Dec. 8, 2025
BiB: Chris Kelly (Hillhaven) - How Lindsay Lohan Inspired My Rock Career!
What if your entire journey as a musician started with a Lindsay Lohan movie? On this episode of Bringin’ It Backwards, Adam Lisicky sits down with Chris Kelly of Hillhaven, who opens up about growing up in the Philadelphia suburbs, finding inspiration in the unlikeliest places (think Freaky Friday), and the rocky path from bedroom guitarist to fronting his own band.
Chris Kelly shares how music was always swirling around his family—even if it wasn’t always encouraged as a career—and how a chance at the original School of Rock set him on a path that took him from playing Pink Floyd covers as a kid to headlining real venues in Philly before the age of 14. You'll hear how he built his skills through countless bands that fizzled, what it takes to assemble a dream team of seasoned musicians when you’re starting a new project in your thirties, and his honest, sometimes vulnerable take on stepping into the spotlight as a lead vocalist for the first time.
If you’re curious about the behind-the-scenes of launching a new band, navigating creative insecurities, and the lessons Chris Kelly learned the hard way, you’ll want to stick around for this episode. Don't forget to subscribe to Bringin' It Backwards for more unfiltered stories from the artists shaping tomorrow’s music.
We'd love to see you join our BiB Facebook Group.
Transcript
1
00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,440
What is going on? It is Adam. Welcome back to Bringin It Backwards, a podcast
2
00:00:03,440 --> 00:00:07,240
where both legendary and rising artists tell their own personal stories
3
00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:11,000
of how they achieve stardom. On this episode, we had
4
00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:14,400
a chance to hang out with Chris of the band Hillhaven
5
00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:18,480
over Zoom Video. Chris was born and raised outside
6
00:00:18,880 --> 00:00:22,000
of Philly in Pennsylvania and talks about how he got into music.
7
00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:26,420
Started playing guitar at a very early age. Actually, you'll never guess
8
00:00:26,420 --> 00:00:30,180
the movie that got him into guitar. I'll give one hint. It
9
00:00:30,180 --> 00:00:33,540
stars Lindsay Lohan. He then ended up attending
10
00:00:33,860 --> 00:00:37,260
like the first School of Rock. His mom had to let him know, you know,
11
00:00:37,260 --> 00:00:40,460
Jack Black isn't going to be there, but you can go to School of Rock.
12
00:00:40,460 --> 00:00:43,780
He did that from 10 or 11 on through high school.
13
00:00:44,100 --> 00:00:47,860
He talked about the first bands he was in, what it was like starting
14
00:00:47,860 --> 00:00:51,620
Hillhaven and going from guitar player to
15
00:00:52,020 --> 00:00:55,690
just the front man. He's a really cool story about how he
16
00:00:55,690 --> 00:00:58,610
was seeing if anyone would like his voice.
17
00:00:59,250 --> 00:01:02,970
So he sent out a couple demos to people. They
18
00:01:02,970 --> 00:01:06,650
didn't know it was him and then he got some feedback
19
00:01:06,650 --> 00:01:10,410
that way. You can watch our interview with Chris on our Facebook page and YouTube
20
00:01:10,410 --> 00:01:14,250
channel at Bringin It Backwards. It'd be amazing if you subscribe to our channel like
21
00:01:14,250 --> 00:01:17,690
us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Tik Tok at
22
00:01:17,690 --> 00:01:21,490
BringinBackPOD. And if you're listening to this on Spotify, Apple Music,
23
00:01:21,490 --> 00:01:25,090
Google Podcasts, it would be incredible if you follow us there as well
24
00:01:25,620 --> 00:01:29,260
and hook us up with a five star review. We'd appreciate your support.
25
00:01:29,260 --> 00:01:32,780
If you follow and subscribe to our podcasts. Wherever you listen to
26
00:01:32,780 --> 00:01:36,340
podcasts, we're Bringing. It Backwards with Hillhaven.
27
00:01:42,260 --> 00:01:43,700
Bringin it Backwards.
28
00:01:47,540 --> 00:01:51,060
Bringin it backwards. Bringin it backwards.
29
00:01:51,300 --> 00:01:54,820
Bringin it backwards. Bringin it backwards.
30
00:01:54,980 --> 00:01:58,600
Bringin it Backwards. Cool
31
00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:02,320
brother. Well, I'm Adam. So nice to meet you and this is about
32
00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:05,840
you and your journey in music. And we'll talk about
33
00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:09,840
obviously the, the project here you're, you're working on now.
34
00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:13,479
So just always kind of start off with your origin story. Where were you born
35
00:02:13,479 --> 00:02:17,280
and raised? So born and raised in pa. Still live there.
36
00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:21,400
I came up in Bucks County. I now live in Bethlehem. So it's
37
00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:24,720
about an hour apart but like general kind of Philly suburbs
38
00:02:26,090 --> 00:02:29,610
was where I came from. Do you come from like a creative or like a
39
00:02:29,610 --> 00:02:33,050
musical family at all? Creative for sure.
40
00:02:34,010 --> 00:02:37,450
More on, more on my like grandparents and
41
00:02:37,530 --> 00:02:40,650
especially my, my dad's parents. His dad was
42
00:02:41,690 --> 00:02:45,490
like an artist, like a painter, like watercolor and stuff.
43
00:02:45,490 --> 00:02:48,010
And my dad was always, you know, good at.
44
00:02:49,610 --> 00:02:53,290
Drawing and like, designing stuff and like, you know,
45
00:02:53,290 --> 00:02:56,960
any, any like, you know,
46
00:02:57,200 --> 00:03:00,680
entertainment center or like, you know, even all the way to the deck on the
47
00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:03,760
back of our house. Like, my dad would always be the one to build that
48
00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:07,520
stuff. And he did play guitar a little bit.
49
00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:11,120
He just had an acoustic laying around that he would just kind of
50
00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:14,880
jangle some chords on every now and again. But he, he never, he never got
51
00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:17,680
too deep into the creative side of things.
52
00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:23,010
And I think, I think he probably would
53
00:03:23,010 --> 00:03:26,730
have, you know, if. I mean, he was, he was born
54
00:03:26,730 --> 00:03:30,410
in 59, so like back then,
55
00:03:30,410 --> 00:03:34,170
you know, kind of like working class stuff, like, I don't really think
56
00:03:34,170 --> 00:03:37,970
they encouraged creative. Right. It's
57
00:03:37,970 --> 00:03:40,050
very much going to go to. Your parents and be like, I'm going to be
58
00:03:40,050 --> 00:03:43,690
in a band. They're like, yeah, you know. Sure you are.
59
00:03:44,650 --> 00:03:48,440
Yeah. So, yeah, it was just kind of. I don't know. I
60
00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:51,960
don't know if he ever had that conversation with his parents. But
61
00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:55,960
also like, you know, the, the parent child role was like, way different
62
00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:59,600
back then. You know what I mean? So you probably didn't really have conversations like
63
00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:02,760
that with your parents. Your parents are just like, this is what life is going
64
00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:06,280
to look like for you. Do you understand? Deal with it.
65
00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:10,360
Yeah. But yeah, he definitely always had that kind of creative
66
00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:14,370
bone in him. And. My, his sister,
67
00:04:14,690 --> 00:04:18,410
Tera Lisicky, she also, like, she worked
68
00:04:18,410 --> 00:04:22,250
in a bunch of. Honestly, I'm not
69
00:04:22,250 --> 00:04:25,970
even still super clear on everything that, that she did,
70
00:04:25,970 --> 00:04:27,730
but I know that she worked on.
71
00:04:31,490 --> 00:04:34,850
I know that she worked on like, like television and like advertising
72
00:04:35,250 --> 00:04:39,050
and. Things in that area of like, the
73
00:04:39,050 --> 00:04:42,810
entertainment industry and stuff like that. I think it was more on the advertising side.
74
00:04:42,810 --> 00:04:46,460
But like, you. I know she spent a lot of time, you know, in
75
00:04:46,460 --> 00:04:50,300
recording studios and things like that for, you know, making commercials and
76
00:04:50,300 --> 00:04:53,420
stuff. So, like. Stuff. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. And.
77
00:04:54,780 --> 00:04:58,580
And I mean, like, she knew Buddy Rich and stuff. Like,
78
00:04:58,580 --> 00:05:02,420
you know, like, she was. She, like, she, she
79
00:05:02,420 --> 00:05:06,060
was just like always in New York City for like, the majority of her
80
00:05:06,060 --> 00:05:09,260
career. So I think she just kind of always had her finger on the pulse
81
00:05:09,260 --> 00:05:11,465
of like, what was going on around there. But I also come from an Irish
82
00:05:11,466 --> 00:05:15,080
Catholic family, so I get very few details. But I also come from an Irish
83
00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:17,480
Catholic family, so I get very few details.
84
00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:23,720
On like, people's. People's like, personal lives and like, the lives
85
00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:27,000
before I came into the world. You know what I mean? So, like, every.
86
00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:30,960
Everything seems like weirdly nebulous around that
87
00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:34,680
stuff. But yeah, there definitely was like,
88
00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:38,280
there definitely was a creative, like, interest,
89
00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:41,240
like a common thread kind of through everybody. And
90
00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:45,280
I think that. I think that in a way, me
91
00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:49,480
sort of being the one to like, actually start trying to make
92
00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:53,040
it my career was both, like,
93
00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:56,640
really terrifying for them, but also, like,
94
00:05:56,960 --> 00:05:59,040
I think there was. I think there was some.
95
00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:04,000
Remnants of like a finally. You know what I mean? Like,
96
00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:06,400
somebody made it, you know.
97
00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:12,600
You know, early on, I'm sure there was a lot of like. Like, you
98
00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:16,400
know, he could really ruin his life trying to do this. You know what
99
00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:20,040
I mean? But. But, you know, luckily things seem to have
100
00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:23,520
worked out so awesome. Dude. Well, how do you
101
00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:27,000
do you start off on guitar and, like, was that something that you were able
102
00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:30,760
to play just because you said your dad had an acoustic lying around? Yeah, so
103
00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:34,240
I never really had much of an interest in the acoustic guitar,
104
00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:38,920
but he, like, obviously he was on my radar,
105
00:06:38,920 --> 00:06:42,460
you know, and. It'S. It's a.
106
00:06:42,940 --> 00:06:46,620
People think it's hilarious and it is, but it wasn't
107
00:06:46,620 --> 00:06:50,380
until. You remember that Freaky Friday movie that Lindsay Lohan
108
00:06:50,380 --> 00:06:54,220
did? Oh, yeah. Where she had. She had like, her garage
109
00:06:54,220 --> 00:06:58,020
band, like her little punk band with her friends. Literally, like, when
110
00:06:58,020 --> 00:07:01,660
that movie came on in my house and she. And you know, her character
111
00:07:01,660 --> 00:07:05,220
walks into the garage and picks up the Telecaster and starts hitting some power chords,
112
00:07:05,220 --> 00:07:08,460
it was like that, you know, like, that's what I want.
113
00:07:09,260 --> 00:07:12,590
I want to be like Lindsay Lohan. Yeah. Yeah, pretty much.
114
00:07:12,910 --> 00:07:16,510
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, Lindsay Lohan is my origin
115
00:07:16,510 --> 00:07:20,270
story. And. Yeah, so
116
00:07:20,270 --> 00:07:23,630
it was that movie. And then the movie School of Rock with Jack Black, I
117
00:07:23,630 --> 00:07:26,430
think came out shortly after that. It might have been that year or the year
118
00:07:26,430 --> 00:07:30,030
after. So. Yeah, that was
119
00:07:30,110 --> 00:07:33,910
like the year I saw Freaky Friday was the year
120
00:07:33,910 --> 00:07:37,030
I got my first guitar. And it was. It was pretty much kind of tunnel
121
00:07:37,030 --> 00:07:40,670
vision from that point forward. That's funny. Do you have
122
00:07:40,670 --> 00:07:44,310
siblings or anything? I have one sister. Yeah. She's. She's
123
00:07:44,310 --> 00:07:48,030
not. She's not involved in music or anything like that. Yeah.
