Article for Rock
Magazine:
Charlie chalk: High-School Drop Out, Rising Star, Cheeky
Chappy, and an all round bad egg, we talk to the young guitarist who has
gripped a Nation.
Interview:
Its six o’clock in the morning and I’m sitting in a star
bucks in London, the heavy whistling of tube wheels howling in the distance, a
bus passing by. Then appears a young rock god... erm...with a coffee. Leather
jacket, Combat boots, he slumps in a chair, handing me one of the two drinks,
pulling out the earphones from his IPod as he does so, The voice of Keith
Richards slowly sinking in the pocket of a pair of torn battered jeans.
He yawns, making me yawn too, and we both laugh, he having
had explained that this is the only free time he gets, thanks to other creative
projects he is relentlessly working on including a tour, and a secret album.
After a few slurps I ask him about his success in the music
industry and at such a young age. He shrugs with a slight smile; ‘I don’t know
how it really happened to be honest… it just… kind of happened- and I’m very
grateful that it did’.
I then asked him on how he had got into music and how he has
now become the young rock warrior that he is today. ‘I was a little shit,
that’s why. Always running around, kicking scratching… biting, I was a bloody
nightmare. But I think it all started on when I got given a drum kit’ he thinks
for a second or two ‘for my six or seventh birthday.’ I remember banging and
banning on that drum for days- mum having trouble to tear me off the thing’ he
smiles at the thought ‘but of course, my music now, I don’t paly the drums-
which is kinda odd, don’t you think? But I suppose the drums where a gateway
into my love of music.’
He slurps part of his coffee, before I ask him on his school
life and his musical influences. ‘It was tough time at school. I weren’t very
popular, scrawny and spotty, so there was no chance I was gonna pull any time
soon. But I do remember going up for music club’ at this, a full joker like
smile appears on his face. ‘ I went singed up into a little music club at my
school, not a massive popular thing I
can tell you, so you didn’t even really need any real; musical talent to get!
But I did, there was only a few lot, and I wasn’t keen to make friends. They’d
never bothered to try with me, so why should I bother to try with them? Bu any,
because I had a drum kit, I played that for a bit. And it was alright- until I
got the guitar.’
Its here that I see giddy teen, taken back to the day of his
true love, ‘It was true love. The teacher who was running the place. Daft as
anything. He said that the school had raised enough money for new guitars, I
think there were about three of them altogether. I played it for a bit at the beginning. You
know, just fiddling with the strings and all that. But this was all before I
discovered music itself.’ He sits, now fully engaged ‘it was a new word I had
stepped into on when I heard Hendrix, or the kiss, or any of the other grates.
And I fell in love. I mean these guys where my idols; they got the chicks, the
money and the talent to make others happy with their skill. And that’s exactly
what I wanted to do.’ I spent most of my teenage years locked in my room (as
should any healthy teenager) listening to Presley or any other rock god and
just listening. The word, lyrics tone. Every single detail I thought about.’
We take a few more slurps of our coffee before I raise the
question on his past drug addiction; he slumps back in his chair. ‘Well you see,
I suppose that music, although it is a passion and a sincere love- it was my
downfall. Because I always focused my music, and that I wasn’t even a
particularly good at school in the first places, I think I knew deep inside
that I was gonna flunk all GCSE’s. So I suppose I needed some air, some relief
from the stress and panic that there was high chance that I was too fail at
life, as doing so taking drugs, ticking off that typical rock n’ roll box as I
did so. Now all I needed was to smoke and drink and I’d have done the bloody
set! And shortly followed.’ I came from North London, growing up in a school on
where the teachers cared as much about education as the pupils. At the time it
wasn’t a big deal to being snorting the white stuff- everybody was doing.
Pretty sure some of the teachers were too.’
A second or two passes before we both laugh at the thought,
then the laughter dies and we go back to the seriousness of the conversation.
‘No, but it was a serious, serious dark time for me, my addiction was getting
out of the control so much that I was asking money of friends and family. And
then… Well I guess it was inevitable that I was caught by the fuzz. But cause I
was young at the time, I didn’t have stay the amount of years that I should
have.
I asked him on what it was like to be inside, he shrugs his
shoulders; ‘Tough. I was at rock bottom.Don’t do it’.
‘When I got out, I knew I didn’t want to waste another
second of my life. I wanted to go for my goals and grab them by the ruddy neck.
So I did. It wasn’t easy at firt either. My first job was
manual labour, moving bags of cement on building sites. Meaniwhile why I was
doing that I was creating youtube videos in the hope of being noticed.’
Of course, this is how chalk came to fame, throguh the
simple act of putting up a couple of videos on the page youtube. ‘I think I was
very lucky to get ntoicved by that reccord comapnny. At the time, between the
bulding and the videos, I was busking in Baker Street staion. The money want
good, but at least after a few months of saving I managedged to wangle a decent
second-hand guitar.’
To this day he still holds ownership of the gitiuar, he
having played it on his new album ‘TubeLine’. ‘well a guitars a guitars, yet
that guitar taught me a lot, as fucked up as it sounds. T taught me that life
can be hard, it can kick you down, but you’ve just get to plough on with life
with your passion, or the thinsg ou love. For me that was music.’
But now we lead to Tubeline, the new hit album that has
caused a stir of succsess for the artisit. ‘well its my debue album as Im sure
you know. Erm.. I cant really give too much away, but I can say that if you
like the rebileious goddess that is rock, than it is she who helepd me im my album’
Wet alk, more befour he has to egt going to attend meetings
with the matter of a certin Glastnberry Festival. We head out of costa, tha farmilair London
trafic welcoming us into a cold winter breeze.
Then from out of nowhere Charile chalk appears with a harly davidson
(would it be any other bike?). he asks if I need a lift to the nearest tube
station, but I hmbly denny. I dare not interveene with a god of rock. With this
the screeching of the harley bids farewell.
Tubeline releses next Friday
