Chase Lumen Talks About Chase and the Dead
R3cords
Interviews
Chase Lumen Talks About Chase and the Dead
Chase talks about Chase and The Dead, a now disbanded underground progressive indie band. WE also touch a little bit on WHAT HAPPENED leading up to the disbandment, and just how things were throughout. ↓
Chase Lumen Talks About Chase and the Dead
Written by
This was my first meeting with Chase Lumen, we did a short interview and then we chatted for a while afterwards. This was when he gave me a copy of his new emblem. He wanted me to give a brief explanation on the design, I will do an article about it in the future. But here’s the short one;
The emblem shows a Raven on a shield with its wings spread high and looking towards the observer, Chase Lumen is written on the scroll below.
It is important to note; the head of the Raven is in skull form which also sits upon its feathery hackles.
Finally in a display of transcendence the Ravens wings can be seen breaking out through the top of the shield.
DMA: “Right ,so! Chase!… This… is our very first interview together!”
Chase: “Uhm, that’s quite true yes. Bit of a strange way to start an interview I might add, but I wont hold it against you. How are you? You look a little nervous, or ill… I can’t really tell.”
DMA: “No, actually. I was running a little bit late, but It was fine in the end. I’ve heard quite a lot about you actually and to be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect. I’ve really been looking forward to this interview to be honest… I didn’t sleep well, I was making sure I’d got all the right questions to ask.”
Chase: “Haha, We’ve got all the time in the world mate. I’m always good for one of these, so if we miss anything, you know… We do another one another time, and another.”
DMA: “Yeah I know, I think it’s just because I hadn’t met you till today, I’ve met everybody else and only really heard about you, until now of course. What I’m saying is, it’s nice to finally put a face and a voice to this… Legend I’ve been hearing about, every day, since I became the author of the site.”
Chase: “And to yourself actually… Same. I’ve been reading a lot through the articles you’ve done recently, it’s just really nice to see things on the site going out there finally!”
DMA: “Yeah, I’m absolutely loving it! I really, really wanted this job, it’s kid of weird… It’s like, I actually asked the universe for this exact job! Not exact, because I’d never heard of R3cords before, but then I met both Biggs and Mr Stuart and they just told me about all this, and… long story short, I said YES… And here we are now!”
Chase: “That’s nice, I know funding was a real issue from the start, and that they’d been digging deep into their own pockets to get this far. So how does it feel to be the first official R3cords employee?”
DMA: “It’s unreal! It’s really, something! I can’t actually imagine myself doing anything else anymore.”
Chase: “Would you still do it if the money stopped coming in?”
DMA: “I’d like to say so, I think I would! I’d obviously need a second job though.”
Chase: “Well, that’s how you know… Isn’t it? If it’s what you are?! That thing that makes you, you! It’s a nice feeling to have, when you find it… The thing that gives you purpose, that you could just do forever.”
DMA: “Yeah, I think this is that, exactly. Although I think we’ve gone way deep, way to quick here. It’s nice though. Don’t get me wrong.”
Chase: “Ah haha, I wouldn’t have put it like that, but yeah haha. “
DMA: “Haha, no really this is… I think, no I’d say… I know, this is me. This is what I am, this is what I do.“
Chase: “This is who we are, this is what we do!”
DMA: “…Yeah all of us!”
Chase: “Yeah exactly haha, I was doing a thing!..”
DMA: “A thing? What do you mean?”
Chase: “You’ve got your thing, I’ve got mine! If you aint got it yet, you might in time!.. How about that! I’m a poet and I don’t know it.”
DMA: “You can make a rhyme, every time!”
Chase: “Haha.”
DMA: “I know that, what was it from?”
Chase: “I think it’s one of those cliché tropes you’ll find anywhere to be honest. Actually I might be wrong, but there was a cartoon from a while back called Johnny Bravo. I think he might have said that at some point. I was just a kid back then so like I said, could be wrong…”
DMA: “Actually, yeah! It rings a bell! I’m not too sure though.”
Chase: “Ahh, it doesn’t really matter to be honest.”
DMA: “Hah no, we should probably get on with the interview now. So!.. I’ve got questions, many questions… I love asking questions.”
Chase: “That’s Great! I love answering them! And I bet! You probably didn’t know that about me, am I right?!”
DMA: “No I didn’t actually! But that’s why we’re doing the interview so I can find out, but at a guess, I’d say you must… At least just a little bit.”
Chase: “Well yeah! There’s definitely some truth in that, I guess the easy way to say it would be that I just like having fun in conversation. Erm, like for instance, have you ever heard of misdirection?”
DMA: “Yeah, pretty sure, kind of like the slight of hand, card tricks, rabbit in a hat, all that stuff right?”
Chase: “There is, those things yes. I could list off a lot more too. My favorite use of it was actually from those choose your own adventure books, have you ever read any of them?”
