Getting to Know… The Chinaskis | Interview

In the 425^th Q&A in our Getting to Know… series, we get the inside scoop from the bittersweet, booze-soaked, Caledonian power-pop, Dallas, Texas band, The Chinaskis. 

“We’re the perfect boozy mix of hummable melodies, beautiful harmonies, lovely-sounding songs… with pissed-off, acerbic lyrics..” Oh, snap, The Chinaskis! In response to our first burning question, Scottish frontman Robbie Edmonstone adds, “Our live shows are a riot, we take the music very seriously, but the between-song banter and audience interaction make it more like cabaret than a gig sometimes.” Rad! Edmonstone, who answers all of the questions about the “bittersweet, booze-soaked, Caledonian power-pop” Dallas, Texas band gives us the inside scoop on The Chinaskis’ genesis, goals, musical influences, and current, and future musical endeavors. So, without further ado, let’s jump right into Getting to Know… The Chinaskis: Interview No. 425!

For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes The Chinaskis distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

We’re the perfect boozy mix of hummable melodies, beautiful harmonies, lovely-sounding songs… with pissed-off, acerbic lyrics. For me the best music creates a real dissonance – you get sucked in by the sugary songs, but a few lines in you realized that there’s a seriously bitter Scottish guy singing over them. People respond really well to that – especially here in the USA, where there aren’t many Scottish-fronted bands on the scene… and our live shows are a riot, we take the music very seriously, but the between-song banter and audience interaction make it more like cabaret than a gig sometimes. If people aren’t leaving humming the songs and with a smile on their face then we’re doing something wrong!

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did The Chinaskis form, and what were some of your goals or visions early?

The original band was formed in 2010 in Glasgow with three longtime friends and drinking buddies. Initially, the music was an afterthought – we just enjoyed playing the music as a catalyst for touring around Scotland and playing pubs and dive bars on the way, that was the initial vision. Round about 2015 we ramped it up and really focused on the harmonies and dynamics, and after a hiatus of a few years I started a U.S. version of the band – we’re definitely taking it quite a lot more seriously these days, and the vision is to keep playing bigger gigs, get the music out there and hopefully land some support slots with bands that we adore.

Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

For me the goal has always been to play songs that challenge me and make the hairs on the back of my neck stick up – I’ve always been my primary audience for the songs, rather than trying to adapt to any trends or fashions. And sharing these songs with others – whether digitally or live – and seeing them resonate with people is absolutely why I do this, it’s an incredible feeling.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Whom would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

I’m a musical snob, and always up for arguing about artists, albums, and genres – that’s how I’ve made some of my best friends. In my formative years in the 90s, I was a huge fan of hard rock / punk-pop bands like Soundgarden, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Pantera, Sepultura, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Teenage Fanclub, which became a gateway drug into some of the older bands that had influenced them like Hüsker Dü, the Replacements, Big Star… but I also got heavily into more “classic” artists from the 60s and 70s like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, CSNY, The Byrds, The Doors, Zeppelin, Sabbath, early AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, so I think there’s a bit of all of these bands in our songs, I try to take something from all of the music I live.

Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

We’ve always been good boys in the band, to be honest, so there are no tales of rock n’ roll debauchery beyond me being kicked out of a few backstage areas for drinking the headline act’s rider (I’m Scottish – what do you expect?) and nearly getting into fisticuffs with folks who’ve had too much to drink and want to tell us what songs to play. We played a gig at a hotel once in Glasgow where there was a band playing in every room – it was a great idea on paper but when we arrived we realized EVERYONE was out of their nut on E and cocaine. We’re strictly booze and weed only, so we might as well have been playing songs in Mandarin in terms of how well they went down with the punters – it was an abject disaster, and I’ll take the memory of the toilets with me to my grave. Imagine a hotel room toilet with 100 people using it over a three-hour period – snorting, shitting, and fuck knows what else… definitely one of the few times I’ve questioned whether being in a band was a smart life choice or not!

To this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

It depends on the mood for me – we have party songs, we have angry songs, we have sad songs. Probably the one I’m most proud of is “Sky Turn Black”, which is about a friend of mine who lost her husband very suddenly in a brutal accident on a railway. They were in their thirties, had their whole life ahead of them, and then – bang – that was it, all of a sudden she was a widow and having to deal with the worst psychic pain imaginable. I was lucky enough to get to make a documentary with her (my day job for a while was filmmaking) about her story which ended up getting shown to hundreds of thousands of people across the world – it changed my life and my career, and I really wanted to write a song that conveyed my amazement at the inner strength and resilience that she showed to get through that and continue to live her life… So, when I wrote that song I cried, which made me realize it was worth writing. And when we recorded it and put some beautiful pedal steel and harmonies on it, I cried again, it was very cathartic. So, that’s my favorite song and one I’m very proud of.

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left-of-center we should know about The Chinaskis? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

There are a few, I guess: I have a PhD in “Violence in Italian Cinema”, which was fun to study for. I’m a corporate communications director by day, which is the job that brought me to the U.S. in 2017 – it’s not very rock n’ roll but it funds the music and the beer, which are the most important things. I’m also a real dog person – my wife and I rescued two dogs in Dallas who came from really horrific situations, but who now live the most pampered, entitled lives imaginable.

What is The Chinaskis currently working on or promoting that you can share? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure. 

New music! I’m writing a bunch of songs for an upcoming EP / Album and really working to push the boundaries and sonic depth of what we did on the debut album. There’s so much music in my head and the challenge is to carve out the time, energy, and inspiration to get that recorded and out there – it’s such a buzz when that happens!

Thank you so much for sharing and taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward. 

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Getting to Know… The Chinaskis: Interview No. 425 [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; The Chinaskis; Clker-Free-Vector-Images, Królestwo Nauki, OpenClipart-Vectors, Pete Linforth, Tumisu from Pixabay]