Chad Ubovich - Meatbodies & Fuzz Interview
When and where were you born? What was your childhood like growing up? When did you first begin to fall in love with music, more specifically the bass? Was this something that was relevant around your household growing up?
I was born in Whittier, California in the winter of 1988. My childhood was a little tumultuous, but probably fairly common for children growing up in the 90’s with baby boomer parents who wanted desperately to play house in the suburbs, go to church on Sundays, and finding out they never fully got to flex their care-free attitudes in their youth the 70’s. My interest in music started to show itself at a very early age, possibly maybe 3-4 years old. My family would try their best to take a lot of trips in our hand-me-down Chrysler mini van that either played: K-EARTH 101, the White Album home recorded onto tape, the best of Andrew Lloyd Weber, Mozart, or the soundtrack to the film Beaches on heavy rotation. I loved them all, specifically the Mozart. I would sit in my car seat and conduct to his music, and would get so upset when it was turned off. I never really had a specific love for the bass guitar probably until maybe the third Fuzz album was made. It was always just the instrument that I would volunteer to play in a band, because A. I like playing in bands, and B. the majority of musicians get very scared of volunteering to be the bassist. I would say I definitely prefer playing the guitar, and writing songs, and singing. But I’ve come to love the art of bass through the years, and have developed my own personal theories on how it should be played. I would say my first memory of a bass instrument would be playing around with the stand-up double basses in my father’s band room. Music was very prevalent in my household. For years my father was a high school band teacher, and he was very interested in getting his children to play an instrument at an early age. My first two instruments were piano, and then saxophone. As far as the bass, I remember when he would let me run around the high school band room, and I’d sneak into the double bass closet where they were held and pluck away at the big bass strings in the dim light and watch how trippy the vibrations were from the strings.
What would you do for fun growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When and where did you see your first concert and when did you realize you wanted to spend your time pursuing music?
Growing up, I was a pretty normal millennial child in the 90s - I liked the Chicago Bulls, and basketball, cartoons, WWF wrestling, and later skateboarding, and TPS. The latter probably got me more interested in punk rock, and later on guitar. My influences in my formative years were pretty much that, and then everything that goes along with guitar. So we’re talking about loving the Sex Pistols, then it turned into Ozzy Osbourne, then it turned into Jimi Hendrix, then going to Guitar Center, and Hot Topic to get a Rush shirt… That kind of shit. Learning all the different guitarists and taping yourself on a VHS-C camera, holding your guitar really low to see if you look like Zakk Wylde… I didn’t. The first concert I ever saw was a Yes show. My good buddies Cory, and Casey Hanson’s uncle caught wind that the three of us (who grew up together) had an interest in guitar and Led Zeppelin, just like he did back in the day. So he took us under his wing, and would make us watch him jam with his buddy on guitar, or take us to different concerts. So, my first one was Yes. I had never heard of Yes, except that they made that song that was on KLOS Owner Of A Lonely Heart, but “that song sucks, and you got to check all their other stuff, here’s a burned CD.” So I’d listen to it on my walkman at school and learned everything I could about the band and, then we went to the show. As far as pursuing music there were definitely different times and signs in my life that steered me in that direction. Earliest of these times might be me going to bed every night in high school watching either my AC/DC live in Germany, or Ozzy Osbourne live at Budokan, or Jimi live at Woodstock DVDs on my PlayStation. At a certain point I just couldn’t really imagine myself doing anything else. In college I tried to go to film school but I ended up dropping out to go to recording school instead, because I figured I’d much rather do anything with sound, or music vs. being some key grip on set or something. One time me and my grandmother were visiting a family grave, and we stood off to the sidelines having a chat about life and death, and I asked her what she’d rather see me do in life before she passed. She told me she’d like to see me do music, so... I took it to heart.
When and where did you play your very first gig and what was that experience like for you? Prior to joining Fuzz you participated in Pangea (now/ known as Together Pangea) and Meatbodies with members such as Cory Hanson. How did you guys initially meet each other and what led to forming these killer outfits?
