The Cheaters Interview

May 9, 11:31 AMBaltimore Band ExaminerJeff Schad

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Now is just the right time to catch up with homegrown talent, The Cheaters. Fresh off some major worldwide touring and some serious stints in the recording studio, the band is poised to keep on the path they have set for themselves. Since forming over four years ago, the band has shown drive, resiliency and an ethic for making their own brand of real rock 'n' roll. Fresh off some serious touring and sessions in the studio, they are poised to continue their positive trajectory. Catch the Cheaters at one of their upcoming shows, they're a bona fide must-see live.

I caught up with drummer, Kevin Shook and lead singer/guitarist Jason Morton on Friday. Here's what they had to say about touring, the upcoming album, Midnight Run and what The Cheaters are made of.

Jeff Schad, Baltimore Band Examiner: Catch us up on what The Cheaters have been up to the last few months; touring Japan and Guam for starters. What was that like?

Kevin Shook: The past few months have been absolutely insane for us. We started the demo process for our new album, Midnight Run, back in December. We put in a couple of months of work into that, and then took a break for a couple of weeks to tour  Japan and Guam. When we got back, we got right back to work on the new album, and actually just finished it. Now we’re onto the rest of the stuff, like artwork and press. The whole time we were doing all of this, we were still playing shows up and down the East Coast too. It never ends, but this is what we love doing.

Examiner: Japan is such a unique place and culture. How did you guys get along over there?

Jason Morton: We got along great. Everyone was really responsive to the music and our live performances. Most of the people we performed in front of were the American soldiers, however we did play the Atsugi Cherry Blossom Festival in front of 5,000 Japanese music fans. This was by far the best performance. The people over there love good old rock n roll. They went nuts! It goes to show that you don’t have to understand a particular language in order to enjoy the musical performance. I wish you could have seen the Japanese James Brown tribute band. That was just downright bad ass!

Examiner: What was it like playing for the troops?

Morton: This was one of the greatest experiences we have ever shared as a band. It felt great to perform for the people that protect our country every day. The troops don’t get to see much live music overseas. Most of the time, they’re stuck on base or in a city that doesn’t have much nightlife, so it felt great to rock for the troops on their own turf. A lot of them told us the shows made them feel like they were back at home. Just hearing that made the trip worthwhile.

Examiner: You have a new CD coming out soon. Tell us about the process of writing new material and recording and how you guys get it done?

Shook:  Yes, the new album is coming out on June 5th, at a big CD Release Party at The 8X10 in Baltimore that night.

The writing process is a little different for us than with a lot of other bands, because we’re all multi-instrumentalists, and all songwriters. This is a lot different than having one band leader that writes everything, and the rest of the band just learns what that person has written. Everyone brings a lot of different influences to the table, and everyone has a say in the songwriting process, so that’s what makes our sound pretty unique.

Recording for us really isn’t a chore at all. We always have a blast in the studio, and actually look forward to it. We did our first album with Frank Marchand at Waterford Digital Studios, and we knew that we definitely wanted to work with him again on the new record. He’s mixed some of our live shows, and knows the band really well. This definitely helped us on the new record, because the goal was to try to capture that live energy of the band. Listening back to our first disc, we definitely play some of those songs a lot faster at our live shows. This time around, we wanted to make sure the record was going to sound more like our live show, and I think we definitely nailed it.

Examiner: Can you give fans some insight about the new CD? What can we expect from your new music?

Shook: The new album is definitely a lot more straight-forward rock ‘n roll than the first disc. We have a couple of tracks that hint back to the southern-influenced material from the first record, but on the whole, this is really just a solid rock record. We also worked really hard on the songwriting this time around. We’ve added a lot more dynamics, like dueling leader guitars, key changes, and different song structures to help keep things fresh. We also brought in some guest musicians this time around, and added some harmonica, back-up singers, and organ on some tunes. We’re all really excited about the new disc, and feel that this is definitely our best effort yet.

Examiner:  What is the biggest progression you have made as a band in the last year?

Morton: The biggest progression we have made in the last year would have to be the completion of our second album “Midnight Run.” It pretty much sums up what we have experienced over the last year. We rocked Lithuania, Japan, Guam, and the continental US in the past year, and had a lot of fun and exciting sleepless nights in the process.
We have been waiting for this moment for a very long time. This CD is certainly long overdue, that’s for sure. We can’t wait to release it to the public on Friday, June 5th at the 8 X 10 in Baltimore, MD. This album ROCKS!!! We are so proud of the music we have written and continue to write. We hope you like it!