The Next Chapter: Chalk Reflects On Conditions III
PHOTO BY SIENNA LILLIE MUNN
In the isolation of rural Iceland, Belfast based trio Chalk recorded the final installment of their Conditions EP trilogy. Ross Cullen (vocals), Benedict Goddard (guitar, synth) and Luke Niblock (drums), and producer Chris Ryan holed themselves up in a studio surrounded by barren landscape, and created Conditions III, a 4 track project that serves as the finale in this chapter of the band’s musical journey. Just ahead of their return to Ireland to wrap up their tour, the band sat down with Pleaser to discuss the significance of the EP and this era of the band.
Pleaser: You are about to wrap up your headline tour with some shows in Ireland, how has this tour been so far? How are you feeling about the shows?
Ross Cullen: We’re pretty much done, with just some Irish shows [left]. It’s been great to meet people in places we’ve actually never been before, after the show. Put faces to territories and countries around the world that we knew liked our music, but to actually go meet them after the show and see them enjoying it has been nice.
Your most recent EP, Conditions III, was released pretty recently, so you're getting to see the response in real time with this tour. How have you been feeling about the reception to the EP?
Ben Goddard: It’s been really nice, we open the set with the first song of the EP, “Leipzig 87.” It’s kind of an intro to the EP, and we’ve been able to open with that, it’s been a really nice way to introduce people to the new music and get that live. That’s been really nice. People have been, it feels like, really receptive of the new stuff, just as much as the old stuff. Which is all you can ask for, really. It’s been really nice seeing how even different countries might prefer the new material over the old. It’s kept it really exciting on the road.
Conditions III was recorded in Iceland, which is incredible. What was that experience like for you?
RC: Once in a lifetime opportunity. I think we were very lucky to get the funding to go over and do it. We arrived at the worst time of year, to that area, there was a big storm and also a volcano had [erupted] on the other side of the island. I think it added to the chaos of everything. We looked toward the landscape, I suppose, to inform the sound even though we brought some ideas already. I’d love to go back, or at least go back to somewhere. It was the first time [for] any of us, being isolated in the middle of nowhere being able to make music.
How do you feel the location impacted the music? Do you think it would’ve been a different project if it had been recorded elsewhere?
BG: Yeah, I’d say definitely. It was such a beautiful barren landscape, and it was just white snow and mountains everywhere. I think that we slept overnight in the studio once because there was this massive storm, and I think we definitely got cabin fever at times as well. I think that definitely reflected in the music, maybe a certain feverishness or intensity. I think that’s definitely come across. I think you are so influenced by your environment, we’d always recorded in Belfast before. Taking us outside our comfort zone. We almost crashed the car as well, an hour before we arrived at the studio. Our producer was really great at just being like: well, we gotta go to work. As we were driving there, there was a car turned upside down. It was really bad. We got saved by people who were nearby the studio, they kind of helped us out. It definitely added a touch of nerves. If you can feel any anxiety on the record, it’s there. It also had this amazing hot tub outside, the most beautiful vista outside ever. We had a really nice time as well.
The pandemic lockdown was when you started focusing on music as a band, did the isolation of Iceland bring back any dynamics or feelings from that era? Did it feel full circle in that way, or was that something that wasn’t really on your mind?
RC: I think because we all lived together when we started to write most of the early songs… it didn’t really cross my mind, but that’s a good point. We were just holed up somewhere, couldn’t really go or do anything, see friends. Perhaps it did in a subconscious way, a lot of stuff sneaks into our work unconsciously. At least, that’s what I find looking back on what we’ve written.
BG: I agree with you, Ross. It’s a very good point. Ross would co-produce and produce a lot of the records as well, when we started very early on they would be bedroom demos. Especially during COVID, that’s all we could do. I suppose you’re right, because we couldn’t go outside in lockdown. I think I’m just trying to force that whole period out of my mind [laughs]. I’ve suppressed all that. I’d say you’re right. I think that definitely comes across in a nice cyclical way.
There weren’t volcanoes outside your window during lockdown in Belfast, so I can definitely see how those experiences felt different! With these three EPs, I was curious if you could share a bit about the intention behind releasing three separate yet connected works, versus standalone works or a full album. How did that come about?