DMA: “Yes, of course… Well just one, back in school. I kept unintentionally starting the story over… It’s funny actually, because I would always choose the safer option and it’d take me back to the beginning every time.”
Chase: “Ahhh you got stuck in a loop, the old classic perpetual spiral, the ultimate blunder, the unending goof, the cycle of misfortune!.. Haha I don’t know why I’m saying it like that, dramatic effect maybe!”
DMA: “Hah, I think I know what you were going for to be honest. I’m going to have to change the subject though… Time n’all that!”
Chase: “Sure thing! You’re the boss!”
DMA: “I’ll just jump to it, so… Chase and the Dead. Tell me about it, what happened?”
Chase: “Ahh, OK. So, as you probably already know, we were a err, progressive indie band. I’ve never really cared about getting the sub genre naming convention right, I’ve always preferred to just focus on the writing, than putting effort into caring about how much of an individual people people want me to label myself as… I’m so bored of having to explain myself to people! As though I should care what people think about what genre or style I align myself with. Like some rich bourgeois poser from a middle class family who pretends to rebel, making out he’s damaged and that no one understands. But really he’s just trying to get laid… There’s no love or respect for the music. It’s just a phase for them… Hang on, I’ve just realized I’ll stop ranting… Ugh, it’s because I was talking to some guy earlier and he just went on and on about *the struggle* you know?!.. I mean! His Dad bought him a brand new car this year! and he’s 32! What struggle?! He’s not even moved out yet, when he could, because he actually has a good job!.. I feel like I only go to open night mic nights nowadays to just get annoyed at people.”
DMA: “Hah, well I guess you could call that your struggle!”
Chase: “Hah! You’re not kidding, haha! But yeah anyway, the band had been going from around 2005, up until 2019. So, 14 years! That’s a long time now I think about it. Never really thought about how much time had actually passed before. I started young with it, I was 17 when we started the band. 31 when we split. Nothings really changed for us lot though, we still hang out like we always have. The only difference being that we just do our own thing with music now instead, you know!? “
DMA: “Yeah, I’ve talked to Rip Damon in private about some of the things that happened with the band. He didn’t disclose anything about yourself though, he said it’d be better coming from you.”
Chase: “Yeah, he’s fair like that. We’d all been talking about it for years really, we were all writing our own stuff, some of us had things they just want to go and do. Create our own things. I personally was wanting to go more experimental with my own stuff, with out any restrictions.”
DMA: “Well, I know there’s more to it than that. I know there was an event that triggered the decision… And I know we’ve definitely got to talk about that.”
Chase: “You mean the break up… My break up… Yeah, I’m gonna be honest mate! I really don’t like going there, In my head. It destroyed me… And when it happened, I was done… So that was the best time for everyone to just take some time for themselves, you know!… I don’t want to get into the details today though… So let’s just say, my break up was the catalyst in starting up what we had already had planned out for a while.”
DMA: “Chase, thanks for sharing. you don’t need to go into it today, we’ll cover it another time. When you’re ready. But at least we now know the why… So how about maybe for now, we just talk about what the band was all about.”
Chase: “Yeah ok! ahh, so like I said earlier, we’d been together for about 14 years, but I’d say, 10 of those were us being active, you know! Like gigs and all that. Those empty 4 years were kind of just little breaks and time spent reworking our sets, you know!”
DMA: “So were you guys, quite proactive when it came to making new material?”
Chase: “Oh yeah absolutely! I’m always writing something, whether or not it’d become something we’d actually use, wasn’t that important, because it’s just what I do. For myself more than anything. But sometimes I just really had to get something out there, you know! I’d write everything, because I had the whole piece in my head. When I’d show the band something new, I’d tell them what I wanted and what sort of sound I wanted in what places.. And that synchronization with what I wanted, they just played it. Like, they all just knew what was going on in my head. I’ve played with loads of other people, other bands… And I’ve had not had any pure, synchronicities, not like I’ve ever had with these guys. We just worked, it’s like when you solve a puzzle and everything just fits together. No friction, no egos, no stress… It just worked… We’d usually work on around 4 tracks a month, although most of them never got recorded. We’d just test them out, see what the crowd thought, and judge it that way… If they didn’t like it, we’d scrap it!”
“We just worked, it’s like when you solve a puzzle and everything just fits together. No friction, no egos, no stress… It just worked… “
I really enjoyed this interview. I’d been wanting to meet Chase since I first heard about him. He comes across as a really cool guy, he’s got his head screwed on and I like that. Unfortunately I had to leave the official interview there though. There’s definitely plenty more I want to talk to him about, which will be brought up in the next interview, hopefully very soon!
Related Articles
More
Follow Us
Subscribe now, and keep up to date!
Follow R3cords on a variety of your preferred social media platforms. Also, if you're a real fan! You should also consider subscribing to the mailing list, for biweekly updates on the latest news, announcements, music releases, videos or whatever's been happening!