Q&A with Wilder of Chin Chin

Wilder, vocalist of Chin Chin, is busy these days, playing at beautiful venues, hanging out with Kanye West at shows, and experiencing the triumphs of having so much talent in one band. Wilder takes time out of his busy schedule to speak with me.

How’s your day going?

I’m doing very well. I’m in upstate New York about 4 hours outside of the city. Chin Chin is going to be doing a show tonight backing up El-P.

Oh Wow, O.K. That’s not All Tomorrow’s Parties is it?

No That’s in a Couple of Weeks. This is kinda like a prep gig for that.

What’s the Venue you’re heading off to, what’s the name of it?

Tonight?

Yeah.

It’s a Place Called the Barn.

There’s 4 of you in this band. Tell us what you do!

I do Vocals and Keyboards. My brother Torbitt [Schwartz] plays drums and things. He also does the majority of the production on the record. There’s a bassist named Jeremy Wilms who does the other half of the production. There’s a trombonist with us named Dave Smith. There’s a trumpet player with us named Jeff Peirce and there’s a guy named Yusuke Yamamoto, who plays synthesizers and percussion and all kinds of shit. You know, it’s different. We definitely do a different band when we go out on the road and tour than we do when we’re in New York City. For example this show last Tuesday, with TV on the Radio we had a 9 piece thing.

So you’ll just call people like, “Hey!”?

Basically if we’re in new york we have a lot of friends who are musicians and we’ll try to add on as many as we want for each gig. Particularly horn. Unfortunately it’s just too expensive to take a 4 piece horn section out on the road with you. (Laughs)

Do you use samplers at all for some of your sounds?

Not Chin Chin, Not Live. We will tonight since we’re doing El-P’s set. As far as Chin Chin set’s concerned it’s all live. I also play a lot of Vocoder.

I noticed each of you have a dance move at the end. You do the electric slide.

I’m not sure about that.

Yeah, it says, “Wilder is on the Keys, The Electric Slide.”

Where’d you see that, as the credits on the Record?

No, no, no I think it was on the site. I was looking at your band lineup and I noticed that it listed next to everything you guys play

there was a dance move.

That’s hilarious. I didn’t even know about that. Yes, it’s true we’re an extremely dance motivated band. Definitely in our live show. At our straight up Chin Chin shows, that is the M.O. We’re really just trying to get people moving and dancing.

And kinda freakin’ the fuck out.

Freakin the Fuck out, losing their minds and having a good time.

So what’s your signature move?

I would just call it the Zoby Bounce.

How was your show with TV on the Radio?

It was amazing. It was like such a really fun night. It was a really great crowd, really packed; people were loving it. All of that kinda stuff was better than we could’ve hoped for. But on top of that the TV on the Radio dudes are really good friends of ours, and the middle band, this band called Gang Gang Dance and they’re really good friends of ours.

I have their LP,they’re really good, Yeah.

Yeah, they’re great! So pretty much it was just a family thing. It was just a pleasure for us all to be on the same bill together cause we all got to hang together.

The drummer in TV on the Radio is named Jaleel Bunton. And so the Drummer in Chin Chin is my brother and He and I were born in Kentucky and  Jaleel from TV on The Radio is also from Kentucky too. I’ve known him since I was 10 years old. He’s one of my best friends in the world. For us just to be on the same bill with each other was such an immense hang and so much fun for us because we get to chill with our homie that we don’t really get to see that much these days. It was fun musically but it was also fun as a fuckin’ hang. I wish you could’ve been here for it, man.

Hey, I’d love to move out there one day or somethin’. When are you guys coming back to (I live in Sacramento) so when would you be coming back to the Sacramento, San Francisco area?

You know, we were just there. At the Rickshaw Stop.

My friend goes over there all the time!

Yeah, we played there about two weeks ago (two or three weeks ago).

Well please let me know (the) next time you guys are in town.

I definitely will. And next time we’re out there we will definitely play a show in Sacramento.  We were supposed to play one this time and I don’t know what exactly happened but it kinda fell through. What’s the radio station in Sacramento?

