Following the recent release of London based group Cha-Cha's first album, 'We Are', I interviewed the groups multi talented front man and bass player Blain McGuigan.
I wanted to find out a little more about this exciting three piece and what the future has in store now that they have released their catchy and unique sound to the general public.
What was it that made you and Cha-Cha want to be in a group Blain?
I'd always played with family members and then began playing with others at Music College, I guess I'd always wanted to be in a band though, my granddad was in a band and I just thought it was really cool looking at his pictures.
So how did the group meet?
We met through a mutual friend who I used to be in a band with and they were at the same music college as me, but a couple of years later, so it was basically through our mutual friend, but they had already been in a band together, so we gelled really quickly which was good.
So what's the big plan for Cha-Cha?
Well it's a small release with a relatively small label so we're not looking too far ahead at the moment were trying to concentrate on releasing the material and gelling more and more as a group but the sky is the limit really and I think that releasing plenty of material is important. I think that is the way the music industry is going at the moment so we're not looking too far ahead but at the same time were working hard writing as much good material as we can and the future looks bright.
Obviously you're a London based group and that is where you have mainly been playing your material so far, how do you feel the London audiences have responded to you and what sort of feedback have you received?
I think as a 3 piece group, people automatically assume certain things but you can be quite creative as a 3 piece and we've worked hard on our performance over the last year, but generally the audiences take a song or two to get into it and then they really seem to enjoy it and our material has been really well received, I mean we are quite an upbeat group, so you know, people seem to enjoy that.
Who would you consider to be your main influences musically?
I think me personally I've always been a massive strokes fan, a huge Julian Casablancas fan, but I think as a group we have all sorts of varying influences, indie rock and R&B and our drummer is really into his heavy metal so it's been a very eclectic mix really.
Well that's something that definitely shows in your music and for me your sound is a subtle mix of lots of influences which created a very unique sound.
We never really want to go down one route, we let the music go where it goes.
So how happy are you with your album?
Yeah, we worked hard on the material and then we put it together fairly quickly, but the material was there generally because of our prior work, but its good yes, all round we're happy, its upbeat and it has a few surprises so yeah we're very happy.
So are you planning to push the album heavily and promote it or are you just planning to put it out there and see what it does?
I suppose were restricted by budgets a little, but that said we've been getting really good interest from France and Germany so we're going to release the album in France with a small record label over there, but it's going to be a slow process I guess but I don't want to say it won't do good things because it could.
I believe it definitely should do good things, I guess the difficulty as you said is getting people initially interested and listening. So what's the idea behind the band's name?
Basically it was a spur of the moment thing. I think it was our guitarists idea, basically when we first got together we could only afford a very mediocre 80s organ and it had a Cha-Cha button which we wrote one of our first tunes off so that was that but I guess it's fun.
I certainly felt that the production on the album was very good, how involved where you that and are you pleased with the standard of production?
I think we'd have almost liked to have been a bit less involved really because we had to produce a lot of it ourselves due to budget and time constraints but the producer was an awesome producer called Kristopher Harris from Kent and he just really worked well with us and pushed us in certain directions, but we were pretty heavily involved really.
I think it's definitely clear that the producer understands your sound.
Yes definitely, we were really lucky because you do take a bit of a punt really but he worked really well with us and we'd worked with a couple of different producers before but although Kris was perhaps slightly less vocal he definitely had a good idea of how we wanted to sound.
So what's the plan for Cha-Cha for the rest of the year?
We're doing a couple of festivals over summer, were waiting on a few more confirmations and hopefully we'll be doing a couple of shows in France so it's gonna be a pretty hectic schedule over the summer.
So busy times. Are you excited about that?
Yeah definitely. I think we're going to have a really busy 6 months or so and then take a little breather and see where we are.
So are you planning many tours around the rest of the UK?
Yeah we are, probably towards the fall, we're planning on doing some gigs in Manchester, Liverpool and hopefully Leeds, as we seem to have a pretty good following up there.
Have you had any big names show any interest in you supporting any of their tours?
Yeah we've had a couple and we've had a couple of French bands too, but it's not something we've pushed for yet, these have just sort of happened through word of mouth so we'll see you know, but we definitely have a couple of things lined up for the end of the year and into next year and the French one is looking really good.
So obviously the French have really taken to your music?
Yeah they have. We did one of our first shows there which went really well and we've always planned to go back. But yeah they're a good bunch and they like their music.
So it's clear your music fans as well as a talented group yourself, so whose work are you enjoying at the moment?
There's been a lot of really good records come out lately, erm the Foals album was really eye opening and we enjoyed that. Two Door Cinema Club have done some really interesting things and I really like the new MGMT album and the Gorillaz, but I mean there are so many good bands out there at the moment.
So plenty of good competition to push you on?
Yeah definitely I mean you learn a lot off the great bands who are about.
So it was clear from the album, you were not stuck on one particular sound and you were comfortable playing varied music, what would you consider your genre to be?
I think yeah we are a mixture but when it comes down to one thing, the album is pop, what we do in future I don't know. We're not stuck on one sound, it's just what we come up with and what we are happy with.
So you're not ultimately aiming towards one direction?
No, no I think we just go with the flow and we're not looking to restrict ourselves really.
I think it's fair to say there's a common trend right now for groups to cross genres and experiment with their sound, Kasabian's recent album for example has taken a different route from their first and you have already mentioned MGMT, were you aware of that when releasing your album, or was it just merely coincidence that you released your works as a lot of other groups were also pushing the boundaries and going in similar directions to yourselves, so far as sound and experimentation goes?
I mean we were obviously aware of the groups changing the direction of their sound but ultimately we got the album out because it was ready and playing around and experimenting with our sound is what we do, so it was not a plan it's just how it has happened.
So what led you to play bass over other instruments, particularly when you're the groups lead vocalist?
I've always played bass growing up and my granddad did also, I played guitar in the last couple of groups I've been in, but I wanted to get back into playing bass, I really enjoy it I was a huge Police fan.
As a group I think it's interesting because all too often the bass player is almost forgotten about but being the lead vocalist that's not going to happen?
Yeah that's true, but I feel it is a really important instrument and growing up watching police videos I just felt it was captivating to see bass being at the front of the sound and almost opening up the drums.
Thank you very much Blain and good luck with everything. I think it is clear that Cha-Cha are a very grounded group who see their own potential but are certainly not getting carried away with themselves just yet.
Their first album 'We Are' received a 10/10 during the sites review and I am certainly a fan hoping that the group do succeed and fulfil the potential that they definitely do have and deserve.
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