The Chester French Blog

We did a fun interview where we talk about our music, our influences and some of our favorite spots in New York & La. Check out some exceprts below:

Chester French is not a man. In fact, it’s D.A. Wallach and Maxwell Drummey, two Harvard grads who didn’t really have a plan. On the eve of their much-anticipated release of their much-hyped debut album, we got them to dish on everything from Facebook and fellow Harvard grad Mark Zuckerberg, to safe sex and bigger condoms, biddies, divorce and the JoBros. The duo also explains why they felt the need to create a personal VIP concierge service, and how Lady Gaga is going to “cream everyone over” on their upcoming tour with her. Scholarly young gentlemen, take it away.

Your new album is finally coming out in April.
D.A.: Well it’s really an album that we’ve been working on for years at this point. So it’s really a project that’s had a lot of time to marinate. We made most of it while we were still in college. And we wanted to produce and engineer everything. We did it all in the basement of one of the dorms at school. We’ve sort of just been waiting to put it out for about a year and half. It’s called Love the Future and it’s coming out April 21st. It’s a mix of everything that we like. It’s inspired by all sorts of music that we love and learned from. The idea is that we wanted to make an album that you could listen to the whole way through, that didn’t have any filler. We didn’t want it to have album tracks. It’s all different songs and different tracks that are equally exciting to listen to.
Max: Something we always think about is that people are just people and music is just music. And we’ve certainly gotten tired, and I think a lot of other people got tired, of people trying to pigeonhole you as a musician or as a person. “Oh you’re this kind of person, you like this kind of music therefore.” We just started thinking about it as we grew up in diverse places with people who were sharing what they were into and being into all kinds of stuff and we want to embody that in the music we make. In its body. The body.
D.A.: And for us it’s really kind of inevitable since we grew up in a generation where you hear Dr. Dre after Nirvana on the radio. You almost have to try to block out different angles that you’re being hit from.

Since you’re just starting out, what are some artists whose career paths you’d like to follow?
D.A.: Well we’ve always talked about artists who have a very consistent quality in their work but not necessarily a consistent aesthetic. So people like Beck and Outkast are especially inspiring. Even a group like The Rolling Stones or The Beatles who over time were able to try a lot of different things but always preserve a real consistent quality. I think we’d love to have that flexibility to experiment and allow our music to follow our minds.

Your first EP, Chester French’s First Love, got you all of the notoriety. But it wasn’t released after you got signed, what happened to it?
D.A.: So we were originally a five-piece band and that was something we did our freshman year.
Max: We made it in two days and D.A. had spent the summer after that busking around Harvard Square selling CDs. We sold like upwards of 10 of them, easily. And then while we were doing that we started writing the songs that are on our actual debut album.

Did you end up graduating from Harvard?
Max: Yeah.

So because you started off as a college band, you did a lot of self-promotion on Facebook. What is your relationship to it now?
D.A.: Both of us were using Facebook within the first day or two it came out. It’s definitely been a tool that we’ve used to connect with other people, especially as it’s grown. It offers a great means of spreading your music.
Max: It’s also a great way to creep on girls you don’t know. So that when you finally meet them, you feel like you have a good relationship with them. And it’s not awkward anymore because it’s like “I know everything about you because I’ve been following you on the internet for so long.”

Has that worked for you?
Max: It has actually. I met my first and third babymama on the internet.

But didn’t you recently marry Peaches Geldof?
Max: I actually recently divorced Peaches Geldof.

Oh did you? I’m now embarrassed.
Max: No, don’t be. I should be embarrassed.

Why would you decide to name yourselves after Daniel Chester French [the American sculptor]?
D.A.: Because he makes the most beautiful sculptures ever and he’s not dead.

What are some of your favorite places to go in New York or LA, Boston even? Restaurants, clubs, bars?

Max: In LA, we like to go to this bar called Jumbo’s Clown Room.

Why do you love it so much?
Max: The waitresses are just old enough, like close to 50. And then if I were in New York, I like going to the Mercer Kitchen.

Anywhere else?
D.A.: For food or for drink or for merriment?

Whatever you like.
D.A.: For drinks, nothing is better to us than just going and grabbing a 40 of Ciroc and chilling out and meeting some biddies. Or a 750 of Ciroc is better actually. It’s like a magnum of Ciroc and just go out and meet some biddies and show off to other biddies if you’ve got some Welch’s grape juice around.

So what else would you like to add, that you want BlackBook readers to know?
Max: Just that we really want them to check out the album and become a part of what we do.
D.A.: Look, we’re just two totally normal guys doing totally normal things. That’s the point we really want to get across. And also, we have something that we haven’t talked about much but that I’d like to give you an exclusive on. That is that we’ve actually been creating something, this is not a joke, we’ve created something that you can get on our website now called the Chester French VIP Concierge Service. It’s the first time I think anyone has ever done something like this. What we’ve actually done is created a luxury support system for all of our supporters. If you’re someone who actually supports Chester French and you sign up for the VIP Concierge Service there are a number of ways that we can communicate with you and stay in touch either by e-mail, by phone and fulfill anyone’s request related to Chester French. I mean, if people need help getting tickets of getting anything like that we wanted to create a service where our supporters could really be a part of what we do and be in touch with us and create and share ideas.

And tell me about the Jonas Brothers, your ultimate influence.
D.A.: Oh yeah, they’re awesome. It starts and ends there for us. I met the Jonas Brothers before they blew up. I took my little sister to see them in Milwaukee. And I got to meet Kevin and the guys and they’re just awesome guys. So when we say that we’re definitely influenced by them, it’s musically and personally. They’re awesome guys.

Read the full article HERE.

-DA & Max