More about: Chappaqua Wrestling

From the crashing seas of Brighton to now being part of a new era of indie-rockers, London-based Chappaqua Wrestling are ready to release their debut album, Plus Ultra. An ode to their honest oath as listeners are treated to the good old days of what the band are truly about. 

In the final week before the album, we're sounding the get-to-know klaxon, screaming this is your last chance to get on board before they blow up. Want to be able to say "I was into them before they got big"? Time to get involved...

Can you tell us a bit about what you're all about and what's the goal?

Ultimately, we are making music that we love, and we are massive music lovers above anything else. Going to gigs all the time, have loved music since we were kids, and both are from musical families. So we wanted to carry on, we've not wanted to do it and never not thought about it all the time. It was a blessing to meet each other because we both feel this is our calling. Though we would have always done it, regardless of where we met, our main aim is to keep feeling happy about what we're doing. Keep rolling positively, being honest with ourselves, writing music that we love and making sure as many people hear it. 

"this is the most honest version of ourselves. It's an honest, confident album."

Emerging back in 2017 and now planning to release your debut album, Plus Ultra, what can we expect musically from it, and what does this project mean to you? 

As writers, we're coming back on ourselves to what we used to do. Jake and I were writing music when we were 14 together, 15, 16, and 17, we did so many different things. But our roots are that shoegaze grunge rock. And I think Chappaqua Wrestling's first iteration was our second kind of project in terms of us as writers in our DNA. So the stuff we're doing now is back full circle onto who we are and what we think we're most comfortable with in that realm. That first EP was slightly softer, more Americana-influenced, and a bit more Beach Boys. And that was a lot of fun. But when this project started to take off and get a bit more serious. We were way more grounded and had the right musicians in the band playing with us. And this is the most honest version of ourselves. It's an honest, confident album. And I think fans can expect to hear that. There's a lot of power in it. There's a lot of fun in it. There are also a lot of different messages in there, but ultimately I think it's saying something that will hopefully be a nice thing to listen to.

Compared to previous work, what was the creative process approach toward this debut album? 

Time, sweet time. Some of the elements of the album, are from when we were 18 (back at school), and there were some choruses like 'My Fall' where the bone of that song was written a while ago, got reworked based on how we were feeling more confident, and we didn't ever want to let it go. It's our debut album, and people say you spend your whole life writing your first album. In that sense, it is true because we've had a few years of playing together, which is a bit of a luxury. And there are some things in there, which felt right to be kept in there because they've never left us. And then the other side of it, the creative process, becoming more confident in our writing, having members of the band join, and becoming a cemented group.

Also, the state of the world had an impact based on when you write a good song or what feels like a good song for yourself. We always write music and hook first always. That's naturally how we've done it. Not to say it's the best way, but that's the way that works for us. And it seems to be when you write the music, given you're feeling at the time, only a certain few things are what the lyrics can be about because it makes you feel a certain emotion given how you feel at the time. Whether that's a breakup, anger, X, Y, and Z.  

For this album, we were writing when the world was seeing so much tension. Lyrically there are a lot of songs about wealth division, cost of living, happiness, and honestly, trying to sustain a bit of happiness, and a bit of identity, because there are so much weird feelings and people of our generation out there feeling lost. The music forced us into a place where we were going to say something that we want to say, and there was only a certain amount of things that were going on at the time that you felt like you had to. It was a bit of force and maturing as writers when we decided it was time to tackle it.

Hitting the mark as a rising band, what has been the number one surprise?

I think what wasn't surprising, but was funny to us is, we didn't expect after when we went into lockdown, we started writing our first album because we were like, Okay, we were supposed to be doing touring and doing all the things that bands do before their first album, but we're not. So let's get a small budget together and record our album. We were going in on that for so long. And getting everything together with producers that we like, and then we wrote/ recorded the album, and then we got signed. That felt like the busiest two years for us because we were doing so much. But then, from the outside point of view, everyone's like, this band took two years off. So what's funny and surprising is when we released our first single, people were like, oh, this band have been off for two years. And I'm like, No, we've been doing so much. I feel like maybe that's a big thing for the whole industry. So many people were hustling after and during COVID. But in this instance, with music, so much is happening, but until you release and get to do gigs, people think you've been doing nothing.

With new music coming its way and summer just around the corner, what does the rest of 2023 look like? 

Really exciting! The next tour is going to be so good for us; it'd be the first time, that we will be playing a headline set where everyone will know our songs. There are also a lot of conversations going on, which I'm sure it's going to make us super busy, and it feels like a good time for us to release this to people. We've already had a good response so far, and I think the next step for us is to get it out to as many people as possible. I cannot wait for this year, going to be a huge moment for us. 

Plus Ultra arrives April 14th

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More about: Chappaqua Wrestling