Chat Pile: Breaking The Mold
“This is definitely the record we would have made if nobody cared at all.” No-one in CHAT PILE expected to be doing this full-time. Formed in Oklahoma City in 2019, their name taken from the mountains of mining waste that litter the northeastern part of their home state, how many grim and grimy noise rock bands that sing about the untold horrors of global capitalism do you know that actually ‘make it’? And thus, as those words from frontman Raygun Busch summarise so succinctly, the four-piece have paid little mind to the fact that they released one of the best albums of 2022 in their debut full-length God’s Country, and indeed to any pressures that might have brought to bear on the creation of its outstanding follow-up Cool World.
“It’s nice to have one record anyone cares about,” smiles guitarist Luther Manhole, joining Raygun, bassist Stin and drummer of few words Cap’n Ron for a full-band Zoom call a good few weeks ahead of the album’s release. “There is some pressure to make a second good one, but it’s less pressure. I’m just more relieved we even have one good one that people like. It’s awesome to even be in a position to have to do a good follow-up.”
Unsurprisingly then, CHAT PILE saw little reason to mess with the process that had yielded such fantastic results on their previous efforts. They wrote as they always have: live and in their own space, with Stin doing the recording engineering and the only real difference being that they handed over mixing duties to Ben Greenberg of UNIFORM in what marks the first time they’ve allowed any outside input into the sonic aspect of their work. But Cool World is still far from a rehash, the band instead expanding their already characterful sound to incorporate bits of jangly indie and gazey melodies and thick and filthy grooves that make even less of a secret of their already well-documented love of KORN.
“We have a tendency to not really get in each other’s way,” elaborates Stin on how it all comes together. “Everyone really contributes equally. Sometimes someone might have a suggestion here and there but I think what’s cool about our band is that we all trust each other quite a bit, trust each other’s taste, so if somebody does something that maybe you weren’t expecting it’s usually a good thing for us. I feel like because we’re all on the same page with that trust things have a tendency to be cohesive, even when there’s all these different ingredients being thrown into the pot.”
Part of that cohesion, too, comes from the hypnotic power of the record, those aforementioned mesmeric grooves and Raygun’s often repeated one-liners doing much to ensure that Cool World burrows under your skin deep and quickly. “I think about mantras all the time,” explains the frontman. “In my songwriting even before CHAT PILE I was getting into writing lyrics that are just kind of mantras and stuff, [where] some songs have one sentence or something like that, so that kind of bleeds into CHAT PILE and it’s in this record for sure.”
Of course, there’s even more weight in the words themselves; as its title sarcastically promises, Cool World sees the band cast their net more widely than they have before, reflecting on themes of violence and oppression the world over rather than just at home. “I like the idea of writing about what’s happening in the world right now,” reflects Raygun. “I just want it to be very now and I don’t want there to be a lot of fantasy in what I’m writing. Does it take a toll? It’s easy to compartmentalise stuff like this, because I love horror fiction and movies and stuff like that and whatever else. Also there’s lots of crazy stuff happening in the world right now and we’re seeing it in an unprecedented way… That’s taken a toll anyway, so this is more just an expression of how I’m feeling right now.”
It’s probably worth pointing out at this juncture that none of the guys in CHAT PILE seem particularly miserable though. They may make some of the most harrowingly bleak music you’ve ever heard, and the horrors that Raygun speaks of are indeed all too real and relentless, but the foursome are also clearly having a good time. Over the summer they played to some of the biggest crowds they’ve ever had at hardcore festivals like Outbreak and Sound & Fury, the band clearly relishing the chance to step a little outside of their niche, and hoping there might be more opportunity to do the same in the future – “KORN or SLIPKNOT hit us up!” grins Luther.
“I hope people hear it and other people who are making music maybe feel some freedom to not feel as locked into genre constraints or a sort of conservative approach to heavy music,” offers Stin on his hopes for Cool World specifically. “My hope is that maybe we inspire some people to let their defences down and experiment a little bit more, because I do see a lot of heavy music kind of getting locked into these sorts of patterns and I think if this type of music is going to continue throughout the years we need to break it open a little bit and do something different with it. Maybe we can inspire people to do that but we’ll see – also I’m probably giving ourselves way too much credit there!”
And beyond that? He’s allowed his bandmates to do most of the talking today, but we’ll give Ron the last words: “Maybe inspire people along the way, keep meeting cool people.” Nice.
Cool World is out now via The Flenser. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS114 here:
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