A few years ago we had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Wyse regarding his band Owl. A wonderful conversation ensued regarding everything that Owl is and can do. Owl features Chris Wyse on bass and vocals, Dan Dinsmore on drums, and Jason Achilles Mezilis on guitar: three musical masters in their own right. Being that the skill of musical wizardry is strong within its members, Owl pushes the limits and explores the gamut of what is possible, and takes it a step further into areas less explored.
Things You Can’t See is their third album, written and released amongst other musical projects; it proves to be chock full of the wonders that only Owl can create.
We sat down with Chris to talk about the album, his work with Ace Frehley, as well as the status of musical education as it stands today!
Your third album just came out last month, and you are touring and playing with Ace Frehley. You seem to be burning your candle at both ends. How do you keep your sanity?
That’s a good question: “How do I keep my sanity?” I usually get a little relief from a little bit of yoga – that’s one of the main things I do. Before a show, I just need some peace and quiet. I can’t be hanging out with a bunch of people. I really calm my voice and, if I can some health benefits from yoga and meditation, that’s great. That helps me a lot.
You started writing Things You Can’t See between working with The Cult and working with Ace. The genres are slightly different between all three. How do you keep yourself focused to bring forward your own material?
It’s always been behind the scene, my whole chapter of Hollywood so to speak, why I went to Hollywood. That is what turned into being invited into other bands, and recordings, and so on. It was kind of unexpected. My vision was to start my own band all along. So, it’s kind of getting back to where I meant to be. I’m my own singer/songwriter. Say I wanted to go out in the world and join a band that plays odd-meters and very musically challenging things, especially with an upright bass, what band would that be?
It would be Owl!
Yeah. I had to create my little world to do this. That’s kind of the story behind Owl and the impetus.
Absolutely. You are definitely pushing the envelope. I was reading a couple of other interviews and press releases, and Ace had some amazing things to say about you. He said that you were fun to work with, and you are a great talent and the best bassist he’s ever worked with. Do you have any praise for him in return?
Definitely. The reason why I chose to go with Ace, being in a very successful band already, touring the world, eventually I had to make a decision, and I realized “why can’t you do both? And do Owl on the side of that stuff.” It’s because there are going to be complex and I’m going to have to decide whether I’m going to do aces new record and put my time into that, and tour with Ace. Ace offers me the whole thing, “I really want you to continue with me. I hope you make the right decision.”
That feels very mafia!
Yeah, at the same time it’s Ace Frehley, and he’s a childhood hero of mine. Kiss is one of the things that started me into music. For him to invite me to work on his last record Space Invader (we did the instrumental called starship on that record), and that was a real treat. There are so much about the Ace thing that is amazing. It’s the layout, it’s Richie Scarlet on guitar and vocals; Scot Coogan, an amazing singer and drummer. There’s all the special timing, but really the whole thing started out with Ace and I hanging out and having a special connection. He’s really one of the most gracious artist on the planet that I’ve ever played with. I’m very comfortable with him. He gives me a bass solo every night, I sing lead vocals. Also, I have to say Ace is in top shape right now. Essentially, I think he is the best guitar playing I’ve ever heard. He’s tearing it up every night. He runs around the stage. There is only one Ace Frehley, he is the only one who can stand up there and do all the things he does, because he’s created so much and gave the guitar world so much. It means a lot to me to look across the stage and see him. We have just the best times too. There are a lot of laughs and Ace has a lot of wisdom. So, I just kind of take in his vibe and perform with him. It’s so cool that he features me! The new vocals on the cover record are outstanding too, by the way. People are very happy to hear how awesome he is doing vocally. He’s at the top of his game again.
Amazing.
Yeah, he’s a cool cat. He’s really down to earth. He’s the Spaceman!
Ultimately, it sounds like you had a big fangasm when he said, “Hey! Join my band!”
Well, I’d already worked with him, and I’d already recorded with him, so there was a genuine connection there. You have to understand too, in The Cult, there’s only so much writing and so much input I have. There’s only so much bass playing I can do. So it was really a new opportunity as well to be showcased. I’ve played in front of these crowds before: Donnington, and Hellfest, and Sweden Rock in front of 50,000 people, it was just me being more supported. This is me actually showing off my stuff, singing, and playing bass. It was a great opportunity for me.
Back to Owl stuff. You released Things You Can’t See on Overit Records. Why did you choose to work with them?
