The Grin in Chelsea

Chelsea Grin is a deathcore band that has been influential in the metal market since two thousand and eight, when the band was signed to artery records. Chelsea Grin was born in heart of salt lake. The rough scream vocals, heavy guitar, and hooky drums seemed to attract the damaged and broken teenage spirit. It was punk rock reborn, it wasn't about the talent of the music, it wasn't about being polished or perfect, but rather it was about the message. A message that said, yes life is unfair, life is messed up, and sometimes there are no words to express this feeling, so lets scream about it. There is also plenty of talent to be seen in Chelsea Grin. Epically in the original drummer Andrew Carlston. Andrew left in the band in November of two thousand twelve due to complications. Andrew currently lives in Orem UT and is going to school at UVU studying to become a doctor, and on Wednesday night I got the pleasure of sitting down with Andrew and asking him about his time, experience, and money made with Chelsea Grin.

How much money did you make?

The first question I had for Andrew was, how much money were you making when you left the band? With the birth of the internet and music streaming available anywhere, and with people downloading music, I like many people are curious to know how much money is there to be made in music today. Andrew's answer surprised me, “I can give you a rough estimate,” Andrew said smiling, “Anywhere from three thousand to six thousand dollars a month.” Andrew said that Chelsea Grin did an even distribution of money so anywhere from three thousand to six thousand times five and you have the total money the band was making a month. “Some bands make more, sometimes close to one hundred thousand a month,” Andrew elaborated by saying, “And some bands do the distributing differently, sometimes the one who writes the songs gets more money.” Andrew went on to explain, “The metal industry. Or the underground metal market is massive. There is a lot of money to be made. Most of your mainstream bands came from it, Avenged Sevenfold was one of them. I can remember seeing them play at in the venue with five hundred people watching.”

But things weren't always so glamorous for Chelsea Grin, in the early days the band had to scrip and save for tour. They would live on two dollar meals from taco bell. Chelsea Grin was launched by Myspace, The band had an amazing marketing stagey early on. “We made it so that every show we played in the early days we were headlining.” Andrew stated, “Confidence. Whatever you think you are, you will become, its eighty percent image.” Andrew could not emphasize that enough.

“A band is a business and you have to know your market and how to market your business or band successfully.”

Andrew went on to say, “We would go to different cites and states just do DIY (Do it yourself) shows, paying for gas. Funnest times of being in a band, were the beginning days, as much as I hated touring in van, I hated living in a van full of twelve people, but they were the wild times.”

What was provided for free? And what did you have to pay for?

“Food would vary from tour tour,” Andrew said, “Most tours we would do a buyout where the promoter would provide food, if not the promoter would get us about ten bucks for food.”

How much money did you have to spend on tour?

“That's hard.” Andrew said, “There are a lot of things that happen, like busting drum equipment on the road that I would have to buy. Mainly I would end up spending money on miscellaneous stuff. You get so bored that gets to a point to where you go out just to spend money. There's definitely an image you have to uphold. You can't come out looking like a bum.” This theory of image all depends on the image of the band. The Beatles are a great example, they would dress in suits to present a clean image for parents, while girls would scream, begging to part of the spotlight even if for a second. There are some bands that do come out looking like a bum, but looking like a bum was never a part of Chelsea Grin.

Andrew elaborated on the expense of the road by saying, “There are a lot of upgrades you spend your money on to make your sound better. You get a lot more knowledge as you play. Lights, cables, triggers, guitar heads, a lot of it can come free from labels. But they only give you so much. Say you want four full stacks on both sides, but they only give you two. So you have to go out and buy the other two.”

“An engineer is the most expensive part of a band.” Andrew said, “Engineer's cost anywhere from five hundred to three thousand a week. They are the guy that makes everything sound good on the stage. If you don't sound good no one is going to want to see you play.” 

An engineer is more commonly called a sound guy. They are the ones who know how to add the perfect effects to make a band sound amazing. “Engineer's are professorial,” Andrew said, “And they deserve more credit than they get.”

“Lights are another thing,” Andrew continued, “An LD. Is a light guy. But the lights get kids energized and keep the level of a show up.”

