The Higher Choir is a 7-piece Southern Rock Band from Atlanta. This Friday, the guys will be celebrating the release of their second album at Smith’s Olde Bar! We got the chance to catch up with Chance of the band before the big celebration! Check out what he had to say.
What has been your most memorable gig?
It may be a rival between the EP release we did for “Half Way Home” at Smith’s and the show we played [at Smith’s] with Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes. That was cool. We like to play the festivals, too, because we get to play with a group of different bands. 420 Festival was fun! We like to be able to be in the mix of a lot of different music.
What venue do you dream of playing?
There are so many great ones. I can’t speak on behalf of everybody, but I can tell you I think Red Rocks would be awesome. I’d love to see our country asses up in Madison Square Garden. Any of the larger venues to the West or North would be a dream to us because we haven’t gotten exposure in those markets yet.
How do you connect with your audience?
We tell a lot of stories, we write a lot of songs about the working man, you know blue collar stuff. [Our music] is not really hard to digest. What you see if what you get. We got a bunch of guys on stage that love to play music together and I think that’s what people like the most about it. We look like normal Joes. I think people just really like our music and our songs, and I’m fine with that.
Where do you draw your inspiration from when writing songs?
The majority of our inspiration comes from just living and being born in the South. It wouldn’t be a specific band or a specific person, we just try to keep it simple living, big dreams and a lot of storytelling.
Do you have any pre-show rituals?
There’s always quite an entourage with us, friends and family. There’s a bunch of us in the band already, put us seven in the room and that’s a crowd. A lot of the time we have guest players and then everyone brings a date, a wife or a friend. Everyone just hangs out and has a good time. There’s some partying involved. About 10 to 15 minutes before the show, we clear everyone out, get the band together and have a pre-game discussion about the set-list and make any little changes.
Do you have any surprises in store for the album release party?
We always try to do something different. Not only will everyone get to hear their old favorites from “Half Way Home”, our first EP, but they’ll also get to hear the stuff from out new EP coming out on the 28th. In addition to that, they’ll also hear some songs that we’ve never played live before from the brand new record “When the Smoke Clears” and that will be out in the fall.
Come celebrate with the Higher Choir Band this Friday, June 28 at Smith’s Olde Bar! It’ll be a heck of a good time!
