5 Questions with Jeff Wilson from Chrome Waves

A couple weeks ago, I stumbled on the BandCamp page of Chrome waves, a new project that features Chicago metal heavyweights Stavros Giannopoulos (The Atlas Moth) and Jeff Wilson (Ex-Nachtmystium). For obvious reasons, I liked what I heard. The band recently became one of the first few bands signed to upstart Gracedancer Records, and they have an album coming out this summer. If you like any kind of metal at all, this is a band you need to hear. Many thanks to Jeff for answering my questions.

1.)Please state your name, your role in the band and give us a brief history of Chrome Waves.

I'm Jeff Wilson. My primary role in Chrome Waves is guitar, but I'm definitely not limited to that.  Chrome actually started coming together in 2010.  I had a few months where just about everything around me was falling apart and having the typical cliche musician thought process, I guess the only thing for me to do was write songs about it.

Bob and I had been talking about doing a project for a while so he and I started recording the rhythm tracks almost immediately.  Everything was basically written with the thought of Stavros doing vocals; he was into the idea so that's how he came into the picture.  Unfortunately, all of our schedules are a bit out of control so it's taken nearly 2 years to get everything recorded and the business in taken care of, but now it's ready to go and things have fallen into place the way they have; it was definitely worth the wait for me.

2.) You guys are among the first batch of bands signed to upstart label Gravedancer Records. How did that come about, and is there a release date in the near future? Have you thought about what formats you'd like to release the album on?

Josh had originally been interested in working the PR for the project, later asking whether we were interested in his new start up label.  He did a lot of the work on the Assassins record and currently works with The Atlas Moth as well so it was the right person to work with.  I was originally intending on self releasing the record, but we went over the details of the contract and it was just the better option in this case.  The release date is set for July 3^rd; it'll be a digipack, with a limited run of colored vinyl as well.  We should have a preorder going sometime in the next couple months.

3.) Obviously, Chrome Waves is comprised of three very busy dudes. With all the other projects the band members are involved with, are their plans for touring, or just sporadic shows? How is playing live with Chrome Waves different than playing with other bands you've been in?

I don't think any of us are opposed to touring, but we're definitely not treating this as a new band and going to be focusing on that to promote it.  When we do play live, it will be fairly exclusive shows, say a weekend of LA, NY, Chicago, a festival or something of the sort.  If the right offer came sometime down the road for a month long tour, I would imagine we would consider the options and go from there.  Well at this point, we haven't done any live shows, so I can't really, but when it happens, it's not going to be much different than things I've done in the past.  It will consist of the 3 core members and a couple other people we're close with, depending on who is available.

4.) You have a pretty distinct style of guitar playing. Who influenced you to play guitar growing up? 

I mean, when I first started, I think my first major influences were like Nirvana and the Cure.  When I started getting more and more into metal, those influences obviously changed a little bit, and now I think I'm starting to go back to the earlier ones.  As long as the song or part makes me feel some sort of emotion, that's all I'm concerned with.

There are no parts in these songs or components of this band that are filler, I hope that anyone that looks at the packaging or listens to the record can see that.

5.)Lastly, your leaving Nachtmystium seemed like it was a pretty ugly situation at the time. Are things cool with you and Blake now, and do you look back at your years in that band fondly?

Well, when you have 2 people who are very much alike to a certain degree and complete opposites as well, things are going to get ugly at some point.  I think Blake and I considered ourselves like brothers for a long period of time. That being said, we just spent too much time together.  Are we cordial or do we chat when we see each other around? Of course.  Do we call each other to hang out? Not really, but there's not really much animosity, at least from my end.  I'm much more happy with all of the things I'm doing now as opposed to being stuck doing one thing all the time.  Do I look back at all of it fondly? For the most part; those were some of the best times in my life. I wish things hadn't gone down like they did, but I jumped off at the right time, and I'm much more satisfied with the way things are now.