that it was a simple, basic rock ‘n’ roll with more aggression or fuzz. I assume you were referring sixties garage sounds, but I think even some sixties pop is sneaking into the sound now. We’re getting old [and] our roots are showing.

Your most recent release is you communicate a sense of harmony to others. What was the recording process like?
you communicate a sense of harmony to others was actually recorded in one afternoon session back in 1998. The songs ended up being split up and mixed in with [ones] from other recording sessions and getting released on a bunch of 7”s and compilations in the late 1990s. The energy from [the] session ended up being kind of diluted because of that, so, fifteen years later, we released the songs as they were first recorded in the order we blasted through them. I think [it’s] my favourite release to date. We were ready to blast those sounds out and we nailed them. Most songs were live off the floor in one or two takes.

Where do you get the inspiration for your lyrics?
My favourite lyrics out of the ones I’ve written have come out of mundane, everyday life – you know, shit like shitty jobs or ups and downs in relationships ([some of which] ended twenty years ago because sometimes come back). Things that mean a lot to me also inspire songs, like coffee and sex, for instance.

You’re about to embark on a province-wide tour of Ontario. What are you most excited about, in regards to it?
Due to technical difficulties and scheduling conflicts, I was unable to finish this interview before the tour, but maybe that was meant to be because the answer to this question changed extremely during the tour and subsequent weeks. [It] was brilliant and I am looking forward to more. I had to bring in two musicians to fill in for band members that couldn’t make it [and] I found this was good and bad. Fresh blood with a fairly positive view made for brilliant shows that got better and better as the week went on. It seems to me that Chachi On Acid has been bringing a lot of negative energy to live performances recently, so this was thoroughly refreshing. You don’t have to be a sack of negative shit to put on an energetic performance, so going into shows without that negative weight was brilliant – I loved it.

The problem is, the regular line-up just recorded a brilliant batch of songs, probably the best we’ve done. I’m excited to see them released. There will most likely be a full CD on BHJ Records from Arizona and a couple of people have discussed vinyl releases. I’m hoping all those see the light of day, as I’ve put regular Chachi On Acid live performances on hold and have no idea how long the hiatus will last – maybe forever. Nipples and Heath still have Synthetic Lout going in the meantime, so give them so love, and Liam and myself will probably do a west coast tour from Vancouver to Los Angeles with the members of The Mertz Tones. That will probably happen sometimes in 2015. We’ll probably do that as a brand new band, though I’ll be happy to perform some Chachi songs in the set.

If you could tour with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?
Since the last tour made me smile, I’ll stick it out with Liam (A.K.A Jumbo Thompson) and those two fabulous Americans, Scot Milligan and Brian Donnelly, of The Mertz Tones.

I know what you’re saying. You’re saying “that’s no fun”, but wait, I’m not done yet. We’d bring Kurt Cobain as guitar tech and Henry Rollins as tour guide/driver. We’d sit Kurt up front, riding shotgun – whoops, didn’t mean to slip that in – but he’d be up front in the passenger seat with Henry driving and we’d let them debate the merits of suicide. It might not be funny, but it’d be enlightening. Some of the best songs are inspired by dark issues.

Who would play you if a movie were to be made about your life?
I’d hope for someone like Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad, but Hollywood would probably pick someone like Dustin Diamond. If they were using an unknown, I’d suggest Kevin Allesee - hell, he’s even a fan of the band – but right now, he’s just another starving actor in Los Angeles delivering pizzas.

What’s something fans would be surprised to know about you?
Hmm, something fans might not know about me? For many years as a child I was a member of a fairly talented church choir. I never caught onto the whole singing in key thing [and] was pretty much relegating to the background, but yes, this beautiful voice you hear on most Chachi songs is the result of years of training. They gave up on me and I gave up on God.

Any last words?
You are all wonderful, each and every one of you, and don’t let me or anyone else tell you differently. If you ask real nice, I might end the liveshow hiatus, but I highly doubt it. New songs should be around for listening by the end of September.

Thanks for the interview.

You can find Chachi On Acid’s music on Bandcamp, and make sure to give the band a “like” on Facebook.

By Clare Fitzgerald
  1. cazprescott reblogged this from legendarykidspress
  2. legendarykidspress posted this