I’m not sure I just moved here two weeks ago. But if you want me to look for you I can let you know.

I don’t know what it was I was in communication with them, I think I did an interview with them. They’ve been really supportive and have really blasted our music and stuff. Really good people out there.

Yeah, I love it here.

Where are you from?

I’m from The Bay Area, Palo Alto specifically.

I heard it’s beautiful there.

Yeah man, beautiful there. Yeah I’m a Cali guy all the way.

Right on.

Congrats on getting on MTVU’s the Freshmen. How’s the video been going for “Go There With You”?

It’s been really great. That was actually a funny thing about Tuesday’s show with TV on the Radio. A really big boost for that video was that Kanye put it on his blog and he was at the show on Tuesday.

He was?

Yeah and I (um) got to meet him and I thanked him. And I just told him, I just said, you know “Hey, we really appreciate it. Weather you know it or not, you putting our video up on your blog gave us a lot of coverage and exposure that we wouldn’t have gotten if you hadn’t put it up.” and contrary to whatever you hear about him being a cocky bastard or whatever, he was the nicest dude in the world. He was like “I want you know, I posted that blog myself. People thing that other people post the blogs for me, but you know I saw the video and I posted it myself and I love the Video.” He was really gracious he was like “Thank you for saying something. It’s my pleasure I’m glad something that I do could help you guys out.” it was really nice to have that interaction with him rather than what you hear about people saying he’s like you know maybe a megalomaniac or a cocky dude or whatever. He was extremely humble and extremely nice when I rapped with him.

Good.

It’s always nice. I went to jazz school, (the jazz conservatory?) and I got to meet a bunch of idols of mine.  Musicians that I’d looked up to my entire life, and definitely got the opposite side. You know, when you meet a jazz drummer who I’ve been a humongous fan of, and the guy ends up just being a fucking asshole. It’s such a let down when you meet somebody that youve built up in your mind. It’s like, you love their music so much you just assume they’re an awesome dude and you meet them and they just shit on you. It’s such a let down.

Yeah, no doubt. My aunt when she was younger found Miles Davis at a concert, and I heard he was an asshole, because he used to play with his

back to the crowd.

Yeah, that was his M.O. Miles Davis is probably my biggest influence. Listening to his music made me want to make music more than anything else. Miles Davis of the 70′s, basically starting with Bitches Brew. When I started listening to that was when I was like “God, I gotta get a drum set.”  “I gotta get a fucking (rose)”. That’s what made me really want to start making music and in turn I’m kinda happy I never met Miles Davis because I wouldn’t want that dream to get crushed by him being such an asshole.

Do you go out or go to clubs at all?

I don’t. My mom is a choreographer, and choreographed the “Go There With You” video. I kinda grew up around dance by default because my mom was a dancer. I definitely  dance out at the club, I don’t go out to the club all too much these days and honestly I get enough dancing done out on the stage these days cause I do enough of it otherwise. I am a big fan of Dancing.

Who created the video for “Go There With You”?

That video was the shit. My mom choreographed it, my best friend directed it. A family affair type [of] thing. We just dropped a new video that I don’t know if you’ve seen but you should check out.  A really good friend of mine named Andre Raza, he and his wife Athena Curry made the video together. They really did the whole thing. We were just hanging out one night and they said “We really want to make a video for this record,” so we gave em the CD and told them to pick whatever song they wanted to do, and that’s the song they picked. They had us come in one day [and] filmed us performing the song, and then about a week later Andre called me up and said “Here’s the video”.  We had no real expectation of what they were going to do and were pleasantly surprised by the beautiful video.

It’s been quoted that a Chin Chin show is “Tighter than your boss with a raise”.

We’re all serious musicians, we take our performance very seriously and we make sure we put on an extremely tight performance. We are very well rehearsed. One thing about this band is we are tight, we can turn on a dime.  It’s not a messy performance, and a fun show. Our record and our live performance are two very different things. The live performance is all about raw energy and sonically kicking people in the face (Laughs).

