COLD HAND CHEMISTRY

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHARL FOURIE
WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/coldhandchemistry
COUNTRY: South Africa STYLE: Progressive / Rock / Metal

COLD HAND CHEMISTRY HAS BEEN PLAYING LIVE ON A REGULAR BASIS NOW FOR A LONG TIME, HOW MUCH HAS THAT CONSISTENCY HELPED THE BAND TO BUILD A FAN BASE IN CAPE TOWN?

Playing live does help expose your music to the fans, however we have found that the music appeals to a more European fan base. We rely allot on online exposure and our main focus at the moment is growing our European fan base. Playing live does help keep the intimacy with your fans, and we enjoy it allot.

THE CAPE TOWN SCENE IS REALLY “BLOOMING” AT THE MOMENT, WITH MORE BANDS AROUND THAN EVER. THAT BEING SAID, DO YOU FIND THAT STAYING TRUE TO YOUR STYLE OF MUSIC IS HARD WHEN BANDS THAT HAVEN’T BEEN AROUND THAT LONG GET MORE ATTENTION FROM PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY FOLLOW A CERTAIN TREND IN MUSIC?

It’s great to see the Cape Town scene in bloom. We don’t really pay attention to what other bands are doing around us. We stick to what we love doing, if you love the music you write and play you are bound to have fans that feels the trueness and emotion to your music. Music lovers and listeners are not stupid and do not need media propaganda to like certain bands more than others. It’s all about mutual respect. I think you need to stay true to your music first and if SA is not ready for you, target your market elsewhere. We are lucky that we have a good following in Europe.

WHAT HAVE BEEN THE BIGGEST HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE BAND SO FAR?

We don’t really measure our success with physical achievements, all though it would be nice. I think as a unit and band, our biggest highlight is our new material. It’s been a while since we’ve been creatively involved due to all the gigs we had last year and the beginning of this year. I guess playing a new track and feeling the energy amongst us blows new breath into the band.

IN FEBRUARY YOU ANNOUNCED ON MYSPACE THAT DRUMMER RYAN SHUMAN WAS LEAVING THE BAND AND THAT HE WILL PLAY HIS LAST FEW SHOWS WITH YOU GUYS IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS, HOW ARE YOU PLANNING TO MOVE FORWARD AFTER HE LEAVES?

Ryan Leaving the band was a very sad and dark moment for us. He’s been one of the founding members of Cold Hand Chemistry and a dear friend. It left a big gap in Cold Hand Chemistry which we feared was almost impossible to fill. We were very blessed to have one of the best drummers in SA playing for us.

Thanks to luck being on our side we manage to get Robert Fick to play for us. He just returned from the UK. So far he’s done exceptional in getting up to speed with our set. We are very happy that he enjoys our music and that he believes in our music as much as Ryan did.

GREAT NEWS IS THAT YOU GUYS ARE LAUNCHING YOUR DEBUT ALBUM THIS YEAR. DO YOU THINK THAT WAITING SO LONG TO RELEASE YOUR FIRST ALBUM CREATED BETTER RESULTS DURING RECORDING BECAUSE YOU TOOK YOUR TIME?

We try not to rush the release of our first Album. We started working on our album end of last year and realized that to do this right we need to rethink allot of things. I think first and foremost you have to be a perfectionist about your first Album. How awesome and great it is to have an Album to your name it needs to be legendary. For now we have put our album on hold up to the point that we feel is the right time to hit the studio.

WHO IS PRODUCING THE ALBUM AND HOW BIG OF A PART DID THEY PLAY IN THE END RESULT?

We don’t want to say too much about the Album now. You would have to wait and see. We just hope it is worth the wait.

WHAT PART OF WRITING AND RECORDING MUSIC DO YOU LOVE AND HATE THE MOST AND DID YOU GUYS TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY TO TRY OUT ANYTHING NEW MUSICALLY?

We love the team work that goes into putting a new song together. Sharing creative input and ideas as a unit and those sweet moments when you play through the song without hiccups for the first time and high fifing your band mates. Going home with the song still stuck in your head that’s what we love the most. I think most musicians hates admin and planning the recording we would say is the least favourite.

HAVE YOU EVER HEARD YOURSELF SAYING YOU WOULD NEVER SING OR PLAY A CERTAIN WAY ON A SONG AND THEN FOUND YOURSELF DOING IT LATER ON?

We are our own worst enemies at times. The only time we did a song outside of our creative comfort was when we recorded Angel Suicide. The song came out great and commercially viable; however as musicians we did feel that we somehow cheated our creativity in order to fit into a box which was created by the Industry. We wowed never to conform to cheat ourselves creatively again. It’s quality that counts not quantity; if we have 4 guys loving the song due to its originality we are happy. We want to target the tail end of the Market so for us it’s all about originality.

HOW MANY SONGS WILL BE ON THE ALBUM, AND HOW MANY NEW SONGS AND HOW MANY OF THE SONGS THAT THE BAND HAS PERFORMED IN THE LAST TWO YEARS WILL BE INCLUDED ON THE ALBUM?

We don’t want to give too much away, all we know it’s going to be quite the wait and we hope that when the Album does see day of light that our listeners will be just as happy about the product as we hope to be.

HAS YOUR MUSICAL INFLUENCES CHANGED MUCH OVER THE YEARS AND DO YOU FIND THAT THE MUSIC YOU LISTEN TO HAS A BIG IMPACT THE WAY YOU WRITE YOUR OWN MUSIC?

Since we brought in two new members Ameer and Robert, some element of Cold Hand Chemistry has changed. As individuals in the band we are always looking for bands to inspire us and with that individual taste we do tend to keep evolving Cold Hand Chemistry.

WHEN YOU WRITE MUSIC DO YOU GUYS EVER THINK: “I WONDER HOW THIS IS GOING TO WORK LIVE”?

Cold Hand Chemistry is a live band; our writing has always been based on how the music will interact with the crowed. The feeling you get when you play a new song and the response from the fans is great, I don’t think you can express that in words from an artist point of view.

ARE YOU PLANNING ANY CHANGES TO YOUR SET LIST AND OTHER ELEMENTS OF YOU LIVE SHOW?

Yes, we have decided to step away from performing after the 23th of May to concentrate on our Music and our new direction as a New band. This will impact our live shows in the future and the way we perform.

ANY LAST COMMENTS / ADVICE OR PEOPLE YOU WOULD LIKE TO THANK?

We would like to encourage our friends and fans to interact with us on our blog, we love to be closely involved with CHC friends. We will be blogging our progress as much as possible. We also would love to thank every single individual that’s been at a CHC gig for fuelling our hunger to entertain. We hope that when we get back out there you will enjoy what we have prepared for you. Remember your comment’s, advise and impute is valuable to us.

OTHER LINKS:

BLOG: http://coldhandchemistry.blogspot.com/
REVERBNATION: http://www.reverbnation.com/coldhandchemistry
FACEBOOK FAN PAGE: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Cold-Hand-Chemistry/7298581506?ref=t