Chasing Lana is a four piece rock band from Melbourne formed mid 2012. We chat to frontman Dave Cutting ahead of their album tour.
Hi guys, thanks for talking to Forte Magazine. Your current tour is in support of your album Suffocate/Medicate, tell us a bit about the album and what it’s all about?
Thanks for having us, we really appreciate the support. Well, we released ‘Suffocate/Medicate’ last year. We recorded it at Monolith Studios with Chris Themelco (Orpheus Omega). Since then we’ve played countless shows all around Victoria, but due to past members we couldn’t really travel much. Now with our current line-up we are able to venture out and get our name and music heard even more. There’s nothing stopping us now. ‘Suffocate/Medicate’ focuses on anger, hope and retribution to past break-ups.
Having two brothers in the band must bring an interesting dynamic to writing, is everyone on the same wave length musically?
Usually we all are, especially my brother and I. Because we are so close, we know what we like and know what we want to hear. When it comes to writing it usually starts with some basic chord structure and rough vocal ideas for a chorus from myself. I then show my brother (Robbie) and he puts a tough awesome sounding riff in front off it, he usually has a lot of guitar ideas already in the works. Once we’ve got the basic structure of a song down pat, we then take it to the other boys to work out the rhythm side of things. I tend to write a lot of my verses and bridge lyrics once the majority of the songs are done, it’s easier for me to hear and work out melodies that way.
In Chasing Lana’s music there seems to be a real focus on being gritty and very raw. Is it a conscious effort to steer away from the modern trends of digital effects?
It’s really important to myself, and the others for that matter to try and sound as raw and natural as possible. When I see bands live I wanna see truth, power, I wanna see mistakes. There’s a trend at the moment where there is so much fake and over powering nonsense that hides behind all these effects. Chasing Lana have never been like that, we’ve always tried to keep that natural and raw sound both live and on record. Just the way we like it.
Lyrically there is a lot of focus on frustrations, retribution and to some extent substance abuse – would you like to touch on how life experiences reflect on the band’s lyric contents?
I focus a lot of energy on the lyrics. As the lyrical writer for Chasing Lana it makes more sense to me to be able to sing my own words. I’ve never been the one to sing other people’s lyrics. I’d feel disconnected and it wouldn’t allow me to express the emotion that I have.
All my lyrics I write are pretty deep in a way. Most of them having a heavy influence on some of my past unnerving relationships, whether them being violent towards me or being involved in some kind of substance abuse. I look back now and think, what the hell was I doing? But I’ve never regretted them, I learnt from them…. But hey, the one good thing that came from those relationships is that it gave me something to write about.
When & Where: Northcote Social Club, Melbourne – August 18 & MusicMan Megastore, Bendigo – August 19