The Goo 1
Interview Words: Jack McBain CHALK Chalk are a Be
lfast based band that fuse Dublin post punk/ noise rock sounds with electronic dance music from Belfast, culminating in some of the most innovative, creative and chaotic music you’re likely to hear. They dropped the third and final EP of their ‘Conditions’ trilogy on the 21st of February and are playing a headline show at Whelan’s on the 12th of April. Jack McBain caught up with the lads to discuss all things Chalk. So to start things off your new EP ‘Conditions III’ comes out on the 21st of February. How are you guys feeling ahead of the release and what is the mood amongst the band as the curtain closes on the Conditions trilogy? Luke: Yeah very excited. It’s been a long time in the works for all three of these EP’s and they’ve all meant something different to us along the way and we are just happy to bring this trilogy to a close. We are hoping people can take something from this EP like they did the last two. Ross: It’s nice to also close that chapter too because we are already thinking about the big32 ger project with the album so it’s almost like we can kind of step out of that world and try new things as well with the music. How did the recording process differ to the two previous projects? Luke: Geographically it was a lot different right off the bat because we were in Iceland recording this one and we had previously recorded the first two just in Belfast so it was a complete different landscape and I mean that was the big switch up with this one and these songs are all based on the live show as well. ‘Leipzig 87’ for example; that song we have had sitting there for ages and it’s really cool that it has had a home on this one. Having met in Queens University studying film there is an evident appreciation for the visuals that accompany the music - especially the track ‘Afraid’ . Can you tell us the story behind that video and in particular the symbolism of the olive in the video? Ben: So I did the video with our good friend Colin Peppard who is coming on tour with us. The thing with the olive was a guy’s last meal and we wanted to do the video with this body builder guy (Lachlan) with the idea of this tiny olive taking out a big guy. The video was good fun there was actually severe yellow weather warnings the night before the shoot so we didn’t even know if