{"id":7331,"date":"2023-09-20T00:30:50","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T00:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/?p=7331"},"modified":"2023-09-22T15:47:12","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T15:47:12","slug":"interview-fia-rose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/2023\/09\/20\/interview-fia-rose\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: FIA ROSE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Fia Rose is the drummer for the San Diego-based Indie Rock band Chalk Talk. Fia is a senior at SCAD balancing school life with band life through the passion she and her childhood friends and bandmates share. Rose was kind enough to talk about the young up-and-coming band’s history, experiences, and plans. Be sure to see them live on January 6, 2024, at the Lodge of Sorrows. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Hello everybody. My name is Christopher Chin from SCAD Radio, more than music, and today we have a lovely guest, Fia Rose. She is the drummer for the band Chalk Talk. Woo. Love Chalk Talk. So Chalk Talk is a band from California. Where did you guys actually like start?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia:<\/strong> Originally from San Diego.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>So it’s specifically San Diego. Did you guys meet in high school? What was the whole like founding of the band story? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Okay, so, at the end of seventh grade, I started at a music school and three days before I was supposed to start, I went to a Cage, the Elephant concert with one of my friends and we met these two other girls in the pit and we’re like so small. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>So you guys didn’t go to school together? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>No, no, we never went to school. I was the only one that went to a different high school, like all through the band. Okay. But basically in the pit, we met these two girls and it was super fun. Like I didn’t know any of their names, but I just knew them because we were dancing with them and it was fun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And then three days later I went to the music school and I walked in and the first person I saw was one of the girls. And I was like, oh my gosh, hey, like I saw you. At Cage, the Elephant. Like that was so fun. She was like, oh yeah. Like my name’s Nina by the way. So Nina is the singer and guitarist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And so we went through like, like two or three years together in the music school. And then it was like randomly, we were like, let’s hang out one day. And that day we were like, I’m bored. Do you wanna jam? And we did. And we ended up writing like “Seals”, like from our first album. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>You guys were in high school at this point or?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah, we were freshmen in high school. We were like, damn, that was kind of fun. Like let’s do it again. And like literally within a month wrote the entire first album. That we have. And then we were like, okay, like what do we do now? And so Nina was like, I know this girl in my class who plays classical piano. Like maybe we could ask her to like maybe play keys for us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Mm-hmm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Or something. And so she was like, yeah, this is so easy. ’cause like you guys just went basic chords and like stupid rifts. Yeah. And so we got her on board and then we were like, we really wanna record and. We threw a party at Nina’s house that ended up like we were charging like five bucks at the door or something, and like turned out the entire like, district, all the high schools found out about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Oh wow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>It got rolled by the police, but like, damn, we made so much money. Christopher: <\/strong>And you were just trying to have like a house show. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah, we were just trying to, it was like our first show ever. We were so bad. And we had a DJ play after. I walked out to get something from my car and I came back and the cops were like at the door and I was like, oh. And so, that was fun. But everyone there was like, you need a bassist. You need a bassist. And we were like, yeah, we know. Yeah, of course. But like we already have the like, Recording booked and everything. So it was like kind of a rush. And one of our friends was like, I’ll play bass if you teach me. And so two weeks before we recorded, we taught our friend Katie how to play bass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>So she never played bass? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>She’d never played an instrument in her life. The first time she’s playing an instrument as in a, yeah. And now she’s a beast at it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Oh my gosh, that’s so funny. Yeah. Your guys’ music has a very like, strong feeling of, I like a lot of the riffs. You guys have a very like individual tone for most bands. Like I feel like a lot of bands. That start out are still trying to find what they want to sound like. But you guys kind of from right off the bat knew exactly the kind of style that you played. Was there a lot of like strong inspirations for you guys or did you just fall back into it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah, so originally I think we were very inspired by the surfy culture of like where we grew up. Mm-hmm. In like the small town Encinitas in San Diego. So definitely there’s a lot more of that influence in the first album. I think for first album it was like always in Frankie Cosmos and like that vibe we really liked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And then when Covid happened, we were able to like, okay, let’s rethink, let’s like still have our style, but let’s pull inspiration from somewhere else. So we had these like songs and we were like, if Angel Olsen wrote this, how would she perform it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Mm-hmm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>‘Cause we had so much time. Yeah. And so it was awesome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Chalk Talk’s, feeling, I definitely always think about it. I’ve told you this in the past about it being very like, dreamy bedroom, roomy <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Like the type of music you just listened to in your room. Fia: <\/strong>Yeah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Like laying in bed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah. And, and what’s funny is because like, I think like since we were so young when we wrote it, it was like high school-like feeling, you know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Yeah, totally. For me, for like your newest album sometimes I call You, which came out in 2022, definitely go listen to it. It’s fantastic. The whole feeling, at least for me, for listening to it as long as I have, it feels like an exploration of nostalgia while also a feeling of wanting, like wanting someone or some, someone in particular usually, but going through the motions of all these feelings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cause some of the songs are. I’m still, you know, standing still. It’s all about not being still stagnant, still being in love with the person. Whereas newspaper, it feels like the overall you don’t care. And then the album kind of ends with a, a mix of both, you know? