Omar Interview!
Posted 7/8/2008 by IGA
Hey everyone;
We have something pretty sweet to share with you today; Omar Dominick, our bass player extraordinaire, did an interview with British blog Petite Anglaise. Check it out:
Petite Anglaise: So how did you start out playing with Chester French?
Omar Dominick: My Brother was touring with [Kenna] and while he was on the tour [with them] he met Max and D.A. [Chester French] in February.
D.A. called my brother to put a band together for their upcoming [tour] dates and my brother told me about it.
Petite Anglaise: Who were you performing with before then?
Omar Dominick: Before then I was [performing] with Amerie and before that local [Philadelphia] artist.
Petite Anglaise: You recently finished touring with N.E.R.D how was that?
Omar Dominick: Awh Man...N.E.R.D passes on their energy and it's like the energy their crowd puts forth, like you were their that night and it's just amazing how their performance and even backstage their just really positive guys.
Petite Anglaise: Okay final question, personally what do you think is the hottest product out their right now, can be either fashion, technology, anything?
Omar Dominick: As far as fashion, I'm into everything being a sense of individuality. Like I'm not really into wearing what everyone else is into or whatever, like if your doing your own thing I like that better then wearing the same sneaks or whatever. But right now everyone's rocking BBC and Ice Creams which is really hot because while we were in London I thought only they [British N.E.R.D fans] were rocking it but I got back to Philly and people are rocking it to.
Petite Anglaise: Okay are they paying you for that endorsement?
Omar Dominick: What..no no.. it's just nice to see something branch out like that you know from London back to Philly. It's cool
Petite Anglaise: Okay..what about kicks, how do you feel about sneakers and all that hype.
Omar Dominick: Like I love Nike's and Adidas but I'm not really into the whole craze. Like I'd like to be a leader not a follower [when it comes to fashion] so I'm not really with that whole scene."
Omar is, indeed, an incredibly down to Earth dude, as any of you guys who've had the pleasure to chat with him after a show can attest to.
Do you dig our sound and want to let other Chester French fans know?
Hit us up with a response to these questions and you'll be featured on the blog:
-When did you first hear about chester french?
-What's your favorite song and why?
-What other bands do you like?
-Tell us about yourself, outside of digging Chester French?
Also, for anyone who's interested, you can subscribe to the rss feed of our blog by clicking <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ChesterFrenchBlog ">here</a>.
We're back in the C French command center and are prepping for videos, shows and... drumroll... the release. Stay tuned and thanks again for stopping by!
-DA & Max
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Chester French Play The Box, NY!
Posted 7/3/2008 by IGA
So before we went over to the UK, we played a secret show at the ultra-exclusive NYC venue "The Box." The place is an ill throwback to cabaret clubs from the roaring 20s. The acoustic set went well and it was an awesome and hilarious show.
Our friends over at the BBC
Ice Cream blog took some pictures. Check em out:
How do you like THEM apples. Ha!
Remember to subscribe to the rss feed by clicking
here and if you want to be featured on the blog, send us a message with the answers to the following questions:
-When did you first hear about chester french?
-What's your favorite song and why?
-What other bands do you like?
-Tell us about yourself, outside of digging Chester French?
We've had a lot of awesome answers sent in, so thanks to everyone who's responded thus far.
Have a great holiday everyone...
-DA & Max
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Friends of C. French: Episode 1
Posted 7/2/2008 by IGA
Hey folks;
Thanks to everyone who has sent in their responses to the "Friends of C. French" questionnaire. It's awesome to be able to get to know you guys a bit better and, more importantly, for you guys to reach out to each other. That's what the net is for. Well, that and p0rn.
On the first "episode" of "Friends of C. French," we present to you Neal
AKA Mixtape Monster.
Chester French: When did you first hear about chester french?
Neal: To tell you the truth, I can't remember where I heard of Chester French. I think I came across one of y'alls songs on a random blog or something and I thought it was super hot. I been putting my friends on C-French ever since.
CF: What's your favorite song and why?
N: I think my fave song has gotta be "Fall Back"....I mean damn, KWELI and C-French. Do I really got to explain why that shit is hot? Anyone that needs an explanation on that one should have one of their ears, if not both, Van Gogh-ed.
CF:What other bands do you like?
N: Other groups I'm feeling these days are of course N*E*R*D and Kenna, as well as Little Brother (y'all should hook up with them, I know Phonte could drop some knowledge on cats over a Chester French
breakbeat) or pretty much any hip hop cats in the Hall Of Justus.
That's how we do it down here in North Cack.
CF: Tell us about yourself, outside of digging Chester French?
N: Me? Shiiiiiiiiit [(c) Clay Davis], just a hip hop and music head who also likes basketball. Alum of the great UNC, so you know I love the college basketball. Also like to post musings, videos, music, and funny stories on my blog.
Actually I've posted a few C-French things before and you guys linked my blog in a message. Props for that, much appreciated.
CF: The appreciation is mutual, Neal.
Remember, if you want to be featured on the blog, send us a response to these questions with the subject "Friends of C. French"
-When did you first hear about chester french?
-What's your favorite song and why?
