Re-Making The Band – Chaser Eight has a Renewed Spirit with New Members, and New Music

It isn’t uncommon for bands to occasionally replace a member, especially in the indie world, where things like marriage, kids, and full time jobs come into play, but last year, after replacing their drummer, and losing both their guitar player, and backup singer, Chaser Eight founder and frontwoman *AUDRA* was beginning to wonder how many changes a band can go through.

“After the two other members left I looked around, and I was the only original member,” she recalls.

*AUDRA* then did what so many artists have done after losing band members – she went on the internet, but in her case it wasn’t to find new players. “I went and I googled bands that only have one original member, and there were so many of them, and so many famous bands, and for so many of these bands it was just the lead singer.”

For Chaser Eight, who have been prominent in the Connecticut rock scene for nearly 15 years, the band would play on.

*AUDRA*, as well as longtime bassist Brennan DiLernia, would be joined by drummer Chris Siena, and guitarist Mike Cocco, to form the new lineup of Chaser Eight, and after countless practices, shows, and recording sessions, she says, “I feel like the people that are here now are the people that are supposed to be here.”

The revamped version of Chaser Eight has been releasing new music since January, and they’re currently in the studio finishing up an EP that will be released in June.

The band is also prepping for a slot opening for Trapt later this month in Bristol, CT, and their own headlining show this summer at the Wolf Den at Mohegan Sun.

I caught up with *AUDRA* to find out more about the re-making of Chaser Eight, including the magical moment the current lineup realized their teaming might be something special, and the fictional character she now relates to.

As the lone founding member of Chaser Eight left, you have experienced quite a few versions of the band. Not to get all Taylor Swift on you, but would you consider each version of Chaser Eight a different era with its own unique sound? 

In a way.

I think Pat (Walsh) leaving was the biggest change, because not only was I losing the co-founder, I was also losing the my songwriting partner, but yeah, every record has different people on it, so you’re literally listening to different players on every record.

Each player, whether it’s the bass player change, or the drummer change, everybody plays differently, and everybody’s gonna bring their own style to how they envision the song to be. So definitely, yeah, this is our eras.

How has that rotation of members expanded your own musical repertoire, and how you define the band? 

For me it’s always been about the songs, so I needed people that were willing to go on the journey, and people that were willing to bring really cool ideas to the table, and if they didn’t have ideas, at least be willing to listen to our ideas to make something cool.

But I’ve always been focusing on songs, because if you don’t have a good song it doesn’t matter how good the band is. It’s always about the song first.

Would you consider the lyrical aspect of Chaser Eight the backbone that connects every piece of music the band has made? 

Yeah, because the songs have stayed.

For a long time it was me and Pat … and then Pat left, and there was obviously a big hole there, but it’s still me, we’re still releasing my songs.

Our new producer is also a songwriter, so the song we released in January (“Heaven On Earth”) is his song that he wrote, and people really dig it.

He will give you a completely produced song, and then you can make tweaks on it if you want, and that’s exactly how Pat used to present things.

When I present a song, it’s, “Hey guys, I wrote this thing,” and I play guitar, and I sing, and then we build around it.

So it’s actually like I swapped out one super talented writer for another super talented writer.

What’s his name? 

His name is Anthony Edwards.

Wait, doesn’t he play for the Minnesota Timberwolves? 

Yes, he does. This is his other gig. {laughs}

His name’s Ant Edwards. I call him Ant Maestro because that was his nickname growing up. He’s a player himself, plays piano, does a ton of things, and his production (name) is The LX.

I’ve known him since 2009. We met at an ASCAP meet-up (in NYC) … and have been friends ever since.

We always bounced back and forth on working on music together. After Pat left I knew I wanted the sound of Chaser Eight to evolve. Pat and I had actually talked about that, we wanted the sound to evolve, we knew we needed to step up our game as far as production. So after he left I thought to myself – well, Ant’s really good at this, let’s work with him.

You also have a relatively new guitar player, and drummer, so talk a little bit about those two, and how they ended up part of Chaser Eight. 

