Super Chon Homeys: talking music and videogames with CHON before their show

On a rainy Friday afternoon (alas, welcome to Berkeley), I walked into a quieter-than-usual Cornerstone to interview CHON. I got there a little earlier than planned, so I caught a glimpse of their soundcheck – no one was around except for their tour manager and merch guy, but the room did not feel empty, the sound filled it whole. With all-black outfits and the nonchalance of skilled musicians, they played a few songs on stage off their latest album, Homey (2017), before putting down their instruments and joining me in the backstage room.

Their current tour is holiday-themed: their classic palm tree symbol is now adorned with some Christmas lights; for this series of shows they are accompanied by a string quartet and play Homey in its entirety. It’s a celebration every night.

They attempted to introduce themselves while still holding their instruments, but shaking hands revealed itself to be a bigger challenge than expected with guitars cluttering the small corridor.

In the backstage room we were greeted by a large couch, some unstable stools, an old piano, scattered instruments and a tub of salsa open on the coffee table. Their photographer snapped a few shots of the scene, immortalizing the charm of the untidy room.

The three brothers, Mario Camarena, Nathan Camarena and Esiah Camarena, – respectively guitar, drums and bass players – settled down on the couch, Erick Hansel, guitar and occasional vocals, on a stool by my side.

My first question is about this tour, how the idea for it came, why, and what someone that is coming to see a show for this tour should expect to see?

Mario: We met Summer [Swee-Singh] – who is the girl who is writing all the parts for the strings section, basically organising the whole thing — through this tour we did with a band called Circa Survive. They worked with her for a couple songs on the tour, we saw what she did with them and we thought it was cool, so we when were thinking about doing a tour to close out this album cycle we wanted to do something different, and just figured this would be something cool to do, since we already knew her.

So how did you figure out the arrangement for the songs? How was the process different from recording normal songs to figuring out how to play alongside a string quartet?

Mario: We basically just left it all up to her. We were like, ‘Ok, we’re going to play the songs exactly how they are, you figure it out.’

To talk a bit about your latest album then, there are quite a few collaborations in it, and I know you’ve also recently released a song with Polyphia called “Yas,” so I was wondering about the difference you encountered between writing a song in collaboration and just writing it on your own, and how you found that experience? It seems like you guys enjoyed it, since you did quite a few.

Erick: It’s definitely faster when you’re collaborating, writing back at home right now it takes a while. We’ve been writing like five days a week going six-hour days.

Mario: Yeah, when we collaborate with someone they bring a lot more ideas to the table so we don’t have to work as hard on it.

Erick: I guess from like the ground up.

Mario: We can just usually finish an idea in a day or two.

And since some of the songs that you collaborated on don’t exactly fit into the “normal” genre you’re associated with, did you first write your guitar parts and then they added on top of it? Or was it more a feedback process?

Mario: We wrote the guitar parts and then we sent the guitar parts to all the producers and they sent us stuff back. Then we would go back and forth, just kinda changing it until it was finished. It was all online.

So I assume you met some of these artists. You’re touring with one of them now, Go Yama.

Mario: We know all of them, Go Yama is on tour with us right now, Giraffe is a good friend of ours.

How did your collaborations start in the first place? Did you suggest the idea, did it come naturally once you met, or was it just like ‘I like this person’s music, let’s do something about it’?

Mario: Around that time we were pretty much only listening to electronic music and we were actually listening to all the artists that we collaborated with, so we decided to just hit them up and see if they’d be down to collaborate. And it worked out.

Yeah, it does look like it worked out pretty well. Are there any other artists that you want to collaborate with in the future, or other genres you would like to tap into?

Mario: Definitely. Flying Lotus would be the ultimate goal.

That’s aiming right there at the top.

Mario: Yeah, and Toro y Moi would be cool.

He’s coming to San Francisco in January.

Mario: I’m actually gonna come up here to San Francisco to seem his show up here.

Oh we’ll be there too. I have a question about the album cover of Homey, as I feel that’s something people don’t really talk about. Where’s that picture from, who chose it, how does that happen or work?

Mario: I think we were touring a lot the year before we wrote the album so we were just kinda homesick at the beginning of that album writing sessions. So that’s when we decided to make the theme of the album just all about home, you know. All the album artwork is Southern California-themed.

