Chiodos bucks the latest trends in indie music

‘ ‘ ‘ At first, Derrick Frost seems like a kid with whom so many of us went to high school: He… ‘ ‘ ‘ At first, Derrick Frost seems like a kid with whom so many of us went to high school: He loves The Get Up Kids, Saves the Day and Taking Back Sunday (the first record only, of course), he’s a bit of a sensitive heart, and he says ‘dude.’ A lot. ‘ ‘ ‘ Yup, Frost was a good ol’ emo kid in high school. But he was an emo kid who played drums like a madman and didn’t quite fit into his rural Texas cowboy town. So when he got word that a hardcore band from Michigan needed a new drummer, he was quick to catch a bus north. And, as he said, ‘I really just never came home.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ The band was Chiodos, so named for the moniker of three obscure filmmaker brothers, and with Frost in tow, they soon released All’s Well that Ends Well, an album with song titles longer than book chapters and a sound that twisted the classic emo mold into something wholly different ‘mdash; bigger, more theatric and way, way darker than your average Jimmy Eat World fare. ‘ ‘ ‘ And for Frost, it was all a matter of luck. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘It was something inside of me that wanted to do this full time. I was determined to get out of high school and move to California. I was in the mindset that you have to go to California or New York to make it in the arts,’ said Frost in an interview with The Pitt News. ‘That’s definitely not true nowadays. I was willing to work as hard as I possibly could to be in the right band with the right people at the right time … but it really was all about placement.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Frost, along with frontman Craig Owens, keyboardist Bradley Bell, guitarists Pat McManaman and Jason Hale and bassist Matt Goddardtook the band-just-tryin’-to-make-it attitude to heart. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Even before we started touring full time, we’d practice seven days a week. It was the same thing as going to work. We made it our jobs,’ said Frost. ‘ ‘ ‘ And the tireless practicing shows ‘mdash; there are few bands out there shredding with the technical accuracy of this post-hardcore-emo-whatever-you-want-to-call-it outfit. The band combines Owens’ dramatic and high-pitched voice with jackhammer guitars, huge shifts in dynamics, a healthy serving of percussion-heavy breakdowns and layered strings and piano for a goth-tinged rock romp. ‘ ‘ ‘ Riding on the popularity of its debut through a handful of tours, including a widely celebrated performance at the 2006 Bamboozle festival (‘We wanted to just kill this crowd, let them leave knowing that the best band to see was us,’ said Frost), Chiodos dropped Bone Palace Ballet in the fall of 2007. To the utter shock of the band, the record hit the charts at No. 5. ‘ ‘ ‘ So how does a band go from relative unknowns to near-topping the charts without any major radio or MTV promotion? The simple answer that Frost is more than willing to give is this: hard work, touring, touring and touring. Oh yeah, and being the best live band it can possibly be. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘It’s my responsibility to myself and my band to bring 120 percent every single night. Nowadays, there are so many tricks you can do with computers to make a band sound like something they’re totally not. We strive away from that,’ said Frost. ‘The worst thing is hearing an amazing CD, then seeing the band suck live. If bands don’t put on a good show, the fans are getting robbed.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ But just as the band was hitting its stride this summer, Chiodos was sidelined indefinitely when Owens attempted suicide in August. The singer was admitted to a mental health facility and given time to recover with the support of his band and friends. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘It was devastating, man. The only thing we can do for each other is be open ‘mdash; we gotta keep this rolling. This is our dream together. I hope that any of us could reach out to any others,’ Frost said. ‘But I don’t tell what’s going on in my personal life to my band ‘mdash; that’s the way we are. We’re very private about our lives ‘mdash; the music and the fans, everything that we connect together is our public domain.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ With Frost, there are few things more in the public domain than his disinterest in much of today’s music scene. Choosing to skip most of his tourmates’ performances, Frost will likely choose his trusty longtime favorites over a new MySpace band any day. And if you really get him riled up, it’d be smart to watch out. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘During our last Warped Tour, I tried to fight the singer of Escape the Fate, who is now in jail [Ronnie Radke, for involvement in a shooting death]. I had too much to drink one night, I started throwing sugar packets at him in a restaurant, and I just thought, ‘Hey, let’s go. I don’t even give a f—.” ‘ ‘ ‘ Chiodos hits the stage at Mr. Smalls on Wednesday night ‘mdash; just watch out for sugar packets.