Former Cal Poly student Chase McBride is quickly making a name for himself throughout California. After finishing two dramatically different albums over the past year, McBride will be releasing “The Good Fight” and “Wild Child” on Saturday, June 5 at Downtown Brew.
After finishing up his well-received EP “From the Mountains to the Sea” in 2009 and playing along the Central Coast, McBride had gained enough funding to push forward in his musical career. The Montana native admitted he didn’t expect to pursue music in college.
“I came to Cal Poly to study graphic design, had absolutely no plan to pursue music. I thought I was done with it because I really wanted to get into the graphic design mode. But, wouldn’t you know it, it kind of took over,” McBride said.
With a plan to create a full-length album, McBride contacted several producers last summer. To his surprise, Todd Hannigan of Brotheryn Studios e-mailed him back to give him a shot. McBride said he was shocked to hear from Jack Johnson’s former producer.
“It was a pretty huge break. I remember when we got that e-mail back from him it was like poof — things opened up,” McBride said.
Hannigan, who has worked with names like Colby Caillat, Kenny Loggins and Crosby Loggins, said he was impressed by McBride’s dedication.
“I liked Chase’s material, and he seemed to be willing to do what it would take to make a record, because a lot of people think it’s much easier to make a record than it actually is. Once I told him what it entailed from my end, as far as time and preparation, he was like, ‘Cool, let’s do it,'” Hannigan said.
After a month-and-a-half of refining and practicing songs for hours and hours, McBride, along with bassist and journalism junior Austin Mello and drummer and music junior Jonathan Withem, headed down Highway 101 to Ventura to record “The Good Fight.” Mello said the group prepared in order to be taken seriously, which is something young musicians tend to overlook.
“We were well prepared; we took it very seriously,” Mello said. “We walked in there, we laid down the tracks, we did it quick, we did it efficiently and we did it right. And at that point, everything sort of fell into place. They wanted to work with us as much as we wanted to be working with them.”
Pulling influences from ’60s folk rock staples such as Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, McBride and Mello said the record is a blend of songs created in the year-and-a-half after the release of the EP.
“We’re definitely taking ingredients that have been done before. But we feel like the stuff that we’re kind of doing — this old folk style — we’re kind of bringing it back. It hasn’t been done in a while,” McBride said.
The songs cover socially conscious subjects such as politics, culture and religion. Both were glad the album had a community-based vibe, involving more voices and perspectives than their own.
“We wrote them all together and everybody had their own voice, which was a lot better. It’s a lot better when you get different ideas and different perspectives and styles,” McBride said. “We wanted to write something that we feel like people can actually listen to and take something from.”
Yet, after a year of pounding out “The Good Fight,” Mello and McBride weren’t finished.
“We were creatively congested,” McBride said.
The two agreed: While the studio setting allowed them to explore the professional realm of recording, it also had boundaries. So, with a group of unattended songs written during the birth of “The Good Fight,” Mello and Austin set out to record yet again — but this time, in a much more organic context. Together with Scott Huerta of The French Cassettes, Mello and McBride started a new project — “Wild Child.”
“We just sort of went wild and created these songs that had been building up or were stuck behind us. We wanted to bring them back — bring them to life and give them fair treatment,” Mello said.
McBride, Mello, Huerta, videographer Devin Hardy and photographer and art and design junior Andrew Layman headed up the North Coast to tackle the album, locking themselves in an old wooden cabin by the sea.
In the four days the group confined themselves to the wooden walls — no Internet, no phone reception — all participated in the creation of the experimental folk revival record. Vocals were sometimes recorded in the shower or hallway and tambourines played in a large room; the group came together to create a completely different sound — much more candid than “The Good Fight.”
“‘The Good Fight’ is produced,” McBride said. “In one word, produced. ‘Wild Child’ is organic. There’s a lot of rough edges; there’s a lot of imperfections and stuff that would have been taken out in a professional studio space that we left in.”
The double-album release at Downtown Brew is one of the last shows McBride will be playing for awhile, as he has plans to move to San Francisco, tour and start a record label. Videographer and journalism junior Kyle Neddenriep, who will be accompanying McBride and Mello on tour this summer, said he looks forward to the community feel of Saturday’s show.
“It’s super grass roots; half the people that come to the show probably know Chase. I think it’s really neat to see everyone come together and send him off in style at DTB,” Neddenriep said.
Bluesy-folk indie band Central Currency will be opening for McBride and have played together before. Lead singer and business senior Dave Carlsen said the band is happy to share the local music scene with McBride.
“It’s going to be some cool music and it’s going to be a really special occasion because Chase and company have been working really hard on both CDs for a really long time,” Carlsen said.
Doors for the all-ages show open at 7:30 p.m. with openers Loomis and the Lust playing at 8 p.m. Presale tickets are available for $7 at Boo Boo Records or ticketweb.com and are $9 at the door. The first 25 people in the door receive a free homemade tie dye tank top, courtesy of McBride and friends.