LastBlog Interview with The Choke

Writer Sammi Skolmoski recently asked me if I wanted an interview with The Choke, a NY-based band whose blend of early punk and melodic garage-rock has them playing to packed crowds on the East Coast. Now, they’re heading to So-Cal for the first time. And while on the surface, I thought The Choke seemed like just another throwback band retreading on a style of music that’s fairly homogenized at this point, Skolmoski’s interview was pretty eye-opening so I decided to publish it here. 

In a time when “punk” is used to describe neatly packaged suburban pop artists with complicated haircuts, the four New York musicians in The Choke aim to take the term back for the freaks and misfits.

Singer Cameron Eve, guitarist Hott deTH, bassist Knuckles, and drummer Jonny Napalm combine the straight forward melodies of soul and garage-rock with the power and attitude of a band immersed in the late ‘70s New York punk scene (think The Sonics meets early Blondie). Their live show is more of a circus than merely a concert, with performances by burlesque dancers, sword swallowers, acrobats and the like. But if there’s a ringleader, it’s most certainly Eve, whose raw vocals and unparalleled energy demand the full attention of anyone nearby. She spoke to CityBeat about the origins of The Choke, what to expect at their San Diego debut at Soda Bar on Saturday, and why they do it all for the dogs.

Sammi Skolmoski: The Choke have been called the “epitome of NY 1970s punk.” But I’ve heard you (as a band) think the term “punk” is terrible, a “soulless ruining of energetic expression,” to be exact. What makes you guy say that?

Cameron Eve: [laughs] I think that a lot of times what people forget is when you’re an outsider or a misfit, that’s what makes you “punk.” The term tends to lump everybody into a category that doesn’t have a lot of musicality. It brings you to this Green Day-esque situation. We’re kind of geeks. We’re into song structure. We’re into melodies, tight harmonies.  We practice. We’re not in that sort of apathetic, “we don’t give a fuck” mentality. So that’s what we don’t like. For instance, you can take this for whatever it is, but in New York they do this thing called Punk Island. We played it last year and it was just an awful representation of what is punk.

That’s a shame. At least you guys were there to set them straight

Yeah we were there. They weren’t really happy about it.

You have been compared to everyone from Patti Smith to Tina Turner to Iggy Pop. Would you say these are fair comparisons?

[laughs]  I’d say they’re generous. It’s kind of amazing that people get that. I think what they pick up on is the energy. I have a lot of energy. I think that’s what they pick up on in terms of I’m not sort of a wimpy, stands-there-crying kind of front person. I could only hope to be like any of those people.

 How did you guys come together?

[Drummer] Jonny and [bassist] Eric, “Hott Deth,” were hanging out and going to see bands. Jonny had been in a lot of bands, and was looking to form his own group as a drummer, which is not usual. So Jonny and Eric would go to shows and they’d start to say, “Well, that sucks,” and, “What about that?” and, “We could do this.”  They started writing songs together before they even put [the band] together. They just had this idea that would be The Choke. Then they found this amazing guy that they used to see at garage shows all the time and asked him to play bass. I was bartending, and Jonny approached me out of nowhere and just said could you come and sing a couple songs with us. It was like the four of us got in a room, it was almost four years ago now, and it was the right thing for everything.

It sounds like it just kind of fell into place.

Yeah, well there’s only one lineup. People ask me all the time, “Oh are you guys still the same lineup?” And I laugh because there’s only one. There are no replacements. 

I like that. Your live performances have been very highly received. What is it about you that’s so appealing to such a variety of crowds?

Again, I think in terms of music as a group, we play. We perform. You know, we present the material. We love it, so I think that helps.  Straight up music geeks like it because the song structure is so well devised by the guys that anybody that writes music is really happy. Older people like it because it reminds them of their ‘70s punk. Younger people like it because it doesn’t sound like The Strokes. And anybody else just appreciates the no-holds-bars-ness of it all. You know, the presentation. So what winds up happening is if someone doesn’t really like an aspect of it, they fall in love with a different aspect of it.

I’ve heard your live show can be a bit of a circus with burlesque, acrobatics, fire throwers, hula hoopers, and everything in between. Will you be bringing any other “acts” to perform with you in California?