124
00:07:48,510 --> 00:07:52,270
So you get. You see this, you know, you see this film and you're
125
00:07:52,270 --> 00:07:54,510
like, okay, I want to. I want to do that. I want to play guitar.
126
00:07:54,590 --> 00:07:58,230
You get a guitar? What, for your birthday? Christmas. You save Christmas?
127
00:07:58,230 --> 00:08:01,950
Yeah, Christmas. Okay. And then do you start taking lessons
128
00:08:01,950 --> 00:08:05,690
or are you trying to learn it by yourself? Definitely
129
00:08:05,690 --> 00:08:09,530
lessons. Yeah. We originally, it started just with, like,
130
00:08:09,530 --> 00:08:13,130
a local shop, and we had to kind of bounce between a few of them
131
00:08:13,130 --> 00:08:16,850
before I. Before we found somebody that, like, was kind of, like,
132
00:08:16,850 --> 00:08:20,610
minded because, like, I wanted to. I wanted to play guitar
133
00:08:20,610 --> 00:08:23,490
with distortion. You know what I mean? Right, right. And
134
00:08:24,450 --> 00:08:27,890
the first guitar teacher that they that they brought me to was a
135
00:08:28,050 --> 00:08:31,850
guy that played classical guitar, had the long fingernails. And I was like, this
136
00:08:31,850 --> 00:08:35,590
ain't going to work. You know, Gross. You
137
00:08:35,590 --> 00:08:39,070
know, I mean, like, you know. Now, like now perfect picture,
138
00:08:39,710 --> 00:08:43,430
you know. Like now, you know, seeing people who can play
139
00:08:43,430 --> 00:08:47,030
that kind of guitar, like, I'm mesmerized by it. But that's.
140
00:08:47,030 --> 00:08:50,750
I, that's after, you know, 22 years of like
141
00:08:51,469 --> 00:08:55,230
playing the instrument and like being able to recognize like, how insanely,
142
00:08:55,230 --> 00:08:58,830
like talented those people are. But like back, back when I'm a 10 year old,
143
00:08:58,830 --> 00:09:02,310
I'm like, what is this? You know? Yeah, you're like, I just want to play
144
00:09:02,310 --> 00:09:05,740
some power chords. Like whatever you were listening to at the time. Time, I'm sure,
145
00:09:05,980 --> 00:09:09,500
right? Like this guy, he's. He's pushing books at me that look like
146
00:09:09,500 --> 00:09:13,220
math. He's not even holding a pick. There's no amp in this. Like, what, what
147
00:09:13,220 --> 00:09:16,780
are we doing here? Like. And
148
00:09:17,100 --> 00:09:20,780
so I had, I had a. We. We finally found a place
149
00:09:21,019 --> 00:09:24,860
nearby that I was, I was. Honestly, it was probably only for
150
00:09:24,860 --> 00:09:28,620
a few months. Like, you know, when I think, when I think back to
151
00:09:29,020 --> 00:09:32,140
my youth, like every, every.
152
00:09:33,850 --> 00:09:37,290
You know, whatever the chunk of time is, it always feels way
153
00:09:37,290 --> 00:09:40,970
longer in my memory than it probably actually was. You know what I
154
00:09:40,970 --> 00:09:44,770
mean? Like, not even music related. Like, I'll think of like,
155
00:09:44,770 --> 00:09:48,610
you know, this thing that happened in high school and this thing that happened
156
00:09:48,610 --> 00:09:52,090
in high school. And to me it feels like they were like six years apart,
157
00:09:52,090 --> 00:09:55,770
but that's impossible. You know what I mean? Like, so, but.
158
00:09:56,170 --> 00:09:58,970
So it probably wasn't for that long that I was there, but then,
159
00:10:00,030 --> 00:10:03,870
you know, I mentioned the, the movie School of Rock being kind
160
00:10:03,870 --> 00:10:07,630
of a formative thing for me. And my mom came home one day and was
161
00:10:07,630 --> 00:10:11,430
like, hey, so Jack Black's not there, but like, there is a School of Rock.
162
00:10:11,430 --> 00:10:14,670
Like there is a, like an actual one. Yeah,
163
00:10:15,150 --> 00:10:18,950
that was cool that those started. Popping up like later. Yeah. And so,
164
00:10:18,950 --> 00:10:21,230
so. And actually, if I.
165
00:10:23,630 --> 00:10:27,260
If I remember correctly, if I remember correctly, there
166
00:10:27,260 --> 00:10:30,060
actually was some type of lawsuit between
167
00:10:31,260 --> 00:10:35,060
the actual School of Rock and the writer of the movie School of Rock.
168
00:10:35,060 --> 00:10:38,620
Cause I guess the writing team had like. Cause at the time it was only
169
00:10:38,620 --> 00:10:42,220
a school in Philly. It was just one thing. And I guess
170
00:10:43,100 --> 00:10:46,700
the team for the movie or somebody involved with the movie had visited
171
00:10:46,700 --> 00:10:50,260
it at one point and didn't
172
00:10:50,260 --> 00:10:54,050
provide any sort of credit or whatever. They just started popping
173
00:10:54,050 --> 00:10:57,490
up all over the place. Because I, I live in Nashville. I mean, San Diego.
174
00:10:57,490 --> 00:11:00,850
They were all over you know, they just. Yeah, that, that was, that was a
175
00:11:00,850 --> 00:11:04,450
little. Yeah, that was a little later on. So when I, when I
176
00:11:04,450 --> 00:11:07,450
joined, they had just opened up a second
177
00:11:07,930 --> 00:11:11,530
franchise that was. Oh, so it started there in Philly, what the movie did.
178
00:11:12,090 --> 00:11:15,690
Oh, I didn't know. Yeah, the. Yeah, no, so the, the, the school
179
00:11:15,690 --> 00:11:19,450
came first and then the movie took that idea and like made it. And,
180
00:11:19,450 --> 00:11:23,160
and that's where the lawsuit came from was because, like, because the,
181
00:11:23,160 --> 00:11:26,480
because the owner of the school, the original like founder of the whole thing was
182
00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:30,120
like, yo, you just like totally like made a movie out of
183
00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:33,840
my idea and didn't like, didn't even say anything about your
184
00:11:33,840 --> 00:11:34,280
source.
185
00:11:38,760 --> 00:11:42,480
I'm pretty sure that happened, but I don't know. Like, I was
186
00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:46,200
hearing things about that, but again, I was 10 years old, so I don't totally
187
00:11:46,200 --> 00:11:50,030
know what the details may or may not have been, but I, um. But yeah,
188
00:11:50,030 --> 00:11:53,870
so it was just, it was originally just a school in Philly and they actually
189
00:11:53,870 --> 00:11:56,950
did do. There was like a documentary made about it that was called Rock School
190
00:11:57,110 --> 00:12:00,550
where, where it was just about this guy, Paul Green, who. He was the,
191
00:12:00,790 --> 00:12:04,470
the founder and the owner and he was the lead music director. And
192
00:12:05,190 --> 00:12:08,630
it was a pretty like kind of polarizing
193
00:12:09,670 --> 00:12:13,310
thing that, that documentary because he was like. I mean, he was
194
00:12:13,310 --> 00:12:17,000
a real like, like hard ass, like kind of
195
00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:20,680
drill sergeant, you know, screaming and cursing at like 11 year
196
00:12:20,680 --> 00:12:24,320
olds, you know, like, and everyone. And everyone's like, this guy's
197
00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:27,200
a psychopath. But the thing is like, that was,
198
00:12:28,320 --> 00:12:31,440
it was almost, almost like that movie Whiplash, you know, or.
199
00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:37,880
The Jazz Director. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just
200
00:12:37,880 --> 00:12:41,680
being like, like this the most like insane abusive guy, but like
201
00:12:43,150 --> 00:12:46,790
bred, you know, greatness in some of these kids, you know.
202
00:12:46,790 --> 00:12:49,950
And, and so when I joined, they had just
203
00:12:50,350 --> 00:12:54,030
announced that they were opening a new franchise that was closer to my house.
204
00:12:54,270 --> 00:12:57,230
And so I was the first kid to sign up and I was there.
205
00:12:57,870 --> 00:13:01,710
I did, I did change schools at one point to. I did
206
00:13:01,710 --> 00:13:05,430
switch like franchises like late, like late stage
207
00:13:05,430 --> 00:13:08,910
of high school. But I was in that program
208
00:13:09,450 --> 00:13:12,970
from 10 years old until I graduated high school. Oh, wow.
209
00:13:13,690 --> 00:13:17,490
And that was basically the format was you
210
00:13:17,490 --> 00:13:21,090
have a three hour rehearsal once a week and a 45 minute
211
00:13:21,090 --> 00:13:24,650
lesson once a week and at the end of each quarter. So that's like every
212
00:13:24,650 --> 00:13:28,090
three months or so. It was a weekend of shows
213
00:13:28,490 --> 00:13:32,250
and it was always like cover shows. So the first show that I did was
214
00:13:32,890 --> 00:13:36,210
Pink Floyd's the Wall. The second show that I did was AC dc. The third
215
00:13:36,210 --> 00:13:39,940
one was Kiss. Like, and so it was just
216
00:13:39,940 --> 00:13:43,620
like. I was on stage
217
00:13:44,020 --> 00:13:47,220
like all the time and in a band environment all the time.
218
00:13:47,540 --> 00:13:51,140
And. Also they had this
219
00:13:51,460 --> 00:13:53,780
section of it that they would call the best of
220
00:13:55,220 --> 00:13:58,820
where, you know, because at the time it was a bunch of schools in pa,
221
00:13:59,060 --> 00:14:02,420
so at the end of every season, the
222
00:14:02,420 --> 00:14:06,020
directors would pick the best songs from
223
00:14:06,340 --> 00:14:10,180
each show that their school had put on. And so it
224
00:14:10,180 --> 00:14:13,380
was like the best, like one or two songs and, and they would, and then
225
00:14:13,380 --> 00:14:16,980
all of the schools would meet somewhere in Philly
226
00:14:17,300 --> 00:14:20,940
and all of these songs would be played by
227
00:14:20,940 --> 00:14:24,700
the kids who played them in the shows. And so
228
00:14:24,700 --> 00:14:28,420
like it was usually done at the Trocadero in Philly,
229
00:14:28,420 --> 00:14:31,980
which is like a, you know, for a long time one of the know, premier
230
00:14:31,980 --> 00:14:35,220
venues in Philly. So you know, it was like a 1200 cap
231
00:14:35,940 --> 00:14:39,740
room and it was always packed because it was all of the kids and
232
00:14:39,740 --> 00:14:41,940
all of their parents and whatever, you know what I mean?
233
00:14:43,220 --> 00:14:46,940
So, you know, by the time I was 14 and they would
234
00:14:46,940 --> 00:14:49,980
do all kinds of events like this. So by the time I was 14, apart
235
00:14:49,980 --> 00:14:53,740
from like the arena and stadium stages, like I had done every major
236
00:14:53,740 --> 00:14:57,480
venue in Philly. Wow. So it
237
00:14:57,480 --> 00:15:01,320
became a very comfortable kind of environment for me. And
238
00:15:01,320 --> 00:15:04,400
that's, that's. I mean, I think I, I credit
239
00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:08,760
my job mostly to that because I got really good
240
00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:12,520
at learning songs, you know, so that kind of kind of
241
00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:16,320
primed me for the, the hired gun role that I've had for the
242
00:15:16,320 --> 00:15:19,840
last, you know, probably 10 years or so. Geez.