[As we talk, the sound of a violin being played makes its way through the walls of the room.]

Are you guys concert-goers yourselves? What’s your favourite concert you’ve been to in the past few months?

Mario: Toro y Moi.

Erick: Yeah, probably Toro.

Nathan: Yeah.

Mario: The three went to see him a month ago or something.

Nathan: He played a set in LA and we all went there.

Did you get a chance to chat with him or is it still a distant relationship?

Mario: Nah, I mean, that’d be cool, but yeah not yet. We just wanted to see him cause we like him a lot. He’s sick, he played a bunch of new stuff which was pretty cool.

So you said you listened to a lot of electronic music as you were writing the album, how has your music taste evolved since your first EPs or even your first album, Grow (2015)? Is there a particular genre that you’re into right now that isn’t exactly what you would have listened to when you first started as a band?

Mario: I’ve been listening to this rapper named BlueFace. He’s sick. He’s like something that I probably… Actually, it’s something I would’ve listened to four years ago too. He’s pretty weird though.

Esiah: I just always listen to a band called Estradasphere.

Nathan: And video game music.

Esiah: And a lot of video game music. [Laughs] That’s about it.

Mario: I haven’t found that much new music lately, not gonna lie. I’ve been just keeping up with artists that I really like.

So now that you’ve mentioned videogame music, you guys have been on two tours called ‘Super Chon Bros,’ have you tried the new game? Do you like it?

Mario: We’ve definitely tried and we’ve been playing it a lot. A lot.

Nathan: We were waiting for the midnight release. We were in Philly when that game came out, and as soon as the clock struck 12 we got on our switch and started playing.

Mario: We pre-downloaded it so that right at 12 we’d be able to play, cause we were on tour at the time.

You had your priorities straight.

Mario: Yep, made sure that we were ready to go as soon as it was out. Yeah, we play it a lot. That game is meant to be competitive, which is sick, the last one wasn’t at all, it was just a party game.

You definitely need to cool down after playing even one round at that game.

All, in a chorus: yeah.

Mario: We organised tournaments for Smash so we’re all super into it.

Nathan and Mario: It gets heated.

Is it going to split up the band?

Nathan: Yeah, we almost have.

Mario: We’ve almost broken up a few times after playing Smash.

I also know you have a Facebook group with a bunch of fans, CHON Homeys, do you interact or just lurk in the background?

Mario: That group is sick, I just started it as a joke one day and I was like, ‘I’m just gonna start a Facebook group’ for no reason; Facebook groups weren’t even popular at the time you know, I was just bored and started it. I only added me, Erick and you guys, and then I guess when you make a group or when someone joins it somehow it gets posted on the newsfeed so a  bunch of fans found it and it grew pretty big. I think there’s like 15 thousand people in there right now. It’s a sick community. I was posting a lot more back in the day but I don’t as much now.

Erick: I check up on it once in a while, I lurk. I don’t use Facebook much anymore.

I’ll make sure the group knows you are still in there and still checking out their posts once in a while. You also decided to add vocals to the tracks. How did the idea come about to decide to play around with that?

Mario: We just always thought it’d be fun to make songs with vocals because we do so much instrumental stuff. It’s cool to do something different. None of us were singing at the time, so we hit up Masego cause he’s a really sick upcoming singer. He was up-and-coming when we did the song, but now he’s blowing up, he’s huge now. But yeah, we hit him up cause he’s super sick, we sent him a song, he liked it. He was on tour in Europe at the time and he just recorded it while he was on tour. We were trying to schedule a time to meet in the studio and do it, but we were both on tour at the time and couldn’t meet up. He happened to bring some mics and a laptop and just recorded it in his hotel room. 

[The room is suddenly invaded by the classical musicians trying to grab their instruments to jam out with in the main room. They steal the stool I’m sitting on, which they call ‘the throne.’ The violin, in the meantime, keeps playing in the distance.]

Any fun facts from tour or things you’d like the world to know through this interview?

Mario: I’d just like to say thanks to anyone who’s coming to this tour.

Erick: Thanks for listening to our shit.

Nathan: Tour is going pretty well. It’s crazy having a whole bunch of musicians every night. Not just like a four-person band, but a lot more musicians, so it’s cool to be part of something like that.