You’ve been on stage with the likes of Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Lilly Allen, Sufjan Stevens.. What moment in your live performance really stood out for you in how the audience interacted with your music?

I would say this past show last Tuesday with TV on The Radio was a particularly good one. The first or second week of July we did the Montreal Jazz Festival, and played to about 15,000 people and they went insane. I would say for everybody in the band that was a particularly high moment just cause we never played in front of that many people that went absolutely apeshit for it. It didn’t take any convincing. Say we do a hour set, sometimes it takes a half an hour to win the crowd over, and then the second half an hour is the party.

From the minute we started until the minute we ended, the crowd was just totally there for us. I do a lot of crowd participation at the show and try to get them to sing along and do a lot of call and response with the audience. Any time you have 15,000 and you say “Can I get a what what!” and 15,000 people say “What What”, that’s a pretty heavy experience for me. That’s when you know that you’re kinda in the right spot.  We also had a bunch of success in France and we’ve had a bunch of really amazing shows and festivals over there too.

You’re the youngest member of the band, when’s your birthday?

April 16th, 1980.

You scored the Maysle Brothers Film on the making of the Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic. How’d you land that?

That was really awesome, man. The Maysle Brothers have probably been around since the late 50′s. One of them has died, but the other, Albert Maysle has kept it going. He was a contemporary of Pennybaker??, the guy that did Don’t Look Back and stuff like that. They’re just kind of like an oldschool, and really well regarded documentary company, where my friend works, and they were making “The Making Of The Life Aquatic”. For whatever reason they called me and said “Hey, would you do the music?” and I said “Fuck yeah I will! Albert is one of the coolest dudes ever.  Albert is one of those people who just passes on such amazing stories.

Do you integrate typical Jazz instruments into your show? Do you have saxophone?

Occasionally we’ll have saxophone. In New York right now, since we came out with this record in April, our lineup has been two trombones, two trumpets, guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, vocals, synthesizers and percussion. Saxophone isn’t a regular instrument in the band right now, but quite often in New York we’ll have a saxophone sit in with us.

When making music, what is a challege for your band and what comes easy?

Writing and performance tend to come easy. Getting paid is the hard part. Everything else is really natural for us. I definitely spend a lot of time scrutinizing over my vocals. They never sound quite good enough for me. That’s more than anything just some self conscious shit.

Do you take a lot of takes?

Vocally I feel like I take a lot of takes. I’ll record something and then two weeks later I’ll need to go back and be like “I need to redo that”. I have a vocal teacher that I work with who was a teacher of mine at school, who I’ve worked with for almost 10 years now. I’ll record something and take it in to a lesson with him, and listen to it with him and have him give me pointers. That more than anything takes the most scruitinizing. It’s about diligence, and really laboring over the vocals and making sure that they sound up to snuff. Even for stuff we put out, I can’t really listen to it cause I’m like “Oh my gosh, this doesn’t sound good enough.”

I’m sure a lot of artists have that same thing, like “I can’t listen to my own record, it’s weird.”

It’s weird it is. The first instrument I ever played was drums. I played a lot of keyboards. I played bass. None of those instruments are in any way as difficult as singing. On the piano, if you want a C, then you press that note and you know you’re going to get a C. If you want a E flat you press that note and you know you’re going to ge an E flat. On a guitar, you put your finger on the right place, you know you’re going to get that note. Vocally is so internal, that you really have to visualize. It’s much more abstract than other instruments because you can’t ever be 100% sure when you open your mouth what exactly is going to come out.

What’s the last album you listened to?

I just bought two records. One was the Electric Prunes, Mass in F Minor.  It’s a record written and produced by David Axlerod.

Wow, I love David Axlerod!

Me too, man. He wrote the music for this record and got this 60′s psych-garage band to perform it. And the funny thing is it’s like a Mass, so it’s religious. But it’s David Axlerod as you know it, with ripping guitar solo’s, humongous drum breaks, and amazing shit. The other one I just bought was Together by the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band.  I’m a music junkie, and a big record collector. I’m really into digging for records and going to junk stores and punk shops to look for records. So I like finding and listening to all kinds of shit. I listen to classical music, reggae, I’ve been listening to a lot of boogie from the 80′s, with a lot of live drums and synth drums. Really bouncy groovy love songs. It’s slower tempo than disco.  There’s a song called Danger Zone by Midnight Express that’s really my shit right now.