243
00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:25,010
So yeah, that was like, that was definitely the. And I
244
00:15:25,010 --> 00:15:28,450
mean, you know, I, I learned how to play drums there. That's how I learned
245
00:15:28,450 --> 00:15:31,690
to start singing and, and you know, it was a very
246
00:15:31,930 --> 00:15:35,770
like immersive kind of thing. And that's, I mean it was, it was
247
00:15:35,770 --> 00:15:39,129
the only thing I gave a about for like a decade,
248
00:15:39,370 --> 00:15:42,690
you know what I mean? Did you, did you play in other bands aside from
249
00:15:42,690 --> 00:15:46,530
the, the School of Rock stuff or was that basically a
250
00:15:46,530 --> 00:15:50,260
full time gig while you were in high school? Yeah,
251
00:15:50,260 --> 00:15:54,100
like I, I eventually, you know, started trying to start my own
252
00:15:54,100 --> 00:15:57,700
bands and that. What
253
00:15:57,700 --> 00:16:01,460
up? I eventually tried like starting
254
00:16:01,540 --> 00:16:04,020
starting my own bands or whatever, but you know, like everybody,
255
00:16:04,900 --> 00:16:08,140
everybody in high school and, and like middle school and stuff like that, you start
256
00:16:08,140 --> 00:16:11,780
a million bands that just fall apart. Nobody ever plays a show, like, whatever. So
257
00:16:11,860 --> 00:16:15,570
you know, the first like band band that I started didn't really like, you
258
00:16:15,570 --> 00:16:18,970
know, start doing much of anything until like
259
00:16:19,370 --> 00:16:22,970
16, 17 around there, you know.
260
00:16:23,610 --> 00:16:27,290
But yeah, for, for the most like until that point, like, pretty much every
261
00:16:27,290 --> 00:16:30,890
live performance that I did was like a cover show for Rock School Stuff.
262
00:16:31,290 --> 00:16:34,850
Wow. And were you. Did you just do. You said you played other instruments there,
263
00:16:34,850 --> 00:16:38,490
but like, was your main gig guitar? Mm,
264
00:16:38,570 --> 00:16:42,210
yeah, for sure. And then you. But you learn to sing and stuff there.
265
00:16:42,210 --> 00:16:45,750
Is this the first band you're in now that you're the
266
00:16:45,750 --> 00:16:49,550
vocalist? Or were you. Yeah, yeah, this is definitely.
267
00:16:49,630 --> 00:16:53,390
Yeah, this is, this is the first. Well, I. Well, okay, technically
268
00:16:53,390 --> 00:16:57,230
not, I guess, because that. That band that I started at like
269
00:16:57,230 --> 00:17:00,630
16 originally, like the very first form of it I was
270
00:17:00,630 --> 00:17:04,190
guitar and vocals, but it was
271
00:17:04,190 --> 00:17:07,790
a. It, it. It started as like a metal core kind of thing and then
272
00:17:07,790 --> 00:17:11,610
eventually like shifted into like, like the form
273
00:17:11,610 --> 00:17:14,970
that it is now is like this very technical progressive death metal thing. So.
274
00:17:16,970 --> 00:17:20,730
I realized pretty early on that those
275
00:17:20,730 --> 00:17:23,210
types of vocals weren't really my thing
276
00:17:24,650 --> 00:17:28,170
and we were starting to write more complicated music and stuff and I really wanted
277
00:17:28,170 --> 00:17:32,010
to just be able to focus on guitar. So we wound up getting an actual
278
00:17:32,010 --> 00:17:35,850
vocalist. But yeah, it was.
279
00:17:38,290 --> 00:17:41,970
This, this project for sure is definitely the first, the first
280
00:17:41,970 --> 00:17:45,650
like real attempt at being a front man and also the first time
281
00:17:45,650 --> 00:17:49,370
that like in the, you know, I, I'm, I, I'm playing a lot of the
282
00:17:49,370 --> 00:17:52,729
guitars on the material and stuff, but, but like as far as on stage is
283
00:17:52,729 --> 00:17:56,530
concerned and on camera and whatever, I'm not holding anything but a microphone. So that's
284
00:17:56,610 --> 00:18:00,130
definitely a new thing. Okay. And when did you start
285
00:18:00,930 --> 00:18:04,500
Hellhaven? Was this like a pretty recent endeavor?
286
00:18:05,140 --> 00:18:08,780
Yeah, I mean we, we launched the band in April and so about, you
287
00:18:08,780 --> 00:18:12,340
know, I knew about a year. Yeah, all your stuff is from like
288
00:18:12,340 --> 00:18:15,980
this this year, so I would imagine. Yeah, yeah. So it's just been, it's just
289
00:18:15,980 --> 00:18:19,780
been a single like every four to six weeks. All like since April, all
290
00:18:19,780 --> 00:18:22,420
year. So. But
291
00:18:23,300 --> 00:18:26,020
yeah, I, I started writing for it.
292
00:18:28,030 --> 00:18:31,590
Maybe a little over a year prior to that. I had
293
00:18:31,590 --> 00:18:35,190
written one song that was originally intended to be used by another
294
00:18:35,190 --> 00:18:37,950
band that I was working with and producing at the time.
295
00:18:38,830 --> 00:18:42,110
And they didn't wind up using the song.
296
00:18:42,590 --> 00:18:46,110
And I had sent it to our drummer Matty, who
297
00:18:46,590 --> 00:18:49,830
obviously I wasn't in a band with at the time. He's in a band called
298
00:18:49,830 --> 00:18:53,510
From Ashes to New. And I had done some co writes with
299
00:18:53,510 --> 00:18:56,580
them, like on the record that they put out. Was it last year? I think
300
00:18:56,580 --> 00:19:00,020
maybe the year before. I had written a couple of like
301
00:19:00,020 --> 00:19:03,860
instrumentals that, that wound up on that record. And
302
00:19:04,740 --> 00:19:08,180
so I sent it to him, just kind of like, hey, like you're in this
303
00:19:08,180 --> 00:19:11,780
space, like, is this thing any good? You know? And. And
304
00:19:12,020 --> 00:19:15,700
he was like, yo. Like, are you like. Like, did you write this? Like, are
305
00:19:15,700 --> 00:19:19,100
you doing something with this? Because if you need a drummer for it, like, let
306
00:19:19,100 --> 00:19:22,780
me know. This is kind of rad, you know? And. And I was like, oh,
307
00:19:22,780 --> 00:19:26,620
word. Okay. But the thing is, I still had the band's. The other band's singer
308
00:19:26,620 --> 00:19:30,400
on it, so I was like, well, I don't. I don't really think
309
00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:34,200
that guy's gonna be trying to, like, jump ship
310
00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:37,080
to start another band, you know? Yeah.
311
00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:42,360
So then it was like a. It was a thing of, like,
312
00:19:42,999 --> 00:19:46,760
do. I. Like, do I try to find another
313
00:19:46,760 --> 00:19:50,360
singer for it and, like, be the guitar player? But, like, I don't know the
314
00:19:50,360 --> 00:19:52,760
first thing about trying to find a singer. And.
315
00:19:54,300 --> 00:19:57,980
Like, it's. I. I kind of. I guess I had this vibe
316
00:19:57,980 --> 00:20:01,620
that, like, finding a singer would be more difficult than finding other
317
00:20:01,620 --> 00:20:05,100
players because it's like.
318
00:20:06,460 --> 00:20:10,179
I don't know. It's just. I think it's a. Just. I feel like I would
319
00:20:10,179 --> 00:20:13,460
be having to, like, certain, like, weed through a bunch of
320
00:20:13,460 --> 00:20:16,660
strangers. You know what I mean? Like, I can. I can find. I can find
321
00:20:16,660 --> 00:20:19,700
you anybody who can play any instrument, because I know a million of them, but
322
00:20:19,700 --> 00:20:23,100
when it comes to, like, just standalone singers, I'm like, I don't know how to
323
00:20:23,100 --> 00:20:26,670
do that. So. Right. You'd have to,
324
00:20:26,670 --> 00:20:29,870
probably just because you've been in the industry and you've been in other bands that
325
00:20:29,870 --> 00:20:33,670
have had success, like, you would almost, like you said, you
326
00:20:33,670 --> 00:20:37,430
could grab other guys from other. That, you know are good. Right. And you're
327
00:20:37,430 --> 00:20:41,070
not like, poaching the. The main. Like, the singer of the
328
00:20:41,070 --> 00:20:44,510
band. Right. The voice of the. Of a band. Right. Like, right, I'm gonna go
329
00:20:44,510 --> 00:20:47,790
to this band. I know. I know so. And so I know he sings for
330
00:20:47,790 --> 00:20:50,950
this band, but maybe he'll want to sing on this. It's. I. I could see
331
00:20:50,950 --> 00:20:54,450
how they could. Get a little weird. Yeah. And. And, you know,
332
00:20:54,530 --> 00:20:58,370
like, if you're. If you're trying to find, you know, a singer from a prominent
333
00:20:58,370 --> 00:21:02,050
band, then that's inherently difficult. And if you're trying to just,
334
00:21:02,050 --> 00:21:05,170
you know, find people on the Internet, you have no idea what the
335
00:21:05,170 --> 00:21:09,010
personality you're gonna run into is gonna be and whatever.
336
00:21:09,010 --> 00:21:12,690
So. So I just. I. I decided to just try my
337
00:21:12,690 --> 00:21:16,450
hand at it and redo the. The vocals on my own.
338
00:21:16,450 --> 00:21:20,260
And then I just sent the two files to Matty and
339
00:21:20,260 --> 00:21:23,060
then a bunch of other people just, like, I Didn't say who was who. It
340
00:21:23,060 --> 00:21:26,500
was just like singer one and singer two and. Oh, interesting.
341
00:21:26,900 --> 00:21:30,100
And I was just like, hey, just tell me which one you like better.
342
00:21:31,300 --> 00:21:35,060
And surprisingly, most of the feedback that I got,
343
00:21:35,220 --> 00:21:38,740
because I had, like, the whole time, like, I liked the original
344
00:21:38,820 --> 00:21:40,740
singer just. Cause I was.
345
00:21:42,580 --> 00:21:45,580
Like, I just thought he sounded really great on the song. I always loved the
346
00:21:45,580 --> 00:21:48,780
timbre of his voice and whatever. And I was like, there's no way. There's no
347
00:21:48,780 --> 00:21:51,990
way that people are gonna pick. But most of the feedback that I got was
348
00:21:51,990 --> 00:21:55,830
picking mine, oddly enough, so that's cool. And you didn't tell them that it
349
00:21:55,830 --> 00:21:59,670
was you. You just said these. No, because I didn't. I didn't want. Because it
350
00:21:59,670 --> 00:22:02,350
was. It was all friends, like, whether it was somebody in the industry or just
351
00:22:02,350 --> 00:22:04,870
like casual listeners or whatever. Like, I didn't want anybody
352
00:22:06,069 --> 00:22:09,350
thinking, like, going into it, like, they're voting for or against me,
353
00:22:09,750 --> 00:22:13,270
you know? Right. I just want. I wanted like 100%
354
00:22:13,590 --> 00:22:17,340
objectivity of just like, tell me which singer sounds
355
00:22:17,340 --> 00:22:20,860
better. You know what I mean? Wow, that must have felt pretty good, though, to
356
00:22:20,860 --> 00:22:24,540
get those back and be like, oh, people want me. It. I mean,
357
00:22:24,540 --> 00:22:27,860
it. It did, but it was also like, I'm pretty terrible at taking
358
00:22:27,860 --> 00:22:31,500
compliments. So, like, I. I was like, there was definitely like a lot of like.
