Carolina Liar speaks the truth
Interview with Carolina Liar - Full version - abbreviated version in The Simmons Voice Issue 16
Carolina Liar speaks the truth
By Jackie Carlozzi
New talent Carolina Liar is making their mark on the music industry as they get ready to release their first album Coming to Terms, this June.
During a recent phone interview with Chad Wolf, the lead singer of Carolina Liar, Wolf discussed the band’s direction and inspiration. Carolina Liar is an explosion of a hybrid pop/rock sound with a true singer-songwriter feel.
Their contagious sound is inspired by real life experiences that follow Chad Wolf’s journey all the way from South Carolina to California and include influences from the time spent in Sweden.
In fact, Carolina Liar is composed entirely of Swedish musicians--Jim Almgren Gandara, Johan Carlsson, Rickard Göransson, Max Grahn and Erik Hääger; the only exception is Chad Wolf who hails from South Carolina.
The story behind the band’s name, Carolina Liar, lies in Wolf’s past. He worked with a producer in California who would “call me a liar because of all my crazy stories from the past; nobody believed what I would tell them,” Wolf said.
In fact, it was these same stories and the transition from East coast to West coast that cultivates itself in the writing process. “All of the songs are, in essence, stories-it’s the movement,” Wolf said.
The most meaningful of the songs is “It’s a Beautiful World” according to Wolf. It was inspired by a friend’s battle with manic depression. Yet it can echo truth for everyone as Wolf explained that “It’s the process of knowing that the world is kind of a crazy place but you have to lie and pretend that it’s beautiful even when its not…But you have to work yourself through it.”
Wolf has been working with music for more than twelve years now, first being inspired by Duran Duran when in the third grade and hearing the tunes of Depeche Mode.
It turned into his dream to pursue a music career. “I went to Musicians Institute and studied there for about a year, but I was learning too much technical stuff, so I left. Now it’s about going back to your roots and playing really cool songs,” Wolf said.
This was just the beginning of a long journey for him, which had him leave South Carolina at age 22 with his guitar to seek an outlet that would allow the soul of his music to live.
“There [has] been a lot of struggle and being kicked around, a lot of people told me to stop and go get a real job. But I never listened; I think I was too dumb to tell you the truth,” reminisced Wolf.
Yet it was that same perseverance and unrelenting will that Chad saw at the time as stupidity, that would bring him to work with some of the industry’s biggest names like Diane Warren and Max Martin.
Carolina Liar in its entirety has been together since July 2007 when they were based out of Stockholm. But the process, sticking true to what Carolina Liar is about, was backwards. “At the time I had had another band I was working with, that’s where the majority of the record was put together, but I was doing a lot of it by myself. In the end a new band was formed and that’s what Carolina Liar is today,” Wolf explained.
Though catchy, there is a definite authenticity and realness to Carolina Liar that speaks on its own. “Its wild to tell a personal song or story and have people relate to it – I never expected to have it go that way- never expected it to move people- its interesting and humbling to see reactions and to see it work,” said Wolf.
If asked to describe their sound, Wolf had trouble finding words to outfit it because it’s not just another manufactured sound that can be summarized with words, it must be heard to be understood; its art and its soul.
Influenced heavily by classical pieces, Swedish artists, U2, and The Cardigans to name a few, Wolf said their music would be a cross between “Glenn Campbell meets The Beach Boys with The Killers, it’s all different," according to Wolf.
It has been a long road for Wolf where “most of the stuff [I have] done before was music no one ever got to listen to,” to now where the world is opening up for them.
Maybe it was the hard road to success that has kept Wolf a mellow and down-to-earth guy mixed with his refreshing understanding of opportunity, “Hopefully ill be able to do this again – the writing and the record- there’s no guarantee, so we are really taking advantage of it and doing everything we can, its pretty much a dream come true and you only get one shot at doing this thing. It’s so generic to say, but it’s so true, there are just no guarantees in life anywhere.”
Right now Carolina Liar is all about playing as many places as they can and “letting the music live and get out there.” Grahn and Wolf have been on a West coast promo tour for Carolina Liar playing radio stations but are really excited about “performing at a Canadian festival with Coldplay and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers…there’s a lot of music to experience at festivals, they are great for that,”
said Wolf.
The band has been growing momentum and is looking forward to “a live set at the Cutting Room in New York City on April 8th and another performance on The Barry Nolan Show on April 10th – it’s about just playing for us, letting the music work," Wolf said.
With two singles already on iTunes and a brand new record on its way, Carolina Liar with a genuine love and passion for what they are doing have set out on a great adventure. There is no doubt that you will be hearing a lot more from these guys in the future, every experience for them is a new story just waiting to be embraced as a song. If you want to be inspired or are looking for music to relate to, Carolina Liar is a band you cannot afford to pass up on.
Posted: April 3, 2008 12:11 pm by Jaclyn Carlozzi | 0 comments
Tags: Carolina Liar, The Voice Issue 16