I was fortunate enough to talk with Chris Chu, lead singer of The Morning Benders after their sold out show in Chicago, the following is our conversation.
Beautiful artwork by Hannah Hooper
Harmon Drive Interview outside of Lincoln Hall
HD: Alright, I got Chris Chu here from The Morning Benders.
Chris: Whats up?
HD: One of my favorite bands.
Chris: Well, thank you sir.
HD: Let me also say thank you for being a big inspiration to me, I lost my job a few months ago on the stock exchange, and I found myself writing about music, so thank you.
Chris: Word.
Chris: No problem, the stock exchange sucks!
(laughter from both)
HD: How much have things changed with you in the last six months?
Chris: Um, you know some things have changed some things haven’t. I think maybe people think things have changed more than they have, but we are still in that shitty van over there (points across Lincoln Ave.), we still are broke, we still are just kinda roughin it on the road, but what has changed is that it feels like there is a lot more of a residence with this album, just playing for people, and having people sing along and understand the songs more. We spent so much time trying to prove ourselves as a new band, and this is the first chance I have felt we can present our music how we want to, ideally. We are not really working against those factors as you do as a supporting band every night.
HD: What is the best way that fans can support The Morning Benders? Is it come see you on tour, is it buy your album?
Chris: I honesty don’t care, I would like them to do anything. I really don’t mind. We are in such a weird time right now, buying albums is such a weird thing. People aren’t doing it anymore. I would like people to buy our album or at least listen to it as it is meant to be heard but at the same time, if you are not gonna buy the album come to the show, ya know? Or come talk to us…I think there is too much disconnection, I think that is the biggest negative with the Internet, people take this music and forget that it is a band of real people.
HD: Well, I think the cool thing is though that there can be so much spontaneous reaction to what you do. You can put out that song, you can put out that amazing video like you guys did for Excuses and people can instantly love it and talk about it. Whereas, bands ten years ago had to take so much time to build that type of relationship.
Chris: You know, that’s true and I am not against the Internet. Like your saying just to put up a video, and not have to do much more than that, and let people spread it themselves, that’s whats so great about it. The word of mouth is just huge.
Watch the entire video…
The Morning Benders / Excuses / Video
You can download their song Excuses for free, purchase their album Big Echo, check out their tour and explore more on their site. All in one click.