359
00:22:31,500 --> 00:22:34,860
Like my brain was sort of rejecting of, like, all these people must be stupid.
360
00:22:34,860 --> 00:22:37,500
You know what I mean? Yeah. They all know it's me and they just don't
361
00:22:37,500 --> 00:22:40,540
want to hurt my feelings. Right. Right.
362
00:22:42,150 --> 00:22:45,950
So. But yeah, but like, the one good thing about that was, like, I
363
00:22:45,950 --> 00:22:49,750
had just, you know, before that I had never really
364
00:22:49,750 --> 00:22:53,350
considered myself very adept when it came to writing
365
00:22:53,350 --> 00:22:56,070
lyrics or top lining anything. So
366
00:22:57,030 --> 00:23:00,150
I always kind of stayed away from that. But I think the fact that
367
00:23:01,430 --> 00:23:05,110
I didn't originally write it for me to sing kind of helped
368
00:23:05,110 --> 00:23:08,910
that, like, I didn't have those usual insecurities of, like, oh, this is gonna
369
00:23:08,910 --> 00:23:11,910
sound stupid with me saying it or whatever. You know what I mean? The kind
370
00:23:11,910 --> 00:23:15,570
of, like, self conscious that comes with that. So I think
371
00:23:15,730 --> 00:23:19,570
that. Having. Having done it
372
00:23:19,570 --> 00:23:23,410
that way is like, was. Was a good thing because then it
373
00:23:23,410 --> 00:23:27,010
was like, okay, well, now I know how, like, now I know,
374
00:23:27,090 --> 00:23:30,610
like, the headspace that I need to put myself in. And more
375
00:23:30,610 --> 00:23:34,210
importantly, now I know that, like, I can build a song from start to finish
376
00:23:34,210 --> 00:23:37,690
with nobody if I want to. You know what I mean? Like, I don't. I
377
00:23:37,690 --> 00:23:40,450
don't need to bring anybody else in if I, you know, if. If I Don't
378
00:23:40,450 --> 00:23:44,270
if I don't want to or need to. So at that point, it was,
379
00:23:44,350 --> 00:23:47,070
you know, then I told Matty, I was like, okay, well, hey, that was me.
380
00:23:47,790 --> 00:23:51,550
So I think. I think. I think we figured that out. That's easy
381
00:23:51,550 --> 00:23:55,350
enough, I guess. Yeah. So then it was just
382
00:23:55,350 --> 00:23:58,590
a conversation of, like, who else to hit up. And,
383
00:23:59,150 --> 00:24:02,910
you know, Matty and I have been touring for a long time,
384
00:24:03,150 --> 00:24:06,990
so, like, nobody was really interested in, like,
385
00:24:06,990 --> 00:24:10,690
just finding, like, completely new people
386
00:24:10,770 --> 00:24:14,530
because it's kind of scary to start something new when you're in your 30s
387
00:24:14,530 --> 00:24:18,370
and you have a career and, like. Right, right. You
388
00:24:18,370 --> 00:24:22,130
know, it's so. It. It feels. It would feel kind of pointless to do it
389
00:24:22,130 --> 00:24:25,730
with a group of people where you had to, like, hold somebody's hand,
390
00:24:25,970 --> 00:24:29,810
like, you know, somebody who didn't really know, like, how things worked or
391
00:24:29,810 --> 00:24:33,570
whatever. You just kind of wanted to be able to, like. Like bring some people
392
00:24:33,570 --> 00:24:37,330
in and everyone's kind of on the same page, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they're. They're.
393
00:24:37,330 --> 00:24:40,970
Yeah. You don't have to, like. Right. Teach, like.
394
00:24:41,050 --> 00:24:44,810
Yeah. Teach them the ropes of touring or what? Like, everyone's kind of is a
395
00:24:44,810 --> 00:24:48,610
veteran and knows what's going on in these moments. Exactly. Show
396
00:24:48,610 --> 00:24:52,250
up to a show or whatever it may be. Right, right. So. Yeah, because.
397
00:24:52,250 --> 00:24:54,890
And also, you know, we knew it was going to be kind of difficult, at
398
00:24:54,890 --> 00:24:57,730
least even just for the two of us to be able to, like, get our
399
00:24:57,730 --> 00:25:01,050
schedules to match up to get together. So, like,
400
00:25:01,370 --> 00:25:04,610
if it was going to be difficult already, we might as well get people who
401
00:25:04,610 --> 00:25:08,420
are, you know, like, you know, to the best of our ability
402
00:25:08,420 --> 00:25:12,180
professionals. And. And, like, then just know that
403
00:25:12,740 --> 00:25:15,300
we're not going to have it. Have to have any of those kind of annoying
404
00:25:15,300 --> 00:25:18,980
preliminary conversations of, like, this is how this goes. This is how this.
405
00:25:18,980 --> 00:25:22,780
Yes. You know, kind of thing. So did you
406
00:25:22,780 --> 00:25:26,500
ever think of it as. Or doing it because you're like, oh, wow, well, he
407
00:25:26,500 --> 00:25:30,180
likes my voice or my voice got voted or whatever, and I
408
00:25:30,180 --> 00:25:33,100
know I can build the song from start to finish. Did you ever think of
409
00:25:33,100 --> 00:25:36,780
it, like, maybe doing it just as, like, a solo project of maybe having
410
00:25:37,260 --> 00:25:40,620
Maddie as just the drummer or. Or this. Yeah.
411
00:25:40,780 --> 00:25:44,580
Something you wanted as a band that you're like, let's tour and do the
412
00:25:44,580 --> 00:25:48,180
whole thing with it. Yeah. The. The goal from. From the
413
00:25:48,180 --> 00:25:51,780
Drop was to, like, at least have something that had the
414
00:25:51,780 --> 00:25:55,500
ability to, like, tour and be a band and, you know,
415
00:25:55,500 --> 00:25:59,260
whatever. I mean, from, you know, just out of necessity because of
416
00:25:59,260 --> 00:26:02,700
everybody's schedules being Crazy all the time. Like, it was kind of
417
00:26:03,350 --> 00:26:06,790
unrealistic to think that we could all get ourselves in a room together,
418
00:26:06,870 --> 00:26:10,470
like, even. Even once, let alone multiple
419
00:26:10,470 --> 00:26:14,310
times to, like, write all of this stuff together. So the writing
420
00:26:14,550 --> 00:26:18,390
largely came down to me, but. But as far as,
421
00:26:18,390 --> 00:26:21,670
like, you know, the esthetic and the
422
00:26:22,230 --> 00:26:25,910
sort of group environment and stuff, like, we all wanted to feel like.
423
00:26:25,990 --> 00:26:28,790
Like an actual band, like a unit. You know what I mean? So.
424
00:26:30,970 --> 00:26:33,690
Definitely didn't. And I, you know, I don't.
425
00:26:34,730 --> 00:26:38,330
Like I said, I'm, you know, the frontman thing is very new for me and
426
00:26:38,330 --> 00:26:41,450
still kind of uncomfortable. So the.
427
00:26:42,170 --> 00:26:45,809
The idea of calling it, like a solo project was like, that was a. No.
428
00:26:45,809 --> 00:26:49,570
No. Okay. You know, it's like. It's like this is. This
429
00:26:49,570 --> 00:26:53,090
is gonna be difficult enough for me to wrap my head around. You know what
430
00:26:53,090 --> 00:26:56,590
I mean? This being just me. Yeah, yeah. Without
431
00:26:56,590 --> 00:26:59,590
and without just calling it Chris Kelly. You know what I mean? I was like
432
00:26:59,590 --> 00:27:02,430
that, like, name and, you know. Yeah.
433
00:27:03,150 --> 00:27:06,310
Did you have. Because I know you've put out. You said you're putting out songs
434
00:27:06,310 --> 00:27:09,990
every couple few weeks or whatever. Do you have a full album that
435
00:27:09,990 --> 00:27:12,950
you're gonna. You guys are gonna put out or are you just playing, like, you
436
00:27:12,950 --> 00:27:16,630
just releasing the songs as singles as they come? Yeah. So, I mean, the
437
00:27:16,630 --> 00:27:20,110
original. The original intent was to have it be a record, you know,
438
00:27:20,590 --> 00:27:24,110
release. Release singles for a few months and then announce a record and do the
439
00:27:24,110 --> 00:27:27,760
whole thing. But I think a lot there, like, this whole year
440
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:31,520
has just been kind of like trying to. Trying to make
441
00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:35,280
proof of concept, you know, and, you know, do it. We're
442
00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:38,000
doing it all independently, so you want to try to keep budgets low and stuff
443
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:40,960
like that. And when you announce a record, you want to have, like, merch bundles
444
00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:44,240
and marketing in place, and you kind of want to have a lot of, like,
445
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:47,960
infrastructure ready to go. And so by the time it, like right
446
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:51,720
around, like, October, ish, would have been maybe the
447
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:54,560
ideal time to announce, like, okay, now it's going to be a record.
448
00:27:56,420 --> 00:28:00,260
It was like, we don't have enough in place to, like, really support
449
00:28:00,260 --> 00:28:03,980
that, so there is enough material written for, you
450
00:28:03,980 --> 00:28:06,980
know, between all the singles that have come out now and then what. What still
451
00:28:06,980 --> 00:28:10,140
hasn't been released, like, there is enough to make it a record. It's just we
452
00:28:10,140 --> 00:28:13,940
have to have the conversation of, like, what it's going to look like. Right
453
00:28:13,940 --> 00:28:17,660
on, man. Well, that's exciting. That's really awesome. Well, I appreciate your time,
454
00:28:17,660 --> 00:28:20,900
Chris. Thank you so much for doing this. Yeah, likewise, man.
455
00:28:21,770 --> 00:28:25,490
I have one more question for you before I let you get back
456
00:28:25,490 --> 00:28:29,170
to hitting the road or. I want to know if you have any
457
00:28:29,170 --> 00:28:32,890
advice for aspiring artists. I
458
00:28:32,890 --> 00:28:36,610
mean, that's, you know, that's a pretty. That's a difficult one to
459
00:28:36,610 --> 00:28:39,450
answer because it's hard to.
460
00:28:40,890 --> 00:28:44,610
It's hard to consider myself as somebody who's worthy of giving advice.
461
00:28:44,610 --> 00:28:48,370
But the. Well, you've. Yeah, okay, never mind.
462
00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:51,240
You've done it. No, well, yeah, no, I,
463
00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:56,040
I recognize, I recognize I have a career in this, so. Yeah.
464
00:28:57,320 --> 00:29:00,360
But honestly, I think the only thing that I can say is like, I think
465
00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:03,000
everybody that gets into music sort of assumes that
466
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:07,680
their path to like making it or whatever is like they're
467
00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:10,200
going to start a band and that band's going to get signed and then it's
468
00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:13,080
going to get big and that's it. And
469
00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:17,550
that would be sick. But it doesn't necessarily always work out
470
00:29:17,550 --> 00:29:20,070
that way. So
471
00:29:21,430 --> 00:29:25,270
being open to different, like my first touring gig, I was in a
472
00:29:25,270 --> 00:29:27,430
Darth Vader costume. You know what I mean?
473
00:29:30,230 --> 00:29:33,830
I definitely wouldn't have thought that's what would have happened. So
474
00:29:34,390 --> 00:29:38,150
just kind of being as open as you can to whatever
475
00:29:38,150 --> 00:29:41,910
opportunity might come your way is probably the best advice that I can give
476
00:29:41,910 --> 00:29:44,590
because I think a lot of people can get, especially when you're younger, you can
477
00:29:44,590 --> 00:29:48,370
be pretty tunnel vision, kind of closed minded to like. No, it's just going
478
00:29:48,370 --> 00:29:51,730
to be my thing that gets me to where I need to be. But like.