My first gig ever, was maybe at Lacey Park in San Marino. Or maybe it was at my middle school on an outside stage, probably playing some cover that I have no memory of on a red Jackson Dinky with a Floyd Rose that I didn’t know how to work. I think it was fine. I don’t remember thinking twice about it. I was only in Pangea for maybe 6 months. Cory and I grew up together and when he went to college he got into CalArts and that’s where we met Danny Bengston, and William and Pangea. They were the college’s sensation. Every Thursday there was a giant party at CalArts. The entire school would transform into different parties and art shows. It was very free rein, and encouraging for young students to express themselves and “experiment.” Pangea was usually the entertainment for a lot these nights. I can’t name how many times you’d wind up at a Pangea show at the end of the night, watching all these kids sing along to these little ditties. Later on, when everyone was graduating, our buddy Mikal Cronin was coming out with his first record, and going on tour with Ty Segall playing it and needed a band. So, he grabbed: Cory on guitar, Danny, and Erik from Pangea on rhythm guitar and drums, and asked if I played the bass and if I’d like to go.
So just like before, in other bands that didn’t have someone stepping up to play the bass, I said “sure!” Around that same time as the first Cronin band formation, Cory had started playing guitar for Pangea, and after a while wasn’t really feeling it. So when there was news that he was going to leave, I was already living with most of the members of Pangea, and I raised my hand, and volunteered to play guitar. However, it didn’t last long. Pangea was gearing up to sign with a major, and I went to the meetings, and schmoozed with the scouts, and didn’t really dig the vibe. I offered to play guitar for them live and record, but I didn’t need any advance money, or want to sign any deal. I think they wanted someone a little more dedicated though, so I stopped playing with them. Meatbodies came about as more of a “solo project” of sorts. Originally called Chad and The Meatbodies, meaning me, and whoever was playing with me. I was touring with Cronin, and in-between tours I was writing Meatbodies songs. Eventually Ty heard some of my recordings and wanted to put them out on his label, and to open some shows for him. I grabbed a plethora of different homies to play live in the band. Some of them would leave and some stayed for awhile. At a certain point this included people that I was already touring with in Cronin band, and Pangea. Cory and Erik recorded on the first album, along with Ty as well, and it’s been multiple different musicians over the years who have ended up on the records and play the shows.
Jumping ahead to you and Cory's next outfit, Meatbodies. The band released some killer works on In The Red Recordings starting with the group's 2014 self-titled debut. What was the overall process and approach to this album? How did you guys want to approach the band's sound with this particular project having come off the first incarnation of Pangea?
Well, Meatbodies like I said, is more of a solo project vs. me, and Cory. Cory played on some of the songs off the first album, and did contribute ideas along with the other people who played on it as well, but for the most part it was mainly myself, and the songs that I wrote in between tours with Mikal Cronin. At the time, my favorite past time when I was off tour was sitting in a room lit only by one lamp with a green light bulb, smoking a lot of marijuana, and listening to my vinyl. A lot of the vinyl that I was into at the time I think made their mark on that album. If you listen closely you might hear it - I’m talking Mighty Baby, The Who, The Grateful Dead etc. And in between listening stoned, I’d pick up my guitar and play stoned, and the result is a lot of these songs. Eventually I recorded some of these, and somehow Ty, and the Ty band got a hold of them, and one day hit me up, and said he would put them out on his personal label. I just had to add a couple more songs, and get them to him by the end of the week. I accepted the challenge, and turned them in, and he made them into a tape. Eventually In The Red got ahold of me, and said they wanted to press a vinyl, and would pay for it to get recorded, and thats how the first album was made.
The band would go on to release a number of singles/EP's and another full length in 2017 entitled "Alice". Can you tell me about some of these projects and some of your fondest memories during those times?