My record right now is the O’Jays – Backstabbers.

That’s my shit. Honestly I love that record, it’s one of those records that I listen to so much that I don’t even think to put it on these days. There’s songs that I love that I’ve listened to so many times now that I still love and would put them on my top list, but I can’t really listen to them these days.  Cause I’ve heard the song too many damn times. I get excited off of something I haven’t heard before I get a natural high.  The first time I hear something, I’m like “I love it, I love it, I love it”, but then the second time I hear it I still don’t know it but I’ve got some familiarty with it. There’s this weird nebulous zone where I’m familiar with the song but I don’t know it all the way and I just get a total natural high off of it.

When I first write a song, I get such a natural high off of hearing the combination of boards I just want to sit in a room and keep playing that shit over and over and over again.

You have a romantic connection with music.

I do, I definitely do. I would describe myself as romantic period in life in general. I like to look at things romantically. Making music, performing, eating food, watching movies.

Do you cook?

Not enough. That’s one of our big things on tour. We’re not fans of Macdonals and shit like that. One of our goals on tour is to find good shit where we are that’s special to that locale.  Do you know of Vancouver Island?

No I Don’t.

Vancouver Island is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. It’s one to two hours off the coast of Vancouver. We just played two shows there. We went on hikes and shit and saw a bear a bald eagle and a seal in about a 12 hour span. We didn’t eat anything but oyster burgers the whole time the biggest city is Victoria. Because you’re on an island the oysters aren’t like the kinds of oysters that you and I would know. These are oysters that are the size of a beef patty. They’re like humongous big, meaty, juicy oysters. On some real shit, if you ever have the opportunity to go to this place on a vacation, you have to go. It’s one of the most beautiful places to go on the face of this earth. I just started surfing a little while ago, and one of the towns we played in was the Pacific Rim, heavy surf town. Luckily we had the day off the next day and I had it worked out with the promoter to get me a surf board and a fuckin’ wet suit so I could go and surf the whole next day. It was pretty amazing. Thats when you’re like allright, I’m not getting paid, I’m not making a dime, this is costing me money. At least the payoff is that I’m in a beautiful place, getting to surf, getting to eat good food, getting to perform for people and have some amazing shows. We all gotta eat and we all gotta pay our bills. I bartend, which is what I have to do to pay my rent. I love the bar that I work at. It’s the first bar that I ever went to when I was 16. I’m not paying my rent by making my music so at least I’m getting to travel to some beautiful place that I’d never thought of. To me that’s just as much of a payday as getting paid, you know?

If you weren’t in a band what could you see yourself doing?

Probably acting. There’s not a whole lot of things I do well. Math is not my strongest. I grow facial hair really well and I’m okay on stage. So if I wasn’t making music I’d probably be acting, or a fireman. I dont think of music the same way. I would say the bigger part of making music from a performance point of view is making people happy. That’s really what it’s about for me at the end of the say. At Chin Chin shows, it’s all about getting people to forget about all the bullshit in their lives and have a good time.  I definitely want to be a distraction to people. If people are having a shitty time in their lives I want them to come to a show and have a good time and freak out.

I replayed a show in Louisville, KY a few months ago, where me and my brother are from. It was an amazing show, it was packed, people were dancing their asses off and having a good time. I was talking to my dad after it, and he had a lot of friends that were at that show who are having a really hard time. He was telling us from his angle how these people came out that night and came and just let all of their baggage go and have a fuckin’ blast.  To me that’s the utmost compliment you can have. You know someone’s depressed or at a dark point in their life and they say “Fuck it.” , have a drink, have a smoke, and just let go and dance and forget about whatever bullshit they’re going through in their life in that moment and enjoy the moment – to me that’s the ultimate compliment. That’s the best thing that we can do.

