Photo credit: Robby Stevens, Midtown Motion, LLC
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CL: Welcome to the UK, your first visit here.
CMD: Thank you and yes.
CL: What a welcome – rain! (It was a horrible day, pouring and cold!)
CMD: And snow!
CL: Did you actually get snow?
CMD: Yeah, I saw it twice! Tuesday night and then again this morning.
CL: So that does beg the question have you seen snow before?
CMD: Yeah, we grew up in Kentucky, we get it once or twice a year
CL: Yeah, we do too & this isn’t fair!
CMD: But I haven’t seen it this year, so I am excited to see it!
CL: Normally for C2C the sun pokes through and normally spring says “Hello”, so somebody didn’t get the memo with the weather for this year!
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CL: When did you actually arrive?
CMD: I think it was Tuesday morning, Tuesday nine am.
CL : You think? Is it all blurring up?
CMD : Yeah, I slept for like two hours on the flight, it was one of those sleeps where the whole time you are dreaming so you think you are awake, so you are talking to yourself! I had a dream that I was on the plane and moving about, then I woke up and I was – Oh, I am still in my seat, I hadn’t moved!
CL : You say that, I did a magnificent interview with you the other night!
CMD : You did?
CL : I woke up and I was – what were those questions?
CMD : Oh that is hilarious, I dream of song lyrics all the time, but I lose them immediately I wake up. It is a shame we can’t connect to that realm when we are awake!
CL : How long are you over here for?
CMD : I am here until Saturday morning, very early.
CL : Wait, what? This Saturday? So you are not here for the whole of C2C?
CMD : I wish, but no, I did say I might have to come back for a month next time! You won’t be able to get rid of me next time!
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CL : Going back to you originally, a friend lent you some money when you were down to your last $12.00
CMD : Yes
CLD : That friend is going to be a friend FOREVER!
CMD : He is yes, he already was a really good friend, been my best friend since Third grade. I had been through it and then the pandemic hit Nashville, so everyone was looking for a job, but of course there were no jobs available. I had been chasing my dream for a long time already.
CLD : You had started a band around the time the pandemic hit hadn’t you?
CMD : Yeah, that band, we had been together for a while already but when the pandemic hit, you couldn’t play shows so we couldn’t make any money as musicians. I had my savings, but once they were gone that was the end of that, I was at the end of the road. It was probably around August 2020. I had applied for restaurant jobs everywhere trying to find somewhere that was even open. No one would hire me though. I probably put in forty job applications at that point. We were having a party at my house, it was anti climatic as everyone was having a good time and I went out to my car and just sat there. I had this impending feeling, I had two weeks, that was all I had left to stay. I called my Grandma on the phone and I said “Hey, do I have a bed back home for me to come to?” She said Yeah. I said I am so sorry that I failed, because of course this wasn’t just my dream, it was our dream. It just meant so much to me and so much to my family. My friend found me in my car, I just broke down and he lent me some money to stay a couple more weeks. I doubled the amount of job applications I put in and I finally got a job waiting tables. I took every shift they had! Never looked back!
CLD : You didn’t think about resurrecting the band? You decided to go solo?
CMD : The band went through hard times, I love those guys like they are my brothers, but there was something in me that believed irrationally that pursuing this, even when there was no hope. So it made sense for me to do it on my own.
CLD : They don’t envy you for that or blame you?
CMD : No, we are really good friends and we have stayed really good friends. They are people that I write with, people I still go to dinner with and we chat and catch up regularly. They are all doing things that they love and that is important to them, so we have all kinda become who we are from it.
CLD : So it is like a defining moment in everybody’s life?
CMD : Yeah, but in a good way, it doesn’t mean that anybody won or anybody lost. I think everybody won because everyone is getting to pursue their passions.
CLD : You have all blossomed into your different paths.
CMD : Yeah, exactly.
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CLD : I looked at your Spotify figures – Good gosh!! You have obviously been working pretty hard!
CMD : Well thanks!
CLD : They are in their millions! ‘Project’ is over seven million!
CMD : I have been working pretty hard yes, I am a little tired! I moved to Nashville I didn’t come from money, I didn’t have resources back home to invest in my career, I didn’t have any contacts in Nashville, I didn’t have any industry friends. I saw the Social Media thing working for people.
CLD : So you have worked even harder then? If you didn’t have any contacts, you didn’t know anyone, no-one behind you apart from family and friends.
CMD: Yeah, a poor desperate man has to work really hard! So that is what I did, I felt it was the only way. Somehow Social Media found me! I feel very blessed, very fortunate to have been found! There are so many amazing artists everywhere, so to have been ‘selected’ I feel pretty fortunate!
CLD ; So this would have been after Lockdown that Social Media found you, which makes it more special as things were back to being normal and live music was back, the fact that you were found after Lockdown.
CMD : Kinda happened with really cool timing!
CLD : Definitely, congratulations!