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah, and you know what’s like crazy about that is like, I feel like for each of the songs, like one person in particular writes it. And kind of like maintains the song as we’re like making it. And so when Nina was making “Standing Still”, I was like, Nina, you have no idea how much that is aligning with my life right now. Yeah. And she was like, I just made the lyrics like randomly like, I don’t know. It’s like, that sounds exactly like what I’m going through. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And I was like, I know so many people that are going through that can relate to it. So you’re doing a great job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Because you guys recorded that last year. Was it last around the same time last year? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yes. Okay, so actually like a week ago. Like a year ago, last week. We finished recording. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Okay. That’s cool. I really liked the whole album and I was, I. Trying to think that. I was like very much trying to think on the way here too, especially like, I was like, what kind of music is this? With the top song from that album being loveseat with 67,000 views, and of course your top song of all time is 222,699, which is “Worse than Steve”, which <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yes <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>You love, right? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>We are such a big fan of that song. You should definitely keep streaming it no matter what. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Oh my gosh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>That’s a joke. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Why do you hate it so much? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Because it’s like, okay, first song we ever put out, and literally I didn’t know how to run Spotify. Like I didn’t know how to like actually put it out the right way and just randomly one day we woke up and it was out and I was like, what? And like we, I didn’t know how to like plan date. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>It just like went out, a random day, and you’re like, <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>and we chose that as a single ’cause it was catchy, but then it just got to the point where I was like, oh my God, this is too catchy. Okay. And it was like poorly recorded too, because we did it all in one day because we only had enough money to record our entire album in one day. I mean that from that whole album, it’s just live. It’s just us playing one time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>It’s just one take? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah. All of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Of you guys all together. Oh my gosh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>There’s like some with like some background vocals, but that was literally it. And so kudos to us. That was fun. But, We just didn’t know what we were doing basically, is what I’m trying to say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>So it definitely comes from that very D I Y surf garage. Fia: <\/strong>Yeah, no, literally <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Falling down the stairs music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yes. And so with like, “Worse than Steve”, I think like why I hate it so much is because like, what is that song even about, like, about be Worse than Steve? No, like I was asking Nina and she was like, oh, it’s about my plant named Steve. And we were like, what? And now we say that it’s about Steve Buscemi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>The song’s about Steve Buschemi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah, because like that’s funny. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>I mean, I think everyone is worse than Steve Buschemi though. Fia: <\/strong>Yeah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Because Steve Buscemi is the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>I wanna make shirts that say, fuck Steve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>I want you to make more support your local girl band shirts ’cause I need one of those. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Don’t worry it’s in production right now. But yeah, I don’t know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>For those of you who don’t know me and Fia are actually friends outside of <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah, we’re bros. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Outside of just strictly music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>This is our first time meeting ever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Yeah. Ever. but it is funny because, how did we meet? Fia: <\/strong>Through Cam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Through Cam? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>So Cam is one of my friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Cam is my boyfriend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Yeah. And he was like, oh yeah, my girlfriend’s in this band called Chalk Talk. And then I, ironically, started listening to him to do an interview and then I was like, wow, now it’s top three on my Spotify or something like that. Something crazy like that. But so you guys just finished touring over the summer, last summer. Where’d you get you guys went just the west coast all the way up? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah, we started in Oregon and went, worked our way down back to San Diego. That was such a fun process. If anyone gets the chance to tour, I’d say to it instantly, I wanna do it again so bad. And we’re planning to do East Coast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Oh yes! Yes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>So don’t worry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Yes. So excited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>You’ll see us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>So, What was that like with the touring? ’cause? Did you fly up there or? