New Groove Magazine Presents: Chase the Comet

Chase the Comet

  1. How did you come up with the band Name?’
    Chase the Comet’ is actually our third band-name and we believe ‘Third time’s finally the charm’, ha-ha. Our previous band name was MyRockBand and at some point, in 2017 we figured we had to change it. I took my stage name Nika Comet (my real name is Nika Kosenkova) back in 2014 and when choosing the new band name, we thought it’d be cool to have a comet in there. We had a comet in MyRockBand logo, so it had been our symbol for a while already. We also thought that “comet” sounds like “commies” (that’s what they used to call the communists) and that has a reference to our Russian origin along with the whole space topic. And then ‘Chase the Comet’ kind of just clicked cause it looked cool with those two CCs and had this cool association with “chase the dream” – which is also part of our story – how we came to the States from Russia to make music and achieve success. It is also very peculiar that we had our first success with our first band (named The Sun, by the way, again space topic) – we went to the finals of a TV-show like ‘American Idol’ back in Russia, the channel where it aired was called CTC (our current band name abbreviation) and in my home-town that channel was transmitted by a local network called Nika-TV. So, at some point in middle school I was called CTC. What a coincidence, huh?
  2. Tell us about where you come from and how that reflects in the music?
    Both Alex (guitar, bass, sound production) and I, Nika (vocals, songwriting) came from Moscow, Russia. We took a one-way ticket to Los Angeles back in 2016 and we can say technically Chase the Comet is a Los-Angeles based band that was started in 2017 after we changed our name from MyRockBand. We tell our story through most of our songs – they have a positive message filled with hope, faith in love, in our own power, in the power of our dreams and strength to overcome all difficulties and obstacles. As Russians we put a lot of meaning and thought into our lyrics (most Russian people put lyrics much higher than music) but since we’ve always been fans of the American pop-punk and alternative rock scene you can definitely hear that in our music as well. Besides, we even have songs in Russian and we even mix English in Russian within a song (check out ‘Please Forgive Me’).
  3. Tell us about the song-writing process, how do you create your music?
    a. What comes first:
    i. the idea?
    ii. A riff?
    iii. The lyrics?

    You never know! 🙂 Sometimes it’s the idea – and that works for more serious songs like ‘2020’ or ‘Out of the Matrix’, that’s how they were written. It requires more effort than when you just catch inspiration, but the results may be truly fascinating! Or, it can be like this: I come up with a cool melody (sometimes with lyrics, sometimes just a few notes) and show it to Alex and he would say: ‘Oh wait a sec, I have this cool riff I’ve been jamming for a few days already, let’s see if they fit!’ For example, this is how ‘Hollywood’ was created – I came up with this chorus line ‘I went to Hollywood’ and Alex said: ‘Dang, that may go well with that riff I’ve had for a while but never used anywhere!’ We tweaked the key a little and they clicked just perfectly! And sometimes, there may be a sudden inspiration or an emotional overflow and then we just sit down and write down whatever pours out (it is important to always record those little pieces on your phone recorder cause they fly away real fast!). Usually the inspiration attack for me is long enough to write a verse and a chorus and then later I must push it out a bit more to have enough for a second verse. Sometimes I’ll come up with chords myself, sometimes I’ll ask Alex to help me out. That’s how songs like ‘Please Forgive Me’, ‘Isn’t It Time’, ‘No More Pity’, ‘What’s Wrong with Us’ were written. Some other songs would have a fully created arrangement (because Alex has his inspiration attacks) before I even start writing lyrics and melody. This was the case of ‘The 27 Club’ for example and ‘Gone’.
  4. Who has influenced you the most?
    Oh, so many artists of so many genres! That’s why every song of ours is just so different! We’ll name a few: Queen, Ella Fitzgerald, Amy Winehouse, Michael Jackson, Adele, P!nk, Linkin Park, Muse, Foo Fighters, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Korol’ I Shut, TARAKANY!, New Found Glory, Asking Alexandria, Stigmata, Amatory, Vladimir Kuz’min, HIM, Chunk No Captain Chunk, Avril Lavigne, A Day To Remember, Guano Apes and many classic composers.
  5. What was the first song you or your band ever wrote?
    Tell us if you performed it, trashed it, etc.…. Tricky question. For me the first released song was a translation of Alex’s Russian song ‘Под Прицелом Время’ back in 2007. The English translation is called ‘It is your time 2 live’ and can be heard on the first Chase the Comet EP ‘This is MyRockBand’.For Alex it was a parody song on a Russian horror-punk band ‘Korol I Shut’ when he was 12. We never played it as a band, but he says he played it for his parents, and it scared them quite a bit.
  6. What song are you most connected to or proud of?
    It’s like asking a mother with 5 kids who she loves most. We love them all. But I guess lyrically I’m very proud of ‘Out of the Matrix’ and ‘The 27 Club’. Alex says for him it’s ‘Young & Beautiful’ cause it’s like our motto.
  7. Do you enjoy playing live and what do you enjoy about it?
    We do genuinely enjoy playing live and, I’ll be honest with you, we are damn good at it. It’s like a meditation where you feel you’re living in the moment most keenly. It’s a way to share and exchange energy with people with both sides feeling happy and at peace with themselves. It feels like we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing, fulfilling our destiny.
  8. What is next for the band?
    Answering not only this question but also a lot of questions we received lately in connection to our announcement that we must move from the US – first we must figure out our visa question. You see, we are not citizens of the US and we are humble people – so we never wanted to lie and apply for political refuge or marry other people to obtain citizenship. This week we finally got Alex’s O-1 artist visa petition approved (I got mine earlier this year) and it means now we will have to leave the country to get these visa stamps in our passports (it can only be done in an out-of-the-country American embassy or consulate). The problem is that a few years ago we got screwed by our ex-lawyer and unintentionally violated the American immigration policy (which was only brought to our attention later, by our new lawyer, when we had people interested in signing an investment agreement with us). That’s why it is important for us to solve this issue now to be able to take things to the next level. We hope our plan will work and we will be able to come back to the US and get back to touring and performing on a larger scale after securing an appropriate deal. There is a possibility that we may not come back for the next 10 years but… come on, we’re optimists, we believe everything will work out! In the meantime, we’ve been more active than ever this year – writing and recording new songs, working with a world-renowned metal mixing engineer and staying in touch with our supportive fan-community that we call FANmily. We don’t know what we’d be doing without these guys and we’ll do everything we can to bring them the best sound and the best show we can. We believe that the cancellation of our summer tour is also be for the best and will make it even sweeter when we come back and “we’ll be better than ever!”
  9. Any additional thoughts or Comments you would like to add?
    As I mentioned we have to leave the States pretty soon and that’s why we are having an unprecedented auction – we’re giving out our debut signed CD ‘Rush’N’Rule’ for just $1 (I personally pack and ship all purchases from our web-store)! All of them must go – we obviously can’t pack them in a suitcase and take back to Russia (or wherever we’re going!). So be a true music fan and grab you CD NOW and blast it out loud – http://chasethecomet.com/dollar-cd
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