The Chats

The Chats will be rocking out The Gov tonight in celebration of their latest single, Identity Theft, which is out now. They’ll be stopping by Wollongong, Canberra, Sydney, Goondiwindi, Geelong, Melbourne, Guilford, Perth, Adelaide, Central Coast, Hunter Valley, Hobart, Byron Bay, Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. It has been a whirlwind year for The Chats and Hi Fi Way speaks to Pricey (Josh Price) about the tour and what’s next for the band.

Things must be going incredibly well for you guys at the moment.
Yeah, very good.

So well that you must want to pinch yourself with how well things continue to keep going for The Chats.
Yeah, mate. It’s one of those things.

Can you believe how much your life’s actually changed? You must have a few more than a buck or two in your wallet now?
Yeah, it’s got passed that whole thing of, can’t believe it. Now it’s like, all right this is actually happening. Let’s do it good and have a good time.

I’ve even got my eleven year old son singing all the words to your songs. Even asking my other half, “How many dingers do you do?”
Shit. Sorry about that.

No, that’s all right. It’s all in good humour.
Yeah, yeah. Ah it’s good that all the kids get rolled and like it.

It must make it pretty awesome looking at your passport to actually see where you’ve been over the last twelve months or so?
Oh yeah, man. Never thought I’d ever leave Australia.

Has it really opened your eyes up in terms of how much potentials left in the band still?
Mate, there’s a whole world there to explore. You know it’s never ending really if you do it right.

What’s been your biggest highlight so far?
Playing with Iggy Pop was pretty cool. That was like one of my all time favourite things. I’ve always loved Iggy Pop and then for him to actually ask us, personally, to play with him was pretty cool.

Do you find you learn a lot about playing, and what goes on after the shows from these sorts of musical heroes?
Yeah. I don’t know ,it’s a pretty funny thing. All those old rock, they just go home and go to bed. Whereas we’ll go out and have a few beers after the show.

Just a few?
Oh, a couple.

A couple.
See what happens. Maybe get a kebab on the way home.

Well, I guess in Adelaide you’ve got to start creating more folklore here so we’ve got to have a few stories to remember you guys by.
Yeah.

It must pretty cool having guys, like Dave Grohl and Josh Homme rock up at your show?
Yeah, that was actually a big highlight for me as well. Dave Grohl knew my nickname. When I walked out to go on stage, there he was with his arms open and he gave me a hug and goes, “How are you Pricey? What’s going on?” I was just going, “Can’t believe I’m hugging Dave Grohl and he knows my nickname.” They watched the show the whole time. It was funny. As I walked on stage Dave Grohl said to me, he goes, “Don’t fuck it up.”

No pressure?
Yeah, no pressure. Thanks for that.

You don’t get over-awed or anything by that sort of thing?
No way. It’s funny.

How did guys all get together? What were those initial jam sessions like when you started playing together?
It all started in high school. We all just got together for a school assignment. We had to write a song and stuff. I think our first song was VB, maybe or maybe Mum Stole Our Darts. We did that for a school assignment. We ended up just jamming all the time and then we left school, continued to jam at our mate’s house and we just started to get gigs. We got our first gig ever on the Gold Coast and then, Smoko blew up and the rest is history.

So, how’d you go on that assignment? Was it an A+?
Ah no, I think we failed.

Oh right. Geez. Gee that’s harsh. You have to be happy with your new single Identity Theft?
We’ve definitely matured a lot, I think and grown a lot as a band.

Has the creative process kept continuing on and can we expect some new songs next year?
We’ve got a lot of songs up our sleeves. We’ve got so many we don’t know what to put on the album.

Oh, right. Do you think there will be more EP’s like you have been doing? Or is it going to be a triple opus or something?
We’re going to release our first album next year, around March I believe. There’ll be about fifteen tracks or something like that.

Do you think the style of music for that album has changed much?
It hasn’t changed but it’s definitely matured with the lyrics and the way we all play now as we’ve been playing together for some time now. You get better at your instruments the more you play them. We’re playing a lot better together as well.

The show here in Adelaide was an absolute ripper last time and The Gov is promising to be more of the same?
Yeah, yeah. Looking forward to coming back to The Gov. We’ll be playing a few new songs and will be bringing a lot of energy. It’ll be fast and a lot of fun.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch The Chats on the following dates…