-What other bands do you like?
-Tell us about yourself, outside of digging Chester French?
Also, for anyone who's interested, you can subscribe to the rss feed of our blog by clicking here. And anyone who would like to syndicate our feed on their blog, feel free!
Just hit us up if you decide to.
Our shows in the UK were incredible, by the way. More details soon.
-DA & Max
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Chester French In GQ!
Posted 7/1/2008 by IGA
The issue has been out for a bit, but for those of y'all who don't know, Chester French is featured in the July 2008 issue of GQ (the one with the lovely Gisele Bundchen on the cover). Check out a scan of the article below and go and cop that at your local newsstand.
Don't forget to send in responses to the "Friends of C. French"
questionnaire. If you want to be featured on this blog, send us the answers to these questions:
-When did you first hear about chester french?
-What's your favorite song and why?
-What other bands do you like?
-Tell us about yourself, outside of digging Chester French?
Thanks everyone and we hope to see all you UK Chester fans at the show tomorrow!
-DA & Max
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Chester French's UK Debut And We Want To Interview YOU!
Posted 6/30/2008 by IGA
Hey Chester French fans in the UK... get ready!
On July 1st, we're playing at the iTunes Fest at Koko, with N.E.R.D.
and Kenna and on July 2nd we're playing Club Scruffy @ The Star of
Bethnal Green. We've never played outside the US, so we hope you guys
come out in full force.
We've played a couple secret shows over the last week or so that we
really want to tell you about, but more on that later.
Things are moving along splendidly and it's all thanks to your
support. You'll have our record in your hands in no time. Stay tuned!
Also, we'd like to highlight some of you guys on the blog, so we're
going to be starting a fan interview series called "Friends Of C
French". If you want to be featured on the blog, simply send us a
message on here answering the following questions:
-When did you first hear about chester french?
-What's your favorite song and why?
-What other bands do you like?
-Tell us about yourself, outside of digging Chester French?
The more detailed you are, the better.
More tomorrow, and don't forget to check us out and drop us a line
answering the questions.
-DA & Max
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Badu & Bilal
Posted 6/19/2008 by IGA
What up folks;
Not much that we can report on today. We're working on mixing the album right now. It's sounding incredible... but we won't say any more just yet.
But we wanted to write to tell you about a pair of artists currently on tour that you really, really have to check out.
First up is Erykah Badu. The rumors
are true, folks... this is one of the most incredible shows out right now. The tickets are going for hefty prices, but it's a show that you should definitely see if you can.
We'll quote "The New Yorker's" Sasha Frere Jones here:
"Instead of saying that Badu's performance will not be bettered any time soon (though it won't), I'll say that her show gave everyone in the house serious bragging rights. Dylan in 1965, Metallica in 1985, Bad Brains in 1981—it was one of those points on the arc. If you want to know who is at her peak, who is both of her moment and channelling so many forces that her work spills out over the edges of history and stops time, that's Erykah Badu in 2008."
Yes. Absolutely. The show was incredible. Go see it while you can.
A less known but also awesome performer that DA was able to check out recently was Bilal. You might not know his name, but if you've heard Talib's "Waitin for the DJ" or Common's "Like Water For Chocolate"
album, you know his incredible voice.
Dude puts on an odd but pretty awesome show and he's also touring.
Check out his
Myspace
to check out his solo work.
See anyone in concert we should all check out? Let us know in the comments;
-DA & Max
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Chester French Featured On Concrete Loop!
Posted 6/17/2008 by IGA
Hey everyone;
We were pleasantly surprised when we woke up this morning and saw an awesome mention
on one of our favorite sites, Concrete Loop.
We'll quote Brian from CL: "Meet D.A. Wallach and Maxwell Drummey, who make up the duo, Chester French. These two Harvard graduates wrote, arranged, produced and engineered their album, tentatively titled Love the Future in their dorm's basement. Last December, their demo found its way around the industry and got them attracting offers from heavyweights like Kanye West, Jermaine Dupri, Pharrell Williams and Jimmy Iovine.
Naming their band after sculptor Daniel Chester French, who designed the statue at the Lincoln Memorial, the boys were signed to Pharrell's Star Trak Music, via Interscope. Just last May, D.A. and Max completed recording and their degrees, in African American Studies and Social Anthropology, respectively. They've both since relocated to LA to put the finishing touches on their debut album, due out this year.
I've known about the guys for a while now and I definitely am digging their sound and I absolutely love their story. Pharrell better do these boys justice.
Make sure you show Chester French some CL love on their MySpace page, if you're digging what you've heard."
In addition to the awesome post, Brian also shared "She Loves Everybody" with the CL readers. And to our delight, it seems (judging from the comments on CL) like a lot of them really dig the music!
Thanks to Concrete Loop, Brian and anyone who's checking us out for the first time from CL!
We also got an incredible mention from Cloud
N9ne. Everyone check out that site as well.
We're gearing up for a bunch of stuff, so stay tuned...
-DA & Max
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New Features + Video
Posted 6/16/2008 by IGA
As we hinted at last week, we've been getting a lot of great messages on loads of blogs. So let's kick off this blog roll post haste...