Well, it’s Dan’s label. I’m the producer’s main/primary singer-songwriter. It’s in-house. The label and all that is the union of Dan and I getting back together from our old days back in New York here, where we were reuniting to do this shows and so on. You know it’s a reunion of sorts where I am the sort of music producer and he’s sort of the executive producer.
OK, cool!
And that happened a long time ago with our first record. And basically we’ve been a steady unit and a steady lineup. It’s something that a lot of bands can’t say. We’ve been at it since 2007, it’s our third album.
Wow! I mean just to still be together, kind of having it on the side and working on so many other big projects, to keep the momentum going like that since 2007 is pretty amazing.
It’s a huge undertaking, yes it’s huge undertaking.
A lot of passion, a lot of passion. I heard from previous interview where you spoke about performing the last album live. You had a song “The Right Thing” where you had this big cathartic scream you know big emotion that you like to do when you’re up performing it. And I noticed there was some of that element in this latest album as well, was that thought out and purposeful? Because I only noticed it in the one song, it was really heavy in one song and very similar to “The Right Thing”. so any reason?”
Well, for me, again I guess it’s just more of like a howling kind of banshee sort of thing, it doesn’t really liken itself to as much metal. I think it’s some of the sounds and stuff like that, some of the screams and howls that Jim Morrison and Pink Floyd would do. And I think it’s more in tune with maybe a sort of Phil Anselmo sort of angst. It’s kind of a mixture of some of those heavier elements that came out since the classic bands. To me it’s just a whole full gamut of emotion, where you have something really over the top and intense and then you meet it with a combination of song, craft melody. And maybe some like really scream out melodies and they’re kind of messages, you know what I mean? I think that’s just really exciting, it’s another color that an artist would work with. I don’t have any answer, rhyme or reason for it. I just think it’s the best for that part of the song.
OK, being that it’s almost very experimental and it’s evolved since the last several albums, is there a song on it that resounds with you more or do you have a particular favorite?
It’s tough cause they’re all sort of unique and they all have like certain original qualities that you can fall in love with. But I think “Who is Gonna to Save You” captures us in really quick two-form, because it’s got a little of the screaming thing and the powerful heaviness but it’s also got a lot of song craft. It has a very catchy chorus, some great harmonies, some great guitar/drum work and bass work. I think if someone were to hear that they would go, “Oh! There’s a lot going on here!” but yet you get the full flavor in a three minute song, which is kind of hard to do when you do so much like us. But it’s not a complicated sound, it’s just the stylized sound that we’ve been developing over the years, that’s what’s interesting.
Owl – Who’s Gonna Save You Now [HD]
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I know this collection only has six tracks on it so do you consider it a full album or a more of an EP?
It’s more of an EP because if we were to put out a full album we’d be getting into next year and we didn’t feel comfortable taking a break from the public eye. I felt like there’s a special kind of flavor and sound to this new batch, so we kind of felt comfortable with it as an EP. You know, in this day and age, people are into kind of smaller doses anyway. The first couple of records are way more in depth and if someone wants to go deep and peel tons and layers and stuff like that and see what we’re all about, there’s you know 14 tracks on the first record which contains a bass solo and all kinds of musical stuff from all the instruments in every song. Yes, it’s a song craft. There are songs that you can sing right back, same on the second record and we tried more things outside of the box and outside of our hard rock stamp that we had, and now this third one we just came into our own grain. A lot of it was written in the studio which is different. We needed the space to develop.
Wow! Is that different from the way you wrote the last two?
Yeah, at least the first one was done, and the second one was closer to done, and this last one was more just seeds planted and then we trusted how they’d come out. They came out great!
OK! How did the lyrics come through? Did the music come first and then the lyrics?
No, it’s never one way for me; I always hear a full song kind of concept. I can’t sit down and write a whole bunch of music and then later go put vocals on this. It’s super rare. I know bands do that and whatever gets you to your end result, but me personally, if I’m working on something with you, a concept, we need to know what we’re writing about. We can’t just keep tying things together senselessly. I like the concepts; it’s gets me to the point of the song. I think it gets the band more creative because what I’m saying is affecting the drums, the message is affecting the guitar, both the timing and melodies are affecting each band member. Cause you don’t have a music without the vocal, it’s a whole completely desensitized process. So I think you have to be aware, both things can work but you have to understand, you might be missing elements of the band reacting to the vocal.
Absolutely!
