CHMCL STR8JCKT

Kevin:  Ha ha! Back in college I was studying psych meds and learned about the chemical straightjacket. It is a cocktail of strong psych meds used to incapacitate out of control patients in mental institutions. I said to Scott, "If I am ever in a band again, I want to name it Chemical Straightjacket." Well, thirty years later, I am dusting off my untouched synths and playing music again! We searched online and found the name was already being used by a fellow doing metal down in Georgia, but he wasn't very active. I still wanted the name. Our good friend, Grove, is also our graphic designer. He came up with the logo. Another friend, JR, suggested using an "8" in the name. We loved the logo and thought the absence of vowels made the name look "harder". What we didn't anticipate is the rise of Amazon's Alexa! Try asking Alexa to play CHMCL STR8JCKT. Doesn't work out very well. Fuck me.  
Kevin:  Well, we quickly realized that we were "old school" industrial music. We loved that back in the Wax Trax! days industrial music was more about "attitude" and vibe than a sound that you had to have. There were disco elements (Thrill Kill Kult), metal elements (GodFlesh), rock elements (RevCo), punk elements (Pailhead), and jazz elements (Legendary Pink Dots). That's what we loved about it. After our debut, we heard "You don't fit in, too much guitar, too much rock, too much metal, etc." We had no intention of changing, of course. If anything, on "DRK PRGRSSN" we dive even deeper cross-genres. So, combining the fact that we don't fit "modern industrial" (which we do quite like, by the way), aggrotech, heavy dance beats, and such, and given our love of all things "western" like cowboys and ghost towns, someone referred to us as "Outlaw Industrial Rock" and we thought it was perfect! It's really an attitude. 

Kevin:  We certainly appreciate it! It is the label that provided the soundtrack of our late teens and early twenties. Most Wax Trax! releases were very beat driven so I don't know that the comparison is perfect, but we'll take it! Haha! I have to point out that WE did not make that comparison first. After the debut came out, Claus Larsen of Leaetherstrip said that it reminded him of Wax Trax!. Then, our very first review (Sonic Seducer Musik Magazine) started with "Bathed in Wax Trax, Chmcl Str8jckt, etc." It was the first four words of our very first review. 
Kevin:  The theme of "DRK PRGRSSN" is basically the musical journey that we have taken over the course of three proper albums. On the debut, I hadn't played in twenty-five years or so. I used the same sounds that I used in 1990 (more or less). It was the first time I ever wrote a lyric or performed vocals. We had no producer and recorded most of it in my laundry room. It was raw, but charming in a way. On the debut we were really paying tribute to the bands we loved. I said, "I'm gonna write a track that's musically inspired by Ministry or by Nitzer Ebb, etc." Once we connected with John Bechdel (Ministry, Killing Joke, Fear Factory, Prong) as a producer, we quickly wrote "WRTCHD THNGS". John taught me a lot about proper construction of a song, sound frequencies etc. On "WRTCHD THNGS" we mostly stopped emulating other bands that we loved and started developing the CHMCL STR8JCKT sound. We quickly realized that we love genre blending, too. I consider "WRTCHD THNGS" to be our learning album. I love that album but months before it was even released I started writing the songs that would become "DRK PRGRSSN". I was excited to use everything that I learned from the last few years and write the album that IS (in my opinion) the essence of CHMCL STR8JCKT. "DRK PRGRSSN" is quite dark, too. My wife's father passed away during writing it. Covid was running rampant (my wife and I got very sick), etc. Songs like 'Capesius' and 'Somber Town' are among the darkest things we've ever written. Of course we wrote some fun, upbeat songs to mix it up, as well!
Kevin:  The truth is simply that we didn't want to stop. We were writing song after song and I had to keep telling John Bechdel, "We just wrote one more that I want to include on the album!" Poor John! Haha! He is so busy with so many projects but he always made time for us. When I finally re-wrote all the lyrics to a Who song and wanted to bring in strings and such, we realized it was time to STOP! We have about six demos currently in the works for the next album.
Kevin:  I wanted to end the album with some bonus tracks (they won't fit on the vinyl release that's coming soon). I figured it would be fun to include remixes of songs from the previous album to perhaps encourage someone to look back at "WRTCHD THNGS" if they enjoyed "DRK PRGRSSN". Scott Durand introduced me to both Dan Guenther (Missing in STARS) and Tufty Hacka (Biohacker) when I told him that I wanted to do a remix album of the self-titled debut a few years back. I knew very few people and Scott took care of that quickly! Biohacker and Missing in STARS did killer remixes on the "RMX" release. Then Dan did an amazing remix of 'Bomb Cyclone' that came out on "WRTCHD RMX". Tufty did a killer remix of 'Fantasy' and we decided to hold that as a bonus track on "DRK PRGRSSN". Michael Haggerty (Krebs) and I met from being on Machine Man Records together before we signed with Cleopatra. I love the Krebs material so I asked him to remix 'Ode To Peckinpah (Bloody Sam)' from "WRTCHD THINGS" to also be a bonus track on "DRK PRGRSSN". Dan (Missing in STARS) also mastered "DRK PRGRSSN".
Kevin:  We like to pick flawed (often awful) characters to write about. Sam Peckinpah fascinated me for some time. Of course, he made Western films so that's a no-brainer! But, while he had insane talent, he was quite awful in many ways. He was an alcoholic, he beat his actors if they made an error; truly a twisted soul. I loved the movie The Wild Bunch and I really enjoyed Peckinpah's biography. To this day, the imagery and rawness of his films is hard to beat. On "DRK PRGRSSN" we also explore Victor Capesius in the song 'Capesius'. He was a terrible human being. He was a pharmacist (just as Mike and I are) but instead of helping people, he performed mass murder with Mengele at Auschwitz. The book about him called The Pharmacist Of Auschwitz disturbed me for weeks. I had to write a song about it. In '1911' we explore mass shooters and how the press turns them into gods (in their minds). On the debut album we wrote a song called 'Today The Devil Dies' about revenge-killing Dylan Roof for his atrocities against innocent people. Dark characters are a staple to STR8JCKT because I simply can't understand them. I don't understand such evil, but writing about it helps.
Kevin:  Well there is a lot more cool photography! Also, all of the lyrics and a very long list of credits! We used a ton of friends to contribute. Everything from sampling our mechanic friend playing ratchets, car jacks and air compressors to a slide-guitar playing friend, to friends adding backing vocals, and my father-in-law's telephone message that became the opening of 'Texas'. 
Kevin:  We don't have plans for a remix project for this album YET, but it will probably happen! Haha! We will be releasing "DRK PRGRSSN" on vinyl, which is exciting. We keep trying to all go to Texas to film a video for the song 'Texas', but Covid keeps messing that up. We still plan to do that! In the meantime, our video for 'Destroyer' is released. Like everyone else, we are dying to start playing shows again! Mike and I have teamed up with Steve Thomas-Green as partners in the new 24/7 Ghost Wave Radio to be launched end of March 2021 so we'll be DJ'ing and learning from Steve how to run a radio station. The side project, Handsome Abominations album "Embrace The Condemnation" will be out this year, too! We keep busy!
Kevin:  Thank you! We appreciate all of the time and care you put into Brutal Resonance. I've said too much already, haha! Now check out "DRK PRGRSSN" if you like some rock, metal and punk infused in your industrial!

This interview was commissioned through our Ko-fi page.