“The train is rolling fast. The wave is pushing us. We’ll just do what we do and ride it. Having fun.”
The Parlor Chase are from Los Angeles and recently completed a tour of the US Southern States. One of the first bands to contact Edge of Arcady in our very early days and citing Oasis, Jesus and Mary Chain and Suede as influences alongside T-Rex, Alice Cooper and Bowie, they gave a few moments over to tell us a bit more about the band.
We have Cole (Patrick Coleman), vocalist, Tryg (Has-Ellison) on lead guitar, Neil (Brincks), bass, and Bongo (Mike Mawi), drums.
Edge of Arcady: You have just come back from your tour of the Southern States. How was the first night?
Cole: It was great. Lovely people. You have to understand first that we had just gotten together the night before. Bongo and I flew in from a distance. So we were tired and had to practice the next morning before we packed up and drove out to San Angelo. We always get energized when getting to the venues, you know, loading in, sitting around having drinks and meeting people. What a cool little funky town! Art shops and cafes in really old buildings. It’s like an oasis in the middle of nowhere.
Bongo: The first night was really cool, because after the pandemic, it’s good to step into a
scenario and play some rock n roll. So it was thrilling.
Tryg: Yeah, it was great. I didn’t have any expectations for San Angelo, but the town, venue, and people were fabulous! I’d definitely go back.
EoA: You guys have been on a couple tours now. What has been the most memorable gig
experience of the band’s career?
B: Maybe the second show we played at Cafe Iguana in Monterrey, Mexico. Big, lovely
crowd. The bar was packed.
T: Most memorable were Cafe Iguana in Monterrey and The Rainbow in Hollywood.
C: Agreed.
T: The crowd in Mexico sang along to our song When I Change (first album). They were
familiar with that single there. The night we played The Rainbow, we blew it out.
B: Yes!
C: Best show ever for me. Everyone just stopped and watched us from the upper level.
Neil: Rainbow show was magical.
T: Felt the spirit of Lemmy and Alice Cooper that night!
EoA: Any nightmare stories from past tours?
T: No nightmare stories. Every chance to play is a gift and privilege.
C&B: (look at each other) Yeah, so far so good. Right.
B: Maybe we can say any time Bongo hit any given restaurant starving! (Laughter)
C: You’re always starving! Our first priority is to always feed Bongo! That and to be sure to
tell him a story. “A story a day or I just can’t play!” (Laughter) There was one time in another band Tryg and I were in, playing The Blue Lamp in San Francisco. We were in real danger of getting into a brawl with the audience. A story in itself.
T: Fuck!
C: Nothing like that yet. (Laughs)
EoA: Who are The Parlor Chase influenced by?
C: Tryg’s got this one.
T: I’d say that our influences are early 80s blues punk from Los Angeles like the Gun Club
and Tex and the Horseheads, early 70s Detroit aggressive rockers The Stooges and Alice
Cooper, early 70s UK glam rock like Bowie, T-Rex and the Sweet, and 50s blues and rockabilly.
C: Sun Records Elvis and Charlie Feathers. …. And Stones!…And Mott The Hoople. Don’t
forget me boys!…Jesus and Mary Chain, Suede, lots of Manchester lad culture. Johnny Marr. Oasis. And we may be loud and have a lot of attitude, but we are not trying to be Oasis. They were the Beatles. We are the Stones.
B: Too many to mention, but it’s all about rock n roll, baby.
EoA: What is your highlight of being in the band so far?
B: The fact that we are sharing our music, all the experiences of travel and touring, and
most important, making memories so we can say twenty years in the future “Remember that gig when Bongo fucked the kick drum in the middle of the show?” and we all laugh about it and stuff. Do you feel me? (Laughter)
C: Had to borrow another band’s drum AND pedal. Bongo plays hard like Bonzo.
For me it’s hanging out with the guys. The inner circle. Talking about things that no one outside can really understand.
T: I love this band so much. Every day the four of us get together is a good day.
EoA: Any plans for any new music or a new album in the pipeline that you can disclose? If so, what does it, or will it sound like?
C: We have around six song demos we worked out a month ago. Great stuff. If we brought
them over to the UK today, we would blow away all the new bands. I single out the UK because they are currently in the middle of a rock n roll resurgence. The US still have their heads up their arses with screaming death metal, sad boring beard rock and rap pop music. A generation of followers, no leaders except us. That’s why people are coming to see us. Something new is happening and the word is spreading. While we had a day off on tour, we decided to go record one of the demo songs in Austin, Texas. It turned out stronger than we thought. It looks to be our next single. We put bits of it on our Instagram.
B: We’ve got plans to make a new album. We recorded Something Happening To Ya at
Alnico Recording Studio with Nico Laphonte and it sounds amazing so you guys need to be
ready for it.
T: It sounds rad! We are going to follow it up using the same studio and engineer and some
surprise guests!
EoA: Industry bites?
C: We currently have a manager in Los Angeles, but we generally self manage ourselves.
Often have agents, but we can do that too. We know what we want and where we’re going.
Been at it for quite a while. Maybe we are unmanageable! Anyway, we have our own trajectory. We reach out once in a while in order to break the glass ceiling and expand, though. I follow bands and managers there on social media to see what they are doing and copy them. It works. We want to go play the rock scene in London, so I did contact Alan McGee. He told me to send what I got. I did, but he never got back to me. (Laughs) Well, what a life he’s had! I don’t care. Someone’s gonna get us soon. Early bird and everyone else loses. We’ve had no less than the luck of Riley, so nothing concerns us. The train is rolling fast. The wave is pushing us. We’ll just do what we do and ride it. Having fun.
Edge of Arcady 