Pic courtesy of: Chingalera "The kind of audience that Chingalera feels the most comfortable with are people with open minds. We are very lucky that our fans are both intelligent and adventurous. We feel very fortunate to have listeners who are extremely attentive"

CR: Hey man thank you so much for the opportunity! Let’s start, how are you, and what are you working on now?
Dave Gibney: First off, Chingalera would like to express our great appreciation to you, Carlos, for the obvious attention you paid to our album. You review was very insightful. As of this writing, Chingalera are on a 5-day a week schedule of working and fine-tuning the songs that will appear on our next full-length CD entitled “Chingalera II Chavez Ravine”. Recording begins on April 20th with the amazing Sylvia Massey at the controls.

CR: How about a brief intro on the band just so the readers know how and why Chingalera was born?
Dave Gibney: Chingalera formed in August of 2006. Our relationship dates back to 1999 when Ben Shirley and Tommy Holt were the rhythm section in a band called U.P.O. I was the stage manager for their year-long tour and would often jam with Ben and Tommy during soundchecks. Chingalera was born with one purpose… to oppose every accepted protocol of the music industry establishment.

CR: Chingalera doesn’t play by any means your ordinary metal or rock music, its got a little of everything, I mean you guys can call yourself a rock band but your music is so good that I don’t mind labeling you metal… well enough pandering! With what kind of audience do you feel most comfortable with? And can any label make any justice to Chingalera?
Dave Gibney: The kind of audience that Chingalera feels the most comfortable with are people with open minds. We are very lucky that our fans are both intelligent and adventurous. We feel very fortunate to have listeners who are extremely attentive. Our music asks a lot from our audience, and they have always shown amazing attention, and our respect for their involvement is immeasurable.

CR: In The Shadow Of The Black Palm Tree, that’s a huge name man, why such a name?
Dave Gibney: In the Shadow of the Black Palm Tree is a metaphor for life in the Los Angeles music underground. We work long hours in dark rooms while outside the palm trees cast long shadows in the Southern California sun. It represents us working to create music that directly opposes the nature of the music business in the very heart of where it dwells.

CR: Well the album…or better put the CD, is designed to look like an old vinyl record, just how “in love” are you with the good old days of vinyl? Who did the whole album art and how do you want buyers to react to it once they see it?
Dave Gibney: When we were young, actual albums were to be listened to, liner notes and cover art were to be studied… we would try to uncover their secrets. Listening to vinyl was not just a distraction in the background. It deserved and received all our attention. From the lyric sheet, to the secret messages etched into the run-off groove, to the booklets and posters, it was a process, an experience. Not just a few disposable moments, but an important ritual. I wish that our first CD could have included all the stickers and posters and booklets that the LPs of my youth had, but we feel the full-length movie we included shows that we care about giving people something extra. Chingalera worked on the album art with stills from the DVD and pictures by Ty Watkins. The cover art logo was done by a tattoo artist named Pedro.

CR: 5 songs, over an hour of playing time though, normally the length of the songs scare the shit out of me and it’s kind of tricky to write songs that long that don’t get the audience bored (speaking for myself here of course, since I don’t have a natural talent in music I pretty much just guide my opinion by my “gut” feeling… kind of like Bush you know jejeje) the question is how do you manage riffs, rhythms, tunes, to fit together, to compose such long songs but still control the monotony of the tracks, so that they don’t just become this huge pieces of progg metal that… bores people?
Dave Gibney: In our songs, the riffs tell us themselves. They “tell” us how long they should be played, and what tonal variations are required. Choruses, bridges and codas are never tacked on, or forced in. Each piece of the song, each instrument, and each lyric are all what the song demands. All things serve the song, and tell the story. If we listen to what the song wants, we can show that prog does not have to mean boring. And any active listener would grow bored only by a song or riff that we ourselves grew bored with, and these would never make it into a song or on an album.

CR: In The Shadow… the whole production, the sound created in the recording studio, is so very … primal, the instruments are sort of displayed in a very life like manner, no arrangements, well at least no huge arrangements, and the riffs might not be too complicated but they do create this sort of expectation, every tune has this “promise” that something is about to happen and when it finally does you realize that the trip to that point was the whole idea of the song; so what I want to ask you is how do you guys develop the song ideas and the way you finally lay them out in order to be consider a Chingalera song?
Dave Gibney: Our recording method is based on microphone placement techniques. We use the barest minimum when it comes to studio effects. Hardly anything is added during the mixing process. Our drum reverb sounds are true room sounds, the guitar distortion is actual tube distortion, and any tone effects are pedals used direct to tape, not added later. As far as the songs living up to their “promise”, we feel that each song always rewards the listener with a pay-off. Sometimes in the form of a release after a long build, or taking several parts to reveal a cohesive whole, or showing people that the journey is just as important and magical as the destination.

CR: There are few vocals on the record, why did you decided to include such small fragments of this, do you think this is a trend that Chingalera will be following, or you might feel in the future that the music requires more lyrics on it?
Dave Gibney: The vocals and lyrics are my attempt to take the essence or the greater truth of a song and reduce it to its most simple and unbreakable form. The vocals are another instrument, or even a tool, used to further the story and solidify its message. I have no rule about how much singing or how many words go into a song. Everything we do is to serve the song and its message. I have no desire to be vague to the point of confusion, but I also do not want to spell things out so simply that I feel as if I’m talking to a child. I would never underestimate the listener’s intelligence.

