Noteworthy newcomers Carolina Liar are turning heads with their first single "I’m not Over." The band has received hefty nods online from MTV (as the Discover & Download artist of June) and Yahoo! as their “Who’s Next?” artist of the month. MTV2 has been airing the video for “I’m Not Over’ while the single is in rotation at over 70 Modern Rock and Alternative stations across the U.S. While out on the road playing shows and gearing up for a run across Southern California and Nevada, singer Chad Wolf called me to discuss how the band came to be, their name and the state of music today.
AAM: Tell us how the band came together and what's the story behind your band name?
CW: I had been playing in coffee shops. For awhile there it was just myself writing and doing demos on my own and then a friend from Sweden had given me a place to stay (in Los Angeles). One of his best friends was Max Martin. One night we were hanging out at a bar, Max was leaving and they were having a party. Everybody was standing outside telling me I should go to Sweden and Max came outside and said “Yeah Chad come to Sweden for the summer” and he bought me a ticket that night. So I did go to Sweden and on that flight we wrote the lyrics for ‘Coming to Terms’ and from that trip I decided I was going to quit my day job and I was really going to make an effort with Carolina Liar. I came back from the trip and I was with my friend Tobias Karlsson. He had a couple chord changes and immediately I got my notebook from the airplane and just starting singing down the lines and it worked out being the song ‘Coming to Terms’, we did a demo on it that next day. We sent it over to Max, I wanted to say ‘hey man thanks for the inspiration and he was like ‘hey man that song is pretty good if you could write two more songs like that maybe I can help you out’. Then we finished ‘I’m not over’ and ‘Show me what I’m looking for’. His assistant now was the first guy who played drums on the record and was gonna be in the band. He introduced me to everyone else in the band. He wasn’t able to be the drummer since he went on to be Max Martins’ assistant. We started rehearsing last June so it’s been a year the band’s been together and so it’s been pretty good since then.
The name Carolina Liar it came from this producer I was working with here in California. He always called me the biggest liar he ever met, I’m actually a really horrible liar, he thought I was lying to him cause of all these stories that happened down South cause growing up where I grew up there was always something crazy happening and I told him some stuff and he never believed it, so he asked where I was from again and I said South Carolina, and he is all “Carolina Liar.” So we decided to see if anyone had used the name and no one had been, so immediately we became Carolina Liar.
AAM: ‘I’m not over’ is your first single, but I’m curious would this have been your first choice for a single if you were independent as opposed to being on a major?
CW: Probably not. When we were finishing the first five or six songs there was a song on the record called ‘Last Night,’ we figured that one would probably work better than anything else. ‘Last Night’ was the song that actually ended up getting us signed so we figured that would be the song that would be the single, first one to go, but Atlantic really felt that ‘I’m not Over ‘ was going to do something better and we were all kind of shocked at first but were like ok, we trust you! The label has been really good to us, very nice and very supportive.
AAM: Who are your musical influences?
CW: Oh yeah I mean you pretty much name it I’ve listened to it. Glen Campbell, Bob Marley, or Depeche Mode. For this record, when we were working on it we listened to a lot of Swedish bands and at the time that second Devandra Barnhart record came out ’Smokey Rolls down the Canyon”, a lot of Richard Buckner too, a lot of Bruce Springsteen, a lot of Swedish bands too like this band called Kent and the Cardigans we were listening to a lot, lots of stuff like that, The Killers stuff too of course cause it was kind of very present at the time.
AAM: How do you describe your music to people?
CW: Most of the time I just say it’s kind of singer/songwriter pop songs with a Swedish influence but it’s kind of turning more into a modern rock thing and we didn’t think it was necessarily going to do that, we were just kind of trying to write one song better than the other not necessarily make it fit a format. We figured we’d just try and really write good songs with real life experiences.
AAM: What image do you think your music conveys?
CW: Ya know, I’d would say more it’s kind of ‘somebody looking for something’ ya know, knowing there’s a sense of hope, if you don’t quit, you know there’s always something better on the other side, and I hope to some degree that comes across.
AAM: How was working with Max Martin?
CW: Really amazing actually. He is so focused and we had so much fun when we did the record. He is very focused and very strict about what has to be done in order to get what we need, which is good cause then it makes it easier to have more fun!
AAM: How would you define the word “success”?
CW: Success, that’s a good one. I would say success would be to earn enough money to have a little bit of a presence to actually help other people out and actually start working in charities and giving away what you have. Not even if you’re super rich but just be able to take a little bit of something and put back into the community. I think that would be real success. Using whatever little bit of influence you have to help people out. That would be real success for us as a band, I think all of us are working towards it trying to get to that place where we can use this kind of format to some degree to try and go out and do better things.
AAM: Since being signed, do you notice a huge difference in your feeling of conveying your music to say larger crowds that you are now playing to as opposed to the intimacy you had in smaller level venue such as coffee shops?
CW: Ya know it’s really funny, we just played in Calgary last weekend for this big festival and it’s so strange you asked because I was just thinking about that. We were on stage and I was looking out and it was one of the bigger crowds that we’ve played to yet and I was just thinking about like what it used to feel like at the coffee house and realized there was so many people right on the fence near the stage and it really didn’t feel that different the only thing that was different was the size of the stage. As far as the personal contact, whenever you really start making contact with people and you really open yourself up and try and look people in the eyes when you’re playing it’s not too different, it’s really more fun.
AAM: What’s your opinion with pop music getting such a big push again with artists such as Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers on the market?
CW: That stuff is always going to be there. There is always some form of pop music, ya know like the Partridge Family, that kind of thing, that kind of manufactured pop stuff, there’s always going to be kids who need that. I think it serves a good purpose. I think it’s a good thing, kids can go to shows, it’s a safe environment for them to go and see some kids rocking out and it kinda in some ways it can open the door to MAYBE they’ll see some other music out of it, realize where the influences come from that make these guys up. It could get scary because it is so manufactured but I guess that’s kind of left up to the listener and hopefully they’ll dig a little deeper.
AAM: Do you feel it affects you guys in anyway?
CW: Yeah it definitely does. I don’t think it would matter how many CD’s were selling, but I know that there’s gotta be something to do with the artists that they sign. Major companies are going to be looking for something like that that can turn around a company rather than somebody who’s really trying to do something artistic. In some ways their going to look more so for something that’s a turnaround rather than a 5 year development thing.
AAM: How do you feel about the eventual demise of the CD?
CW: It’s scary in some ways cause I know I found so many great records I never would have bought going to the record store and actually looking at physical CD’s and seeing the artwork. There was that thing of going into say like ‘Amoeba ‘ and not knowing exactly what you’re going to buy today and you’d just buy things like that ya know. I mean you can find things like that on I-tunes but there’s something real manic about a record store. I really hope that doesn’t happen.
AAM: On a closing note is there anything you want to share with your fans or new potential fans out there?
CW: Never ever stop no matter what. Do what you love and make sure you love every moment.
Check out the band online at www.carolinaliar.com or catch a show near you!
July 12 Costa Mesa, CA Pacific Amphitheatre (w/ One Republic & Phantom Planet)
July 16 San Diego, CA House Of Blues (w/ One Republic)
July 20 Santa Barbara, CA KJEE Concert @ Soho Lounge
July 29 Los Angeles, CA KROQ Concert @ The Troubadour
July 30 Bakersfield, CA KRAB Concert @ The Dome
July 31 Las Vegas, NV KVGS Concert @ Hotel Rio