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>No. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>How did you guys get up to Oregon and come down? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>So Stella, the keyboardist has her parents have a minivan, and we took the minivan. First of all, we had rules. We were like on what snacks we could bring because we don’t want the car being stank. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Yeah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>And okay. By the end, it was crazy because we had no time to like actually organize it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Oh my God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>And also I was like knitting and crocheting in the back. Every single day. Christopher: <\/strong>Is that how you started your Schmookie business? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah, basically I was, that’s, I was like, I have so much free time. Like, what else would I be doing? There was like yarn scraps everywhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Oh my gosh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>And like all that crap. But yeah, we loaded everything up in the minivan and we went up a week before we stopped. Stella goes to Berkeley. Okay. And we stopped at her house for three days. She showed us around and then we went up to Portland for three days and we looked around and then going back, it was just playing Portland. One night we went to Coos Bay, Oregon for one night, we went to Berkeley for one night, LA, San Diego. It was all like one after another. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>So you guys played like six or seven shows total?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah, it was like, A little bit over two weeks. The whole thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Okay. Not too, too bad. Yeah. What was the sleeping arrangement? Did you guys just like sleep in like campgrounds? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>So one night, yeah. That was probably my favorite night. Okay. So this is, Oregon, Coos Bay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Like, what? We got a, okay. We toured with this other band named Bex, who’s awesome. You should definitely check them out. And she was like posting if anyone wanted to add any more stops on our tour. And this pizza place in Coos Bay was like, we’ll give you a down payment right now if you come. And it was like too good of an offer to like, so we went there. They said that we could stay. They had an apartment above. The restaurant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Wait, so you guys played at a restaurant? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>It’s the same energy as like the Denny’s concert. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah. No, like actually I feel like everyone like was like, what are you doing right now? That’s so for it. I don’t know the, the person that opened for us, The singer dropped out last minute, so they were just playing vocal tracks on top of it, and they had a cardboard cutout of Darth Vader, like it looked like he was singing, and it was just the strangest energy ever. I was, I was like, where am I right now? <\/p>\n\n\n\n So back to the story. So they said that we could stay in this apartment, and we got there and they were like, oh yeah, we actually don’t have that anymore. And so we were like, bro, Like now we’re stranded. And this was like two hours away from like any major city. Yeah, yeah. And so we found a campsite that had one like campground left on it and it was A T V campsite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So we went there. We thankfully like packed a tent just in case like, I think one of our dads was like, come on. Like just take it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Just take the tent. Yeah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah. And. I remember we gave him so much crap. So we went to the campground. As we were pulling in, there was like two wild porcupines that were just like in the street. Yeah. And so anyways, we got there. It ended up being like 1:00 AM at this point. We get to the campground, we’re like unpacking and we had to leave at five in the morning to start driving to San Francisco for that show. And so, I’m a pretty heavy sleeper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Yeah. Yeah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>And it was all four of us, like sardines in this tent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Oh, okay, did people roll over on top of others? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>I was like not, like we had a air mattress. Yeah. And I just like, was fully off of it. I was just sleeping on like ground, but it’s okay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn’t wake up, but apparently all of them did because there was scratching on the tent in the middle of the night. They were like something was happening to our van. Like we woke up and that’s what they were saying. I was like, what? I get out the van, the back of the van is wide open and there’s crumbs everywhere, like I think a raccoon got into our van, and ate everything. And like all over Stella’s keyboard is just like, filled with crumbs crazy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Oh my gosh. Was that the best story from tour? Was that experience? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>I loved that one. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know. That was just so funny. Christopher: <\/strong>And then for the actual concerts themselves? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>How was that? What was that like? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>It was so fun. I think it took us, I mean, we were playing a few shows before tour. Over summer, but like, I think it took us to practice rounds to really get our grip. In Portland, we found out that the venue that we were playing at like was creepy. So we ended up, we were just like, let’s just play under a bridge. So we did, and like we ended up getting, so many people like to show up. And there were these people that were like rollerblading around us, like it was awesome. And like it was fire. But it wasn’t like playing like a real venue until San Francisco we did. And that was just so fun. I think we just caught our groove. We were like, it’s the California air, we’re back. But San Diego <\/p>\n\n\n\n definitely was the best because we’ve played the venue so many times. They know us and we were able to play as long as we wanted. I think we played like for an hour and 45 or something. Like we played every single song that we could. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>How long was the normal, like It was like an hour, maybe 40 minutes? