Thursday, August 1st, 2019
Interview and Photos by: Kalei Lynn
Breaking out of the Toronto area, One in the Chamber have taken Ontario’s rock scene by storm. Since 2015, they have toured the province vigorously, performing alongside the likes of Scott Weiland, Derek St. Holmes, SuperTroupe, and Darby Mills. One In The Chamber have played numerous festivals, the largest being Epidemic Music Group's Guinness World Record Breaking Concert - concert set to span over 18 days with 450+ acts and 437 hours of continuous live music. On September 22nd 2018, One in the Chamber released their debut studio EP, “I've Got Something To Say…”, which has received praise from reviewers such as Spill Magazine.
Meeting them outside of The Foxx Lounge Rock Bar & Hotdoggery, the band was kicking off a night playing a concert alongside The Motorleague, AAWKS, and Alone I Walk.
Screams Media: You’ve been compared to the likes of Soundgarden, Led Zeppelin, Motley Crue, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Queens of the Stoneage, GN’R and the list continues. That being said what are your major influences?
One in the Chamber: You basically listed all of them. Other than that some influences are Metallica, Pantera, Avenged Sevenfold and Chet Baker the trumpet player. We all come from slightly different musical backgrounds. Both metal and jazz being some of them.
Screams: Tell us about yourself and your background. Has music always been a part of your lives?
OITC: Our love for music started at a young age, Our parents were huge influences because of their taste in music and purchasing us instruments such as a guitar or something. We grew up listening to and jamming along with bands such as The Beatles and Metallica.
Screams: You label yourselves as “dirty rock n’ roll”. Are there any other musical genres that inspire you? Is there anything that we wouldn’t expect?
OITC: A genre that inspires us is metal. Christian our bass player, finds the opportunity to slide in some heavy bass riffs, but its not really upfront or outright noticeable at first. Just something heavy mixed in with groove from the guitars and drums.
Screams: With “itchin’ Back”, what was the reception like? How did it come to be?
OITC: Overall the reception has been great. How did it come to be? Mike had broken his leg one summer and had taken some time out of practice. He then sent us this idea to work on, so we took it and built it from there. As a band we were super excited. It all came together really well in the end.
Screams: You remain an independent band - what does that mean to you? Are there any specific struggles or positive aspects to this?
OITC: Its about half and half. We like being independent. There is a certain kind of character that comes with doing it your own way. It makes it interesting. We’ve been independent since we’ve started. We want to know what “the other side of the pond is like”. We want to travel.
Overall, there is a learning curve to it all. You’ve just gotta figure it out and stay on top of it, you get comfortable. You just have to keep at it, keep grinding, learn how things work and adapt to changes. It’s like getting to be your own boss. You get to write your own music the way that you want to, When we sit in a practise room to write stuff, were all coming from different places and were all trying to add these different voices and colours. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, sometimes we’re recording for awhile but we don’t have anyone to tell us to do differently. We play shows as often as far as we can. We get to run the whole thing ourselves. It gives us freedom musically. Gives us the ability to be as creatively free as we need to be.
Screams: So this being your biggest year, where are some of your favourite places that you have been? Where would you like to play in the future? What would your dream tour or show look like and with who?
OITC: We’d like to play Montreal. We haven't been there yet. We love the French Language.If we could open for anyone it would be The Rolling Stones. Good on The Glorious Sons for getting that gig.
We love venues that have really good food. I love playing The Foxx Lounge. The first time we came here, the hotdogs were awesome. We played The Doors in Hamilton, they had these great tacos. One of the best parts of being in a band is definitely tasting the different foods from different places. It's definitely exciting for us.
Ultimately, to answer your question we all would love to end up playing big arenas. Playing to huge crowds but we do like small bars. Why not both?
Screams: To close this interview up, what does the future look like for you? Is there anything upcoming?
OITC: We haven’t said anything yet, but 2020 will be interesting. It’ll be a good time.
Website: https://www.oitcband.com/