479
00:29:51,730 --> 00:29:55,330
And so you can kind of not even notice like another potential
480
00:29:55,330 --> 00:29:56,690
opportunity popping up.
481
00:30:02,930 --> 00:30:04,370
Bringin it Backwards.
482
00:30:08,210 --> 00:30:11,730
Bringin it Backwards, Bringin it Backwards,
483
00:30:11,970 --> 00:30:15,410
Bringin it Backwards, Bringin it Backwards,
484
00:30:15,650 --> 00:30:16,930
Bringin it back.
00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,440
What is going on? It is Adam. Welcome back to Bringin It Backwards, a podcast
2
00:00:03,440 --> 00:00:07,240
where both legendary and rising artists tell their own personal stories
3
00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:11,000
of how they achieve stardom. On this episode, we had
4
00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:14,400
a chance to hang out with Chris of the band Hillhaven
5
00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:18,480
over Zoom Video. Chris was born and raised outside
6
00:00:18,880 --> 00:00:22,000
of Philly in Pennsylvania and talks about how he got into music.
7
00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:26,420
Started playing guitar at a very early age. Actually, you'll never guess
8
00:00:26,420 --> 00:00:30,180
the movie that got him into guitar. I'll give one hint. It
9
00:00:30,180 --> 00:00:33,540
stars Lindsay Lohan. He then ended up attending
10
00:00:33,860 --> 00:00:37,260
like the first School of Rock. His mom had to let him know, you know,
11
00:00:37,260 --> 00:00:40,460
Jack Black isn't going to be there, but you can go to School of Rock.
12
00:00:40,460 --> 00:00:43,780
He did that from 10 or 11 on through high school.
13
00:00:44,100 --> 00:00:47,860
He talked about the first bands he was in, what it was like starting
14
00:00:47,860 --> 00:00:51,620
Hillhaven and going from guitar player to
15
00:00:52,020 --> 00:00:55,690
just the front man. He's a really cool story about how he
16
00:00:55,690 --> 00:00:58,610
was seeing if anyone would like his voice.
17
00:00:59,250 --> 00:01:02,970
So he sent out a couple demos to people. They
18
00:01:02,970 --> 00:01:06,650
didn't know it was him and then he got some feedback
19
00:01:06,650 --> 00:01:10,410
that way. You can watch our interview with Chris on our Facebook page and YouTube
20
00:01:10,410 --> 00:01:14,250
channel at Bringin It Backwards. It'd be amazing if you subscribe to our channel like
21
00:01:14,250 --> 00:01:17,690
us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Tik Tok at
22
00:01:17,690 --> 00:01:21,490
BringinBackPOD. And if you're listening to this on Spotify, Apple Music,
23
00:01:21,490 --> 00:01:25,090
Google Podcasts, it would be incredible if you follow us there as well
24
00:01:25,620 --> 00:01:29,260
and hook us up with a five star review. We'd appreciate your support.
25
00:01:29,260 --> 00:01:32,780
If you follow and subscribe to our podcasts. Wherever you listen to
26
00:01:32,780 --> 00:01:36,340
podcasts, we're Bringing. It Backwards with Hillhaven.
27
00:01:42,260 --> 00:01:43,700
Bringin it Backwards.
28
00:01:47,540 --> 00:01:51,060
Bringin it backwards. Bringin it backwards.
29
00:01:51,300 --> 00:01:54,820
Bringin it backwards. Bringin it backwards.
30
00:01:54,980 --> 00:01:58,600
Bringin it Backwards. Cool
31
00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:02,320
brother. Well, I'm Adam. So nice to meet you and this is about
32
00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:05,840
you and your journey in music. And we'll talk about
33
00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:09,840
obviously the, the project here you're, you're working on now.
34
00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:13,479
So just always kind of start off with your origin story. Where were you born
35
00:02:13,479 --> 00:02:17,280
and raised? So born and raised in pa. Still live there.
36
00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:21,400
I came up in Bucks County. I now live in Bethlehem. So it's
37
00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:24,720
about an hour apart but like general kind of Philly suburbs
38
00:02:26,090 --> 00:02:29,610
was where I came from. Do you come from like a creative or like a
39
00:02:29,610 --> 00:02:33,050
musical family at all? Creative for sure.
40
00:02:34,010 --> 00:02:37,450
More on, more on my like grandparents and
41
00:02:37,530 --> 00:02:40,650
especially my, my dad's parents. His dad was
42
00:02:41,690 --> 00:02:45,490
like an artist, like a painter, like watercolor and stuff.
43
00:02:45,490 --> 00:02:48,010
And my dad was always, you know, good at.
44
00:02:49,610 --> 00:02:53,290
Drawing and like, designing stuff and like, you know,
45
00:02:53,290 --> 00:02:56,960
any, any like, you know,
46
00:02:57,200 --> 00:03:00,680
entertainment center or like, you know, even all the way to the deck on the
47
00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:03,760
back of our house. Like, my dad would always be the one to build that
48
00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:07,520
stuff. And he did play guitar a little bit.
49
00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:11,120
He just had an acoustic laying around that he would just kind of
50
00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:14,880
jangle some chords on every now and again. But he, he never, he never got
51
00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:17,680
too deep into the creative side of things.
52
00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:23,010
And I think, I think he probably would
53
00:03:23,010 --> 00:03:26,730
have, you know, if. I mean, he was, he was born
54
00:03:26,730 --> 00:03:30,410
in 59, so like back then,
55
00:03:30,410 --> 00:03:34,170
you know, kind of like working class stuff, like, I don't really think
56
00:03:34,170 --> 00:03:37,970
they encouraged creative. Right. It's
57
00:03:37,970 --> 00:03:40,050
very much going to go to. Your parents and be like, I'm going to be
58
00:03:40,050 --> 00:03:43,690
in a band. They're like, yeah, you know. Sure you are.
59
00:03:44,650 --> 00:03:48,440
Yeah. So, yeah, it was just kind of. I don't know. I
60
00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:51,960
don't know if he ever had that conversation with his parents. But
61
00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:55,960
also like, you know, the, the parent child role was like, way different
62
00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:59,600
back then. You know what I mean? So you probably didn't really have conversations like
63
00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:02,760
that with your parents. Your parents are just like, this is what life is going
64
00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:06,280
to look like for you. Do you understand? Deal with it.
65
00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:10,360
Yeah. But yeah, he definitely always had that kind of creative
66
00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:14,370
bone in him. And. My, his sister,
67
00:04:14,690 --> 00:04:18,410
Tera Lisicky, she also, like, she worked
68
00:04:18,410 --> 00:04:22,250
in a bunch of. Honestly, I'm not
69
00:04:22,250 --> 00:04:25,970
even still super clear on everything that, that she did,
70
00:04:25,970 --> 00:04:27,730
but I know that she worked on.
71
00:04:31,490 --> 00:04:34,850
I know that she worked on like, like television and like advertising
72
00:04:35,250 --> 00:04:39,050
and. Things in that area of like, the
73
00:04:39,050 --> 00:04:42,810
entertainment industry and stuff like that. I think it was more on the advertising side.
74
00:04:42,810 --> 00:04:46,460
But like, you. I know she spent a lot of time, you know, in
75
00:04:46,460 --> 00:04:50,300
recording studios and things like that for, you know, making commercials and
76
00:04:50,300 --> 00:04:53,420
stuff. So, like. Stuff. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. And.
77
00:04:54,780 --> 00:04:58,580
And I mean, like, she knew Buddy Rich and stuff. Like,
78
00:04:58,580 --> 00:05:02,420
you know, like, she was. She, like, she, she
79
00:05:02,420 --> 00:05:06,060
was just like always in New York City for like, the majority of her
80
00:05:06,060 --> 00:05:09,260
career. So I think she just kind of always had her finger on the pulse
81
00:05:09,260 --> 00:05:11,465
of like, what was going on around there. But I also come from an Irish
82
00:05:11,466 --> 00:05:15,080
Catholic family, so I get very few details. But I also come from an Irish
83
00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:17,480
Catholic family, so I get very few details.
84
00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:23,720
On like, people's. People's like, personal lives and like, the lives
85
00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:27,000
before I came into the world. You know what I mean? So, like, every.
86
00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:30,960
Everything seems like weirdly nebulous around that
87
00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:34,680
stuff. But yeah, there definitely was like,
88
00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:38,280
there definitely was a creative, like, interest,
89
00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:41,240
like a common thread kind of through everybody. And
90
00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:45,280
I think that. I think that in a way, me
91
00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:49,480
sort of being the one to like, actually start trying to make
92
00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:53,040
it my career was both, like,
93
00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:56,640
really terrifying for them, but also, like,
94
00:05:56,960 --> 00:05:59,040
I think there was. I think there was some.
95
00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:04,000
Remnants of like a finally. You know what I mean? Like,
96
00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:06,400
somebody made it, you know.
97
00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:12,600
You know, early on, I'm sure there was a lot of like. Like, you
98
00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:16,400
know, he could really ruin his life trying to do this. You know what
99
00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:20,040
I mean? But. But, you know, luckily things seem to have
100
00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:23,520
worked out so awesome. Dude. Well, how do you
101
00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:27,000
do you start off on guitar and, like, was that something that you were able
102
00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:30,760
to play just because you said your dad had an acoustic lying around? Yeah, so
103
00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:34,240
I never really had much of an interest in the acoustic guitar,
104
00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:38,920
but he, like, obviously he was on my radar,
105
00:06:38,920 --> 00:06:42,460
you know, and. It'S. It's a.
106
00:06:42,940 --> 00:06:46,620
People think it's hilarious and it is, but it wasn't
107
00:06:46,620 --> 00:06:50,380
until. You remember that Freaky Friday movie that Lindsay Lohan
108
00:06:50,380 --> 00:06:54,220
did? Oh, yeah. Where she had. She had like, her garage
109
00:06:54,220 --> 00:06:58,020
band, like her little punk band with her friends. Literally, like, when
110
00:06:58,020 --> 00:07:01,660
that movie came on in my house and she. And you know, her character
111
00:07:01,660 --> 00:07:05,220
walks into the garage and picks up the Telecaster and starts hitting some power chords,
112
00:07:05,220 --> 00:07:08,460
it was like that, you know, like, that's what I want.
113
00:07:09,260 --> 00:07:12,590
I want to be like Lindsay Lohan. Yeah. Yeah, pretty much.
114
00:07:12,910 --> 00:07:16,510
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, Lindsay Lohan is my origin
115
00:07:16,510 --> 00:07:20,270
story. And. Yeah, so
116
00:07:20,270 --> 00:07:23,630
it was that movie. And then the movie School of Rock with Jack Black, I
117
00:07:23,630 --> 00:07:26,430
think came out shortly after that. It might have been that year or the year
118
00:07:26,430 --> 00:07:30,030
after. So. Yeah, that was
119
00:07:30,110 --> 00:07:33,910
like the year I saw Freaky Friday was the year
120
00:07:33,910 --> 00:07:37,030
I got my first guitar. And it was. It was pretty much kind of tunnel
121
00:07:37,030 --> 00:07:40,670
vision from that point forward. That's funny. Do you have
122
00:07:40,670 --> 00:07:44,310
siblings or anything? I have one sister. Yeah. She's. She's
123
00:07:44,310 --> 00:07:48,030
not. She's not involved in music or anything like that. Yeah.
124
00:07:48,510 --> 00:07:52,270
So you get. You see this, you know, you see this film and you're
125
00:07:52,270 --> 00:07:54,510
like, okay, I want to. I want to do that. I want to play guitar.
126
00:07:54,590 --> 00:07:58,230
You get a guitar? What, for your birthday? Christmas. You save Christmas?