	Pic courtesy of: Chingalera "In our songs, the riffs tell us themselves. They “tell” us how long they should be played, and what tonal variations are required. Choruses, bridges and codas are never tacked on, or forced in"

CR: The album is pretty much based on three things (according to me off course!) repetitive riffs, distortion and an awesome drum performance; what would you say are the “elements” that Chingalera manages in order to compose this album?
Dave Gibney: Again, all things serve the song, and its message, but a great message with a boring riff would not be given a second listen. Since repetition is an important part of our “feel”, the bass and guitar will have dynamic shifts or tonal changes during the course of a riff, while the drumming also reflects the many twists and changes that show the endless amounts of diversity that can exist in a single riff. This again shows how much faith we put in our listeners’ ability to patiently take these longer journeys with us. There’s a lot to be heard and felt in the length and repetition. There’s a lot of subtlety and secrets within the riffs… a lot of truth.

CR: On a song like “The Occidental Apology” (an again I apologize if some of my questions sound a bit dumb, for a musician) that consists pretty much on two different segments, a first slow tempo segment followed by a much faster tempo at the end of the track, why not split that track into two different songs? Have you ever compose a song that requires it to be split into different tracks in order to have a more “comprehensive” effect on the audience?
Dave Gibney: Using “The Occidental Apology” as an example, the process is as follows: the first third of the song represents questions arising in the mind. The unknown is a jumble of curiosity, confusion, discomfort, and maybe even some anger at one’s inability to solidify suitable answers. In the song’s second of three parts, the lyrics are almost like thinking aloud in an attempt to sort out truth from falsehood, to put forth what can’t be denied and to reach your moral, ethical, and practical belief on this problem or question. This leads to the final third of the song, in which your conclusions, while now part of your belief system either shames you due to your shallowness, or confuse you due to your attraction to something essentially “wrong”, or angers you at realizing yet another part of the human condition which is both wrong and seemingly unchangeable. The journey and process have an end, but you may just find yourself with as much, or more confusion and anger at the conclusion as you did at its inception. It’s an examination of yourself, your place in this world, and the pain that comes with being smart enough to see things for what they are, and your self-loathing for your inability to affect change. Another slice of life that may appear depressing, but nowhere near as repulsive as an unexamined life.

CR: Pretty much all the songs on the album do have that “idea” of having two different segments or driving rhythms that really have a nice effect on the listener, because when you guys do the change from one segment to the next is goes almost unnoticed but at the same time it creates this feeling of progression within the audience, what aspect of the songs do you want the listener to engage more with, which element sort of speak do you want the audience to relate more with?
Dave Gibney: There’s no way to know how people will react to any of our riffs, or ideas, so we feel it… every riff, every beat, every secondary instrument, every vocal or lyric is played or sung with truth and with a genuine desire to reach our listeners. We feel sure that our honesty will be felt and appreciated and will do nothing but show the listener how much we respect them. That would be our most treasured connection to the listener.

CR: Why the decision to put a DVD on this debut album, most bands released a DVD after their debut record?
Dave Gibney: See the answer to question #5. We simply feel that our listeners deserve something extra, and this in-depth look gives some good insight into our process and motivations.

CR: You guys have made pretty clear the importance of Steve Albini for this album; apart from the obvious great sound that the record has, what other input or advise do you think was of most value for you guys during the recording sessions? (Apart from his apparent extensive knowledge in birds flying techniques!)
Dave Gibney: Steve Albini, once I got over my initial intimidation, was a motivator to the millionth degree. His greatest gift to us on the recording was to let us try any and all ideas, without judgment. He allowed us to make mistakes and learn from them. He studied our sound, and perfectly captured the performance we gave. He was calm, and funny, and never once said no to any of our ideas. I truly believe that I have never heard better drum sounds on any record ever. I am not exaggerating here… I am a very thorough researcher when it comes to music. There are very few records I have not heard and studied, and his recordings of Tommy Holt’s drums are the greatest ever committed to 2-inch tape, hands down. Another great gift he gave us was the confidence to produce our own record, which is pretty rare for a band’s first album, but believe me, the production suggestions he made were all used and improved the album in ways you cannot imagine. There was never one moment that I did not feel that his attention was on anything other than making our album.

		Pic courtesy of: Chingalera "We have absolutely no patience for any music that is anything less than completely honest. The genre is not important, only the conviction, commitment, and passion matter"

CR: What does the name Chingalera means; it almost sounds like Chingada the spanish bad word?
Dave Gibney: Chingalera is Mexican Spanish slang and it simply means “that little fucking thing over there”. It’s a non-specific noun, and it comes from the nickname that Tommy, Ben, and I gave to a Winnebago we toured in for all of 1999.

CR: According to your web site this is one of your motto’s “Death to False Metal”; what is false metal for you, and please give me two examples of false metal?
Dave Gibney: We have absolutely no patience for any music that is anything less than completely honest. The genre is not important, only the conviction, commitment, and passion matter. Using those guidelines, I feel perfectly justified claiming Morrissey to be true metal, and easily claiming Metallica to be false metal.

CR: How many shows have Chingalera played this 2008?
Dave Gibney: So far 2008 has been pretty busy as far as gigs go, especially considering how much work we’re doing to get our second album ready. It’s a safe guess that we’ve played about 16 gigs as of this writing.

CR: Do you guys have any big plans for this 2008?
Dave Gibney: Big plans?!? Recording Chingalera II with Sylvia Massey, a double album with special guests you won’t believe, with amazing secondary instruments like stand-up bass, mandolin, cocktail drum sets, didgeridoo, orchestra bells, theramin, Latin percussion, as well as monster riffs we couldn’t be more proud of. Then, non-stop touring until it’s time to make the third album… yes, we have big plans.

CR: Well man I ran out of questions, it has been a pleasure, congrats on a hell of a first release and if you would like to add anything else, feel free to do so!
Dave Gibney: Thank you for your time and your interest. Your insights and attention are both obvious and appreciated.