It always amazes me that bands just sit there and finish a complete song and go and on with more and not have a vocal. I’m like OK so you’re playing to something that’s not there so it’s all kind of, it’s less interactive.
Right. And sometimes it may not make as much sense.
Honestly, if I’m just producing a band and they had a great piece of music and go OK I guess we’ll work on the vocals later but in the moment I would say, “hey I can’t continue unless you start putting down some vocal man. What are we doing here? Is this going to a song or an instrumental?” I got to know at least the realm of where the vocal is going to go. If I was the producer with a bunch of young kids I would probably demand that like 9 out of 10 times.
I haven’t played music in years, but when I would play something I had a feel for where the director was going. We’ve spoken about it, they’ve told us about the song, where they’re coming from so at least we have got a concept of what the song’s about.
As an artist, that’s where all my lyrics come from, that’s the concept, what we are talking about. It’s like, “Oh, I’m singing about this, I’m going to make it sound like it!” So that’s a big part of this, being a real true artist, not just playing the bass and then leave and wait for the producer and the singer to come up with stuff. That’s not what’s happening. I am the singer, I am the producer, and it’s got to happen.
I know from our previous conversation two years ago you were impressed by how today’s music fans were, kind of naive to instruments, that they didn’t understand what an upright bass was. That they’d see it and be like, “Wow! What is that?” Have you noticed any change in music fan’s perspective of what you do?
Yeah, I would say a little bit because they’ve seen me multiple times now and I’ve been talking to them more and have been out there more. I might have affected some of it, but I still continue to just do my thing, and if they don’t know about it, I’ll tell them. Some people don’t know what a cello is vs a bass and so on. That’s the common one.
Oh wow!
And I just will say it again you know I really like to leave everyone with the thought of, we’re losing our education in the schools. And the average kid can’t tell you the four strings in the string family, and the average adult doesn’t know either. There’s only four (violin, viola, cello, and bass) right? And when kids learned all this about music or at least had some music understanding in school, they’re sure their math is better, their science is better, their English is better, It was an all-around bonus. So why on earth did we take it out of the schools and glamorize and romanticize American football so much when we know how these guys are like given a pass through school irresponsibly because they want the best players on the team. We’ve abandoned music education for basically sports in the school because they made money. Now what are we doing to ourselves? You’re thinking about money but you have uneducated people. At the end of the day, are we being smart with our money? No! We should be taking some of that football money and put it into the band.
Right!
Put it into the music education system because. You know what’s going on during the whole football game, even more than the actual football game? There’s music. I remember growing up in the Capital District in my high school years where I met Dan. Essentially we saw music taken out of the school programs back then. So I got to see that happen and I’d see a lot of the football players in my high school on TV every night. We would play it out. There’s a place called Center for the Winners and we’d be packing it with like 900 people which is kind of a big feat for a local band. And we’d sell out everywhere and pack places. We got these guys (no offense, I’m not against sports) that never became professionals and were mediocre in college, got mega mega mega featured like they were some sort of celebrity. These guys are just high school players, these guys are a dime a dozen. And I’m not trying to be mean I’m just trying to say that it was uncanny to me that we were sounding like a national band in our region and we could barely (people knew about us obviously cause they’re at the shows) get the kind of traction a football player in a high school could get.
Exactly.
I was written up in guitar magazine, the guy that practically discovered Steve Vai and Billy Sheehan and Mike Varney, and he was saying my stuff was unexplainable. But the football guy was on TV. So I saw that shift back there and I saw like you know they didn’t have money to fix the instruments. I thought, “What’s going on here? Why is this football so important?” And it was because there’s money in it, because they sell stuff at games. I just think we need to balance it a little bit. There used to be a school band and stuff like that and there was a reason for all that. I think you know keep it back in the schools. Would an upright bassist running around the world internationally be disappointed when people say he’s playing a cello or even ask? Of course. But I don’t get mad about it.
I’m going to put up a picture of you and say, “this is a bass” and then I’ll put a picture of Apocalyptica next to that says “This is a cello.”
Right! Even professional writers and musicians will say, “Hey Chris! Did you see Apocalyptica?” and I’m like, “yeah, but what are you talking about? Do you think that’s what I play, is that what you’re saying?” I think that Apocalyptica is out there and I really dig Frankie Perez. I just saw him in Donnington and they were playing as well, and he took a couple great photos of me while I was on stage with Ace. I tagged him so I hope he saw it.
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