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Published on May 6th, 2020 | by MuzikScribe

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Chaz Cardigan: Cracking Codes To Emotion

Tell me your whole inception into music — When did you first become interested in it? And, how did it all begin for Chaz Cardigan?  

Really, I just liked making things. I was always trying to come up with stories, or dances, or making inventions with shoestring and tape; music was another thing to make. There was always music on around my house.  My family had pretty dynamic taste, but as a kid I really gravitated to the ’90’s pop that my older sister was listening to. Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Britney Spears, that whole Max Martin school — that was what I thought music was, and I sang all the time. I picked up piano and guitar, but in 5th grade I heard “Bohemian Rhapsody” for the first time and it just lit the fuse for me, “this is what I’m going to do with my life!” I was pretty othered as a kid, and music suddenly was this way of immediate connection with people. So I started playing in little punk bands, learning classic rock, getting into rap, and playing these gigs and open mics at local bars, and that eventually led me to start making trips to Nashville when I was about 13. Nashville was this whole new world; like, suddenly, I’m really studying how to write songs and produce and work in studios, and that’s how I spent most of my teen years.

Now where exactly do you hail from? And growing up there, who all did / do you consider to be your strongest influences?  

Originally from a smaller town in Kentucky — pretty casually mid-western. The pop music my sister listened to was really what I loved young; and the main radio station in my town was a Hot AC station, so the standard was turn-of-the-century minivan rock like Third Eye Blind, Goo Goo Dolls, Avril Lavigne or Matchbox 20. The first music I really got into on my own was Sum 41, Kanye West, Relient K and Imogen Heap. Kanye and Imogen are still my two biggest lifelong influences.

At what point in time, specifically, did you even opt to pursue music on a professional basis?

Right before I graduated high school. I had a mentor that said, “You have three options: You can go to school, put music on the back burner, and sink yourself in debt; You can half-### music AND school; or, you can move to Nashville, start producing for other people, and do what you’re already doing well.” So I did the latter. I’d been playing in bands and writing and producing for years already, so it wasn’t a huge leap of faith for me at that point; it made total sense.

What particular string of events actually led to your current signing with [this new record label from J.J. Abrams’ production company, Bad Robot,] Loud Robot / Capitol Records?  

Abridged version: my management had been friends with an A&R at Capitol for years. That A&R reached out about having a conversation, and we ended up talking about punk music and politics and culture for like three hours. There was a really natural rapport, and he’d worked on loads of projects that really meant the world to me as a teenager, so the connection felt right. A few months later I played a show in L.A., he came and offered me the deal after that. I’d already finished ‘Vulnerabilia’ on my own, and Capitol decided to release it. Capitol and Bad Robot had been trying to find a project to work together on for about a year at the point. The A&R who signed me at Capitol sent them the music, we had a pretty cool conversation about music and tech and how those two worlds will live together in the next 10 years, and that’s what cemented everything.

Your latest single is entitled “S.O.S.” — Tell me about this particular composition; how did it come to fruition?

I had just started going to therapy at the time. I wrote “S.O.S.” over two days with my buddy Kevin Griffin from Better Than Ezra, after a pretty raw conversation where we both unpacked a lot of our bad habits and about hitting breaking points, needing to ask for help or step out of a cycle. So my drug up to that point was the illusion of productivity; staying busy all the time, using it as a crutch to make myself feel good and to keep distance from people. “S.O.S.” is about burning out over and over again, learning the exact same lesson over and over again, and wanting to stop repeating yourself.

Stream / Download “S.O.S” HERE

 

How do you classify your overall sound and / or style?  

It’s funny, I never know what to call my music.  Depending on who you ask or who’s writing about it, it’s alternative or pop, but what do those words actually mean in 2020? Pop music with messy guitars is probably a good label.

Switching gears here, what exactly do you want people to get from your music?              

Absolutely no one has any idea what we’re doing, and it’s okay to stop pretending you have control over anything going on. We’re all figuring life out day-by-day, and we all get it wrong way more than we get it right.

If you could collaborate with any one artist, living or dead, who would it be and why?

Imogen Heap. I think she’s the absolute best living creator we’ve got right now, and I’d put her in a pantheon with (David) Bowie, Prince, Stevie Wonder and Björk, as one of the best writer / producers ever.  Her brain is insane.

If you could play any venue in the world, which one would you choose and why?      

Royal Albert Hall; I can’t think of a cooler room I’ve ever seen.

In terms of longevity, what do you feel it is that will continue to sustain you in this grueling industry?  

I don’t believe in staying in the same. Not to be, like, über trippy-dippy, but I just think everything is flux, and I don’t have any illusions about making the same thing over and over again — my body will not let me repeat myself. I want every record to be an evolution or an iteration on what I’m doing and what I’m capable of.

Do you have any other outside / additional future aspirations, maybe even completely away from music?

I’d really love to move into writing and directing movies at some point. I write a lot of stories and scripts, and my imagination is more visual than auditory. Had I gone to college, I wanted to go to film school.

To date, what has been your biggest career moment(s), at least thus far anyway?

Getting a song I wrote and produced on the radio. No matter how “Not OK!” does from here on, that will always be something I can be proud of.

Looking ahead, say five or maybe even ten years from now, where do you see yourself?

I’ve got a few more conceptual projects I’m working on that I’d love to see finished and released. Concept records, games, ideas for TV shows. I really want to do as much as I can with my creativity while I have ideas and the drive to actualize them. I’d also love to move outside of the U.S.. Canada is pretty appealing. Touring for me, on some level, is a way to see where else in the world I might belong; I don’t feel at home or comfortable in America.

As for the immediate, what’s next for you, Chaz?     

More music! Until the pandemic is over, that’s all I can give anyone is more music. I’m ecstatic about what I’m finishing up to release next.

Is there anything I left out or just plain forgot to mention?            

Nope, these were excellent questions. This has been a blast.

Any “closing” thought(s) for our readers?

You are limitless in what you’re capable of, and you deserve to feel supported and nurtured by the people in your life and by the creators you’re engaging with. If people or art or behaviors make you feel lesser-than, cut them out. There’s no time for that ########!

 

Connect w/Chaz Cardigan Online:

Official Website

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

 

 


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