Chico - Sound In The Signals Interview
I recently had the opportunity to interview Tony Rangel of Chico. We discussed the writing and recording process for their debut album, favorite parts from it, collaborating with New Morality Zine, their upcoming tour, and more. Check it out below.
First, thanks for the interview.
Thank you!
You just released your debut album album. Can you tell me about writing and recording it? What was the idea to make it self-titled?
All of the songs on this record were written between mid 2023 to like mid 2025. It was recorded by Taylor Hecocks in Orange, California and mixed/mastered by Scott Goodrich out of the bay. Drums were done with Adam Castilla in Fullerton.
Most of the songwriting starts out as demo ideas by me (Tony), but what was different about this record is that we took those demos into a practice space and worked on them all together, which made them way sicker.
I’m pretty bad at naming things, a lot of the demo names I have are hella random and usually have nothing to do with the song since lyrics are usually written after the music. We titled our first EP “Summer EP” literally because we dropped it during the summer haha. But I decided pretty early on that this record would be self-titled, since it was our first LP it just seemed fitting.
I really like the song “Blur”. It has a great intensity to it. At what point in the album process was it written? Can you tell me more about it?
Thanks! I really like that one too. I first made the demo to that song in August of 2024 I think. It only had the verses and pre-chorus idea and a really bad bridge idea we ended up tossing. Lance came over my apartment at the time to work on vocals and I remember being super hyped when he showed me the melody idea for the chorus, I didn’t want it to change one bit, and it didn’t! We were having trouble finding a verse melody that matched the vibe of the chorus so I hit up the homie Dave Kelling from Culture Abuse. I always loved his melodies, and he killed it on helping us find the verse and pre-chorus melody. Blur feels to us like one of our only “real” songs, since it has a full structure with verses, chorus, bridge, and an outro. Super fun to play live!
Do you have a favorite lyrical or musical moment from the album? Why?
Damn, that’s a hard one, I feel like there’s so many. My personal favorite lyrically is CLCC. It’s straight to the point and kind of encapsulates what the album is about. A specific moment lyrically is the end of Blur, it comes out of nowhere, and the double vocal thing going on is super fun and something we’ve never done before.
My favorite musical moment might be the intro of Doubt It, comes in huge and you instantly get the vibe of the song from the jump. The sampled vocal intro is super sick too and was made by Scott who mixed the record.
How did signing with New Morality Zine come together?
We were shopping around labels and NMZ was one on our radar. Our agent Kyle happened to know Nick so he helped us get connected. Luckily, Nick loved the record and after some weeks of talking logistics, we sealed the deal and are super hyped to be on! Nick is a hard worker and his label is filled with some really unique bands.
New Morality Zine have released so many great albums and EPs recently. Do you have a personal favorite or two releases from them?
That new Holy Dose release was super sick. That one was getting release around the time we officially joined the label, which is what put me on to it. I instantly thought it was cool as hell. Pop Free is another sick NMZ band, they’re from SoCal as well and just played our record release. Lowkey, I’ve heard their new record… and it bangs.
You're touring with Death Lens this fall. What are you looking forward to on the tour?
Death Lens and The High Curbs are some good friends of ours so we’re excited to be on a tour package filled with nothing but homies. Going to be hella good times. It’s also our first time playing outside of the West Coast. Texas is going to be so sick.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else that you want to add?
Thanks for asking the questions! Just want to say listen to the new record, buy the LP, and come see us at a show! Also keep making more rock music.
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