Erik Chandler – The Mulberry St. Socialites & Bowling For Soup – Interview Exclusive
Written by Rob Lane
Thursday, 26 May 2011 05:00
For almost twenty years, Erik Chandler has been the bass player for Texas pop rock masterminds, Bowling For Soup. Their unmistakable knack for penning surefire singalong hits has been undeniable and unrivalled for some time. Recently though with each member branching out with their own projects, be it from starting families or new musical ventures, the time arrived for Chandler to hit the studio with friend and producer Linus of Hollywood and record his very own solo record. Something that promised to encompass his love of great guitar driven, alternative pop, the likes of which he grew up on during the flannel coated 90s. An acoustic tour earlier this Spring gave us the chance to hear some of material live for the first time and so it was decided that the time had arrived to find out a little more about what we can expect from Chandler and his band of Socialites.
With each member of Bowling For Soup out doing their own things prior to the release of the new BFS album ‘Fishin For Woos’, did it just seem right to go into the studio to finally lay down some of your own material?
Jaret (Reddick – BFS Singer / Guitarist / Media Mogul) and I had been discussing doing it for some time and the initial idea was to record back in September of last year. So August rolls around and he asked what I thought but you know, I just didn’t feel ready to go in just yet so we put it off until we’d got back from our UK run in November. Even then though I didn’t feel like the time was right. I’m not sure exactly what I was waiting to happen but one last writing session with a couple of guys was what I needed to get the right songs. Initially I had something like forty or forty five songs but the problem was not having enough which were close enough together stylistically to make an album that would make sense and have that certain direction. My writing is all over the place from country songs to kinda swing tunes, then stuff that sounds like The Beatles or Fastball. Whatever was happening I wasn’t trying to stear it in any particular direction. Right now though I think I’ve got a great collection of songs that’s gonna end up being eleven or twelve tracks.
Did you perform most of the instruments on the record making it what you could call a true solo album?!
Both Linus (Dotsun – Producer) and I would sit at the beginning of the day and basically just plan out a song a day. We’d take the demo, drop it into Pro Tools, chop it up and just mess with the arrangement until we found something that we were both happy with. It was really cool because it wasn’t at all a situation of someone coming in as a producer and trying to levy their weight because if there was something that he suggested which I really didn’t like, we’d just scrap it. He knew that at the end of the day I needed to be happy with the songs. It was really fun and I was really surprised that someone with his musical talent and skill, I would have 
expected him to have played a lot more on the album than he did, but he would make me do as much as possible. There’s a couple of songs that he had some guitar tracks on but basically what we did was have me play all the tracks, lay down guitar solos and then he would come back and just add a little filler here and there. For the drums, he and I would write a drum part, use fake drums in the studio then on the last day of tracking we went into another studio and got Tom Polce from Letters To Cleo to come in and he just nailed it, did the whole thing in like six hours! We were half way done and hadn’t even eaten lunch!
You’ve mentioned that your loose blueprint for the sound you were after was 90s alt icons The Lemonheads – did you come close or did you move away from that?
I think I got the vibe I wanted. Some songs took a slightly different direction when we started recording them. Saying that though, someone just a couple of nights ago came up after my solo set and mentioned that they thought my songs had an early Nineties feel so I guess that was 
exactly what I was going for! I can’t have any better proof than that.
The address ‘Mulberry Street’ brings up a bunch of different links when dropped into an internet search. From a New York address, a Billy Joel song and also the subject of various films? Is there any direct connection to any of these or do you have a more personal story linked to this?
When I first moved to Denton, Texas I lived on Mulberry Street and we had quite a large group of people that hung out everyday. There was me, our old guitar tech Sweet Charley, our friend Alan from down the street and a couple of other dudes. Someone would always knock on my door around eleven thirty or noon and we’d walk one block down the street to the store, buy a case of beer and just sit on my front porch and just drink the entire time. Then later my wife would come home and join us. So we ended up calling ourselves ‘The Mulberry Street Country Club’. We’d even print t-shirts for stuff like our 4th July Picnic that happened in our driveway. It was a really small duplex with no yard so we all hung out on the front porch. Whenever we would grill we’d drag it round from the back and set it up on the front. Denton has no open container laws so you’re allowed to sit out on the street with all your alcohol so it was awesome sitting there, just having a party in the street and watching people drive by and be jealous of us! I always wanted to incorporate our name with the new band but Country Club didn’t quite fit so I guess Socialites go to Country Clubs so I ended up with that which I think fits well.
Will the local connection to where you lived have any influence on the album’s artwork to really tie it all in together?
You know what? I haven’t even discussed that part but I’ve taken a few photos of the old house and I plan to have that in there somewhere. I’ve also got a photographe
r friend who still lives back in Denton so he might be able to go by and snap a couple more. Then my idea for the photoshoot is to get some students who my wife knows who once a week go out together and take photographs so I was gonna have them all come along to take shots whilst we’re out and about just having lunch. That way we’d get a bunch of different people’s perspectives and put it together like a photo album. I think that would be cool.
Do you have band members in place to take this into the live arena?
I do but I don’t! The problem I run into is that the guys who I’d pick would need to get paid. They’d be leaving to go out on the road and would need to make enough money to send back home and pay the mortgage. So yes, there are people I’d like to play with and imagine will be making appearances at some point but ideally I’d like to find a young Denton band who are eager to go out on the road and I’d do shows with them and just earn enough to make it all work.
Are there any bands you’d enjoy touring this material with?
To tour with some of the Nineties bands would be so cool but then there are current bands like The Airborne Toxic Event that are fairly similar to what I’m doing and I love The Gaslight Anthem. It’s so, like, if Bruce Springsteen was playing in a punk rock band, I love that shit!!
Erik will be touring the US this summer with Bowling For Soup and then returning to the UK this October. Keep up to date on the release of his new solo record by visiting any of the following sites…..