Chewy&Bach Talk About Their Eclectic Sound in Their Newest Single, "Cold"

Hailing from the flourishing creative culture of Colorado, Chewy&Bach are pushing the perimeters of the local music scene.

As they methodically dissect their diverse musical backgrounds and organically fuse the pieces back together, the Colorado natives are creating a distinct sound of their own. A sound that creates a platform for blues, funk, electronic, pop and rock to meld together in a coalescent moment. 

iEDM had the pleasure of sitting down with the members of Chewy&Bach, Justin Long, Elliot Olbright, Tucker Riley and Mason Puckett, while they discuss the formation of the band, as well as, their latest single, "Cold."

iEDM: Can you tell us about the formation of Chewy&Bach? How do your musical backgrounds differ?

JL: We all come from very different directions. When Elliot and I first combined, I was completely from the jazz/blues/funk world. I had been playing in bands and he was almost completely pop and electronic. The whole vision of this project from the beginning was the fusion aspect.

About a year later, we convened with Tucker. the vision was also about it being lyric focused, bringing song writing and more depth back into the festival scene and back into pop and electronic music. We shoot to have the emotional appeal with the lyrics.

TR: Justin and I have known each other since about sixth grade. I've known him for a long time. We were in a guitar class he walked out of a long time ago (Laughs.) 

JL: A lot of us have know each other from growing up. We all went to the same high school. We never really connected that much in high school. Mason and I use to play in a funk band together.

At our first show ever at Cervantes Ballroom, I called up Mason the day before and I was like, "Do you want to play live drums for a Chewy&Bach set?"

We had never done it before or rehearsed but we tried that and ever since he's definitely been a huge aspect in bringing together our live presence.

He comes from more of a rock background and funk. So he brings that element in as well. 

iEDM: What are you looking to achieve with Chewy&Bach? Your vision?

JL: We've been really setting out to have this collaborative project mixing many different influences. The vision is to bridge the festival gap with the commercial pop music gap. Our sounds offer to both of those. We have been very versatile and opening for whoever we want because we can mold our sound-we are very eclectic.

EO: That's where our name Chewy&Bach comes from- Chewy represents more rock, unrefined sound and the Bach is more composed and structured. Put them both together and you get some eclectic music.

Our vision is about making a cohesive sound thats going to appeal to everyone. Where we can play on the radio but can also be more applicable to the festival scene.  

Photo Credit: Summer S Taylor

iEDM: You recently released a single called "Cold." What can you tell us about the inspiration for this song?

EO: The inspiration from this song came from "Take Me to Church" by Hozier. I was just messing around wanting to remix it and then came up with the beat and idea.

I showed it to Tucker and Justin and we ended up just wanting to make a whole song out of it because it ended up not sounding anything like "Take Me to Church."

Then Justin laid some sexy guitar over it and it took off. Got Tucker laying the vocals and Mason killing the drums. 

iEDM: What was a unique aspect of the recording and mastering?

MP: It was all recorded in the living room. Every part. 

EO: Ya. It was a ghetto recording. 

JL: There was a lot of trial and error building it piece by piece. We tried so many different singers and rappers and we wanted to have trumpets.

We all had these different ideas in our heads. We just had to try things out and see what worked. 

MP: It helped to play it live. That way we could feel each other out. Being able to say in the moment, "This is how it should go." We built off of it that way. We only played it about three times before but it really helped. 

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iEDM: What were some of the tools critical for making this songs?

EO: A laptop..

TR: ..a microphone..

(all laugh)

EO: This song took us about five months to make. We recorded so many different people. There are so many tools that go into the process. I use Ableton, Justin is rocking two different guitars on that track. 

TR: And an acoustic bass.

JL: Oh, ya. So for the drop, there is a kind of whip sound and it sounds super unique. And it was just recorded using an acoustic bass, then processing it, pitching it down and it created a more dubstep sound. 

Almost all the sounds in that song are sounds that we sample. 

iEDM: How do you decide what instrument you use in a live set? In Justin's case which guitar part do you decide to play?

EO: Generally for that, let's say Tucker is singing the song live, I am going to take his lead vocals out of the tracks we are playing. We do a DJ thing live during our sets which is where we get our dubstep sounds and what not. 

So I will take his vocals of the tracks live and if we have a recording of Mason's drums on the beat on the song, I'll take his drums out so it's him really playing the beat. 

In terms of Justin, It's really just a guess. Is he going to be playing this guitar part or that guitar part. I'll wait for him to start playing and take it out and put a different one in. 

JL: I'll switch it up and feel it out. The guitar solos will definitely be taken out of the tracks and I'll be playing that live. We basically play everything live but with added on DJ tracks to give it that feel. 

iEDM: What is your favorite part of you new single?

JL: I would say my favorite part about the song is that all of our different styles come together. It's always a struggle mixing all of our different influences but this song I think accommodates everyone's influence.

We also are beginning to develop our sound-electro soul blues bass. 

EO: There's a part in the second verse that Tucker sings..It's like..

TR: I can't breath. (Singing) You're like a disease..

EO: He says that and there's this sexy bass rise thing I made plus Justin is like nerwwwww (mimics Justin's guitar)

TR: And it all hits together.

EO:..I love it. It makes me so happy. 

TR: My favorite part is that the acoustic bass is that dubsteppy part. I love that it's something you would never expect.

MP: I love all of it. I love that it's so collaborative between all of us. Like Justin was saying- it's us finding our sound. Since I've joined the band it's been a bit of a struggle fitting me in because it's more of a live setting. But with this songs you can feel the energy from my part. You feel the push and backbeat. 

You can find their new single "Cold" on SPOTIFY and SOUNDCLOUD and be sure to give the emerging artists a like on FACEBOOK.

You can find Chewy&Bach at Spread the Word Festival and Compound Sound Festival this summer!

Check out more Exclusive Interviews HERE at iEDM and be sure to check out our Festival Lookbook HERE for all your festival needs this summer. 

Check out our top 10 outfit ideas for a music festival in 2019 HERE.