Have you been jamming out with the other musicians when not on stage?

Nathan: A little bit yeah, they’re all classical music people so they’re always jamming. Like yesterday in here before the show, they were all like jamming on the piano.

Mario: It was so loud. They were going crazy on the piano and stuff.

Nathan: Yeah, they’re violent.

Mario: They were going crazy last night in here. They started playing some Metallica song or something which was funny to hear on cello.

That’s awesome. Well, I think that’s it. Thank you for chatting with me. See you later tonight!

Mario: Sick. I hope you and everyone else enjoy the show.

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Just three hours later, the big Cornerstone backroom is now crowded. Tiki-shaped stamp on one hand, I walk in as Go Yama takes the stage. The instruments of the following band, LITE, already occupy much of the space, so Go Yama is confined to the left side of the stage, his guitar and his DJ set-up right by him. His beats bounce off the walls, the floor trembles in rhythm. Having what looks like the best time of his life on stage, he runs from his board to the guitar untroubled, clenching his teeth and swaying in his flowery shirt.

His set is short but bombastic; the expectations for what is to come are now as high as they could be. LITE, established Japanese prog band, then reach the stage, all wearing black except for the drummer, who breaks their otherwise perfect colour scheme. Loud and outrageous drums take over the room, and for a while no words are spoken. Their sound is much heavier than CHON’s, with hints maybe of garage rock, but the audience does not seem to mind. Not at all, in fact: heads are swinging, people are jumping; the heat in the room is finally increasing.

They are swinging their guitars in the air, shamelessly and violently, and I all I can think of is that there is a lonely MacBook right next to them, balanced on a mixing board, and oh god is it in the middle of a guitar storm? Their drummer then climbs on his seat and jumps back down to hit the cymbals: the crowd roars.

The wait for CHON isn’t long, just enough time to recover from the spectacle LITE’s set was. The string quartet walks on stage first, smiling and dressed a little more elegantly than the average audience member. Then the violins begin their song, soon followed by the band. Starting from the first song off their album Homey, “Sleepy Tea,” they enchant the crowd. Everyone is now in an ecstatic fit: people are screaming ‘I love you,’ professing their love to individual band members,  raising their hands to the sky. A person behind me turns to their friend and says: “I’m going to cry dude. I’m fucking crying.”

Erick is wearing a t-shirt from their own merch; it’s a good one, so why not? For “Berry Street,” Go Yama comes back on stage. “He’s from the Bay, you know?” we are told, and the cheering gets louder. The lights are now hitting the rotating disco ball, and the room is inundated with purple light.

“What do you guys think of the string players and things?” Screams reach the ceiling, and Mario, laughing, exclaims: “Oh, cheers.” In “Nayhoo,” the strings are at their most audible. Even without Masego, Summer sings the backing vocals, as the room attempts to take over the singing role and keep up with the lyrics. The guitars sound just as clean live as they does on record, and the smoothness and mastery is even more impressive.

A mosh pit opens for the last song of the album, “Wave Bounce,” and everyone is thrilled. They leave the stage waving goodbye, but who even falls for that anymore? The crowd screams ‘one more song,’ but the band gifts us five. When they come back on stage, every member of the string quartet is now wearing plaid-patterned Santa hats. It is truly a Christmas show now.

Before they dive into “Story,” however, Mario exclaims: “Big shoutout to everyone that was moshing earlier,” requesting that another pit is opened for the next song. Obediently, the crowd makes space and in trepidation everyone prepares to jump in. The first set of strings is plucked, and ground shakes at the weight of our moving feet. Well deserved, Mario compliments the energy: “You guys are sick as fuck.” Not wrong.

“Can’t Wait” is their second to last song, and the whole crowd is singing along. Before closing their set, Mario hints at a new album. Behind me, a person screams: “That’s the kind of shit I like to hear man.”

The night couldn’t have been better. Chon’s latest tour is a sonic triumph, and one not to miss. The music, the crowd, the venue, the atmosphere: what more could one want? Then the unexpected miracle arrived: entering a shop a few blocks down from the venue, I was greeted with two free boxes of fries – they had accidentally made extra. Now, the night was complete.

Article and Photos by Marta Meazza