Review Fix Exclusive: The Rising’s Chris Logan Talks ‘Last First Love’ And More

Review Fix chats with The Rising guitarist Chris Logan who discusses the band’s origin and goals for the future, as well the creative process behind their new single, “Last First Love.”

Review Fix: How did the band get together?

Chris Logan: The Rising was formed from another band myself and my cousin Shane Watters (Drums) started. So despite the fact we have been playing music together for a while ’The Rising’ has only been going just over two years. We folded up the original band due to the frustrations over the fact that we were playing music to fit into a scene and not the music we wanted to make. We changed our name to ’The Rising’ as a nod to the Bruce Springsteen album we all love and immediately started working on our debut album. Our debut album ‘Coming Home’ came out late 2014 and since then we went onto many great opportunities. Such as playing Country 2 Country Festival in London’s O2, radio support from the likes of BBC Radio 2 with people like Graham Norton/Gaby Roslin campaigning our music and completing several UK and Ireland tours. However, during our last tour of the UK last October it started to become evident that certain members were just coasting along and not contributing. Things eventually came to a head after one of the shows when it was obvious that certain band members did just not want to be there and this led to me apologizing to audience members after our set.  We were doing what we dreamed of playing to packed shows every night for two weeks all across the UK. But for some it all seemed to be one big chore. During the tour we were also asked to play Country 2 Country Festival again for the second year in a row the following March. A massive opportunity, but it was met with muted enthusiasm. By this stage I had been writing and working with Chantelle McAteer (Singer) for some time. Writing songs and demoing them initially simply for the joy of writing new songs. So that night during the tour in Bristol I called her and told her that I was about to make some changes and she was in the band if she wanted to be.  So we finished out the tour on a major high playing a venue that I had always dreamed of playing, King Tuts in Glasgow. A few days later Chantelle and I met to discuss the next move and automatically began writing for the band’s second album. We entered the Studio to officially begin recording it in December and so far have recorded around 20 songs. The new version of the band was debuted at Country 2 Country Festival in March with two showcase shows. The full band consists of:

Chantelle McAteer – Vocals
Chris Logan – Guitars
Brian Mellors – Bass
Shane Watters – Drums
Carla Crawford - Piano/Keys

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Logan: Our creative process is very collaborative and ideas are welcome from all members of the band. But typically it would be Chantelle and myself getting into the writing room/studio and developing new songs. This could involve each one of us bringing in our own developed song ideas to work on further or literally starting from scratch from a title idea, chord sequence or melodic idea. There’s no magic process or fancy techniques used, ideas can literally come from anywhere. The only thing we try to do is meet up one a week at least to write something new so as we always have ideas and songs coming through. I personally, think the minute you stop writing thats when writers-bloc happens so its best to keep the songs coming. As long as theres a story to tell, a personal experience to draw upon or indeed someone you know going through something theres always something to write about.

Review Fix: Why is this lineup the strongest?

Logan: Firstly its the songwriting. Previously I was the sole writer in the band and that resulted in allot of pressure to continually deliver. But now that there is another songwriter in the band its so much easier sharing the load. Even as far as the band writing as a whole has never really happened before, for example one of the songs on the upcoming album started out life after a band meeting when Chantelle and Brian (Bass) grabbed the guitars as soon as the meeting had finished.

Secondly, its the attitude within the band. Obviously, we are all musicians and each one of us has an ego and strive to get our individual creative ideas out there. But we all live by the rule of ’the song is king’ so we all play our parts to serve the songs to better the overall sound, rather than someone always needing the limelight. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts, theory of working. A big step forward for this band.

Review Fix: What inspired “Last First Love”?

Logan: The song itself happened by accident. Chantelle and I happened to be with a mutual friend who was talking about her partner (who she has been with since school days) being her first true love and she hopes that he is the last. So as soon as she said that it was an instant light bulb moment. We looked at each other and thought that it would make a great concept and title. So we scribbled “Last First Love” down on a napkin. The next day we met up in the studio first thing in the morning and began to write the song. It came together very quickly and we had a fully working demo of the song by the end of the day. The song itself is about someone who recounts the story of finding love, how they used to sit around dreaming about it and how they never thought it could happen to them.  Then how it feels when they fall in love. We wanted the song to be a very happy and fun song, trying to replicate that feeling of the joy of falling in love for the first time.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2017?

Logan: Our primary goal for 2017 is to reach as many people as possible with our music and move the band up to the next level one fan at a time. We aim to have our own tour of the UK/Ireland, festivals, supports and also expand the band out towards Europe and the USA.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Logan: Our main focus over the next while is to get the single out to as many people as possible. We have also been working hard on our second album, currently entitled “Moving On” since December. To date we have recorded around 20 songs for it and we expect to narrow those down to 12-14 tracks. We cannot wait to show people the new material and we think that fans of the previous album will see massive growth in the sound and the songs. Also, for people new to the band we hope that they will be excited by the songs and hopefully make the songs their own. We are aiming for release in late 2016 early 2017. The album will be followed up with a full UK/Ireland tour.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Logan: People can get the new single “Last First Love” on iTunes now as well as Google Play, Amazon etc. Any news, announcements or exclusive music/content can be found over on the band’s website and social media platforms. Check them out and say Hi. You can find us at:

www.therisingmusic.com
Twitter: @therisingmusic
Instagram: @therisingmusic
facebook: @therisingofficial