BG: We made the first Conditions record, and then we just wanted to make an EP. These were the first songs we ever wrote. When we started working on the second EP, we felt we still had a lot of the same stuff we wanted to talk about. We’re all filmmakers as well, and we wanted to create this same world. The second EP didn’t feel like a complete departure, even though there’s more electronic influences and stuff like that. Even in the third EP, there’s more electronic influences again, it still felt like this entire world for us, and maybe we weren’t ready to let that go. It was a very easy decision. We didn’t decide from the first EP, like, ‘we’re going to do a trilogy of EPs here.’ I suppose when we decided on Conditions II, that was in our heads that we would probably do a third one just to round up. It was kind of just a very natural thing where these songs all have kind of felt in the same world, we’re talking about a lot of the same themes and ideas. It’s all about the human condition, really, for us. I think it was almost just for us personally to give a bit more weight to these EPs, I guess. I think that’s what we talked about a lot, like what is an EP now? It’s not even a physical thing anymore, even though we have vinyl. It’s not the landscape now. We wanted to give it this weight of a bigger thing more than just, say, a collection of singles.
It’s a cool way of doing it, like different chapters of the same story. I wanted to ask a bit about “Pool Scene,” the final track on the project. Could you share a bit about the creative process behind the track, as well as the decision to have it be the finale of not only this EP, but the entire Conditions trilogy?
RC: I think we actually did have another song in mind that was going to do that. We had “Pool Scene” and this other track, “Pool Scene” came out as more of a contender to end the EP on. I think we went over the music, and a lot of the lyrics just came out. Nothing was really written down. I had a go just saying some stuff, some words, improvising, and we structured it around that. Found a repeating line.. I think most of the tracks… maybe a year later, it’ll come to me. It might have been about this or that. It certainly felt like the proper way to end. It’s kind of got a bit of everything that we love musically. It felt like a big moment, that I think we always try to go for at the end of each EP. I think it felt like the best one to end it on.
BG: Yeah, I think it’s as Ross said, it just kind of felt right, really, to end it like that. We always want to end stuff on a hopeful note, you know, that’s kind of what we try and do with each… saying chapters is a great way of saying it, of the same book. We kind of like to ease people in, and then we’ll throw a lot at people in the middle of the EPs. Then allow for a chance to breathe, and have something… euphoric is the word we try and go for. Something a bit reflective. That’s something that’s worked out naturally for us, and feels like a quite nice round way of resolving this EP and the trilogy. It just kind of felt right.
I love that it ended on a more cinematic, euphoric note, as it not only wraps up this story but sort of begins paving the way for what’s to come next. We spoke about Iceland and its impact on the record, but I was wondering if you could share a bit about the Belfast music scene, and how it has impacted you and inspired your sound?
RC: When we were starting out as a band, we were going to be this basic, four piece guitar band. [We] realized that maybe there was potential for a more electronic sound. That’s where being in Belfast, and living there, came from. It’s probably the biggest genre in the city. We wanted to borrow from that. Even just going out to clubs, DJs playing stuff, we were taking influence. Still, there’s the bands that we saw here when we were at university a couple years ago. There’s always been a strong presence of different types of music in Belfast over the last 10, 15 years. Since we’ve been living there, there’s been a nice mix of everything. Right now, it feels like especially across all of Ireland, it’s a nice time to come in with the sound we’ve spent time working on. The electronic and the punk thing, just from an outside perspective. I think it offers something that’s a little bit different.
The combination of genres and influences, definitely. Reflecting on the creative process of Conditions III, do you have a favorite memory or moment? Maybe a session that stands out, or a moment something clicked?
BG: I suppose when Ross was finding the lyrics for “Pool Scene.” When he landed on “without you, I’ll never learn.” I think that was quite a powerful moment. When Ross can do a stream of consciousness, kind of go in for a song with an idea, feeling or vibe. Sometimes it’s the best way to figure that out. We can work on that. That’s the benefit, really, when we can go away for four or five days. It’s not really just one song a day, we can come back when stuff isn’t working. I think that was quite a nice moment. I liked recording the guitar for “Afraid,” that was fun. I recorded the guitar after… I think it was the first time we had been in the hot tub. We were in it for way too long. We came out, all our heads were buzzing. It was a weird climate thing, change in temperature. Chris, our producer, turned up the amp to 11 and just faced it. Just recorded it live. That just even feels like a feverish, weird thing. That was just a funny, nice moment. Nice to listen to it back, and it worked as well.
RC: Yeah, the “Pool Scene” stuff, when that came together, that was cool.
To wrap up, for readers who haven’t heard your music before, how would you describe it?
BG: I think we’ve heard so many different things. We’ve heard trauma techno, which is like from where we’re from. Noisy post-punk is kind of the umbrella term we started out in, a really cool scene. Electronic is definitely something there.
RC: I like techno punk, that’s kind of cool.
