INTERVIEW: Chelsea Grin

Just before they hit the stage in Bristol to bring their brand of deathcore to the baying masses (read our review here), we had the chance to sit down with David Flinn [Bass], Tom Barber [Vocals], Stephen Rutihauser [Guitar] and Pablo Viveros [Drums] of CHELSEA GRIN to discuss the making of their darkest album to date and where the band plan to go now that they have finally found the ground beneath their feet.

Why are you guys playing Eternal Nightmare in its entirety on this tour?

David: I think it’s an important record for us, personally. The process we went through to make it, we’re really proud of this album we have a new vocalist and the line up is kinda different, we really feel like coming out with a new album and new faces we wanted to impress onto people that this is the band now, this is the music we’re playing. Along with the new album front to back we still try to go through our discography and play the tracks that fans most want to hear.

Is it about establishing Eternal Nightmare as a fresh start for CHELSEA GRIN?

David: I guess so, in one way or another, I mean the line up has been pretty consistent with its line up. It’s not so much about that though, I guess it was when we announced that Alex [Koehler, ex-vocals] had left, there were a lot of people that voiced opinions like that we shouldn’t even be a band anymore, or that we should change our name, but we were kinda in a mode where we needed some time to make this album. Now that it’s done, we just wanted to showcase it. Some people will wait like 10 years to play an album front to back, this was just a chance to do something new.

How weird is it to play an album front to back live?

Stephen: It fucking rules, it’s way cooler this way in my opinion. People are forced to listen to our new songs, I like that. For me, it’s like “well you have to listen to this” if you want the old songs, which you all do, and you’re gonna have to listen to the new shit and hopefully enjoy it!

How did the setlist go down on the first show of the tour in London?

Stephen: Yeah, all the new songs, I thought they all went really, really well.

David: Not only that, I think in a live aspect it’s very rare that you get to capture the vibe of a whole album, because when an artist is putting an album together they’re thinking about how those songs will play in and out of each other, the interludes that go between, and it sets a mood for the whole album. There are ups and downs, happy parts, sad parts, and us playing it front to back gives people a chance to feel what we were feeling when we put the album together. I think that’s a cool thing to do live.

Why is Eternal Nightmare considered your darkest album to date?

Stephen: It was just a bit all over the place. Like it’s a dark album for more reasons than just Alex leaving, when we started writing he was still in the band, and we just kinda had our own personal reasons for it coming out so dark. When we got into the recording and creation process, everything that did happen with Alex and still things outside of that just kind of added up to be all like that. For me it was an outlet, it wasn’t hard doing any of this, it was actually more exciting and therapeutic. The whole time, even if I was angry and pissed off, if I could write about it, that’s the medicine.

David: Ultimately yeah that’s why the album came out kinda dark, was that everybody was pushed to extreme emotional situations in one way or another. Whether it was things within the band or just life, this album was really focused on the feeling of the music and making sure the song encompasses the feelings we felt first time. The album did come out dark because we focused on negative things at that time, and the negative sides of life, but we tried to do a spin off in some ways. Not making the songs dismal, but touching on subject matters that are a bit darker.

Where did you fit into the writing process Tom?

Tom: Well David had already written seven of the songs, then i came in and did the last three and we just bounced Ideas off each other for those three songs.

Stephen: Lyrically it was an interesting process.

Interesting how?

Stephen: Just because we didn’t have a vocalist to write lyrics for us, so David and our producer at the time just worked to create most of everything and then Tom came in and created the last few songs with Drew and David.

Playing so many shows and festivals like you guys do every year, what’s the next goal for CHELSEA GRIN moving forward?

Stephen: We just wanna get bigger in Europe. Bigger everywhere, I mean that’s the goal, just hitting everywhere hard. In Europe you have to come out here a lot. For us, being a US band, we have our presence there but we still need to grow, but when you come to Europe and you’re kinda like starting from square one. Which is why we came out and hit it so hard, because these shows aren’t as big for us as they would be in America, but that’s the point of us coming here so often, and playing festivals is huge for us cause it puts us in front of so many people. It’s all about new ears, so I hope that new people are coming to these shows!

How much fun is it to take a sound as heavy as CHELSEA GRIN and put in on a festival sized stage?

Pablo: It’s so much fun, it’s why we play heavy music, because it’s so much fun. Looking out over the crowd and watching people beat the shit out each other is just fun, it’s good energy I think.

Stephen: I feel like I would rather watch like 400 kids fuck each other up than have 10,000 people dancing happy, I don’t know why, it just gets me off to see people so aggressive.

What’s been the rowdiest show CHELSEA GRIN have ever played?

Stephen: I think we would all have a different answer! I’ve only been with the band for a few years but I would say Hellfest 2017. That was one of the biggest crowds we’ve ever had the opportunity to play for, and it was the biggest mosh pit I’ve ever seen this band have. It was 2000 kids running around, pitting and doing walls of death. That was definitely a show I’ll never forget.

Pablo: That one is pretty good. There was this Warped Tour we did in 2014 in California, and we were the last band to go on on our stage. For some reason the kids just had so much energy left and they went fucking nuts. I remember seeing two trash cans just full of trash flying through the air, and I remember thinking of our how insane it was.

David: My show would have to be Warped Tour 2018, Salt Lake City.

Stephen: That was such a cool show. Not only was the entire area in front of us packed out, but the area side of stage was packed as well, and all you could see as far you could was just full. It was crazy to see, especially coming from a hometown crowd.

Eternal Nightmare is out via Rise Records.

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