Interview Chasing Victory

Interview
Adam Harrell
Chasing Victory

Chasing Victory

Adam Harrell – Vocals
Chris Cargile – Guitar
Michael Lamb – Guitar
Chris Crutchfield – Bass
Jeremy Lowery – Drums; Vocals

5/4/07
Interviewer: Erika Kristen Watt

Erika Kristen: When and where did you find the member’s of Chasing Victory? Mini history of association of band.

Adam Harrell: Jeremy Lowery (drummer) and Michael Lamb (guitar) and I grew up in the same town. We met through mutual friends and with the addition of Jason Lowery (guitar) and Taylor Sullivan (bass) we started covering songs and writing a few of our own. We played parties, youth groups, and random shows maybe once a month. After writing a record under the name Bailey Drive, we went through member changes and style changes as well. We met Chris Cargile (current guitar) through a band we played with often call Ascension and Escape. And Chris Crutchfield (current bass) came to us through a beaming light from heaven. (Laughs) Us meeting him was completely random and I can't remember all the details.

Erika: How old were you when you started playing? What kind of musical upbringing have you had? Any formal education?

Adam: I was a junior in high school when we formed the band and at the time had only dabbled on the guitar and screeched out a few annoying sounds when attempting to sing for my family. Later I took a year of voice lessons and a little piano training. My mother and stepfather have always sang in a gospel music group since I was little.

Erika: How do you mesh all of your individual influences into the Chasing Victory sound? How do you keep it original and fresh in an over-saturated genre?

Adam: I think we do well. Me and Chris Cargile lay most of the basic foundations for melody, guitar work, and general songwriting, and Crutchfield and Jeremy have really grown well together in the last year for laying the basic rhythm down. Mike always lays his touch on things once we get into the studio. As far as trying to stay fresh, we try to bring older music back and combine it with the general style of today. A lot of people say they hear a little STP and Jeff Buckley in our new record. But overall, music has been around since cavemen have been beating sticks on dinosaurs’ skulls in a 4/4 time signature, so no one's completely original, and we're all influenced by somebody.

Erika: How important is it to you to have fan and critic recognition for the musical contributions Chasing Victory has made to the metal/screamo genre on a whole?

Adam: Well any recognition is wonderful at this level of the music industry. We've all said even if we never hit it "Radio Big" we would still love to be one of those bands that people look back at in like 5or10 years and say wow they were freakin’ great.

Erika: What have you learned about yourself and your bandmates during the process of Fiends?

Adam: I've learned from my bandmates that we have the potential to be good songwriters if we write what we want, and not worry about the politics of genres or any other reasons that causes a band to write dumb down crap to gain MySpace friends and boost their underground-street-cred. I definitely don't think we wrote the best album ever, but I love it and it's what we've wanted to write all along. I've also learned that me and my bandmates are dirty and can wreck a really nice studio through not showering or taking out the trash.

Erika: Where do you begin when you lay down your arrangements for your songs?

Adam: For this record, I would generally come to practice with some material written with vocals in mind and we would build a song around that. Sometimes it meant splitting up and going into other rooms to come up with different ideas and then come together and pick the best ones. A lot of it was written on the road and we didn't always have that luxury.

Erika: What inspirations do you pull from to formulate your lyrical content?

Adam: Movies, the Bible, personal struggles and experiences, and I got married last year so there's a lot of songs about LOVE.

Erika: Just how symbolic are the songs written for Fiends? Are there personal experiences subliminally encased in your lyrics?

Adam: The songs are all fiction stories about different characters but some of their experiences are pull from our personal lives. Each song is symbolic of a person with an addiction, hence the word fiend, who has a split personality. Their better half is fighting with the addicted half, their enemy, hence the word fiend again. (laughs) The addictions vary from drugs, alcohol, fame, sex, or a certain lifestyle. Some are serious but for the most part they were written in a light-hearted way.

Erika: What have you learned about the music industry that has made you a better musician today?

Adam: No matter what you write you're going to have haters that say you don't know what you're doing and that you've sold out. Playing what you love is far more important than worrying about haters.

Adam: If this is a question about bringing my faults to light it's not going to work because I'm perfect. (Laughs) j/k. I'm a pretty irritating guy. I joke at the worst times and like to fuel the fire when people are aggravated with me. After getting married, I've learned to control those things a little better. I'm also a stickler when it comes to writing and can probably irritate people to get burned out really quickly.

Adam: Cave-In, Jeff Buckley, Sleeping at Last, Classic Case, and Men, Women, and Children.

Adam: Jeremy caught me jamming Ashley Simpson's first record the other day, but hey whoever writes her songs is a genius.

Erika: With a catalog of two albums long, how do you transfer your studio energy into a live show?

Adam: The newer stuff is a lot more up and down as far as energy goes which is a big change from the nonstop speed of the last record. It's growing on me live and becoming a lot easier. The new ones are definitely a lot more difficult to sing but more fun.

Adam: Sometimes I think our fans are a little stronger than they really are and I'll jump on them and end up a doormat at the front of the stage. I'll probably never learn my lesson though.

Adam: Normally I would answer this Q with a funny story, but this tour has been pretty chilled out. Kids came to see us in Canada and we've never played there. To me that was wild. Maybe I'm just getting old.

Adam: A kid came to us in Seattle and said he listened to our CD while he was beating heroine in rehab. His exact words were "You guys showed me that not all Christians are pussy's and music is way better than heroine!" If we fail from here on out I feel like we've won overall.

Erika: Any special messages you would like to extend to your fans and supporters?

Adam: I think everyone could stand to love people a lot better. Help your neighbor, give to a charity, or just do something selfless once in awhile. Life's too short to make enemies. OH yea, and don't be a scientologists or you'll go broke. Sorry if I offended any scientologists.