Oh no, and it’s so funny! We wanted to. We throw these big parties. At our last party we had two samurai sword dancers for our video release. That was maybe one of my favorites, although we’re very tight with a lot of the burlesque girls. Until we are able to afford to fly our people, we can’t bring a circus. And we even asked, gosh, we called a couple places and they weren’t as into us setting up shows… Hold on, there should be a dog here. Otis? [Eve starts talking to the dog] Here he comes. Otis! Where’s my handsome boy. Ok go ahead Otis, say hi. [Otis howls]  He is a true, true bloodhound. 130 pounds. What was I going to say? No, we weren’t able to fit any of the hot girls into our suitcases. But any freaks, you can tell any freaks they are welcome to come!

Will do. Over this next week you are playing six shows in LA, and one here in San Diego. Is this your first trip out west as The Choke?

Yes it is. This is our introduction to LA. We are going to meet up with a band that our producer also produces and we’re going to play with them. We’ve been to Detroit. We’ve been through that whole “Rust Belt,” they call it. You know the Columbus, Cleveland, Pittsburgh. We love Detroit. We love Detroit a lot. And England, twice. We’ve played over 30, maybe 20 shows in England. We’ve done two tours in London. Just London, we’ve played like ten shows. We supported this band Theatre of Hate all through the UK, and we did about 12 shows with them. But we’ve been really wanting to come out there [to California] and it seems like the best way to do it is what we do—play seven nights in a row and give everybody a chance to come.

Tony Barber of Buzzcocks fame is producing your first album. How did your band first come to work with him?

Jonny, our drummer, had worked with him when he was in another band and he had produced a single. The guys and I are big Buzzcocks fans as it is, and Tony’s produced three of their records. So we approached Tony. Jonny sent him a single, a demo with actually just Jonny singing in falsetto with percussion.  Literally, a really crap recording because he knows Tony. And Tony can pretty much hear a song. If there’s a song there, he knows.

Basically we asked him to produce a single, and he came and saw us about four times and said, “How about we record three things, and you guys come to London?”  From there, our relationship started with him as sort of an adviser.  He’s strong-armed The Choke through it all. We don’t work with anybody else at this point.  We worked on this record. We recorded it over two years. We did some of it in Brooklyn, and the bulk of it in England at a place called Woodvine Studios. This really amazing guy engineered it, John Rivers. Tony did an incredible job.

When is that album coming out?

The album release date, the guys are going to be mad at me. It’s on the press release but I can’t remember. I’m sure… I think it’s late, mid-September. I might be wrong on that, but it’s mid-September. We’ve only released a single up to this point.  We’ve kept our music really, really close to us because we really want it to count.

 There are a series of videos released to generate a buzz about your album. Can you tell me about those and was that the band’s own idea?

Yeah, well we thought, what are ways we can sort of get some of the music out there to get people to understand who we are? We remembered music videos give people that can’t come see us live a real quick idea of who we are. And we thought well what can we do while we’re waiting to get this record distributed and finished?  Tony, once again, and his fiancé have a high-end fashion studio out in the Hamptons called Photo Op. So basically we just did it, in Choke fashion. We just all got together, grabbed a crew of people, camera people, and whoever wanted to come. Photographers.  We camped out for two days and we made some videos. We just said, let’s do this and keep it simple, but keep it fresh. Tony had some ideas. He directed two of them. A guy named Henry Davis saw those and said, “Well I want to do one.” And we were like, “okay,” and went to a local place that we play at all the time and did another one.  We invite anybody who has an idea or a concept. We just get together and have a good time and put them out. 

I know Otis will like this question. It’s been said that you are all animal lovers. Is there any integration of your love of animals and music?

Well, Otis. [laughs.] It doesn’t reflect in our songwriting or anything, but what it does reflect in is playing benefit shows. We can’t really ever say no to a benefit. We helped raise a lot of money for the local 20 plus animal rescue center in New York City at this event called “Gimme Shelter.” The Beastie Boys were the headliner, and we played on that bill. I’m on the board of a media group called AMP, as is Tony Barber and his fiancé.  It’s “Artists and Musicians Performing for Animals.” We have some projects designed just to help raise money and awareness for shelters.

I heard you say some of your best times have been when people in the UK let you crash on their floor and provided you with whiskey. Is there anything you want to ask San Diego residents in advance?

Oh, please! We’d love a place to stay. [laughs.]  Personally, I think I’d like some sort of Tiki barbecue action. Does anybody have that going on?