CHUCK W CHAPMAN Band Current Line-up: Chuck W. Chapman-Lead vocals, Guitar; Todd Duncan-Bass,
Vocals; Joe Tanay-Drums: Clark Bender – Lead Guitar, Vocals
I had been away from active performing music for about 12 years. I would do an occasional pick up gig here and
there and I played at my church, but hadn’t recorded any music or performed regularly. When Covid hit in 2020
and the world stopped turning, I found myself playing and singing at home a lot. I went through some old files and
found a few songs that I had recorded with my last band probably 12-15 years ago. When I listened back to them,
I was surprised to find that 4 of them sounded really good and were almost finished. I played around with them on
Garageband, added a few vocals and put out an EP, wondering if anyone would care. Just from my Facebook
page and personal website, I sold the first hundred CD’s in just a little over 2 months and it started getting a lot of
streams. I realized people still enjoyed my music and decided to take 1 more shot at pursuing my dreams. Todd
(Duncan, Bass) and I had jammed a bit before C19, so he was the first person I called. Joe (Tanay, Drums) had
played with me in my last real band, Cartoon Factory, which was mostly a cover band, and we always worked well
together, so he was my 2nd call. Took us forever to find the right lead player and I really take my hat off to those
guys for sticking around and believing in my music.
Describe my music in 5 words? How about 1 word, “Rock”, If I have to use 5, “new classic rock Powerpop punk”
I think people are going to love the new record. Shooting for early Spring. Working title is “Outcast Among
Outcasts” and it will be our first release on Self Made Records. We’re all super excited about it. My songs are all
over the place. Some are almost straight up poppunk and some are almost a Southern Rock ballad feel. The
people who enjoyed our last record, “Burn It Down” will flip over this one. More of the same but turned up a notch
and we’re trying to capture the energy and raw emotion that our live shows have.
I try to be relatable in my music. There is a wealth of emotions on this record. Love, pain, lost love, recovery, the
human condition. Hopefully these songs will make someone smile, or feel wanted, or know they’re not alone in
their feelings and experiences. We’re all in this together.
The writing process so far has been that a song will come to me and I will grab a guitar and a recording device and
record what has popped into my head. Sometimes I’ll finish the whole thing then and sometimes it rolls around for
awhile and I come back to it as more comes to me. It usually happens at 2 am or when I’m in the shower, lol. I
almost never sit down and say “I’m gonna write a song today.” It just doesn’t work that way for me. I have done
that, but I don’t think I’ve ever been happy with the results. Both Todd and Clark have some ideas and maybe we’ll
try to write together sometime. I envy people who can decide to write songs. My songs tell me when they want to
be written, not vice versa.
We’ve all played in various bands. There’s people who still remember me from The Delilahs from 25 years ago.
Joe played with me in Cartoon Factory. Todd is from here but moved to LA for years and hadn’t been active locally
until he and I hooked up a few years ago. Clark has only been in this area for a couple of years.
The songs on this album were mostly written in the past several months. I think there’s 2 that are older tunes that I
had never recorded that I thought were good enough to revisit for this record. I changed keys on both of them and
rearranged them with the help of our producer and unofficial 5th member, Kevin Stuart Swain. Kevin played lead on
the last record because we hadn’t found a permanent lead guitarists. We’ve been friends for several years and it’s
like he can read my mind. We fit together so well musically and I have the utmost respect for him and his ideas.
He plays with Thor and Al Harlow and a few other people. He’s a real pro and he has really helped elevate my
music.
If people come to see us live, they can expect us to bring it. It’s a high energy show. We move a lot and sweat a
lot. We don’t use any computer enhancements or tracks. It’s four guys delivering the goods. We sound very similar
live to the records, just a bit rawer and dirtier.
My lyrics are inspired by things that have happened to me or to people that I care about. Sometimes I’ll build an
entire song around just a title or a couple of lines that really speak to me and my emotions. We all feel like we’re
the only ones who have felt the way we do, especially in bad times, but you’re never alone. At the end of the day,
you’ve got to be able to look yourself in the mirror and know you gave it all you had and whatever you screwed up
today, you’ll try to do better tomorrow. We’re all outcasts in one way or another.
I write all the melodies and lyrics, but each member adds their own flavor by adding their part. I might give
suggestions or explain the emotion that I’m trying to convey, but the drummer writes the drum parts, the bassist
writes the bass parts, the lead player writes the leads. I write the songs, but I’m like an architect. I plan out the
house but I need the other guys to help build it.
Sometimes I may have to rewrite a few lyrics to phrase right with the music but in general, I write them both at the
same time and then go back and tweak where I need to. If there is 8 syllables here and 12 there, I probably have
to reword that part.
I’ve always kind of had my own style that is made up from decades of different music that enjoy. I love the Beatles
and you can hear that in my songs, I also love Kiss and Cheap Trick and The Ramones and the Sex Pistols and
you’re going to hear that. Most of the evolution is just that I think more now and work harder to craft a song than
just banging out a couple verses and a couple of choruses and calling it done, I may add an intro, pre-chorus,
bridge, or all of the above, so I would just say I’ve become more aware of not settling and trying to make every
song the best it can be in and of itself.
So many bands have influenced us. Kiss, Cheap Trick, Beatles, Ramones, Bowling for Soup – at least that’s some
of my favorites.
As for genres, Arena Rock, Classic Rock, Punk, PopPunk, Powerpop, Glam, Hair Metal, Blues Rock, Southern
Rock, Oldies, Alternative, Indie .. If it’s a sub-genre of rock’n’roll, chances are we’ve been influenced by it.