Contributed Photo
The group — vocalist and lead guitarist Evan D’Abrosca ’13, rhythm guitarist and vocalist Zakk Rogg-Meltzer ’10, bassist Joey D’Alessio ’12 and drummer Pete Sweeney ’11 — may seem like your average group of guys, just jamming together to pass the time. But they’re actually pretty talented and have already made a name for themselves.
Chasing Carmen has been together for two years (with the exception of Pete, who joined about six months ago), and in that time they have released an EP “The Red Door Diaries” and a full-length album “Angels and Devils.”
They’ve played famous venues like Toad’s Place in New Haven and The Webster Theater in Hartford, they have opened for big name bands like Hinder and Saving Abel, and bassist D’Alessio is one of Warwick Basses’ youngest clients ever. Pretty damn cool.
The Mirror: Who writes your music?
Chasing Carmen: Zakk writes the lyrics, though Pete will join in on the next album. All four of us collaboratively write the music, with heavy musical contributions from Joey and Evan.
TM: Do you see yourself continuing with Chasing Carmen after college?
CC: Absolutely. We are continuing to grow as a band and are progressing in ways we couldn’t have imagined at the onset…We are in the process of setting up an East Coast tour this summer and are hoping to play a large summer festival as well…and [we] have just signed a management deal with Monolith Management out of Salt Lake City, Utah. We won’t stop anytime soon.
TM: Who are your artist influences?
CC: I like to say our musical style can be described in one phrase: From grunge to funk, to prog to punk. This takes each of our individual favorite musical styles, and with that we have created a new sound innovation that is uniquely our own. If I had to say bands that we are similar to, I would say Stone Temple Pilots, Audioslave and The Foo Fighters. Rock music just best describes the emotions we feel as a band.
TM: Favorite show you’ve played?
CC: Opening up for Puddle of Mudd and Rev Theory at The Webster Theater. Great crowd (hundreds of people), and they were really digging our music. We had them all singing along by the end of the first chorus. We even had a fill-in drummer, Tom Saporito, for that show, and we were just flawless musically and really felt energized by the crowd. It was a hell of an experience and one that I will never forget.
TM: What do you have to say about your fans?
CC: We love our fans or, as we have dubbed them, our “Chasers.” We have a great local following when we play shows in Connecticut, New York, or Rhode Island, and our online fans are really quite amazing as well. We get messages every day from all over the world…We greatly appreciate the support and would like to thank every single one of our fans.
TM: Music is so important to you because…
CC: It is the only thing that allows us to express ourselves in as vulnerable and powerful a way as it does. Music isn’t just a combination of four different instruments playing different sounds; it is a cohesive, living, breathing entity that is created from four people from different musical backgrounds and different life experiences…Also, chicks dig rock stars, and we find our music to be incredibly badass.
Chasing Carmen will perform at the Levee on Thursday Feb. 16 at 10 p.m.
Leave a Reply