In Rapture: A Conversation with Chadwick Salls (Seed/Color)

Seed Discography:

ling (Mechanic/Giant, 1994)

Color Discography:

Are You With Me? (Melisma/Arista, 2001)

Following-up with notable musicians I've chatted with previously has become a new favorite thing to do. Up next is Chadwick Salls, best known as the bassist/singer in two different bands, Seed and Color. While neither band lasted very long, caught in the wheels of major label indifference, they managed to carve out their path and establish notable fanbases. Salls has gone on to establish his own career on his own terms and was happy to take a fuller look back with me at both of his bands and where he is now.

Pete Crigler: When did you first become interested in music?

Chadwick Salls: As far back as I can remember! I was under 5-years-old and I remember reaching up as high as I could to hit the keys because I couldn't get up on the bench. The verse of "It's Only Love" by The Beatles was the first thing I picked out by ear and after teaching for so many years, I'm pretty impressed with my little self! It has a major seven and a flat seven in the melody, so I'm surprised I could pick it out!

Pete: How did Seed come together and how did the band find its sound?

Chadwick: Dean and I knew each other since Kindergarten and we started playing music together in 8th grade but in High School, I went the New Wave route and he went towards metal. Gabriel was the singer of Dean's band and after they graduated, they moved to Los Angeles and went to the Musician's Institute. I had moved to Austin right out of school and a year or so later, Dean and Gabriel moved to Austin and we bonded over Classic Rock and started writing. We found Kyle through a mutual friend and he was the final piece to the puzzle. We started off with a pretty heavy sound with everyone contributing to the writing and our early influences were everywhere from Jane's Addiction, King's X, Soundgarden, and Alice In Chains. Melodically, it wasn't as hooky as I would have liked so I started writing on my own with me adding more of my New Wave and early Alternative influences.

Pete: What was the Texas scene around the band like and was there any sort of overall influence?

Chadwick: We did not fit in with the blues/funk sound of Austin but thankfully we were able to make our own scene with other like-minded bands that started up after we started getting some success.

Pete: How did songs like Rapture, Doe, and Kids…this is Fabulon come about?

Chadwick: When I started writing on my own, "Rapture" and "Doe" came pretty quickly. As you can hear, they sound like two different bands but I just followed the muse and wrote what came out. "Rapture" got started from the chords of "Lay Lady Lay" by Bob Dylan and I had fun playing with chromatic movements and all the other chords fell out from there. The "Doe" riff was inspired by "All I Want" by The Cure and musically the verse was inspired by Fugazi and Quicksand. All I hear vocally is an ersatz Peter Murphy but I liked the tune. "Kids…this is Fabulon" was written during pre-production for the record. I believe we already had 10 songs ready to go for the record but I kept writing and I'd say half the record were songs I had written in those weeks before we started recording.

Pete: How did the band get discovered by Howard Benson?

Chadwick: I remember we were all pretty bummed that we didn't get into SXSW the first year we tried but we continued to rehearse during the festival. Howard happened to be walking through the halls and heard us play, so he came in and asked to hear a few more tunes. He seemed pretty bold and said "I want to produce you and I will help you get signed" and not too long after that, he did! He was a mentor to me and though Mechanic/Giant wasn't the best label, I owe my whole career to Howard.

Pete: What was the process like signing with Mechanic/Giant and do you feel it was the right decision?

Chadwick: We technically didn't even sign the record deal til halfway through the recording! It was the right decision because they let us make the record we wanted to make.

Pete: What was it like recording ling?

Chadwick: Recording "ling" will be one of the fondest memories of my life. We were all so inspired, we laughed a lot and we worked our asses off. Because we were so young, we made plenty of production mistakes but I'm still fond of the parts I wrote.

Pete: How would you describe the amount of ‘success’ the band had and how did you feel about it?

Chadwick: I actually feel the most "success" just having people say it's their favorite album 26 years later. I wish the label would have backed us longer but I've never been one to dwell on the past.

Pete: Tell me about the recording of We Three Kings?

Chadwick: That's probably one of our rarest tunes that we recorded for a local radio station's compilation. We had a different drummer by that time and you can hear that we all loved Weezer! It's still one of my favorite Christmas songs and I still do like the chords and the "oohs" I wrote to give it a "My Name Is Jonas" vibe.