127
00:07:58,230 --> 00:08:01,950
Yeah, Christmas. Okay. And then do you start taking lessons
128
00:08:01,950 --> 00:08:05,690
or are you trying to learn it by yourself? Definitely
129
00:08:05,690 --> 00:08:09,530
lessons. Yeah. We originally, it started just with, like,
130
00:08:09,530 --> 00:08:13,130
a local shop, and we had to kind of bounce between a few of them
131
00:08:13,130 --> 00:08:16,850
before I. Before we found somebody that, like, was kind of, like,
132
00:08:16,850 --> 00:08:20,610
minded because, like, I wanted to. I wanted to play guitar
133
00:08:20,610 --> 00:08:23,490
with distortion. You know what I mean? Right, right. And
134
00:08:24,450 --> 00:08:27,890
the first guitar teacher that they that they brought me to was a
135
00:08:28,050 --> 00:08:31,850
guy that played classical guitar, had the long fingernails. And I was like, this
136
00:08:31,850 --> 00:08:35,590
ain't going to work. You know, Gross. You
137
00:08:35,590 --> 00:08:39,070
know, I mean, like, you know. Now, like now perfect picture,
138
00:08:39,710 --> 00:08:43,430
you know. Like now, you know, seeing people who can play
139
00:08:43,430 --> 00:08:47,030
that kind of guitar, like, I'm mesmerized by it. But that's.
140
00:08:47,030 --> 00:08:50,750
I, that's after, you know, 22 years of like
141
00:08:51,469 --> 00:08:55,230
playing the instrument and like being able to recognize like, how insanely,
142
00:08:55,230 --> 00:08:58,830
like talented those people are. But like back, back when I'm a 10 year old,
143
00:08:58,830 --> 00:09:02,310
I'm like, what is this? You know? Yeah, you're like, I just want to play
144
00:09:02,310 --> 00:09:05,740
some power chords. Like whatever you were listening to at the time. Time, I'm sure,
145
00:09:05,980 --> 00:09:09,500
right? Like this guy, he's. He's pushing books at me that look like
146
00:09:09,500 --> 00:09:13,220
math. He's not even holding a pick. There's no amp in this. Like, what, what
147
00:09:13,220 --> 00:09:16,780
are we doing here? Like. And
148
00:09:17,100 --> 00:09:20,780
so I had, I had a. We. We finally found a place
149
00:09:21,019 --> 00:09:24,860
nearby that I was, I was. Honestly, it was probably only for
150
00:09:24,860 --> 00:09:28,620
a few months. Like, you know, when I think, when I think back to
151
00:09:29,020 --> 00:09:32,140
my youth, like every, every.
152
00:09:33,850 --> 00:09:37,290
You know, whatever the chunk of time is, it always feels way
153
00:09:37,290 --> 00:09:40,970
longer in my memory than it probably actually was. You know what I
154
00:09:40,970 --> 00:09:44,770
mean? Like, not even music related. Like, I'll think of like,
155
00:09:44,770 --> 00:09:48,610
you know, this thing that happened in high school and this thing that happened
156
00:09:48,610 --> 00:09:52,090
in high school. And to me it feels like they were like six years apart,
157
00:09:52,090 --> 00:09:55,770
but that's impossible. You know what I mean? Like, so, but.
158
00:09:56,170 --> 00:09:58,970
So it probably wasn't for that long that I was there, but then,
159
00:10:00,030 --> 00:10:03,870
you know, I mentioned the, the movie School of Rock being kind
160
00:10:03,870 --> 00:10:07,630
of a formative thing for me. And my mom came home one day and was
161
00:10:07,630 --> 00:10:11,430
like, hey, so Jack Black's not there, but like, there is a School of Rock.
162
00:10:11,430 --> 00:10:14,670
Like there is a, like an actual one. Yeah,
163
00:10:15,150 --> 00:10:18,950
that was cool that those started. Popping up like later. Yeah. And so,
164
00:10:18,950 --> 00:10:21,230
so. And actually, if I.
165
00:10:23,630 --> 00:10:27,260
If I remember correctly, if I remember correctly, there
166
00:10:27,260 --> 00:10:30,060
actually was some type of lawsuit between
167
00:10:31,260 --> 00:10:35,060
the actual School of Rock and the writer of the movie School of Rock.
168
00:10:35,060 --> 00:10:38,620
Cause I guess the writing team had like. Cause at the time it was only
169
00:10:38,620 --> 00:10:42,220
a school in Philly. It was just one thing. And I guess
170
00:10:43,100 --> 00:10:46,700
the team for the movie or somebody involved with the movie had visited
171
00:10:46,700 --> 00:10:50,260
it at one point and didn't
172
00:10:50,260 --> 00:10:54,050
provide any sort of credit or whatever. They just started popping
173
00:10:54,050 --> 00:10:57,490
up all over the place. Because I, I live in Nashville. I mean, San Diego.
174
00:10:57,490 --> 00:11:00,850
They were all over you know, they just. Yeah, that, that was, that was a
175
00:11:00,850 --> 00:11:04,450
little. Yeah, that was a little later on. So when I, when I
176
00:11:04,450 --> 00:11:07,450
joined, they had just opened up a second
177
00:11:07,930 --> 00:11:11,530
franchise that was. Oh, so it started there in Philly, what the movie did.
178
00:11:12,090 --> 00:11:15,690
Oh, I didn't know. Yeah, the. Yeah, no, so the, the, the school
179
00:11:15,690 --> 00:11:19,450
came first and then the movie took that idea and like made it. And,
180
00:11:19,450 --> 00:11:23,160
and that's where the lawsuit came from was because, like, because the,
181
00:11:23,160 --> 00:11:26,480
because the owner of the school, the original like founder of the whole thing was
182
00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:30,120
like, yo, you just like totally like made a movie out of
183
00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:33,840
my idea and didn't like, didn't even say anything about your
184
00:11:33,840 --> 00:11:34,280
source.
185
00:11:38,760 --> 00:11:42,480
I'm pretty sure that happened, but I don't know. Like, I was
186
00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:46,200
hearing things about that, but again, I was 10 years old, so I don't totally
187
00:11:46,200 --> 00:11:50,030
know what the details may or may not have been, but I, um. But yeah,
188
00:11:50,030 --> 00:11:53,870
so it was just, it was originally just a school in Philly and they actually
189
00:11:53,870 --> 00:11:56,950
did do. There was like a documentary made about it that was called Rock School
190
00:11:57,110 --> 00:12:00,550
where, where it was just about this guy, Paul Green, who. He was the,
191
00:12:00,790 --> 00:12:04,470
the founder and the owner and he was the lead music director. And
192
00:12:05,190 --> 00:12:08,630
it was a pretty like kind of polarizing
193
00:12:09,670 --> 00:12:13,310
thing that, that documentary because he was like. I mean, he was
194
00:12:13,310 --> 00:12:17,000
a real like, like hard ass, like kind of
195
00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:20,680
drill sergeant, you know, screaming and cursing at like 11 year
196
00:12:20,680 --> 00:12:24,320
olds, you know, like, and everyone. And everyone's like, this guy's
197
00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:27,200
a psychopath. But the thing is like, that was,
198
00:12:28,320 --> 00:12:31,440
it was almost, almost like that movie Whiplash, you know, or.
199
00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:37,880
The Jazz Director. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just
200
00:12:37,880 --> 00:12:41,680
being like, like this the most like insane abusive guy, but like
201
00:12:43,150 --> 00:12:46,790
bred, you know, greatness in some of these kids, you know.
202
00:12:46,790 --> 00:12:49,950
And, and so when I joined, they had just
203
00:12:50,350 --> 00:12:54,030
announced that they were opening a new franchise that was closer to my house.
204
00:12:54,270 --> 00:12:57,230
And so I was the first kid to sign up and I was there.
205
00:12:57,870 --> 00:13:01,710
I did, I did change schools at one point to. I did
206
00:13:01,710 --> 00:13:05,430
switch like franchises like late, like late stage
207
00:13:05,430 --> 00:13:08,910
of high school. But I was in that program
208
00:13:09,450 --> 00:13:12,970
from 10 years old until I graduated high school. Oh, wow.
209
00:13:13,690 --> 00:13:17,490
And that was basically the format was you
210
00:13:17,490 --> 00:13:21,090
have a three hour rehearsal once a week and a 45 minute
211
00:13:21,090 --> 00:13:24,650
lesson once a week and at the end of each quarter. So that's like every
212
00:13:24,650 --> 00:13:28,090
three months or so. It was a weekend of shows
213
00:13:28,490 --> 00:13:32,250
and it was always like cover shows. So the first show that I did was
214
00:13:32,890 --> 00:13:36,210
Pink Floyd's the Wall. The second show that I did was AC dc. The third
215
00:13:36,210 --> 00:13:39,940
one was Kiss. Like, and so it was just
216
00:13:39,940 --> 00:13:43,620
like. I was on stage
217
00:13:44,020 --> 00:13:47,220
like all the time and in a band environment all the time.
218
00:13:47,540 --> 00:13:51,140
And. Also they had this
219
00:13:51,460 --> 00:13:53,780
section of it that they would call the best of
220
00:13:55,220 --> 00:13:58,820
where, you know, because at the time it was a bunch of schools in pa,
221
00:13:59,060 --> 00:14:02,420
so at the end of every season, the
222
00:14:02,420 --> 00:14:06,020
directors would pick the best songs from
223
00:14:06,340 --> 00:14:10,180
each show that their school had put on. And so it
224
00:14:10,180 --> 00:14:13,380
was like the best, like one or two songs and, and they would, and then
225
00:14:13,380 --> 00:14:16,980
all of the schools would meet somewhere in Philly
226
00:14:17,300 --> 00:14:20,940
and all of these songs would be played by
227
00:14:20,940 --> 00:14:24,700
the kids who played them in the shows. And so
228
00:14:24,700 --> 00:14:28,420
like it was usually done at the Trocadero in Philly,
229
00:14:28,420 --> 00:14:31,980
which is like a, you know, for a long time one of the know, premier
230
00:14:31,980 --> 00:14:35,220
venues in Philly. So you know, it was like a 1200 cap
231
00:14:35,940 --> 00:14:39,740
room and it was always packed because it was all of the kids and
232
00:14:39,740 --> 00:14:41,940
all of their parents and whatever, you know what I mean?
233
00:14:43,220 --> 00:14:46,940
So, you know, by the time I was 14 and they would
234
00:14:46,940 --> 00:14:49,980
do all kinds of events like this. So by the time I was 14, apart
235
00:14:49,980 --> 00:14:53,740
from like the arena and stadium stages, like I had done every major
236
00:14:53,740 --> 00:14:57,480
venue in Philly. Wow. So it
237
00:14:57,480 --> 00:15:01,320
became a very comfortable kind of environment for me. And
238
00:15:01,320 --> 00:15:04,400
that's, that's. I mean, I think I, I credit
239
00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:08,760
my job mostly to that because I got really good
240
00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:12,520
at learning songs, you know, so that kind of kind of
241
00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:16,320
primed me for the, the hired gun role that I've had for the
242
00:15:16,320 --> 00:15:19,840
last, you know, probably 10 years or so. Geez.
