Dressed all in black – dark skinny jeans, plain tennis shoes – complete with the black laces, Cory Chisel certainly looks the part of an aspiring musician. The only exception is his too-short gray and black-striped long sleeved tee. His long, dark, greasy sideburns poke out from beneath his signature 1940s gangster-style fedora hat, and he sports an awkward unshaven look in between five o’clock shadow and full on mountain-man beard.
Chisel is anything but the stereotypical fame junkie looking for his fifteen minutes. He is a grounded Midwestern dude who just happens to be making a living playing music–and is on the edge of making it big in the industry. Chisel’s signature sandpaper voice makes him sound decades older than his mere 27 years.
Slipping in the back of the venue prior to Chisel’s album release show in September, I meet Chisel’s wife, Erin, who looks like an attractive Adams Family member, with long dark hair and a brilliant smile. She points me to the stage where Chisel and his band are doing a soundcheck. The band practices for a few minutes and then I corner Chisel.
After he grabs a plastic cup of red wine, we sit down in an orchestra classroom, among cellos and a baby grand piano. Chisel opens up to me about the gospel influence, the music industry and the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Sex, Drugs, Rock n’ Roll … and Gospel?
Chisel, the son of a Baptist minister, infuses his music with the gospel influence. But don’t think that he’s looking for God in his songs.
“It’s been salvation music even though it’s not the way probably most people in popular culture would mean it,” Chisel says. “I think using what you know is always a good thing. And if I wasn’t the son of a minister, I wouldn’t be so hung up on it. If I had lived in Birmingham and my dad was a factory worker that would probably be the medium.”
Cory describes a turbulent relationship with religion and coming to terms with it in his own way.
“Gospel music, for a long time, made me feel like an outsider. Because I never had that moment where I felt that God hated me and I needed him …” Chisel says. “I never bought that. And so if you don’t buy that, you’re on the outside of their club.”
Chris Coplan, a news writer for the online music magazine Consequence of Sound says he wouldn’t describe Chisel as a gospel-influenced musician because the religious connotations might turn mainstream music fans away. Rather, he says, Chisel inherited a knack for showmanship from his father.
“It’s there, and I think it’s just strong enough where it won’t throw people off,” Coplan says. “He definitely uses it and knows from, I guess, watching his father and being in that background. He knows how to kind of draw people to him.”
Later, as I watch the sound check for the opening acts, Chisel is running around helping his band move pianos and watching the time – “Hey you guys we have 15 minutes left until the doors open. We got-sta do this thing!” – I am struck by the irony of the venue. The Lawrence Memorial Chapel was playing host for a hometown artist, who, by his own account, manipulates the scripture to fit his music.
“I use the gospel for my own means. My version of the gospel is a very perverse usage of it,” Chisel says. “It was something that was both a really beautiful thing and a really destructive thing in my life. And in order to play on those themes, in order for me to reconcile the things I didn’t like about religious music, I was forced to make it sort of mean my own things.”
Chisel’s first album from a major label, Death Won’t Send a Letter, was released on Sept. 29, 2009.
The lyrics for the album’s first track, “Born Again,” are far from scripture, with lines like, “Because mama didn’t raise me to be no Christian,” and later, “Raise another glass for the unforgiven.”
The music video features Chisel’s Bob Dylanesque voice over images of bathtub baptisms, crosses and Chisel and his backing vocalist and keyboard player, Adriel Harris, strolling through a graveyard.
“I think everybody is trying to be re-born. I don’t think anybody is going through life being like, ‘I want to stay the same person.’ So it’s kind of a tongue-and-cheek thing to say,” Chisel says. “We all just live and we die and we’re doing the best that we can.”
Chisel reclaims the phrase in the song and belts out the refrain:
We all lose ourselves in the end
And we all just want to get high, won’t you help me friend?
And if you ever see that sun come shining in
Well you’re born again
You’re born again.
The chapel, complete with a 20-foot organ and ornate stained glass windows depicting moments in Jesus’ life, is a hilarious backdrop for hipster musicians in flannel and skinny jeans practicing the “devil’s music” – gospel-tinged, gritty, bluesy folk and rock music.Drugs and Alcohol
Cory Chisel, originally from Appleton, is a Midwestern guy with classic sound, who recently released his debut record with Black Seal Records, an affiliate of RCA.
Drugs and alcohol go hand-in-hand with the devil’s music – or so we’re told in movies like Almost Famous. Chisel agrees it’s prevalent (as he sips his wine), but argues artists use substances for self-preservation more than anything.
