The Chariot

“At the moment I’m actually huddled up in my car with the heat on ‘cause it’s cold outside,” Josh Scogin, frontman of Georgia’s The Chariot says. “Which I hear is totally different than in Australia right now.”

When Scogin speaks, a slight Southern drawl is noticeable. He is affable and charmingly polite. But when he sings, he screams. His voice borders on breaking, his pitch creates a level of discomfort, which suggests something bad might be about to happen and, as punters at this year’s Soundwave festival may discover, when it comes to their live shows, it sometimes does.

The Chariot are known for their impetuous performances. From their showmanship to their musicianship, they aim to create chaos with 30-minute shows, their songs averaging two to three minutes, and no set list. “We just wing it up on stage,” says Scogin.

“The people who have seen us more than once they know that every single show is its own thing, be it good or bad. It was real. It was played by humans, with all the flaws that we come with,” he says.

But when you perform without a set list, how do you know what songs to play? Who gives the cues, how does it all work? “Sometimes it doesn’t work,” Scogin chuckles. “It really is all of us [who decide]. There’s little things I can do to pre-empt a song. It’s not even anything we talked about, just in time these things have developed – little signals.”

Their punk rock ethos shouldn’t be mistaken for unprofessionalism. Rather, they are instinctive performers with unofficial rules, which create environments in which their music can maintain its raw edge.

“Some nights it is very magical… some nights it could be better described as a train wreck. I think it’s fun either way.” – Josh Scogin

The result is a chaotic package which has the potential to be unique and unhinged, as Scogin admits: “Some nights it is very magical, we would be hard pressed to convince someone that we didn’t have a set list.”

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“Then some nights, the drummer throws a signal that I didn’t see or that our guitarist didn’t catch. There’s plenty of times where we go into a song and I’m just totally improvising. Some nights it could be better described as a train wreck,” he admits. “I think it’s fun either way.”

With the inevitablility of chaos, how does Scogin gauge the success of a live performance? “We try to look at every live show as a success. I personally don’t really believe in failure, I don’t think it’s something that exists. I think it’s something that we, as humans, give credit to.”

Unsurprisingly, their unconventional approach extends to the studio. The Chariot’s debut, Everything Is Alive…, was recorded live in the studio, a practice they maintained, in-part, with their four succeeding records, including last year’s One Wing.

“I’ve had a lot of bands debate this with me, and kind of argue this… because different people have different thoughts on the matter,” notes Scogin. For us, I feel like there’s something to be said about music being a little spontaneous and impulsive.”

“There’s little things that, I’d say, can dehumanise the music. For us recording it live – several chunks of songs we’ll record together because we don’t ever record to a click or anything – it’s just easier. I think it was the way music was supposed to be done. It’s what we do live every single night so I don’t know why it’s any different than that.”

This method is also an extension of his belief that their music is better represented live than it is on a record. “We’re not a tight band – we don’t try to – but when you’re at a live show everything is working for you. You’ve got the loudness of instruments that the crowd can’t turn down, you’ve got the lights, you’ve got the sweat, you’ve got the energy and it’s already there. On a record, a CD, or these days MP3, I think the opposite is true.”

Scogin, who formed The Chariot a decade ago following his departure from Norma Jean, is the only original member in an ever-changing line-up.

“That’s the way I want it, I want to be in a band. I didn’t want to be in just some sort of weird solo artist thing.”

Whih leads to the question, ‘how does this affect the bands dynamic? Is it a democracy, a dictatorship, or a meritocracy? “It’s definitely a democracy. We all have to agree on something,” declares Scogin, “which can get quite tedious at times, but when someone comes in – I’ve never wanted it to be ‘Josh Scogin and four other dudes’.

“We always make [new members] feel part of the band, and they are part of the band, they have just as much say in what we do in the band as me,” he continues. “That’s the way I want it, I want to be in a band. I didn’t want to be in just some sort of weird solo artist thing.”

That being said, he is also involved in some ‘sort of weird solo artist thing’. In contrast to the intensity of The Chariot, he records under the tongue-in-cheek Shakespearian moniker A Rose, By Any Other Name, a solo project that swaps complex time signatures for melodic ballads.

“I enjoy it because it’s such a foreign space for me. With The Chariot it’s very passionate music but there are a lot of tools to use for that passion. There’s feedback, screaming guitars, and really energetic drums. With my solo stuff the challenge is always to make it as passionate but with the bare minimum of music.”

Although the stylistic change may surprise fans, he is wary of being pigeonholed by genre labels. After all, a basic Wikipedia search will tell you The Chariot are a mathcore/hardcore/metalcore band, labels Scogin doesn’t care for.

“I don’t really know what any of those mean or what they define as,” he says. “To me that’s a little silly because genres are just something that the media conjured up so that they can get to the point quicker.”

“I don’t understand why people make a big deal of it, as far as being in bands. You can call it whatever you want, we’re still gonna write whatever we write.”

The Chariot are on tour with Soundwave 2013 around the country from today, playing times and dates here. They also play Sidewaves shows in support of Bring Me The Horizon in Sydney and Melbourne, dates below.