One of our favorite magazines, Giant Magazine (the fine periodical that happened to bless the world with this image), featured us in their list of "5 Songs That Don't Suck". "She Loves Everybody" shares webspace with Barry Adamson's "Walk on Fire," Hot Rod & Tila Tequila's "I Like To Fuck," Low vs. Diamond's "Hear Attack," Tim William's "Fly With Me" and Uh Huh Her's "Covered." We know that's a total of 6 songs. Not sure what the deal is, but who's complaining?!
Kathy Iandoli over at All Hip Hop (one of our favorite hip hop sites on the net, period) wrote a great article about the 10th anniversary of Lauryn Hill's "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" and, hey, wait, is that a quote from DA Wallach in there? Why yes it is: "Lauryn Hill is probably my favorite singer of the past 20 or 30 years. The album was really great, and it was cool that it had such tremendous public success."
Did you catch that interview our boss did with LA Metromix? Mr. Pharrell Williams gave us an unbelievably humbling nod: '"I think Chester French are geniuses. To me, they sound like Brian Wilson singing over Motown tracks," Williams enthuses about the recent Harvard graduates. "We're so lucky to have them on our label."' A couple other blogs, like Life Lounge, picked up the story as well.
Big ups to Madame Lamb, a super ill art/pop/technology/fashion/culture/music (phew) blog gave us a sweet mention, introducing their readers to us and sharing "Jimmy Choos." Perusing the front page of ML, we came across two hilarious old school pictures of Al Pacino (one which features an old school Deniro). Dudes had some swagger back then. Thanks, Modern Lamb, for reminding us.
Along the same lines, thank you Yellow Rebel: The Blog for sharing some of our music with your listeners. We really dug your coverage of the Janelle Monae Highline Ballroom show, which DA attended. It was a great show and it's sick that people who weren't there can experience the awesomeness as well. Wow, the internet is pretty sweet. Duh.
Our good friends over at the BBC/Ice Cream blog posted some videos of our various LA performances, as did The Boys Blog and our buddies over at the Neptune s.org.
We came across a cool post on this guy Mitch's blog where the guy said we had balls. Well, thank you Mitch. Might we add that you have balls as well? But hey, if you're gonna rip songs off our myspace, maybe don't blog about it? Haaaa...
We played a fun little show at our friend Matt Kozlov's place and iancr over at Fistfulayen did a cool post about it. Fistfulayen is one of our favorite blogs, so we were honored to make our debut. Also, Lucinda is our new keyboard player (sorry Tyler!)
Did you watch the NewNowNext Awards? We hope you did, seeing as we were up for an award. But if you missed it, our great friend Arjan over at Arjan Writes posted a recap with some footage from the show.
PinBoard did an interview with a buddy of ours,
the rapper Mickey Factz who gave us a great nod in his list of favorite artists ("I'm listening to Jonell Monae, Chester French, Estelle, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco" wow, great company). Thanks, Mickey and PinBoard!
Also, one of our best friends, Mr. Ko Yada,
blogged about eating sushi with DA. Ko!
A Material World, an LA-based fashion blog, gave us a
great little mention right before the Viper show. It's a neat blog and we particularly loved the post about
Granny Style coming back into fashion. Which would be, by the way, preposterous if that were true.
Secret Still gave us a
mention in their "things that aren't big enough to warrant their own post" post. Hey! We warrant our own post. We think. But thanks for sharing us with your readers and mentioning that we're "pretty good" (we'll pretend you didn't call our pictures "douchebagesque").
The folks over at Apex Exposure did a
nice post on us, telling their readers we're the perfect antidote for a "gross weather-induced coma." Which, shockingly enough, we've heard before. You head it here first: Chester French cures all comas.
Elementz004
posted a note on their blog saying they want the album to drop. We know how you feel! But we're working hard, our noses to the grindstone to make that a reality.
Chaseology gave us a
great nod, comparing our stuff to the Beach Boys and Weezer (two of our favorite artists). We also LOVE your
co verage of Janelle Monae's performance at the Apple Store. Sweet pictures and it sounds like a fun show.
Acerbic Bubblegum included us in their
coverage of Ivy League rock. "D.A. Wallach and Maxwell Drummery have found themselves in interesting territory without even releasing an album. Their first, tentatively titled "Love the Future" hasn't even hit the shelves yet and these guys have already garnered acclaim from Rolling Stone and others, as one of the artists to watch in 2008. Their eclectic sound constantly evolves which each new track that comes out and their sound is downright addictive. At this point I think their hardest test will be to see if they can live in L.A. and continue to create great music without losing themselves in some over-hyped rock wasteland. Hopefully they make it through and if their hilarious interviews are any indication, these guys will be huge." We certainly hope so.
There were also three sweet mentions of our Cutting Room show we missed...
Brina Payne,
The Mixtape Monster and
Don't Act Like I never Told Ya know the scoop.
We also got great mentions on
Music is My Lover,
Konnichiwa Beaches,
JRameau's Tumblr and
Better Than Your Average Bear.
Phew.
Aiiiight, until next time....
-DA & Max
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