“I think a lot of times it’s not born out of this sense of rebellion, but out of a sense of trying to really meet people’s expectations,” Chisel says. “Really great performers … throw a lot of energy into what they do, and sometimes it’s got to come from somewhere. So people fault on the side of having a little secret, you know?”
Chisel explains touring can take a toll on the body, and in order to perform, musicians use substances to make it through another night.
“Every time people see you, they expect to see this magnified – the greatest performer that they’ve ever seen – regardless of the fact that you’ve driven for 16 hours and you’ve been away from those that you love for two months at a stretch. People don’t give a shit about that,” Chisel says. “They just want to see you light up.”
Though his distaste for traveling by bus and hanging out with club owners is obvious, Chisel says once he gets on stage, the outside world melts away.
“When the lights are down and I’ve went through all this chaos of the day usually I’m pretty able to convince myself that it’s just me and those that I love on stage. For the most part – unless something awful happens – you can block it out,” Chisel says.
The voice
Every person I talked with at his Sept. 26 album release concert, in Chisel’s hometown of Appleton, said his voice and simplicity in song drew them to his music.
“I love the sound of his voice. I like the lyrics,” says Kim Olson, a 30-something fan, who has seen Chisel twice before in concert. “I like the simplicity of the music and kind of the beauty of it.”
Appleton High School freshman Brad Prellwitz says he was drawn to Chisel’s musical style. “It’s got a good grunge, grass sort of fusion,” Prellwitz says.
Coplan agrees that Chisel’s voice is an asset to his overall sound.
“His voice, it’s very natural, it’s very easy,” Coplan says. “It just kind of flows out and it’s really, I think, one of the better qualities of both the album and his overall performance.”
Coplan says although Chisel’s sound is not unique, his music is real and genuine, and his wisdom is beyond his years.
“You get the sense that he knows more than he probably really should for his age,” Coplan says.Advice for music and life
Chisel uses and abuses the gospel in his music, fitting as he is the son of a Baptist minister.
Although Chisel loves his career, don’t expect him to be a cheerleader for aspiring musicians.
“If there is anything else that you think you can do with your life: just do that. And if there is absolutely nothing that makes you happy, in any sort of way whatsoever, then it might be a smart idea to stick with it,” Chisel says.
He acknowledges the negativity of his words, especially to people who are in the music business for the wrong reasons.
“A lot of times, rather than encouraging people, I wind up discouraging them,” Chisel says. “And then [there’s] those crazy people who don’t listen to me. … It’s not a job I think people should be like, ‘I don’t know, I’ll just try this.’ It will eat you alive.”
Chisel turns philosophical at the end of his advice.
“There’s a million ways to have a happy life. This isn’t the only way to have a happy life. It’s for a very select few people, I think, that can have the stomach for the rejection,” Chisel says.
Making it in the Business
Chisel speaks with a voice of experience when it comes to making it in the music business. Death Won’t Send a Letter was released to positive reviews.
Chisel says he had to be convinced to sign with a major label because he was happy touring locally.
“I love being at home. I love my friends. I love my wife,” Chisel says. “So we were like, we’re gonna have to have something pretty good to talk us into not seeing those people.”
Chisel describes a “trial period” when the band sent demos to test whether RCA/Black Seal Records would allow the band artistic freedom, and the company came through in the end.
“They are beautiful people. They’ve really let me do way more than they probably should,” Chisel says.
The new album features Harris, whose husband, Noah, opened for Chisel at the album-release show; Little Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler on drums; and, on guitar, Carl Broemel from My Morning Jacket and Blake Mills from Band of Horses.
Coplan described the album and Chisel’s sound as a new take on an old favorite.
“He’s taken something that most people really enjoy, which is kind of a man and his guitar and made it interesting and emotionally evocative and fresh without being super explorative,” Coplan says. “He just does what he does, and it’s good.”
Home
Chisel, in many ways, is a typical Midwestern guy. He is perfectly content making music and living his adult life in the same place where he was raised.
“I like where we’re from because it’s diverse in a very special way, different economic backgrounds, it’s not just poor, it’s not just rich, it’s not just white, it’s not just religious, it’s not just unreligious,” Chisel says. “It’s a real cross-section of people.”
But, despite his respect for his hometown, Chisel is also an atypical Midwestern guy. Chisel has doors opening to opportunities most people can only dream of. Where will his success take him? No one knows at this point. But, for Chisel, it doesn’t really matter in the end. It’s all about the music.