Once you start listening to their music, it honestly is almost impossible to stop. One In The Chamber has that gravity that pulls you in until you’ve binged on all of their audio and visual content. Digesting their music is like eating from both sides of the mushroom in Alice In Wonderland: some songs will have you feeling larger than life, and some will have you questioning existential matters, both sides mind you, being of the highest quality available to your hearing senses. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to one of the finest rock bands we’ve ever covered.
Let’s start with what our readers see first: the music video. Blow is incredibly remarkable in terms of quality and striking visuals: from neon blue, leather jackets, heavy-gel hairstyles, to a whole lot of eyewear and plenty of rings, we need to know if anyone in particular pushed for the idea of a music video or if it was a unanimous feeling? Gerrod Harris, the drummer, shares: “I think “Blow”, of all the songs we had written since our 2018 debut EP, was the obvious choice. The goal was to create a record that was just this big, larger than life, hard-hitting, rock & roll banger, and then to make a visual that complimented the vibe.” Then I guess the short answer would be that all band members felt the same way about the same song. Talk about being on the same page!
If you were intrigued, like we were, on WHY each one of the 4 members is sporting sunglasses in the Blow video, we got just the answer for you! “Diego del Río and Kathleen Fobert, our video director and producer, suggested the glasses for this video as they’d really help further accent the blue neon lights” goes to detail Gerrod, to which Christian Dotto, the bassist of One In The Chamber, amusingly adds: “I usually never even wear shades during shows or video shoots ’cause of fear that they’ll just fall off with all the headbanging, but in the “Blow” music video, it turns out they worked like a charm and stayed on my face the entire time! I think I’ll start rocking them more often as a matter of fact.”
The guys disclosed as well that Blow is their fastest-growing single that still garners them new fans to this day. And once you play it, you get it. From the very intro, those sharp electric guitar snippets have you feeling like you’re about to watch a Michael Bay trailer, displaying the same gravitas and thriller-like vibes. Then all of the instruments come together to provide a staple rock record that provides the audience with much-missed badassness. We haven’t had swag bonafide rock bands like this since… The Fall Out Boys became famous.
The absolute beauty and essence of One In The Chamber is that they create songs that actually stick and are easy to sing along to. You might be a bubble-gum pop fan and you’ll still feel compelled to appreciate the stellar rock music OITC brings to the table. Diving further into that, we investigated the origins of another very successful song they’ve released 2 years ago, Bills To Pay: “I wrote the lyrics for Bills To Pay when I was working at a warehouse to pay for school” shares Mike Biase, the lead vocalist and one of the guitar players of OITC, “I had a lot of time to write there and the song came about one day while was eating lunch on the roof. I started thinking of other ways I had tried to make money, and then other ways I COULD make money, and then REALLY crazy ways to make money, and the song started to come together. The second verse is, for the most part, a true story.” With our detective hat on, we pulled out the lyrics of the 2nd verse of Bills To Pay: “Driving to the track/ With my buddy in the back/ And this lady he was trying to score/ She’s a real down-towner/ Couldn’t have said it any louder/ And she hustles on down to the floor/ And as I’m looking in the mirror/ They’re getting busy in the rear/ And I drove my car into a ditch/ Now I’m shit out of luck/ I’ve got to spend another buck/ I got to pay a guy to give me a hitch” – well Mike, you don’t even need an Instagram account! You captured all of the details in the song 😀
On a more personal note, everyone living in Toronto right now is hella lucky. Why you might ask? ’cause the entire band lives in and around the Greater Toronto Area, so that’s their home for now 😦 Get a summer house in Italy! We promise you, the food is great and people love organic music over here!
“How did the band form?” goes our natural question, to which Gerrod shares how he was sort of “recruited” into the creation of it: “I was at a Christmas party after a jazz gig at The Ab, a bar at York University, and I got a call from the bartender. He, Cecil Eugene, had a singer, Mike Biase, and they were looking for a drummer for a rock band. That was all I needed to hear. We started to jam and write and eventually, Cecil got in touch with Christian about playing bass. After one practice together, it was clear we were a band and we would soon book our first gig in June 2015.” well… poor Christian actually had to prove himself and audition for the band 😀 in his own words: “I knew Cecil from high school but we didn’t talk all that much until I found out that he was looking for a bassist for his new band. At the time, my last band had broken up and I was a couple months into auditioning for other bands as a drummer, but not much was coming from it, so I was thrilled when I heard that there was an opportunity to play in another band again. So I learned the songs and went in for an audition. The guys liked my playing and so One In The Chamber was born!” for some reason, it is hilarious how the other 3 guys just knew their roles and places while Christian Dotto went from trying out as a drummer for other bands to a bassist for OITC. These guys are everything BUT boring 😀 One In The Chamber can pull out two crowd-pleasers during interviews at any time, one of how Bills To Pay is based on real-life events, and two, how Christian found his way “home”.
“What is the easiest thing in being 4 different people working together? How about the hardest?” we have to ask as we all know that artists have… big personalities to say the least! “We all come from vastly different musical backgrounds and we each like many different, and often conflicting, artists. At first, I think that THAT’s what made things challenging, but now we welcome the diverse list of influences: it makes for a more exciting and unpredictable experience when it comes to writing and performing” says Gerrod. Fair enough! Interesting though how their own personal preferences played such a big role in the creative process of OITC. Didn’t see that one coming. And here goes Christian, the one member we feel deserves a hug for having had to prove himself, to expand on Gerrod’s answer: “You really have to learn to compromise, when you’re in a band, and work towards what’s best for a song, even if that means changing an idea that you may think is perfect. We’re all very passionate about what we contribute to the group and, as Gerrod pointed out, sometimes that brings on clashing ideas and disagreements. That’s the most challenging part for me, but we typically come out with some kickass material from it. The easiest part about working with these guys, for me, is when we’re performing on stage. When we’re all in the zone, it feels like nothing can stop us.”
Now let’s hit ’em with a last question: “How do you feel about the current state of the Rock genre in the music industry?” Mike’s the first one to answer: “We’re really fortunate to be a part of such a talented scene like the Toronto music community. It’s a great time to be a Toronto band.” Yeah, we get it, but seriously, when the global after-effects of THE virus go away, come tour in Europe!
Gerrod: “I think, if you really dig for it, you’ll find some incredible rock music that is being made today. Go beyond the radio stations and look to the underground, it’s there.”
Christian: “I agree. Rock music may not be at the top of the food chain anymore, but it doesn’t take much to see that it’s still thriving. There are a ton of excellent bands out there itching to be heard and honestly, nowadays, some of my favorite bands are smaller and independent.”
Uhm… Someone explain where’s Cecil? 
I mean, he did give off boss vibes from being spoken about just in 3rd person but damn! Were we not worthy of at least 1 direct answer from you, Cecil??
One In The Chamber is a rock band of modern quality intricacies, offering at the same time a familiar perspective through the suave, sometimes amusing lyrics, and gifts the audience with tremendous but harmless vanity.
Reach out to OITC directly on their social media: on Instagram HERE, on Facebook HERE, on Twitter HERE.
Make sure you add One In The Chamber’s music on your playlists on Apple Music HERE, on Google Play HERE, and on Spotify below:
Interview conducted by Mariana Berdianu
Blue Rhymez Entertainment ©2020
Blue Rhymez Entertainment 