Iron Chic released their second album last fall and first for Bridge Nine Records, called The Constant One. In many ways, it builds upon the successful formula that they constructed on their debut record, Not Like This. The songwriting is decidedly more complex, but the shout-along anthems and huge hooks that fans have come to expect are all still abundantly present. Iron Chic recently concluded their U.S. tour and we caught up with singer Jason Lubrano a few days after to discuss their latest album. We talked about how it was recorded and what some of its songs are about, as well as touring, their plans for the remainder of the year and more.
Bill – How did you guys go about teaming up with Bridge Nine for the release of The Constant One?
Jason – A friend of mine was in that band Shark Attack, he was the drummer, and they were on Bridge Nine. He was talking to Seth, (label manager Seth Decoteau) about us and he just sent me an email saying that he wanted to try and introduce us, and it just kind of went from there. It’s nice to have some of the responsibility taken off us as far as putting out the records. Our bassist Mike had put out everything we’d done on Dead Broke Rekerds, so most of it was his responsibility, but as a band we worked on a lot of that stuff together. It’s just nice to not have to worry about the business aspects of it. Just having resources available to us for merch and all these different things, it’s taken a little bit off of us. It’s also kind of a hard part for us, because we’ve always had pretty much absolute control over all these things too, so it was a little bit of a relinquishing of control over things. It kind of goes both ways I guess.
Bill – Where did you record the album and what was your experience in the studio like?
Jason – We recorded it in our guitar player Phil’s basement. We’ve recorded everything we’ve done there and it’s good. I’ve personally been recording with Phil since even before the band, so it’s very natural. We’re so used to it, the way we do things. We record pretty fast. I think it only took us maybe a week of actual time to record the whole thing. It was spread out over a little while, but it’s cool. It’s in the same room where we practice and stuff, so it’s not like going to some weird studio and having to acclimate to that or anything. I do like the fact that we were able to get a lot of our friends down to kind of fill up some of the backups. There was one point where we had like 30 people down there doing gang vocals and backups. With editing and stuff we ended up doubling it, so at some point there’s technically 60 voices going on at once. I think it makes it sound really full and stuff like that.
Bill – What would you say are some of the biggest differences between The Constant One and your first record, Not Like This?
Jason – I don’t know. Again, that’s kind of hard to say. It just sort of happens. We don’t really go into it with any kind of plan or anything. I’d say maybe content-wise, the new record is a little bit more personal in a sort of roundabout way. I try not to write too specifically about like a breakup and this is the song about it. I try to write about sort of bigger themes, but the inspiration for a lot of that was a little bit more based on personal experience on this record.
Bill – Some of the lyrics on The Constant One address topics like perseverance and self-worth. What motivated you to write about these kinds of themes?
Jason – Again, it’s not really a conscious thing, it’s more just how it sort of comes out. I don’t know, I’m a stoner and these are the kinds of big, sort of cosmic ideas that my mind likes to wrap itself around. Everything can be sort of be chalked up to being a part of a bigger picture. It’s just kind of how it comes out I guess when all the pieces fall together. When I write I don’t usually have a real, I’m never like “this song is going to be about this.” Sometimes I don’t even know what the song’s about until I’m done.
Bill – What was the inspiration behind the album’s artwork?
Jason – Same kind of thing, I sat down, smoked a bunch of weed and stared at my computer for hours and hours, and eventually that thing just kind of poured out of it. It’s kind of just how I work. When something comes to me it’s not really like a thought-process, it just kind of happens. There really isn’t any specific meaning to the artwork or anything. Maybe in some sort of subconscious way that’s how I feel, but it’s not in the forefront of my mind.
Bill – Tell me about the guest appearance of Erica Freas from RVIVR on the record, as well as Iron Chic’s relationship with that band.
Jason – Obviously before he was in RVIVR, Mattie was in Latterman with Phil and we’ve been friends with him for years and years. Through that we’ve just become friends with all the rest of RVIVR. They’re kind of like a sibling band to us as far as that goes, just because we come from the same band, some of us come from the same area and we’re just good friends. With Erica being on the record, it happened to work out that she was in town when we were recording. I really wanted a female voice on there just to have a little bit of a change. We had other female friends doing backups and stuff, but I knew that she could handle something a little bit more upfront. We wanted to have something that just focused on the female voice a little more. She’s an amazing singer too. It was really fun to watch her sing and kind of go through the process.
Bill – What were some of the highlights from your recent tour?
Jason – I mean, there were so many, it was really a great tour. Chicago was a crazy show. We had a lot of great shows, so it’s really kind of hard to pick one of them. The real easy, obvious one was having Dillinger Four jump on our Minneapolis show and play a couple songs. That was a pretty big deal to me personally just because they were a big influence to me growing up and stuff. We didn’t even know before the show that it was going to happen. We got to the show and Jesse from The Slow Death, who booked the show, said that he got a text from Erik from Dillinger Four asking when we were playing. He was saying that they might jump on, but Jesse honestly wasn’t even sure if they were fucking with him or not. They started showing up at the show, so then we knew that it was real. Paddy, (D4 bassist/singer) was like blackout wasted, so he kind of barely even played. He borrowed equipment and then threw his bass into the crowd about 30 seconds in. It was kind of a shit show, but it was really awesome to behold.
Bill – Compared to touring in the U.S., what have your experiences been like with playing shows in Europe?
Jason – One thing that’s unique to Europe is that we’ve always had someone there who does all the heavy lifting with booking everything and driving us. It’s a little bit more regimented where we have like a tour boss who keeps us in line and gets us from place to place. There’s a little less responsibility as far as the day-to-day kind of thing. As far as the shows go, some places we get a really great reaction there, maybe even a little bit better than at home. Nothing too crazy, but especially in the beginning I think we had some bigger, better shows there than we did at home. I think it’s just more out of excitement and that fact that we didn’t get to make it over there for a while. It’s been really amazing every time and I’m a little bit curious to see how it is compared to this last tour when we head over there at the end of the month.
Bill – What else does Iron Chic have planned for the rest of the year?
Jason – We’re going to Europe for three weeks at the end of April and that’s cool because we’re actually going to a bunch of places that we haven’t been yet, like Italy and Croatia. But beyond that, really not much is planned. Once we get back we’re going to try and maybe take a little break and start trying to write again. We’ve always been like that where we sort of take things as they come, especially with everybody’s jobs and stuff. It’s real hard to tour and this is our first real big push to do something kind of big, and it definitely kicked our asses a little bit, so we’re probably going to relax for a little while.