Pete: Were there sessions for a second album and when did the tension start to form?

Chadwick: I continued to write but by that time we lost focus as a band. One guy wanted to sound like "The Black Crowes" and one guy wanted to sound like "Green Day" and I didn't want to sound like either! I ended up writing songs to appease each member but because my heart wasn't in it, my songs suffered.

Pete: What ultimately caused Seed to break up and do you think it was done in haste?

Chadwick: We broke up because we didn't have that sense of urgency that we had at the beginning. There's nothing worse than trying to keep the ball rolling when no one else had the drive I had.

Pete: When did you and Dean decide to form Color?

Chadwick: Seed eventually disbanded and it was "on to the next"! I was really into writing anthemic songs like U2, The Who, Cheap Trick and eventually we found the perfect drummer and a singer with a good range. We played to no one for a few years but the songs were strong and we got label interest. What's hilarious is that NO ONE came to our shows in Austin but we had a packed showcase in New York with all Seed fans!

Pete: What was it like signing with Melisma/Arista and working with Matt Serletic?

Chadwick: Being signed to a major was exciting but I wanted Neal Avron (Everclear producer) to produce us. He did our demos to get us signed and it was huge sounding with a lot of space. I knew Matt was likely to overproduce us, which he did, but our demos caught our sound. We were an outstanding live band that could have done the record in 3 weeks but we spent 6 months adding tracks that weren't needed. I told the guys, "if you don't record them, they can't use them in the mix". They didn't listen, so I just went to New York to spend time with my new girlfriend.

Pete: Was the songwriting for Color different than it had been in Seed and how so?

Chadwick: Color had some of the same weird chords and time signatures that Seed had but sadly our production and singer were cheesy, so they didn't connect. There are a few songs on that record that are in the top 10 best melodies I've written.

Pete: Were you ultimately happy with how the album turned out?

Chadwick: We all hated it! Our drummer even threw his Discman against the wall and it broke into a million pieces! I remember visiting the offices and saw our singles that were being sent out to radio stations. It was remixed by some guy that worked with Linkin Park and it was one of the most embarrassing things I've ever heard. Our single had THREE CHORDS and somehow he moved things around and they weren't even in the right place! I raised hell and that certainly didn't go over well with the label but they ended up releasing the album version. Now I wish I had kept one of the remixes because I love listening back and laughing about what we went through!

Pete: What caused Color to break up so suddenly?

Chadwick: Matt Serletic became the president of Virgin and left us high and dry on Arista, so they did no promotion at all. There was talk about us writing another record and moving to Virgin but I didn't care to do another label for Matt and the band wasn't a brotherhood like Seed was.

Pete: What have you been up to musically and not in the years since?

Chadwick: I have done tons of session work, I teach music and I continue to write songs.

Pete: What was it like to reunite with Gabriel?

Chadwick: It was outstanding! He didn't want to do a reunion at first but when I told him that we can play as a duo, he was up for it. We had not played in over a decade but when we practiced at my house, the blend and the vibe was there! His wife had never seen Seed play but she commented about how magical we are together! I was extremely nervous because I had to somehow arrange the guitar, bass, and piano hooks on guitar (I'm still the most confident on bass) but the show went well!

Pete: Tell me about how Kazi came together.

Chadwick: I started Kazi with people much younger than me and started writing the best tunes of my life. Sadly, the singer had no work ethic, so I broke up the band. Now Kazi, is just me playing everything but drums and I'm 3/4 of the way through a record. I'm still not very confident as a vocalist but I know the songs are catchy as hell and lyrically it's very "me". For the first time in my life, I started caring about lyrics and since they show my personality, I might as well buck up and start singing them!

Pete: Do you keep in touch with your old bandmates and what are they up to?

Chadwick: Gabriel is the only person I care to talk to. He's always been so positive and we always have good talks. Even when Seed broke up, he and I had no issues, so I'm happy we let bygones be bygones.

Pete: What do you ultimately hope your musical legacy will be?

Chadwick: I'm an artist so I just want to stay productive! Success isn't money or fame to me. If I have people listening to my band after 26 years or if they are interested in my newest songs, that's success to me!