Secret And Whisper | Youth In Revolt
Written By: Jameson Ketchum

ecret and Whisper-Born out of desire to keep moving forward after a stint in the majors with a different band, Jordan Chase and his band Secret and Whisper exploded onto the scene with the underrated Tooth N’ Nail release Great White Whale in early 2008. Since then, the boys from the North have been touring nonstop and working meticulously on their new record, Teenage Fantasy, due out this coming February. Drawing comparisons to major acts such as Saosin, Secret and Whisper seem to have their feet on solid ground as they gracefully embrace an approach to music that is often said but rarely lived out: “Lets write whatever we want.” Guitarist Jordan Chase spoke with us last month to give us some insight on the band itself as well as why living the “teenage fantasy” may not be all its cracked up to be.

When you started Secret and Whisper, you all had come from some other major label acts. Tell us a bit about how Secret and Whisper came to be?

Jordan Chase: Yeah. Me, Jason, Bradyn, and Ryan were all in a band called Stutterfly and we were on Maverick records and we got dropped because of poor record sales. Our singer left and it was seriously bad news. We lost everybody, our manager, our lawyers, everybody dropped our band and it was like well what the heck do we do now? I had been friends with Charles, our singer, for at least eight years and he had just left his band, The Bleeding Alarm. He was looking for a band to play with and we were looking for a singer so he just kind of fell into our laps. At first we were like “I don’t know if you fit our band” but as soon as we did a demo with him, it was old news.

Why did you think he might not fit the band? How did he prove he belonged?

JC: Our old singer had a soft kind of whispery voice. I guess our minds were all kind of set on that and we weren’t expecting Charles to sound like he does. But as soon as he sang over the music it was beyond perfect so we were stoked.

Your sound has been described as “post-screamo”. I honestly don’t know what these labels mean anymore. How would you describe your sound?

JC: I would just say we’re alternative rock. Post screamo? (Laughs). We don’t really scream and I don’t want to be one of those bands that’s like “oh we’re just rock n’ roll dude” (laughs) but we’re just alternative rock, kind of heavy kind of light, whatever.

What was missing from those other projects that you now find solace in within SAW?

JC: I like SAW because when we set out to start the band we were like “Let’s write whatever we want”. In Stutterfly we were always trying to write something heavy and always trying to be like screamo like we were always trying to follow a trend, which boxed us in. But with SAW I feel like we’re able to write whatever we want. We’re want to bring it back to bands like Smashing Pumpkins stuff who can write the heaviest song ever and the lightest song ever. That’s what we set out to do and there is definitely comfort in that.

You made some pretty big waves with your first release Great White Whale. What did you want people to see in that album as it was your debut?

JC: I guess we just wanted to put out a great record front to back like every band does. I don’t really know if it’s been accomplished but from what we hear it has been. We’re really proud of that record and the how it came out. Just like any other band we feel like there are things about it we wish we could change but I don’t know if I can say everything has been accomplished but we are definitely very proud of that release.

You guys spent a good amount of time in between Great White Whale and recording this new one. Why the long absence?

JC: Truthfully, we just take a really long time writing. We’re really picky and we want everything to be absolutely perfect. We think about every little note on every song and every time signature on everything, we just go into great detail. We don’t like pushing it, or like forcing ourselves to be write or be creative. It just comes at the weirdest times, I’ll be eating a donut or something then run downstairs to write. I woke up my wife one night when I was writing and I just like jumped out of bed ‘cause I had a good idea and I started recording it. My wife was like “What are you doing?! It’s 3 in the morning!” We just didn’t want to push it too much.

So do you guys not do much studio writing?

JC: No, we usually have pretty much everything ready to go when we go into the studio. I have a really small studio at my house, it’s pretty crappy but it does the job. We usually demo out everything a couple times before we even decide to hit the studio. Then we send it off to our producer.

You guys have definitely gone through some intense turmoil as a band. What keeps you guys motivated?

JC: Definitely just the music you know? Any time we’re feeling down or anything we practice and get pretty motivated right away. Playing music is really fun, it can be bad but it can be really really fun. Seeing the end product for any band is the best feeling. We’re stoked for people to hear our stuff.

After reading some info on your MySpace about your new album Teenage Fantasy, it seems like this album might be a bit more lighthearted. What can you tell us about Teenage Fantasy? Do you feel like its lighter than Great White Whale?

JC: It’s actually probably a lot more serious. Teenage Fantasy kind of came around, Charles thought it up. Every kid’s dream is to be in a band, that was our dream and its pretty tough. You don’t make millions of dollars, you don’t have 13 cars and go to cocktail parties. We’re just normal guys, we have to work day jobs and it’s keeping the band together for the music and nothing else. Dune is a pretty inspiring movie for me and Charles, we’ve watched it a bunch together and we always end up writing something because it’s so moody. We love it, we’ve probably watched it over a hundred times.

How do you feel your sound has progressed from the last album?

JC: We didn’t want to re-invent the wheel with the band. I feel like so many bands put out a great record then completely change their sound to progress but it doesn’t keep those fans there. We didn’t want to scare anybody away, it’s the same but better.

The album comes out in February. What can we expect from Secret and Whisper after that?

JC: We’ll probably be on the road as usual. That’s why it took us so long to write the album. We’ll hit up the states then maybe Europe.