HAVING A GOOD TIME

PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICK PEREZ

Southern California punk band Chico opens up about growth as musicians, being tossed around in the back of a truck, and touching on issues of addiction, anxiety, and self-doubt in their EP, “Chico Loves”.

Los Angeles, USA

What is the story behind the band Chico?

Tony: Chico started in 2018. About a year after Lance and I met on our dorm floor in college. We shared a very similar taste in music and would attend shows together often. After the thought of starting a band together came about, we brought in a couple friends and basically just started the band! Fast forward to now, a few members have come and gone. Our lineup now is Me, Lance, Dawson, Marco, and Jake. We feel like we have a solid crew with the same vision in mind and hope it stays that way!

What makes Chico stand out from the other similar bands and music styles?

Lance: I feel like what sets Chico apart from other bands is all the different influences that come out through our music. We all have pretty different musical backgrounds and I think when it comes out it’s something that catches people’s attention and gets them sticking around. I also think our stage presence and the energy and intensity we bring is something that helps us stand out from similar bands. Every show we play, we go as hard as we can because the crowd really feeds off that energy and it takes people from standing in the back with their arms crossed to jumping on stage and yelling our songs with us.

Tony: I never want to be a direct replica of another band no matter how much of an influence they are on us, and I think our music shows that! Whether we’re playing to a packed room or if the only other people in the room are the other bands on the bill, we’re going to do our thing and have a good time.

You recently released your EP, "Chico Loves". What is the EP about as a whole?

Lance: It’s hard to describe “Chico Loves” as a whole because every song is pretty different than the next. However, I would say the majority of it is about life priorities, addiction, and things like depression, anxiety, self doubt, etc.

How does "Chico Loves" differ from your previous EP, "Summer EP"? How does it show your growth as a band?

Tony: We started Chico in “Summer EP” by playing with some different punk and surfy sounds. “Chico Loves” is more so the EP we wanted to write back in 2019, but we were still trying to find our sound and which direction felt natural. Though we love ‘Dumb Beach’ and ‘Juuliet’, it was songs like ‘U Aight’ and ‘Hudson’ that felt like what we wanted to give.

‘G2G’ was the first song written following the “Summer EP” and the response we’ve received from it further solidifies what we think is Chico’s true sound. I’ve grown a ton as a musician since “Summer EP” and I hope that it’s obvious in “Chico Loves” from the drums to the riffs. Even down to the artwork, we put a lot of effort in making the vision for that come to life. I’m happy to have a band that is willing to do whatever needs to be done to make things happen.

What were some highs and lows of recording the EP?

Lance: It’s definitely a high being able to hangout with my best friends and make the music that we want to make. We are lucky to have our our friend Taylor from King Shelter record all of our stuff for us. We don’t have to deal with any lames in the studio, just the homies. Some of the hardest parts of recording were trying to get all the songs sounding exactly how we envisioned them. Which led to a lot of lyric and melody changes happening in the studio while we were recording. “Stuck” used to sound completely different and we came to the agreement that we didn’t like how it was sounding so we switched it up and came up with what we have now. Overall, the highs of getting to hang out with my friends and create what we love definitely outweighs any of the lows that come with recording new music.

Tony: The high for me is getting to hear the finished product and have it exceed the expectations I had for it. Shout out to our big bro and producer, “SLEEZY T” Taylor Hecocks for taking his time and pushing us throughout the whole process to be intentional and never settle. Some of the struggles for me specifically were things like finding the right guitar tones, tracking drums to a crappy scratch track, second guessing decisions I was once confident about, reworking lyrics and melodies that weren’t working, and more. Shout out to Taylor for laying down the guitar solo for ‘G2G’, and Marco for laying down the guitar solos for ‘Stuck’, ‘Buried’ and ‘Roll It’!

You recently made a music video for your single, "Ligma". How was filming the music video? How did it come to life?

Lance: Honestly filming the music video for “Ligma” was super fun. We were in the back of a moving truck driving through the streets of LA getting tossed all around. Our friends Perry and Alexio from college hit us up and asked if we wanted to make a music video and we were super down. We bounced ideas back and forth until we finally came up with what the “Ligma” music video is. We tried to make it fun and not boring to watch which is hopefully how it comes across.

In your show history, which shows have been the most memorable and why?

Lance: I personally think some of our first backyard shows were super sick, but the most memorable would probably be when we played The Echo with King Shelter and The High Curbs. So many people showed up and so many homies came through and went so hard for all the bands. It was so sick seeing people grabbing the mic, crowd surfing and stage diving to our music. Definitely one of the most memorable so far.

What has been the greatest struggle in your journey as a band?

Lance: I think the greatest struggle in our journey as a band has been getting everyone together and finding time to practice and play shows. We all have jobs outside of music and I live in San Diego most of the time while most of the band lives in the San Gabriel Valley/San Fernando Valley so adding that on top of everything else makes it hard. But I think even with these obstacles we do pretty good at finding time to all hangout and make music.

Tony: Pretty much the same for me. We all work full-time and most of us live on our own. So getting priorities straight can be tough when you want to do what you love and make 10 demos a week but you have rent, car payments, phone bills, and literally everything else due at once. We’ve worked hard for everything we have and accomplished so far and will continue to make time for what we love.

What is it like being part of the Southern California rock and punk scene? Which bands should we check out?

Tony: Yeah, it’s the best, California from top to bottom is doing it the best right now and we’re pumped to be a part of it! But we definitely want to branch out and rock some different states soon. SHOUT OUT: King Shelter, Fight Scene, Sexpeace, High Roller, The High Curbs, Expect The Worst, Exile SGV, Grave Secrets, Death Lens, Sun Spots, M.U.T.T., Shiiva, ‘92, Bed, Wayword, and way more.

What's next for Chico?

Tony: More music and more shows! We don’t plan on callin it quits anytime soon, we’re just getting started. We have some real cool songs we’re cooking up that we can’t wait to put out there. Hit us up, we’re tryna rock. Come say hi to us at a show, buy some swag, let’s be homiez.