What were some of the worst things about tour?

“Boredom.” Andrew answered quickly. “It got really repetitive. Things were the same. Wake up at 4 in the afternoon, show up for a show, went in to test drums, or in the later days I had a drum tech so he would do everything. And then hang out on the bus all day. You go walk around, but ninety percent of the time you've already been to those venues. You've already been there you've seen the town already. So you just walk around.”

Best things about touring?

“Cool stuff was getting trashed with other bands.” Andrew stated Andrew laughed as he said, “I Burned Danny's two thousand dollar boots.” For those of you who don't know who Danny is the lead singer of the band Asking Alexandria. Andrew laughed some more as he continued with his story. “Danny's payback was to piss on my pumas and light them on fire.” It seems that the best thing about touring are the bonds you are able to form with other musician's and people. You live with other musicians and grow close to them, they become some of your best friends. “My dream was always being in band,” Andrew said, “Once it came to life it was awesome for the first few years, and then it went miserable.”

Andrew elaborated by saying, “I realized that I didn't...it wasn't real. I'm happier now, the people I was around made it really hard. Not that I wouldn't do it again, cause I loved it. You have to love the people you are around and with, but that love can go sour. Epically living with em all the time all day every day.”

What were the girls like?

“Its very very easy.” Andrew said smiling. “The bigger you get the less effort you want to put in. It gets to a point when you're so famous that another a guy goes around and picks the girls to bring on the bus, and once they are on the bus, in that sacred area and see who are, they are down for anything. Girls who sniff coke off of buttholes.” Andrew stopped for a second to take a drink. “That would actually happen, not all the time,” Andrew said, “But still...girls were down to impress the band.”

“Super fans,” Andrew continued, “Super fans are the worst, most bands don't want to go out of the bus, because they get pounded by fans and asked the same questions all the time. Or told the same things over and over again. Such as, hey I love your band, or hey that song you have is so good.” Andrew also stated, “Bands get egos, and that is a downfall. The bigger your band gets. The bigger the ego gets.”

How were the drugs brought into play?

“Drugs are just part of music in general.” Andrew said. “Drugs are there, it doesn't matter what genre you play. Band members end up getting into it because of boredom. You don't have to work, you just go on stage and play. The only thing you have to worry about is yelling at people.” I asked Andrew if the drugs were free, if they cost money, and how they were introduced. “People come on the bus offering coke.” Andrew stated. He continued to elaborate with an example. “A guy would come on the bus and be like, 'Hey I have this banging girlfriend and I want to watch you bang her, while we all do some coke.'” Andrew also said, “Girls offer to get drugs to hang with band, as well guys.”

Was it all a big party?

“A big repetitive party.” Andrew said. “Tons of drinking, thats what I got into. You wanna go to a place to party. Even more if you don't have a show to go to. Tons of bars, house parties, a band will kill a bottle a night easy. Chelsea Grin was a whole another level of a party band. They would party just as hard anyone.”

What was life like being in a band?

“Band life,” Andrew said smiling, “You would just be sitting on a couch playing video games, or watching someone play the video games most of the night, or you'd be getting high, drinking, ect.” Andrew paused and thought for a moment, then saying, “Or you'd be in your bunk cause you didn't want to talk to anyone. The bunks were not big. About as a big as a two person couch. Hard to rail a girl in your bunk,” Andrew said laughing and smiling, “Usually you end up kick people out of the back of lounge when you wanted to rail a girl.”
 

Andrew elaborated on the back of the bus verses the front, “The front lounge was where the party was at, the back was where the geeks were at. I ended up getting sick of people on bus period.” Andrew said. “I'd wake up and some guy would be so messed up that he had passed out on the bus the night before. He'd wake up the next morning on the bus in different city.”

 

“Where I am I?” The kid would ask.

“I don't know but you got go.” Andrew would answer. Sometimes the newly woken up guys would ask where there girlfriends were from the night before, “I don't know, but you gotta go” was always the answer.
 

When asking Andrew about band life one last time he said, “It was a fun life, I'll live it again I'm sure.”

Keep an eye out world Andrew Carlston may be coming back into the music scene with a big bang.