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CLD : Which one of your songs are you the most proud of?
CMD : I think ‘Project’ probably, because it has the most popularity, but the one I am most proud of is ‘Your Daughter’, it is a really special song to me.
CLD : It is a very beautiful song. My personal favourite is ‘Better In A Glass’, I do like a drinking song though!
CMD : Thanks, that was inspired by a buddy I had in college, he swore that he wouldn’t drink beer out of a can!
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CLD : Is there new music on the horizon? Are you writing?
CMD : I hope so yeah, I wrote about thirty songs in January so I have a few to choose from, I just have to figure out which ones are the best ones.
CLD : Yes, that is the tricky bit, or you could just do a Morgan Wallen and put the ALL on an album!
CMD : I think he has got the money to do it!
CLD : Obviously yes and he had quite a bit of time on his hands!
CMD : We actually wrote a song called ‘Time On My Hands’, so maybe we will put that one out!
CLD : So there is new music planned?
CMD : Planned yes and we are still working on more. We are writing as much as we can and see which one sticks their hand up the most, which one grows on us the most.
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CLD : Your influences are quite old school – Johnny Cash, (I then had a ‘female of a certain age’ moment, Glen Miller popped into my head and wouldn’t budge which was rather embarrassing!! The name I wanted was) Josh Turner.
CMD : Josh Turner was my first CD, my Great Grampa bought me that when I was 8 years old, 7 or 8. He wanted me to sing ‘Long Black Train’ at a family reunion.
CLD : It was your Grandparents then who were guiding you towards that?
CMD : They love music, there is something about music that is just so special to them and they raised me. By the time I was 12 years old I lived with them. My Pappy, he was a bass singer in a gospel quartet, it was a four part harmony and he would sing the low part. So I learnt to sing, I wanted to be just like him, he was my hero! Josh Turner helped a lot.
CLD : Oh that is a fabulous story!
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CLD : With your writing, have you got any collaborations in mind, is there anyone you would like to collaborate with, first of all to write with?
CMD : Oh I would love to, I have a big imagination! There are none planned at the moment, none on the books, but I have a couple that I would like to write with.
CLD : It is quite a big thing in Nashville isn’t it writing with other people?
CMD : It is yes, if I had to pick a top 3 it would probably surprise you.
CLD : Go on then!
CMD : It would be Eminem, John Mayer and Josh Turner.
CLD : Performing wise, who would you like to record with?
CMD ; Ohhh erm, this is a bit tongue in cheek, but I have always wanted to sing like ACDC, so maybe I could go in the studio with him and figure out how he does that with his voice. I like to do impersonations sometimes, but I have never figured that one out!
CLD : On the country side who would you like to perform with?
Ponders for a bit –
CMD ; Is that dead or alive?
CLD ; Well, let’s do both, first of all dead.
CMD : Johnny Cash would be one of them. He transcended genres, he was so authentically himself, there was just something special about him. Living would be Dolly Parton, that is a dream! I think I probably speak for a lot of people when I say that, but Dolly is a big one for me too.
CLD : When I have asked this question previously, I haven’t actually had anyone say Dolly Parton! Johnny Cash has come up before but you are the first to say Dolly Parton!
CMD : Well she is worldwide loved. I don’t know of anyone who isn’t a fan of Dolly, she is an icon. She is maybe the only icon that never had a scandal!
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CLD : Last question, cartoon character for 24 hours, which one are you going to be? Please don’t say someone I don’t know!
CMD : Ohhh I would be – did you guys have Jimmy Neutron?
CLD : I don’t know it, but just because I don’t know it doesn’t mean we didn’t have it!
CMD : Ok, Jimmy Neutron was an animated cartoon in the States, he was a kid genius, I think I would like to be a kid genius. He built a robot dog by himself! He had all these little gadgets, he could fly and stuff because he was so smart!
CLD : Thank you so much for your time and have fun at C2C.
CMD : Thank you so much.
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FOOTNOTE
I saw Chase perform twice over the weekend. The 1st time was at a Big Machine showcase, where he was in a songwriter round with …. Midland, Lady A and Thomas Rhett!! How intimidating must that have been! Chase did look nervous initially, but after his first song he seemed to relax into it! He told the story of his Grampa wanting him to sing ‘Long Black Train’ Mark Wystrach quipped “Yeah, how did that go?” Chase replied “Not great to be honest!” which got a laugh!
The other time I saw him was at the Barrelhouse in Town Square. He had a fair size crowd, who listened attentively. I learnt that Chase and his sister moved in with their Grandparents as their father was an alcoholic who couldn’t care for them. Go listen to ‘Your Daughter”, it is an incredibly beautiful, moving song which Chase wrote about his sister!
Chase, when you come back to the UK I will be first in line to buy a ticket! I enjoyed what I heard over the weekend and I thoroughly enjoyed chatting to this very lovely young man.