Taking inspiration from Dublin’s guitar band scene and blending it with their native Belfast’s vibrant dance and electronic community, Chalk have created a blistering sound that is part post-punk, part nihilistic warehouse rave. The beginning of 2025 will see the three-piece release the final part of their ‘Conditions’ EP trilogy, aptly titled ‘Conditions III’.
Chalk originally started life as a garage rock, indie project, when vocalist Ross Cullen, guitarist Benedict Goddard and drummer Luke Niblock met at university while studying Film. Bonding over their passion for film, they eventually began to explore their common musical interests before starting to jam together. The cynical amongst you may be thinking this sounds like some arty student bollocks, but cast aside any aspersions right now: if you catch them live, it only takes a few minutes of their uncompromisingly crushing soundscapes to realise that Chalk are the real deal.
“It wasn’t until the first Covid lockdown that we began to take the time to find a more unified, precise sound,” explains Luke. “We didn’t actually play a single live gig until after we released our first EP.”
“During lockdown, Ben and myself started living together and were trying to create more music,” adds Ross. “We were looking to borrow from the dance scene in Belfast and blend that with what a lot of Dublin bands were doing with guitars, and that’s how we came up with the idea for our debut single ‘Them’ and took it to producer Chris Ryan who had worked with other Irish upcoming bands like Just Mustard, Enola Gay and NewDad. It’s at that point we realised that maybe we could explore this a bit further, this kind of… gothic dance thing!”
Chris has since gone on to produce all three of the ‘Conditions’ EPs, the first of which is more of a sparse, industrial noise rock affair; though the dance influence is very much at play, the structure feels more guitar-driven. This is largely down to the fact that Chalk had never played live until after they had written this EP, Ben explains. “We had a much more straight guitar band sound, and then when we started playing live, we leant into more of a dance and electronic approach. It wasn’t really a conscious thought; that’s just how it developed and shaped, and I feel like the following EPs are indicative of that.”
“We’re still figuring ourselves out, in a lot of ways”
The intention behind creating three linked EPs, rather than stand-alone releases, was to create an overarching narrative across three small projects. The general feeling that ties all three together is a claustrophobic sense of anxiety, the ‘Conditions’ referring to the overall human condition, though the band are reluctant to delve into the minutiae of the tracks.
“We don’t super love saying things outright,” laughs Benedict, “we’re still figuring ourselves out in a lot of ways, coming out of lockdown and university and learning how to be gigging musicians and stuff like that. In a general sense the project is about the human condition and all things encompassed in that.”
“Even the more angsty tracks are pretty reflective,” says Luke. “We do dive into personal things and feelings; we might refer to certain ways we look at the world and the things happening around us, but we usually invite the listener to make their own interpretation of that, to find an innate connection with the music.”
One of the most powerful aspects of Chalk is their ability to sound both bleak and euphoric at the same time; dissonant noise often explodes into a crescendo of pounding techno beats to create a rapturous sense of release.
“With each EP, by the end of the EP, we try and present a more optimistic worldview and have everything come together; it’s reflective of life, I suppose – nihilism and elation alongside each other,” states Luke. “Take our first EP, for example. The songs that precede the last track are quite angsty and filled with fury, but the last track feels euphoric. It’s that feeling that we’re still alive, of appreciating that and being able to be comfortable with that.”
For the third and final ‘Conditions’ EP, Chalk flew to remote Iceland to record, an experience shaped by a volcanic eruption and storms that saw them locked in the studio for days at a time. “That was a bit nuts,” recalls Benedict. “There was a massive blizzard, and we had to stay in the recording studio for a few days. It was hectic but amazing, being amongst that beautiful barren landscape that was just ice. There was a bit of cabin fever, which I definitely think comes across in the record; we had the bones of the songs, so they were malleable and very much influenced by what went on there.”
“Don’t forget the hot tub as well,” laughs Luke. “I think the hot tub helped; after one hot tub session, Ben wrote a proper stinking riff.” “It had the most unbelievable view,” Benedict remembers. “I probably wasn’t in all that long, but it felt like it was two hours, and it was my turn to do guitar straight after, and I felt so strange; my head was buzzing! Chris, the producer, grabbed an amp, sat me in front of it and literally put it up to 11. It was like a weird fever dream, and after 10 hours in the studio, a bit of delirium had already set in.”
The intensity of the experience certainly comes across in the three tracks of ‘Conditions III’, particularly the darkly pulsating ‘Tell Me’, which has a slightly sinister nervous energy that rattles and vibrates. It’s matched in the accompanying video, which has a lovers-on-the-run concept that is visually inspired by 1970s Italian horror films such as Suspiria.
Given the band’s background in film, it comes as no surprise that Benedict directed the video himself. In fact, Ben and Ross were both involved in a short film called ‘An Irish Goodbye’, which won an Academy Award in 2023.
“We didn’t get to go and pick up the Oscar or anything like that,” Ben laughs bashfully. “I do a job called Script Supervisor. That was my day job, and it was the first time I ever did it, and it won the Oscar. I’m not quite sure I can top that!”
Taken from the February 2025 issue of Dork.
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