243
00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:25,010
So yeah, that was like, that was definitely the. And I
244
00:15:25,010 --> 00:15:28,450
mean, you know, I, I learned how to play drums there. That's how I learned
245
00:15:28,450 --> 00:15:31,690
to start singing and, and you know, it was a very
246
00:15:31,930 --> 00:15:35,770
like immersive kind of thing. And that's, I mean it was, it was
247
00:15:35,770 --> 00:15:39,129
the only thing I gave a about for like a decade,
248
00:15:39,370 --> 00:15:42,690
you know what I mean? Did you, did you play in other bands aside from
249
00:15:42,690 --> 00:15:46,530
the, the School of Rock stuff or was that basically a
250
00:15:46,530 --> 00:15:50,260
full time gig while you were in high school? Yeah,
251
00:15:50,260 --> 00:15:54,100
like I, I eventually, you know, started trying to start my own
252
00:15:54,100 --> 00:15:57,700
bands and that. What
253
00:15:57,700 --> 00:16:01,460
up? I eventually tried like starting
254
00:16:01,540 --> 00:16:04,020
starting my own bands or whatever, but you know, like everybody,
255
00:16:04,900 --> 00:16:08,140
everybody in high school and, and like middle school and stuff like that, you start
256
00:16:08,140 --> 00:16:11,780
a million bands that just fall apart. Nobody ever plays a show, like, whatever. So
257
00:16:11,860 --> 00:16:15,570
you know, the first like band band that I started didn't really like, you
258
00:16:15,570 --> 00:16:18,970
know, start doing much of anything until like
259
00:16:19,370 --> 00:16:22,970
16, 17 around there, you know.
260
00:16:23,610 --> 00:16:27,290
But yeah, for, for the most like until that point, like, pretty much every
261
00:16:27,290 --> 00:16:30,890
live performance that I did was like a cover show for Rock School Stuff.
262
00:16:31,290 --> 00:16:34,850
Wow. And were you. Did you just do. You said you played other instruments there,
263
00:16:34,850 --> 00:16:38,490
but like, was your main gig guitar? Mm,
264
00:16:38,570 --> 00:16:42,210
yeah, for sure. And then you. But you learn to sing and stuff there.
265
00:16:42,210 --> 00:16:45,750
Is this the first band you're in now that you're the
266
00:16:45,750 --> 00:16:49,550
vocalist? Or were you. Yeah, yeah, this is definitely.
267
00:16:49,630 --> 00:16:53,390
Yeah, this is, this is the first. Well, I. Well, okay, technically
268
00:16:53,390 --> 00:16:57,230
not, I guess, because that. That band that I started at like
269
00:16:57,230 --> 00:17:00,630
16 originally, like the very first form of it I was
270
00:17:00,630 --> 00:17:04,190
guitar and vocals, but it was
271
00:17:04,190 --> 00:17:07,790
a. It, it. It started as like a metal core kind of thing and then
272
00:17:07,790 --> 00:17:11,610
eventually like shifted into like, like the form
273
00:17:11,610 --> 00:17:14,970
that it is now is like this very technical progressive death metal thing. So.
274
00:17:16,970 --> 00:17:20,730
I realized pretty early on that those
275
00:17:20,730 --> 00:17:23,210
types of vocals weren't really my thing
276
00:17:24,650 --> 00:17:28,170
and we were starting to write more complicated music and stuff and I really wanted
277
00:17:28,170 --> 00:17:32,010
to just be able to focus on guitar. So we wound up getting an actual
278
00:17:32,010 --> 00:17:35,850
vocalist. But yeah, it was.
279
00:17:38,290 --> 00:17:41,970
This, this project for sure is definitely the first, the first
280
00:17:41,970 --> 00:17:45,650
like real attempt at being a front man and also the first time
281
00:17:45,650 --> 00:17:49,370
that like in the, you know, I, I'm, I, I'm playing a lot of the
282
00:17:49,370 --> 00:17:52,729
guitars on the material and stuff, but, but like as far as on stage is
283
00:17:52,729 --> 00:17:56,530
concerned and on camera and whatever, I'm not holding anything but a microphone. So that's
284
00:17:56,610 --> 00:18:00,130
definitely a new thing. Okay. And when did you start
285
00:18:00,930 --> 00:18:04,500
Hellhaven? Was this like a pretty recent endeavor?
286
00:18:05,140 --> 00:18:08,780
Yeah, I mean we, we launched the band in April and so about, you
287
00:18:08,780 --> 00:18:12,340
know, I knew about a year. Yeah, all your stuff is from like
288
00:18:12,340 --> 00:18:15,980
this this year, so I would imagine. Yeah, yeah. So it's just been, it's just
289
00:18:15,980 --> 00:18:19,780
been a single like every four to six weeks. All like since April, all
290
00:18:19,780 --> 00:18:22,420
year. So. But
291
00:18:23,300 --> 00:18:26,020
yeah, I, I started writing for it.
292
00:18:28,030 --> 00:18:31,590
Maybe a little over a year prior to that. I had
293
00:18:31,590 --> 00:18:35,190
written one song that was originally intended to be used by another
294
00:18:35,190 --> 00:18:37,950
band that I was working with and producing at the time.
295
00:18:38,830 --> 00:18:42,110
And they didn't wind up using the song.
296
00:18:42,590 --> 00:18:46,110
And I had sent it to our drummer Matty, who
297
00:18:46,590 --> 00:18:49,830
obviously I wasn't in a band with at the time. He's in a band called
298
00:18:49,830 --> 00:18:53,510
From Ashes to New. And I had done some co writes with
299
00:18:53,510 --> 00:18:56,580
them, like on the record that they put out. Was it last year? I think
300
00:18:56,580 --> 00:19:00,020
maybe the year before. I had written a couple of like
301
00:19:00,020 --> 00:19:03,860
instrumentals that, that wound up on that record. And
302
00:19:04,740 --> 00:19:08,180
so I sent it to him, just kind of like, hey, like you're in this
303
00:19:08,180 --> 00:19:11,780
space, like, is this thing any good? You know? And. And
304
00:19:12,020 --> 00:19:15,700
he was like, yo. Like, are you like. Like, did you write this? Like, are
305
00:19:15,700 --> 00:19:19,100
you doing something with this? Because if you need a drummer for it, like, let
306
00:19:19,100 --> 00:19:22,780
me know. This is kind of rad, you know? And. And I was like, oh,
307
00:19:22,780 --> 00:19:26,620
word. Okay. But the thing is, I still had the band's. The other band's singer
308
00:19:26,620 --> 00:19:30,400
on it, so I was like, well, I don't. I don't really think
309
00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:34,200
that guy's gonna be trying to, like, jump ship
310
00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:37,080
to start another band, you know? Yeah.
311
00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:42,360
So then it was like a. It was a thing of, like,
312
00:19:42,999 --> 00:19:46,760
do. I. Like, do I try to find another
313
00:19:46,760 --> 00:19:50,360
singer for it and, like, be the guitar player? But, like, I don't know the
314
00:19:50,360 --> 00:19:52,760
first thing about trying to find a singer. And.
315
00:19:54,300 --> 00:19:57,980
Like, it's. I. I kind of. I guess I had this vibe
316
00:19:57,980 --> 00:20:01,620
that, like, finding a singer would be more difficult than finding other
317
00:20:01,620 --> 00:20:05,100
players because it's like.
318
00:20:06,460 --> 00:20:10,179
I don't know. It's just. I think it's a. Just. I feel like I would
319
00:20:10,179 --> 00:20:13,460
be having to, like, certain, like, weed through a bunch of
320
00:20:13,460 --> 00:20:16,660
strangers. You know what I mean? Like, I can. I can find. I can find
321
00:20:16,660 --> 00:20:19,700
you anybody who can play any instrument, because I know a million of them, but
322
00:20:19,700 --> 00:20:23,100
when it comes to, like, just standalone singers, I'm like, I don't know how to
323
00:20:23,100 --> 00:20:26,670
do that. So. Right. You'd have to,
324
00:20:26,670 --> 00:20:29,870
probably just because you've been in the industry and you've been in other bands that
325
00:20:29,870 --> 00:20:33,670
have had success, like, you would almost, like you said, you
326
00:20:33,670 --> 00:20:37,430
could grab other guys from other. That, you know are good. Right. And you're
327
00:20:37,430 --> 00:20:41,070
not like, poaching the. The main. Like, the singer of the
328
00:20:41,070 --> 00:20:44,510
band. Right. The voice of the. Of a band. Right. Like, right, I'm gonna go
329
00:20:44,510 --> 00:20:47,790
to this band. I know. I know so. And so I know he sings for
330
00:20:47,790 --> 00:20:50,950
this band, but maybe he'll want to sing on this. It's. I. I could see
331
00:20:50,950 --> 00:20:54,450
how they could. Get a little weird. Yeah. And. And, you know,
332
00:20:54,530 --> 00:20:58,370
like, if you're. If you're trying to find, you know, a singer from a prominent
333
00:20:58,370 --> 00:21:02,050
band, then that's inherently difficult. And if you're trying to just,
334
00:21:02,050 --> 00:21:05,170
you know, find people on the Internet, you have no idea what the
335
00:21:05,170 --> 00:21:09,010
personality you're gonna run into is gonna be and whatever.
336
00:21:09,010 --> 00:21:12,690
So. So I just. I. I decided to just try my
337
00:21:12,690 --> 00:21:16,450
hand at it and redo the. The vocals on my own.
338
00:21:16,450 --> 00:21:20,260
And then I just sent the two files to Matty and
339
00:21:20,260 --> 00:21:23,060
then a bunch of other people just, like, I Didn't say who was who. It
340
00:21:23,060 --> 00:21:26,500
was just like singer one and singer two and. Oh, interesting.
341
00:21:26,900 --> 00:21:30,100
And I was just like, hey, just tell me which one you like better.
342
00:21:31,300 --> 00:21:35,060
And surprisingly, most of the feedback that I got,
343
00:21:35,220 --> 00:21:38,740
because I had, like, the whole time, like, I liked the original
344
00:21:38,820 --> 00:21:40,740
singer just. Cause I was.
345
00:21:42,580 --> 00:21:45,580
Like, I just thought he sounded really great on the song. I always loved the
346
00:21:45,580 --> 00:21:48,780
timbre of his voice and whatever. And I was like, there's no way. There's no
347
00:21:48,780 --> 00:21:51,990
way that people are gonna pick. But most of the feedback that I got was
348
00:21:51,990 --> 00:21:55,830
picking mine, oddly enough, so that's cool. And you didn't tell them that it
349
00:21:55,830 --> 00:21:59,670
was you. You just said these. No, because I didn't. I didn't want. Because it
350
00:21:59,670 --> 00:22:02,350
was. It was all friends, like, whether it was somebody in the industry or just
351
00:22:02,350 --> 00:22:04,870
like casual listeners or whatever. Like, I didn't want anybody
352
00:22:06,069 --> 00:22:09,350
thinking, like, going into it, like, they're voting for or against me,
353
00:22:09,750 --> 00:22:13,270
you know? Right. I just want. I wanted like 100%
354
00:22:13,590 --> 00:22:17,340
objectivity of just like, tell me which singer sounds
355
00:22:17,340 --> 00:22:20,860
better. You know what I mean? Wow, that must have felt pretty good, though, to
356
00:22:20,860 --> 00:22:24,540
get those back and be like, oh, people want me. It. I mean,
357
00:22:24,540 --> 00:22:27,860
it. It did, but it was also like, I'm pretty terrible at taking
358
00:22:27,860 --> 00:22:31,500
compliments. So, like, I. I was like, there was definitely like a lot of like.
359
00:22:31,500 --> 00:22:34,860
Like my brain was sort of rejecting of, like, all these people must be stupid.
360
00:22:34,860 --> 00:22:37,500
You know what I mean? Yeah. They all know it's me and they just don't
361
00:22:37,500 --> 00:22:40,540
want to hurt my feelings. Right. Right.
