My Interview:
Hey, Chaska! We all know that QAR hit the road to fame since
the release of your latest album, (Smash Fight) but can you tell us a little
about the bands history before you got famous?
Hey! I formed Queen Anne’s Revenge back when I was 15 and in
high school. At the time it was just a creative outlet for me and my friends
Dan and Phil (drums and lead guitar) to relax and have fun. We were under a lot
of pressure around the time the band formed from our school with exams, but
this was just for us to forget about all that and focus on something fun for a
bit. We only ever played covers of bands like Green Day and Fall Out Boy but we
really enjoyed ourselves at the time!
So you started the band in high school? Now a few years
later you’ve all recently finished college just last year, but quite a lot has
changed since then. What happened between the time you formed in high school
and now being world famous rock stars?
During our extended summer after finishing school we continued
to play covers and we stated to meet up more regularly than before. It was at
this point that I realised since our staring days we’d actually all bonded extremely
well as a band an actually sounded pretty good! This was reinforced when the
owner of our local pub asked us if we wanted to play a half an hour slot at a
mini summer festival, and we of course said yes! We loved every second of our
performance and the audience seemed to actually have just as much fun as we
did!
Was it this performance which lead to you starting to
support bands at local venues?
Yes, it was. At this time, we only had a drummer, guitarist
and vocalist so we weren’t really in the best position to be playing proper live
gigs. However, after our performance at the pub, a local guy who watched us and
really enjoyed our set asked if we were looking for a bassist. We took this guy
on trial and we all got along really well! This guy was of course, Chris who is
now the bassist of the band today! Now that we had a full line up we really put
in the rehearsal hours and started to apply for local support slots.
How was the experience supporting at local small venues in
your home city?
Well, it turned out it was harder than we had first thought!
It was a completely different atmosphere to the small pub show we had done, the
difference being our small audience was actually made up of committed rock fans
who would be properly judging us and not just out to hear a bit of live music. Playing
covers is always difficult, because you want to get the crowd warmed up, and if
they know the songs then its great and they’ll sing along. But sometimes really
committed fans of bands don’t appreciate covers and can be quite critical.
So you hit a few rough patches whist first supporting?
Oh yes definitely! I think that every band has some bad
first time experiences. One which will always stick out to me was the time we
played a 20-minute support slot in Norwich. We played all our best covers with
our own twist but we actually received pretty bad feedback from our audience. People
told us they didn’t like our versions of the songs. We all left that gig
feeling a little bit disheartened but that’s when the realisation hit me. That
we should attempt to write our own songs, in our own style of music which we
liked!
So this was when the true birth of QAR took place?
You could say that yes! We all sat down and had a chat about
seriously trying to write our own music, it was quite a big commitment but we decided
to give it a shot and spent a lot of last year trying to write our own songs.
This was when Chris (bass) got into contact with an old friend of this who used
to play guitar in his own band. He came along to some of our writing and rehearsal
sessions and just never left! This of course in PJ who is are fifth member and
rhythm guitarist!
So at this point you had all of you line up and had begun
writing your own music? What next?
Well, once we felt confident again we went back to supporting
at local gigs and we got an even better response from the audience than ever before!
We now played a mix of our ow music as well as still a couple of covers. It was
at this point that we started to get a bit of local recognition and were even
asked to tour with some other small bands who we’d been friends with and supporting
since we began playing gigs.
How did this lead to the release of your album Smash Fight?
After our tour at the beginning of summer we were asked by a
local independent recording studio if we would be interested in recording an
album! We were delighted that somebody had enough faith in us and our own music
to record an actual album!
You released Smash Fight in November last year, and now its January
and you’re one of the most successful rock bands today, how did this happen
exactly?
After releasing the album, we promoted it as much as
possible on our social networking sites. Our small fan base all responded
amazingly to the album and somehow within a week we had a massive following. One
of our fans tweeted Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low with a link to our album
telling him to listen to it, and he did! He them tweeted about us and a lot of
the All Time Low fan base listened to, and loved our music! It was after this that
more people across the internet started to hear the name Queen Anne’s Revenge and
listen to us. Somehow in the space of a view days we had gone from being an
unknown local group
to an internationally famous band!
Now that you’ve come this far, do you consider yourself to
be a rock and roll legend?
Hahaha I wouldn’t go as far to say that! Not yet… hahaha. But
it does feel incredible to have our music out there for a wider audience to
enjoy. I think that one day I’d love to be able to have the same influence on
my audience as one of my own inspirations had on me, Haley Williams of
Paramore.
It’s been great talking to you Chaska! Do you have any final
words to your audience, or to anyone who was in a similar position to yourself?
I’ve just got to say a massive thank you for all the lovely
words of appreciation from everyone who has listened to the album! And if you
ever feel like it’s too difficult to get into the music industry, whatever you
do, do not give up! Just keep doing what you enjoy and one day you’ll dreams
will come true in a similar to how ours have!
