With their take on blues and rock infused with a love of live performance, Chase The Sun are set to play the Sydney Blues and Roots Festival.
The band's music has spread internationally to include places such as Poland and the US. “We were pleasantly surprised that people internationally liked our stuff,” drummer Jon Howell explains.
“It reached an audience in the States as well. We did a free giveaway with iTunes in the States which made us chart there. It's quite a universal sound; blues and rock is pretty big in the States and parts of Europe, which helps us gain an audience.”
Bringing their talent back home, the boys will play the Sydney Blues and Roots Festival this week, a festival that the band treasure. "We have played it every year since it started. Getting back there will be great.
"They are doing ticketed shows [for us]; it's a free festival with only a few ticketed shows which is pretty special for us. There are always talented artists as well which is great."
The band have a passion and love for playing live where they can improvise their set, try new things and really engage with the audience. Although there are many highs, there is one challenge Jon thinks of when playing live. “I’ve been doing this for a long time and never really thought about the challenges, but I guess making sure that everything comes together and having the audience picking up what you're putting down is challenging.
“Having good songs, good PA and the right energy is key for a good performance. If the sound is crappy the audience won't respond as well... Getting everything right is really the most challenging [aspect]."
After a long period between albums that has been filled with touring, the band are finally ready to release another album. "Yes! We will be releasing another album; we are tracking the album now actually. It has been awhile between albums and that's basically because we were lazy. I don't wanna jinx it, but hopefully it'll be released December or early next year."
With the long break between albums, a list of blues nominations and awards it would be fair to suggest the boys may have some nerves about this album, although this is not the case as Jon explains. “I don't really care about any kind of pressure.
"We do our thing, we have been at it for a while and we have realised that you can run your race if you want too. Bringing out another album is long overdue for us. When you're a touring band and you play the same album for a while writing another album can be difficult because you aren't even sure what the album will sound like.
“Being on the road you can burn out and that's what happened to us a bit; we just burned out and now it's the right time for us to put out new stuff."
The future for the band revolves around what they love doing best; playing live shows and putting out music. "We are gonna do two tours in Australia, we are gonna look to tour in Europe then we are hoping to write another album and drink some free beer."
