10 Quick Ones with CHIP DIMONICK of CHIP & THE CHARGE UPS – October 2018

According to a recent press release: “Pittsburgh, PA based Power-Pop band CHIP & THE CHARGEUPS has released a creative music video for their Green Day/Poison Mashup, “Good Riddance, Fallen Angel.” Directed by Marcus Morelli of Skene 19 Films, the video recreates scenes from the original songs’ videos, combining the two seemingly unrelated storylines into a unified and entertaining narrative. Chip & The Charge Ups arrived like a bolt of lightning in 2018. With their first two performances at a couple of the East Coast’s biggest music festivals, word quickly spread about this electrifying quartet.” We get Chip himself to discuss new music, influences, and much more…

1. Tell us a little about your latest release.  What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through?  Are there any hidden nuggets the band put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

Chip & The Charge Ups’ debut release is Flow of the Current, Part I (+). We consider it a power pop album, but it really pushes the boundaries of that genre. For example, it’s not hard to hear the old-school punk influence of the Ramones in “Front Row.” And, some people may consider “The Ol’ Two Niner” borderline modern metal. Plus, the album closes with a piano ballad – “One Black Balloon.” So, it’s as eclectic as it is electrifying! You can’t get bored listening to this one! As far as hidden nuggets, I think that our Green Day/Poison mashup, “Good Riddance, Fallen Angel” is full of them. We meticulously recreated fine details of each song as we put it together. For example, listen to the bridge and you can hear some classic ’80’s reverb on every other snare drum hit, exactly like the original “Fallen Angel.” And, it’s very subtle, but if you listen closely, you can hear the violin solo from “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” played in half time under the guitar solo. If any music fans love searching for hidden nuggets, this is a song they will have a field day with!

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

The radio was always on in my house growing up. So, I was a music fan as long as I can remember. But, what turned me from a music fan into an aspiring musician was my brother making me watch a Led Zeppelin video. Jimmy Page’s riffs just captivated me from the moment I heard them and they still captivate me today. Plus, he looked so cool and aloof in his stage demeanor. I wanted to be him!

3. Who would be your main five musical influences?

That’s tough because I feel like I’m influenced by every bit of music I consume, from the time I was 13 to today and every day in between. But, I think that there are several artists that influenced me in distinctly different ways. Led Zeppelin got me interested in being a musician, Ozzy got me into metal, Love/Hate turned me on to a “paint outside the lines” approach to music, when Sevendust first came out they opened my ears to a heavier sound, and Halestorm inspires me to constantly evolve and stay fresh today.

4. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be?

When Halestorm just released their first album, Lzzy Hale had like 150 Twitter followers and we’d tweet each other almost daily. She once tweeted that she and I would write a song together someday. Of course, they blew up pretty quickly, her time got limited and now she pretty much could have any writing partner she would want at the snap of her fingers. But, I’d love for that scenario to play out in real life someday.

5. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before?

I would say to think of all the diverse artists who tie their sounds back to punk – Billy Idol, Joan Jett, The Killers, The Cure, etc. – and think of us as a blend of all of them with songs that they will sing along to after the first listen.

6. What’s the best thing about being a musician?

The best thing about being a musician is to create something totally from scratch that someone can connect with on an emotional level. Before a song is a song, it is an invisible, intangible idea. When you can take that idea, turn it into sound, and have someone react to it – it’s like magic!

7. When the band is all hanging out together, who cooks; who gets the drinks in; and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

Our drummer, Jeff, always arrives with beverages in hand. I kinda have been playing the role of musical director of the band, so it would be me cracking out the acoustic guitars. It’s still early to declare someone the cook, but Jeff recently made some killer stuffed peppers!

8. If you weren’t a musician, what would be your dream job?

I love education – both teaching others and continually sharpening my own skills. So, I’d definitely be involved in some sort of education.

9. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over”?

I wish I would have realized earlier in my career how hard one has to work on promotion to be successful in music. There’s that saying “build it and they will come.” So, I thought, if you record a great album, everyone will find out about it. But, I quickly learned that some potentially legendary music can get buried if you don’t make the right promotion and publicity decisions. If you have a great album, you have to spend a lot of time and resources getting it in the right hands. Those right hands will not come to you. So, even though now I get it and promote my albums vigorously, I wish I would have done so with my previous band. I think we had a lot of great songs that people around the world would love if they only had the opportunity to find out about them.

10. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose –and what does that record mean to you?

I’d love to have sat in as Led Zeppelin II was created. That album pretty much-started riff rock and no one has really been able to come close to creating such an enduring style. I would love to see the reactions of people that heard it as it was being created. Did they even have any clue how legendary that album would be?

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Category: Interviews