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah, probably like an hour. Yeah. But we were just like last stop on tour. Christopher: <\/strong>Mm-hmm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>I had these guns from playing drums every day. And I was like, I can do this all day. And so we were just looping songs, like playing as hard as we could, as loud as we could. It was so fun and Rory came up. My roommate and she flew out to like play lead guitar for us. It was so fun. We’ve never had that before, so it was just like added such a. Like better vibe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>So she had like some solos and stuff going. You guys just don’t usually have that much. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Well, like for newspaper, like we, we got like one of those like string vibrator things that like, was making that really sick noise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That like, we’ve never been able to like, play live with. And so like I think everyone hearing that live was like, oh my god. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>So, what is your favorite song to play live, though, usually? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah. So recently I like, I like \u201cLoveseat\u201d a lot because at the end we just completely stop and like Nina slows the guitar down. And then gradually like picks up and we just play as hard as we can. Yeah. And like I tell them, I’m like, break my drums. Like, I don’t care. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like we get into like, Like the fastest beat that you can like ever do it. And like, like the basis is like hitting the symbols so hard that like the symbols are falling off the stage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And it’s so fun. I’m like, I don’t, don’t care. I don’t care in the moment. You know, like whatever. But also George’s is super fun, like mm-hmm. The pacing on that where it like speeds up so fast. I think just like, it’s just a vibe. Like in <\/p>\n\n\n\n concert. Yeah. Like you can tell like everyone. Is like super chill and then they start moshing and then it gets, gets really chill again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Okay. That’s always really fun. So do you play with the electric kit or do you play, you play an, you have an actual kit that you play live with? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>That’s fun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>That’s just to practice while I’m at school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>So what is it like balancing a band life with school, especially being a student here at SCAD? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Okay, so when we all went to college, we were like, okay, like either this is coming to an end and it sucks, or we can like all make the mutual agreement that like if something happens, we will like, do everything we can to like, help it happen. If that makes sense. Yeah. Like when we get a really big opportunity, we’re not gonna say no, like we will fly out for it. Mm-hmm. Which is just, it’s happening soon, but like, yeah. It’s fun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>That’s great. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>We were like, we’re gonna devote all of our breaks to recording, and playing shows and we have, so far it’s been awesome. I don’t even care about the numbers. It’s just like, these are like my best friends and like it’s so fun to do it. I don’t know what I would do in San Diego if I didn’t have that, you know? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Yeah, totally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>So I think it was just, we were all like feeling the same way that we were just like, let’s just keep going. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Just keep playing. Making music just for the fun of it, not other reason. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yeah. And in high school it was like every weekend we were playing a show, like it was so fun, but like even during Covid, like I’m so grateful that, yeah, we were all home. I was like setting my driveway. I have like square drive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>So did you guys, did you guys play in your driveway? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>I had like, there’s like 10 feet in between us and I would set everything up and have them just walk up to it, play the instruments, and then clean it. Then I would put it all away. So it was like we were still able to do it. Like obviously wasn’t ideal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>Yeah, yeah, of course. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not usually, but at least you were able to play some music and I think definitely with the music, that’s definitely why like our mutual friend Ronan has started playing guitar too, because he was like, I wanna learn all the Chalk Talk songs. It’s like, okay, okay, okay. That’s definitely really fun. So how did you come up with the name Chalk Talk? How did you guys come up with the name Chalk Talk? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Okay, so this was, this was right before the show that I was telling you about mm-hmm. That we had at Nina’s. And we were like, okay, we need a, we need a name to put on a poster to like send to our friends and it had just gone through so many different names that it got to the point where I literally, I looked at everyone. I was like, I don’t care anymore. Like you can just choose. Like, I don’t even care. This’s not important, but Nina came up with it. We liked like Snail Mail and like things that like sounded similar and so Nina think she just thought of it and then she looked up what it meant. And it’s like when a football team is like super unprepared and they like get on the chalkboard and just kind of like scribble some stuff and they’re like, okay, whatever. Like let’s just try it. Okay. And so Nina was like, I guess that kind of like represents us. Yeah. Because we’re just like, shit. Like last minute, whatever. So it just stuck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher: <\/strong>That’s really cool. And isn’t there beef with another Chalk Talk? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fia: <\/strong>Yes. Oh my God. Okay, so there is, okay, we’re stupid. We, we just put it on the, on the flyer and like, since it just stuck, like we didn’t even like look to check if that was even a band name before. Which it was. And so when we were putting our stuff on Spotify, I looked it up and I saw the other Chalk Talk and They are like older, I think they’re like thirties, like they’re in their thirties right now. Mm-hmm. And basically, They don’t have an Instagram, but we do, and it’s \u201cChalkTalk.Band\u201d Follow us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n