(Drummer) Chris (Siena) came into an interesting situation. He’s just like the nicest guy on the planet. He’s so understanding, and such a cool dude, but he came in when … as the leader sometimes you have to make really tough decisions, so Pat had left, and we had talked about being a little bit unhappy with the direction the drums were heading. I started looking around, I reached out to Chris, and I said, “Hey, we’re thinking about making a change. Do you want to learn a few songs, and come down and play?” He’s like, “Absolutely!”

He comes down, nails the songs, does everything we’re asking for, then on top of it he’s just like the nicest guy.

So Chris came in, that was great, and then all this other turmoil started happening, and I felt so bad because here he’s like, “Yes, I just joined a band,” and then we’re all fighting.

We had the whole situation happen where we lost two other members (the guitarist, and the backup singer).

We had a gig with Manic Mark at the Space Ballroom in Hamden, CT last year, and we needed a guitar player. Brennan (DiLernia) has played with (Mike) Cocco for years in other projects, and I’ve known Cocco. I knew he was a good guitar player. So Brennan called up Cocco and said, “Hey, do you want to fill in for this one gig?” Cocco was like, “Yeah, sure, no problem.”

Once we got down there, the four of us, I remember it was in April of last year, we got down there, and we played a song, and we literally all looked at each other and went, “Whoa!” It was just something where we just felt it.

So I give those guys so much credit for coming into what was such a crazy situation – we had band members dropping off left and right – and these guys stuck through it.

With the new members in the fold, what do you think you’re doing now musically that maybe you’d never done before as a band? 

I think that this is the first time that the four of us all like the same things.

We’re obviously working on new music, and we work on the sets that we need to play, but a lot of times what happens is they know so many songs they’ll just start playing something, and we’ll play like a whole song that nobody practiced, but they just start busting into it because there’s this trust that even if we don’t get every note, this is fun, let’s just keep playing this and see what happens.

Cocco and Chris, they were new together almost, so they’re kind of growing with us together, and Brennan, even though he’s not the original bass player, he’s been in the band for eight years, so he’s essentially original at this point.

There’s just a trust. There’s a trust in the music.

There’s more ability down (in the practice space) to call people out if we don’t like what somebody’s doing. We’re having a lot more chances to say, “That didn’t really work Why don’t you try playing this?” I don't think a lot of that was happening before, and if it was, people were getting offended, and the band room is no place to get offended.

You just released a new single. Tell everyone about it. 

This song had been bounced around for years now. It’s called “Alice.” It’s a really cool song. It’s a mix of like, a song about Alice in Wonderland, and also about life stuff. It interweaves the two themes.

I wrote this song, I think in like 2015, and we always shelved it because we could never figure out how to make it what we thought would be good enough to release.

When I started working with Anthony last summer, he sent me over a bunch of ideas, and I sent him over a bunch of demo ideas that we had recorded. He went through them, and listened to what he thought could be great, and he was like, “Dude, we have to do ‘Alice.’” He re-produced it, reorganized it, gave it a nice modern feel, and it finally came out, ten years in the making.

I’m super excited about it.

I think the Alice in Wonderland theme is appropriate, since Alice goes through a heck of a journey, and you have gone through a heck of a journey, as well. 

Yeah, she went down the rabbit hole to come out a little bit more enlightened, and I think I had to go down my own rabbit hole. I went down many different rabbit holes, and came out a little bit more enlightened each time.

You know, I never thought of it that way, but that is a good way to put it.

I like when you do themed songs. You had “The Bell Jar” (based on the novel by Sylvia Plath) and “The Bitch” (based on the movie Cruel Intentions), and I love both of those songs. 

A lot of people have actually told me that before.

You know who writes on a theme all the time, Doron Flake from The Smyrk. We talked about this one day, songwriter to songwriter. I’m like, “Dude, you always write about like superheroes, and comic books. Why?” and he’s like, “Well, because when I would write about girls I’d get in trouble because then other girls would be like, ‘Who’s that song about?’” He’s like, that’s it, I’m done, I’m writing about superheroes, and comic books, and you know, they have great songs, and they’re all about what you would think are nerdy subjects, but really fun stuff.

Oh God, you’re gonna have a Harry Potter album, aren’t you? 

Oh my God, don’t even put the idea (in my head), the boys will get so upset.

For more Chaser Eight, check out chasereight.com.