To me that’s what entertainment is. Making people happy. It’s more about other people than it is about you. I try to bring that to a Chin Chin performance.

Is there one song that you hear where you say to yourself “Damn, I wish I’d have produced that”, what is it?

Maybe “Thriller” or “We Are The World”.

Yeah, Blockhead had a hard time with that one. He said he couldn’t just pick a song, so he named a few albums like Black Sheep’s first album,

NWA’s second album.

I hear what he’s saying though. Much like thriller those albums are a whole. They are one continuous mix of songs, you know? I think it’s important to look at records that way as not just a collection of songs, but as a flow. One body of work. There isn’t a bad song on “Thriller”, there’s not like one song sands out over another. Jazz records are like that too. Even like A Love Supreme. Or the Charles Mingus record, Black Saint and a Sinner Lady. And really that’s what I’ve all gotten into, like Duke Ellington and his suite. I’m really a fan of his suite, like the Far East Suite, or the Afro Eurasian Eclipse because the record is a whole, it’s an entire piece of music.

I’ve been random with my Jazz. Like Herbie Hancock’s “Headhunters”.

That’s one of those records that made me want to make music.  My brother Torbitt is 6 years older than me, and up until the time I was 18, the large bod of music that I listened to was handed down from him. He put me on to all that shit. My dad used to bump the shit out of Thriller. I definitely grew up with that as a soundtrack, not even on my own accord, but because my dad used to listen to that shit.

Did you always want a red leather jacket?

I didn’t but I did want the yellow cat eyes that he has in the Thriller video.

What’s it like partying with Steve Aoki?

That was a blast. He was pretty chill. He already had that thing on lock, so regardless if we had been there it would have been bumping and packed to the gills anyways. It was a blast though, they loved what we did you know?

Wilder, where do you want to be in 5 years and what awards do you want to see on your mantle?

I don’t want to be working at a Subway, in 5 years I just want to be making music. I can’t really complain much. At least I get the opportunity to put smiles on peoples faces. I went last night to see Animal Collectors at the same place that we played on Tues at the Prospect Park Bandshell.  It was a really heavy experience for me. I spent the first 6 years of my life in Kentucky and went to elementary school in Brooklyn. The stage that we played at on Tuesday was the stage that I used to play GI Joes on when I was a kid. When they weren’t doing concerts there, it was just another part of the park that you could go and hang out at. It was a really heavy experience for me, it was like some full circle shit. I used to play on this stage as a kid, and now im a 29 year old adult getting to play on this stage. During the course of the show I had a chill run down my spine. This was kind of epic for me personally. It was a moment where I felt really blessed to have the opportunity. If you’d asked me when I was 7 years old if I was going to be performing there 22 years later, of course the thought would’ve never crossed my mind.

So I was at the same venue to see Animal Collective, and I didnt have VIP passes or anything, I was up in the mix for the show. Someone came up to me and was like ” Are you the singer from Chin Chin?” and I was just shocked that anyone would recognize my punk ass. I just look like a regular old dude.  And they were like “Oh we were here on Tuesday and we saw you. You guys were great”. That definitely blew my mind. I definitely didn’t expect someone to come up to me like that. I’m so honored that we made a good impression on these kids.

Next thing you know we might see you on a Grey’s Anatomy episode.

(laughs) Only if I get to play a doctor, or a patient.

How’s Def Jux treating you?

El-P is a really good friend of mine. I tour with him. I play keyboards for him. I play keys on his records. Since the I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, I played keys on that record, and starting with that I toured with him. We didn’t have a record label in the U.S., and just through association he found out about Chin Chin. He’s a music lover and regardless of if we were on Def Jux or not, he’d still be at every one of our shows in the front row dancing his ass off. That’s why he’s having us come and play the show with him you know? It’s good because we’re friends and it came out of that fruition. I’m also good friends with Blockhead and play vocoder on Blockhead’s new record. I’ve been at his house recently putting a project together with him. It’s going to all be covers, mostly 60′s soul songs. He does the beat and I’ll either sing or do vocoder.

Thank you for your time, Wilder!

It’s a pleasure!