362
00:22:42,150 --> 00:22:45,950
So. But yeah, but like, the one good thing about that was, like, I
363
00:22:45,950 --> 00:22:49,750
had just, you know, before that I had never really
364
00:22:49,750 --> 00:22:53,350
considered myself very adept when it came to writing
365
00:22:53,350 --> 00:22:56,070
lyrics or top lining anything. So
366
00:22:57,030 --> 00:23:00,150
I always kind of stayed away from that. But I think the fact that
367
00:23:01,430 --> 00:23:05,110
I didn't originally write it for me to sing kind of helped
368
00:23:05,110 --> 00:23:08,910
that, like, I didn't have those usual insecurities of, like, oh, this is gonna
369
00:23:08,910 --> 00:23:11,910
sound stupid with me saying it or whatever. You know what I mean? The kind
370
00:23:11,910 --> 00:23:15,570
of, like, self conscious that comes with that. So I think
371
00:23:15,730 --> 00:23:19,570
that. Having. Having done it
372
00:23:19,570 --> 00:23:23,410
that way is like, was. Was a good thing because then it
373
00:23:23,410 --> 00:23:27,010
was like, okay, well, now I know how, like, now I know,
374
00:23:27,090 --> 00:23:30,610
like, the headspace that I need to put myself in. And more
375
00:23:30,610 --> 00:23:34,210
importantly, now I know that, like, I can build a song from start to finish
376
00:23:34,210 --> 00:23:37,690
with nobody if I want to. You know what I mean? Like, I don't. I
377
00:23:37,690 --> 00:23:40,450
don't need to bring anybody else in if I, you know, if. If I Don't
378
00:23:40,450 --> 00:23:44,270
if I don't want to or need to. So at that point, it was,
379
00:23:44,350 --> 00:23:47,070
you know, then I told Matty, I was like, okay, well, hey, that was me.
380
00:23:47,790 --> 00:23:51,550
So I think. I think. I think we figured that out. That's easy
381
00:23:51,550 --> 00:23:55,350
enough, I guess. Yeah. So then it was just
382
00:23:55,350 --> 00:23:58,590
a conversation of, like, who else to hit up. And,
383
00:23:59,150 --> 00:24:02,910
you know, Matty and I have been touring for a long time,
384
00:24:03,150 --> 00:24:06,990
so, like, nobody was really interested in, like,
385
00:24:06,990 --> 00:24:10,690
just finding, like, completely new people
386
00:24:10,770 --> 00:24:14,530
because it's kind of scary to start something new when you're in your 30s
387
00:24:14,530 --> 00:24:18,370
and you have a career and, like. Right, right. You
388
00:24:18,370 --> 00:24:22,130
know, it's so. It. It feels. It would feel kind of pointless to do it
389
00:24:22,130 --> 00:24:25,730
with a group of people where you had to, like, hold somebody's hand,
390
00:24:25,970 --> 00:24:29,810
like, you know, somebody who didn't really know, like, how things worked or
391
00:24:29,810 --> 00:24:33,570
whatever. You just kind of wanted to be able to, like. Like bring some people
392
00:24:33,570 --> 00:24:37,330
in and everyone's kind of on the same page, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they're. They're.
393
00:24:37,330 --> 00:24:40,970
Yeah. You don't have to, like. Right. Teach, like.
394
00:24:41,050 --> 00:24:44,810
Yeah. Teach them the ropes of touring or what? Like, everyone's kind of is a
395
00:24:44,810 --> 00:24:48,610
veteran and knows what's going on in these moments. Exactly. Show
396
00:24:48,610 --> 00:24:52,250
up to a show or whatever it may be. Right, right. So. Yeah, because.
397
00:24:52,250 --> 00:24:54,890
And also, you know, we knew it was going to be kind of difficult, at
398
00:24:54,890 --> 00:24:57,730
least even just for the two of us to be able to, like, get our
399
00:24:57,730 --> 00:25:01,050
schedules to match up to get together. So, like,
400
00:25:01,370 --> 00:25:04,610
if it was going to be difficult already, we might as well get people who
401
00:25:04,610 --> 00:25:08,420
are, you know, like, you know, to the best of our ability
402
00:25:08,420 --> 00:25:12,180
professionals. And. And, like, then just know that
403
00:25:12,740 --> 00:25:15,300
we're not going to have it. Have to have any of those kind of annoying
404
00:25:15,300 --> 00:25:18,980
preliminary conversations of, like, this is how this goes. This is how this.
405
00:25:18,980 --> 00:25:22,780
Yes. You know, kind of thing. So did you
406
00:25:22,780 --> 00:25:26,500
ever think of it as. Or doing it because you're like, oh, wow, well, he
407
00:25:26,500 --> 00:25:30,180
likes my voice or my voice got voted or whatever, and I
408
00:25:30,180 --> 00:25:33,100
know I can build the song from start to finish. Did you ever think of
409
00:25:33,100 --> 00:25:36,780
it, like, maybe doing it just as, like, a solo project of maybe having
410
00:25:37,260 --> 00:25:40,620
Maddie as just the drummer or. Or this. Yeah.
411
00:25:40,780 --> 00:25:44,580
Something you wanted as a band that you're like, let's tour and do the
412
00:25:44,580 --> 00:25:48,180
whole thing with it. Yeah. The. The goal from. From the
413
00:25:48,180 --> 00:25:51,780
Drop was to, like, at least have something that had the
414
00:25:51,780 --> 00:25:55,500
ability to, like, tour and be a band and, you know,
415
00:25:55,500 --> 00:25:59,260
whatever. I mean, from, you know, just out of necessity because of
416
00:25:59,260 --> 00:26:02,700
everybody's schedules being Crazy all the time. Like, it was kind of
417
00:26:03,350 --> 00:26:06,790
unrealistic to think that we could all get ourselves in a room together,
418
00:26:06,870 --> 00:26:10,470
like, even. Even once, let alone multiple
419
00:26:10,470 --> 00:26:14,310
times to, like, write all of this stuff together. So the writing
420
00:26:14,550 --> 00:26:18,390
largely came down to me, but. But as far as,
421
00:26:18,390 --> 00:26:21,670
like, you know, the esthetic and the
422
00:26:22,230 --> 00:26:25,910
sort of group environment and stuff, like, we all wanted to feel like.
423
00:26:25,990 --> 00:26:28,790
Like an actual band, like a unit. You know what I mean? So.
424
00:26:30,970 --> 00:26:33,690
Definitely didn't. And I, you know, I don't.
425
00:26:34,730 --> 00:26:38,330
Like I said, I'm, you know, the frontman thing is very new for me and
426
00:26:38,330 --> 00:26:41,450
still kind of uncomfortable. So the.
427
00:26:42,170 --> 00:26:45,809
The idea of calling it, like a solo project was like, that was a. No.
428
00:26:45,809 --> 00:26:49,570
No. Okay. You know, it's like. It's like this is. This
429
00:26:49,570 --> 00:26:53,090
is gonna be difficult enough for me to wrap my head around. You know what
430
00:26:53,090 --> 00:26:56,590
I mean? This being just me. Yeah, yeah. Without
431
00:26:56,590 --> 00:26:59,590
and without just calling it Chris Kelly. You know what I mean? I was like
432
00:26:59,590 --> 00:27:02,430
that, like, name and, you know. Yeah.
433
00:27:03,150 --> 00:27:06,310
Did you have. Because I know you've put out. You said you're putting out songs
434
00:27:06,310 --> 00:27:09,990
every couple few weeks or whatever. Do you have a full album that
435
00:27:09,990 --> 00:27:12,950
you're gonna. You guys are gonna put out or are you just playing, like, you
436
00:27:12,950 --> 00:27:16,630
just releasing the songs as singles as they come? Yeah. So, I mean, the
437
00:27:16,630 --> 00:27:20,110
original. The original intent was to have it be a record, you know,
438
00:27:20,590 --> 00:27:24,110
release. Release singles for a few months and then announce a record and do the
439
00:27:24,110 --> 00:27:27,760
whole thing. But I think a lot there, like, this whole year
440
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:31,520
has just been kind of like trying to. Trying to make
441
00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:35,280
proof of concept, you know, and, you know, do it. We're
442
00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:38,000
doing it all independently, so you want to try to keep budgets low and stuff
443
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:40,960
like that. And when you announce a record, you want to have, like, merch bundles
444
00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:44,240
and marketing in place, and you kind of want to have a lot of, like,
445
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:47,960
infrastructure ready to go. And so by the time it, like right
446
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:51,720
around, like, October, ish, would have been maybe the
447
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:54,560
ideal time to announce, like, okay, now it's going to be a record.
448
00:27:56,420 --> 00:28:00,260
It was like, we don't have enough in place to, like, really support
449
00:28:00,260 --> 00:28:03,980
that, so there is enough material written for, you
450
00:28:03,980 --> 00:28:06,980
know, between all the singles that have come out now and then what. What still
451
00:28:06,980 --> 00:28:10,140
hasn't been released, like, there is enough to make it a record. It's just we
452
00:28:10,140 --> 00:28:13,940
have to have the conversation of, like, what it's going to look like. Right
453
00:28:13,940 --> 00:28:17,660
on, man. Well, that's exciting. That's really awesome. Well, I appreciate your time,
454
00:28:17,660 --> 00:28:20,900
Chris. Thank you so much for doing this. Yeah, likewise, man.
455
00:28:21,770 --> 00:28:25,490
I have one more question for you before I let you get back
456
00:28:25,490 --> 00:28:29,170
to hitting the road or. I want to know if you have any
457
00:28:29,170 --> 00:28:32,890
advice for aspiring artists. I
458
00:28:32,890 --> 00:28:36,610
mean, that's, you know, that's a pretty. That's a difficult one to
459
00:28:36,610 --> 00:28:39,450
answer because it's hard to.
460
00:28:40,890 --> 00:28:44,610
It's hard to consider myself as somebody who's worthy of giving advice.
461
00:28:44,610 --> 00:28:48,370
But the. Well, you've. Yeah, okay, never mind.
462
00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:51,240
You've done it. No, well, yeah, no, I,
463
00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:56,040
I recognize, I recognize I have a career in this, so. Yeah.
464
00:28:57,320 --> 00:29:00,360
But honestly, I think the only thing that I can say is like, I think
465
00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:03,000
everybody that gets into music sort of assumes that
466
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:07,680
their path to like making it or whatever is like they're
467
00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:10,200
going to start a band and that band's going to get signed and then it's
468
00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:13,080
going to get big and that's it. And
469
00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:17,550
that would be sick. But it doesn't necessarily always work out
470
00:29:17,550 --> 00:29:20,070
that way. So
471
00:29:21,430 --> 00:29:25,270
being open to different, like my first touring gig, I was in a
472
00:29:25,270 --> 00:29:27,430
Darth Vader costume. You know what I mean?
473
00:29:30,230 --> 00:29:33,830
I definitely wouldn't have thought that's what would have happened. So
474
00:29:34,390 --> 00:29:38,150
just kind of being as open as you can to whatever
475
00:29:38,150 --> 00:29:41,910
opportunity might come your way is probably the best advice that I can give
476
00:29:41,910 --> 00:29:44,590
because I think a lot of people can get, especially when you're younger, you can
477
00:29:44,590 --> 00:29:48,370
be pretty tunnel vision, kind of closed minded to like. No, it's just going
478
00:29:48,370 --> 00:29:51,730
to be my thing that gets me to where I need to be. But like.
479
00:29:51,730 --> 00:29:55,330
And so you can kind of not even notice like another potential
480
00:29:55,330 --> 00:29:56,690
opportunity popping up.
481
00:30:02,930 --> 00:30:04,370
Bringin it Backwards.
482
00:30:08,210 --> 00:30:11,730
Bringin it Backwards, Bringin it Backwards,
483
00:30:11,970 --> 00:30:15,410
Bringin it Backwards, Bringin it Backwards,
484
00:30:15,650 --> 00:30:16,930
Bringin it back.
