Chalk: "We want to wear the city’s influence proudly"

Chalk have drawn from many influences over the years, blending guitar, techno, dance, and even film. Now, they’re bringing all that together to create something entirely their own. With a distinctive visual look and a playful pop sensibility, there’s discernible elements of heavyweights like LCD Soundsystem and Pet Shop Boys in their aesthetic make-up.

The duo first met as students, studying film at Queen’s University Belfast, where they were taught to pull from a range of sources.

“Even from film school, I remember being told not to be self-referential,” says guitarist Benedict Goddard. “Don’t just be influenced by other movies, try to be influenced by paintings and poetry and music. Cause otherwise, you end up in a self-referential cycle and there’s no originality. There’s a great well of art and ideas in the world, so it’s amazing to pull from as much of that as you can.”

“We want to see how far we can push things, and see if we can get a reaction. I suppose it’s coming from our film background – to see if you can challenge the audience, and make them uncomfortable,” adds vocalist Ross Cullen. “A lot of the music is quite frenetic and anxiety-ridden, and I think that comes from wanting to make some sort of impression.

“But we also have softer moments, so when we do have silence in our sets, that can sometimes be as powerful as the louder sounds. That may come from our film background – going for as epic a shot as possible. We want to lean into how we can communicate that onstage and through the music.”

Chalk released their first EP before ever having gigged, but now their music is geared towards live performance. Initially more guitar-based, the duo found attending club nights in Belfast to be a revelation. Indeed, in the way they rock rhythms with the energy of the dancefloor, Chalk powerfully tap into the lineage of New Order and the Stone Roses.

“Seeing DJ sets in Belfast, and how much noise one person could make and how much of a show that was, that’s one of the biggest influences for us,” says Ben. “Being Belfast-based, we want to wear the city’s influence proudly, specifically the electronic scene that’s so big and cool.”

In the past, they’ve compared Belfast’s techno scene to Berlin, another city with a complicated past, and which for the last decade or so has reemerged as an international capital of electronic and dance music, recapturing the heady energy of the ‘70s, when krautrock reigned and the likes of Kraftwerk, Neu! and Can were in the ascendant. In discussing the similarities between Berlin and Belfast, Chalk reference a promoter who once called the phenomenon “trauma techno”.

“It was just such an escape for people,” says Ross.

“There’s a punk ethos to dance music,” adds Ben, “with illegal raves and stuff like that. You can see it as quite a cathartic expression of anger, and going against the system. It’s a means of expression and forming your own path. I’m sure there’s some really good PhD theses on it!”

Credit: Patricia Rosingana

Chalk have released three EPs in as many years, a prolific output they say is at least partially a result of pressure they feel to stay in the loop.

“I think we always stuck to our guns and tried to get as much stuff out as we could, while still staying true to our sound; we didn’t let anything compromise that,” says Ross. “We’ve always been very ambitious, and we knew we had to be consistent with releases – being on the radar, and hoping you get opportunities with shows and labels.

“We were just constantly shooting our shot. Through the EPs over the last three years, I don’t think we ever went six months without releasing some sort of song.”

But they don’t see the pressure to release material as a problem – for them, that’s the fun of it.

“If you’re in a band, it’s nice to be able to release music,” says Ben. “What’s the point of not releasing music? When it comes to it, very simply, we’d hate if we didn’t get to release music, cause that’s the whole point of everything.”

All that work has now produced Crystalpunk, their debut album. Sometimes vibrating with energy, sometimes sweeping and ethereal, it was written over the past year.

“We treated the album like our live set,” says Ross. “We were looking at the sequencing of all the tracks, and we knew we had a lot of work to do, because of how immense the live show is. We had to push things a bit further on record trying to achieve that feeling.

“We wanted to take risks and challenges and explore different things. We liked the idea of going against any expectations of what people think the Chalk album may sound like. There’s a sort of subversion in what we went for.”

With Crystalpunk, the band are trying, in fact, to carve out an entire new genre.

“You can’t really avoid being pigeonholed and called certain things, which doesn’t really bother us,” Ross explains. “But we wanted to do something different to what’s happening around us – or at least make some sort of attempt. So when the title Crystalpunk came about, it felt like a genre we could make our own – we could write the album under that term.”

“We wanted something that felt like ours. Even though we’re drawing a lot from punk, post-punk, electronic and ambient stuff, rather than describing it in those terms, we were interested in making it sound like us; like Crystalpunk.

“We looked inwards and asked what we could explore that was different, that we haven’t done on the Conditions EP. A lot of this stuff’s been drawn from stories and things that have happened in our lives, so it feels like our most personal stuff yet. A lot of the work is about the journey and self-discovery. The exploration that Ben and I went on with that word, Crystalpunk, and with the sounds, was very enjoyable.”

The process of creating the LP – setting out with an idea and then watching it change as they went – has taught them to go with the flow. Now, they’re focused on being settled and present in the moment, and giving themselves the freedom to explore.

“We’ve lived with this album for a year, maybe, but people haven’t heard it yet,” says Ben. “We always look ahead, but I’m trying to be conscious of actually experiencing Crystalpunk.

“We know more about ourselves and how we work, but I don’t think we’ve figured it out – a fun part of the journey is being open to figuring it out. We can have ideas for projects in the future, but you’ll always be led down different paths, in so many crazy ways.

“I do think music is in a cool place at the minute, where people are looking to be pushed – maybe they aren’t as singular in their vision of what something should sound like. I think we’re just happy to grow, and excited for the future.”

• Crystalpunk is out now. Chalk play the Button Factory, Dublin (May 15); Limelight, Belfast (16); Beyond The Pale, Wicklow (June 12); and Custom House Square, Belfast supporting IDLES (August 26).