When we recorded Alice a lot had happened in between the self titled and Alice. I had been asked to join Fuzz, Meatbodies had more multiple musicians come, and go, and the world news was going crazy about ISIS, and Donald Trump. So I started writing this escapist encouragement album as kind of a “tune in, drop out” mentality. I had been a pretty free-form experimental stoner up until that point, and I just wanted to encourage everyone to do the same. So I wrote a whole bunch of jargon about a new deity named Alice, and these stories about a futuristic Blade Runner-type world, with wires attached to people, that spanned over the entire planet, and the “answer” to getting away was to “unplug” - get off your phones, get away from religious constraints, get back to nature, have sex, take drugs. All in the name of a new lady god named Alice. I don’t know if it really hit home, but I was sort of living that way in my life at the time, and I still like playing some of those songs. Life was hard for Alice though, there was inner turmoil inside the band, I ended up having to record, and mix almost everything myself, and the release got so delayed by almost a year. We made the whole album, and then the lathe cutter got back to us saying we had to decide what song to take off the vinyl because all the songs wouldn’t fit on one side. That was a big topic of which song to take off. Then we got accused of copying another song, so we went back in the studio and change it again. It was rough. By time it came out, the reviews weren’t so good, and we thought we blew it. But now a’days I hear from quite a lot of people that that’s their favorite album, and one of the songs “Fools Fold Their Hands”, which was personally my favorite has like two million plays, or something like that on Spotify. So hey, not all bad.
I'd like to jump ahead to you joining up with the FUZZ guys in 2015 for the band's highly anticipated follow up. How did you initially meet Ty and what led to you joining those guys?
I met Ty back when I was 17 years old. I had a band called The Dead Eye Cells in high school, and we got put on a bill with Ty’s high school band. My band was only guitar, keys, and drums and his band showed up and they were also just guitar, keys, and drums. We quickly became friends. Then I didn’t hear from him again until Mikal, who I met at CalArts in college, said he was going to a Ty solo show at The Smell. I went over there, and we reconnected and he gave me his newest album at the time, Lemons. Eventually through the years we did many tours together, and I also become really good friends with Charles Moothart. Mikal lived with Charles up in San Francisco, so every time the Cronin band had practices for a tour I’d go up to SF, and stay at Charles, and Mikal’s house. One of those trips I was driving through The Mission to Charles’ and I ran into Ty on the street. I waved him down, and he said he had a new band with Charles called Fuzz, and I had to hear the tape they just made. So that night we hung in Charlie’s basement, and played pool, and listened to the tape. I was really into it. It was right up my alley. So, just like before. With other bands. I stepped up and said - “you know, if you need a bass player for this, I’d do it...”, but sad.ly they said they were giving it to their friend from back home. So instead Meatbodies started opening up a bunch of shows for Fuzz. I think we played their first three shows ever. It wasn’t until right before the first Fuzz record came out I got a call from Ty, and he had told me things had gone south with their friend, and he offered me the gig. So when that first album came out I immediately joined Fuzz and started touring it.
l'd love to know some of the backstory to tracks such as 'Bringer Of Light", "Red Flag", "Let It Live", "Rat Race" and "New Flesh". As summer draws to an end, what else does the rest of 2023 look like for you? Any shows, projects, or tours In the works? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers
Bringer of Light was just a heavy song that Charles, or Ty had in their back pocket, and we just kept going deeper, and deeper into the heavy mind set, making sure we didn’t cross the line until it was lame. “Red Flag” I think was a Ty song? I can’t remember. We were stoked on the idea of a punk song being on the album so we could pull it out for mosh times live. “Let it Live” I think was one of the earlier songs we were working on. I don’t remember that much weight being put on it until years later when people’s response to the song increased significantly. “Rat Race” was a Charles special. “New Flesh” was a song I was writing, but I couldn’t really find a place in Meatbodies for it. I wanted Ty to make the melody, and the lyrics. I came up with he first line, and wanted him to put his swing on it, but I think we ended up doing it together. There are more albums coming. Meatbodies’ new album will be out beginning of next year, and I’m working on some strictly solo albums right now as well. Ty has a whole back catalogue of stuff he has to put out so I’m not sure when Fuzz is getting together again, but I’m sure it’ll happen soon. I’ll definitely push - PEACE!
