Chemtrails Interview

How did Chemtrails evolve?

It started as Mia & Laura’s DIY bedroom recording project. Then we roped in some friends so we could actually play the songs live, not really seriously thinking about taking it anywhere. When we uploaded some music online, Mia's old school friend Luke Reilly, who founded Punk Slime Recordings, caught wind of it, and offered to sign us — but we hadn’t even ever played a gig yet. Since then it's become a bigger and bigger part of our lives. We've been through quite a few EPs/albums and a few band incarnations due to band members moving away and eventually Mia & Laura moving to Manchester. The current incarnation with Ian & Liam definitely feels like the "ultimate version" of Chemtrails — we can't really imagine carrying on this project without them.

I’ve seen your music described as post punk, surf grunge, psychedelic and nasty pop. How does that feel?

It feels good — although we all find it pretty difficult to answer the question “what kind of music do you make?”. We've never really tried to make Chemtrails sound like anything specific. We just try and make something we like, and then end up with this weird Frankenstein’s monster made up of fragments of all the music we love.

Your songs and musical energy seem to deal with harrowing themes in a bouncy way, refusing to be brought down. What impact do you hope your music has?

I suppose sometimes we’re attempting to tap into an emotional state resembling Major Kong riding the nuclear bomb in his cowboy hat in Dr Strangelove. The world can feel messed up and hopeless and sometimes it’s exhilarating to just acknowledge that fact and party like there’s literally no tomorrow.

You’ve toured across many countries. How are you received and are any countries most attuned to your music?

We were really positively surprised by how well we seemed to go down in Germany, and France, when we toured there earlier this year. Most of the gigs were full of people that hadn't heard of us before, just coming to check us out — but fortunately somehow our music seemed to really resonate with people in France and Germany. It was a brilliant experience.

What music are you listening to nowadays? What do you like about it?

We never listen to as much new music as we'd like! We often just default to stuff we already know and love — like re-watching an old classic film you've seen many times before on a Sunday afternoon as a source of comfort. Having said that, we do love bands like Warmduscher and our current personal favourites Gas Kunst (who we're playing with in Manchester in November) for their energy, unique sound, catchiness and amazing live performances.

Can you make a living through the music?

Nowhere close — we don’t even break even! The income from record sales, streaming, gig fees and merch is quite a lot lower than the cost of practice rooms, instrument & equipment maintenance, transport & accommodation (when touring), and, most significantly, studio time and production cost when recording new music. We all have day jobs outside the band and pay for the shortfall from our own pockets. Unless you’ve got a really big label with a huge marketing budget behind you, it’s very hard to make any money at all as a band nowadays, let alone a living. That makes it all sound like doom and gloom — obviously we love doing it, and it's something we feel it’s worth spending our money on.

What’s next ?

We're working on our next album, which will be number 4! We’re about halfway through the writing process, and hoping to record it at some point next summer.

What do you wish someone would ask you?

We wish Osees or Warmduscher would ask us to go on tour with them as a regular support band.