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Pop Ten Interview With Chris McKay Of The Critical Darlings
July 22, 2009
1. Why play music?
It’s funny that you should ask me that question as I was about to ask you the same thing. I’ve always wondered. The basic truth seems to be that I don’t have a choice. I’m compelled to do it. I tried to stop. I had a great, fun career going for myself in music photography and I still wound up pulled back into this “thing”. I can’t escape. I’ve resigned to my fate. I love music but really, isn’t it stupid? There’s someone over-emoting and annunciating words in melody form that one could more efficiently just speak while other people are leaping around him or her in suitably fashionable clothing. It’s all pretty ridiculous. And don’t get me started about dancing. That may be the only thing sillier than music. But still, can we stop? It sure doesn’t seem like we can. We’re hard-wired for music, rhythm and melody. There’s no escaping it. I’ve given in to its hold.
2. Who are your influences?
Well, there’s nothing clever in that answer. My influences are the usual prime suspects. Yes, I’m a Beatle freak. I also love The Rolling Stones, The Who, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, The Kinks and Pink Floyd. Add in some Prince, Queen, Willie Nelson, Electric Light Orchestra, Jellyfish and way too many more to mention and I’m happy. In fact, if you add in everyone, I’m happiest. I’m more or less influenced by everything I’ve ever heard. I’ve certainly stolen good bits from artists and songs I don’t even like.
3. What is success?
Success is what you believe it is. In an ideal world, success would be me being able to support myself financially by playing music. So far, that hasn’t happened, although it is constantly improving in those respects. So I choose to define success as being proud of the songs and albums that I’ve released and that even if my life ends today, those songs will still be there and the messages I’ve tried to send in each of them will be waiting for the right ears. I also define success as knowing that we put on the best possible live show that we can. I define success to be when the headliner comes up to us after we open for them and says, “I don’t know how we can follow that”. I define success as having people use our lyrics for their Facebook statuses. Success is the outcome of many failures.
4. Why should people buy your music?
If they don’t like it, they shouldn’t. If they do, then it depends. Is what they’re potentially stealing vs. buying enough for them? If so, go with your conscience. However, if someone wants the band to be able to go back into a studio and make more music for them and us, then we need their support by showing us. The main way is by buying the album. This is how we know if people like what we’ve done. It’s simple math. Unlike most bands, we are still making albums. It’s not just a collection of songs. A record like Satisfactionista is painstakingly put together and should be a journey that will take you to several interesting stops along the way and leave you in the place you started, but hopefully with a different understanding of that place. I’m not saying we succeeded at that, but we’ve made the effort.
5. Who do you love?
I love my wife. I love my family and my friends. I love people who do the right thing even when it’s the hardest thing for them to do.
6. What do you hope to achieve with your music?
Well, the truth is hokey. I hope to affect people in a positive way. I want them to not feel alone, whether or not any of us actually are. Music is about feeling. I want them to feel joy from certain songs. I want them to feel a connection, a relation. I want them to want to move their bodies. I want them to feel motivated and to believe in something, whatever it is.
7. Who comes to your gigs?
It depends on the city. We’ve played plenty of places recently that we’ve never been and it’s surprised me to see the local media covering us and people showing up. It’s been an interesting cross-section. We have enough music-nerd appeal for fellow geeks to come out and hear what we’re up to, while at the same time, we put on a big rock show. We give it all we have and we’re not afraid of being on stage. We own the stage if we’re on it. There aren’t many bands like that these days, or at least not enough. And we may not be The Who or Led Zeppelin or Queen but when we perform, that’s the kind of show we’re aiming to do. I love the fact that we many fans too young to get into the clubs we often play and many more who have “retired” from going out to the same clubs but make the effort just to come and see us.
8. What is your favorite album?
My favorites are, again, relatively cliché but I’m honest about it. Besides, there’s a reason they’ve become clichés. My all time favorite album is Dark Side Of The Moon, because it is perfect. There is not a note, a lyric or a sound that’s out of place. There is nothing that could’ve been improved, added or subtracted. It was surely a fluke in some way. They got lucky that they achieved something so pristine. Design doesn’t get you that far. Whatever magic there is in the universe will occasionally come together and sometimes it gets recorded. There is magic on that album. I can hear it and I know it when I hear it. It’s just perfect.
9. What is your favorite song?
My favorite song of all-time is “Strawberry Fields Forever”. I’ve heard it thousands of times and every time, it effects me in a slightly different way. When I first heard it as a child, it was like a shock to my system. I didn’t know what the sounds were or what the guy was saying. It was like hearing something from another planet. It was only later that I realized that apparently, I was also from that same planet. As I got older, I thought the lyrics were a bit artsy and abstract. At this point, I find them totally straight forward and completely linear. It’s strange. The song is still evolving for me. That is the beauty of it. That song is the song. I can’t imagine ever having a different “all-time favorite” but if “Strawberry Fields” gets replaced, I can’t wait to hear the song that might replace it as it will certainly be positively life-altering.
10. How did you get here?
I didn’t.
