The Hazy Chambers Q&A: Josh Fletcher & J.M. Solis

Q: Where are you guys right now? Is that a studio in the background?

JM: Yeah, there’s a mixing room and a jam room with all of our mics. We record all of our music here. We haven’t really recorded anywhere else for this project. We did record one song at Empire Sound which is a studio in Carrolton, but that was when we were in a different band.

Q: What was the name of the other band you were in?

J.M.: It was called The Void. The Void had disbanded because it just didn’t work. I remember when it happened were like, “Well, what do we do now?”. Josh and I have always had a similar vision, so we figured we would make our own band, so we started this project now known as The Hazy Chambers. That happened in December 2021.

Q: The Hazy Chambers are a psychedelic rock band, what inspired you to pursue that?

J.M.: Oh, man, just like listening to music when I was growing up. I'm a big Beatles fan. I love the Beatles. They inspired me to start playing guitar and writing my own music. We just love all of the music from the 1960s and 70s.

Josh: After high school, we discovered even more crazy stuff like vinyl, LPs, and vintage stuff, you know? We got really into like the culture of the late 60s like the Flower Power Movement and all of that.

Q: Have you guys tried to figure out how to get your singles pressed on like a seven inch vinyl?

Josh: Yeah, we were actually looking into that because we have a new album in the works. It comes out on the February 24th.

J.M.: It's coming up!

Josh: Yeah, we’re thinking about getting a couple of them pressed on vinyl or something to have for us. Of course, if somebody else wants to buy one or something we would have a few copies.

Q: Tell me about this upcoming project.

J.M.: So this is kind serves as our debut album. It's called Volume One. It's basically a culmination of all the music that we've been working on throughout the year. It’s a seven track album. It's going to include our four singles that are already out, as well as three new ones that we haven't released yet.

Josh: We are going to have videos with the songs too. We already have videos for every other single we have so far. We have a release show same day that the album comes out. It’s going to be at Amoury D.E.

Q: I was going to ask about the “Illusions” music video! What was it like creating that? Did you work with someone or did you record it yourselves?

Josh: We recorded it. I got a green screen and just set it up in my living room. We just had some of our friends help us shoot it. We set up like a little box with a tapestry over it. Then we bought some of those tea mugs from some thrift shop to make it look like Alice in Wonderland.

J.M.: For like the visual effects, we collaborated with this guy called Melt Dream.

Josh: He’s like one of those visual glitch artists. I think he lives in Sweden or something, but I found him online.

J.M.: All of the trippy colors and stuff was his work.

Josh: He did all of the post-production really. We just edited together.

Q: Was that your first time video-editing? Do you guys have a background in it or do video work as a side hustle?

Josh: I've been making music videos for like rappers and stuff since like middle school. I just figured we could make our own stuff instead of paying somebody else to do it. I already have all of the equipment, we have everything we would need.

J.M.: We are very fortunate in that regard. We can just kind of do like everything in our own time. Same can be said with making music too. We can just record like everything here at the studio the only thing we have to pay for is getting our work mastered.

Josh: It’s nice because we can make everything with our own vision. If there’s something you want to change or move you have the creative room to do that. We make all of our covers too on Photoshop.

Q: Being as versatile as you are, when it comes to music, what does your creative collaboration process look like as a group?

J.M.: When it comes to building the structure of the song, we are very collaborative. Usually, I'll come up with something and send a voice memo of it to Josh. I'll come over and we’ll end up working out the rhythm section

Josh: Yeah, he'll send me like an email with an audio message of like a stripped, rough demo with the chord progression. We will all get together and jam the song out. our bass player is crazy good. He just hears something and automatically knows what key and like time signature we’re in, he’s like crazy good.

J.M.: We’ll play the songs live and we just do it organically, kind of like how punk rock bands play live. It's like, structurally it's the same song, but we try to change it up a little bit. So it's like not like the same exact thing. Like every single time we play it we want it to be like a unique experience for like every performance.

Q: In 2022 you played at a lot of cool places, name your most memorable gig?

J.M.: I'd say the Grex Fest one was pretty fun, because that was our first festival that we ever did. It was really interesting because it was not like a drag race it was at like the most random place but it was pretty cool we met some cool people.

Josh: We actually got a lot of footage of it all and we will be releasing that soon. We record every single performance.

Q: In 2022 you played at a lot of cool places, name your most memorable gig?

J.M.: I'd say the Grex Fest one was pretty fun, because that was our first festival that we ever did. It was really interesting because it was not like a drag race it was at like the most random place but it was pretty cool we met some cool people.

Josh: We actually got a lot of footage of it all and we will be releasing that soon. We record every single performance.

Q: Any upcoming gigs?

J.M.: We’ve got a few actually. We have one at February 10th at the Caves Lounge. We have our release show at Amoury D.E on February 24th and a gig at the Farmacy on the 17th for St. Patrick’s Day. We plan to line up more for 2023.

“The Hazy Chambers. Bringing back nostalgia with psychedelic roots and influences from the late 60s to 70s. Be prepared for music that puts you in an ambient headspace while also maintaining a groovy rhythm. ”

-BlueGirlHours