THAT DRUMMER GUY INTERVIEWS CHRIS CLANCY (WEARING SCARS, MUTINY WITHIN)

Chris Clancy has been a force to be reckoned with every since the Self Titled debut album from Mutiny Within in 2010. Since that time he has been keeping a name for himself with his new project, Wearing Scars, whose new album drops July 24th. Clancy has also started a new venture with the website, Metal For Hire. Check out what he has to say!


That Drummer Guy: So how did you get hooked up with Metal For Hire?

Chris Clancy: Thankfully, I've known Devin for quite some time. He did some PR work for Mutiny Within and has done the same with some of my own releases. When he contacted me with the idea of the website I thought it was great and jumped onboard.

TDG: What services are you offering for Metal For Hire?

CC: I'm currently offering Production/Mixing/Mastering and Session vocals.

TDG: What are you hoping to accomplish with Metal For Hire?

CC: I'm hoping that people will find me through the website amongst the impressive list of other musicians and let me work my mixing magic or hire me for vocal work.

TDG: I just had the opportunity to hear your new band, Wearing Scars and I must say I am very impressed. Every song released so far really shines. How did the band form?

CC: Wearing Scars is something I've been working on for years (although it was only named last year when it came together as a band). After things with Mutiny Within came to a standstill (touring-wise at least), I looked around for bands to join and carry on performing. I tried out for Monuments who are doing great with my friend Chris Barretto behind the mic now. It was just a clash of styles. The guys in the band were great, but I'm more into straight forward music. I was talking with Killswitch Engage's manager about coming out to New York to try out, but I couldn't afford the flight. When I found out Jesse might be back out in the picture, there was no way I was getting in ahead of him, he's fantastic so I found myself doing nothing again. I decided to take matters into my own hands and started writing songs myself. I wrote some hit and miss songs first and just kept writing and learning. I became obsessed with improving my songwriting and spent every minute I could going over it in my head, jotting down ideas and recording. Eventually I wrote most of the Wearing Scars album. Andy James contacted my via facebook one day and asked if I was interested in working together. Rather than write from scratch, I sent over my songs and Andy loved them, he wrote some material and it fit perfectly so we scrapped some of my tracks, put his into it, re-recorded the entire album from scratch and put together the lineup.

TDG: How would you describe the new album?

CC: It's everything I personally love about music in one album. I had no end goal with writing the songs I've put towards it so it's just whatever I wanted to do at that time. There's a mixture of riffs and heavy moments mixed with commercial accessable tracks. I just focused on songwriting, not genre so each song captures a theme. For example the song Butterfly is about transcending a current time. It has an uplifting feel to it which reflects this. The song Stand Alone is more of a pick yourself up and carry on theme, so it's upbeat and has more of an anthem feel to it.

TDG: Is there any plans on touring with Wearing Scars?

CC: No solid plans yet, but there will be tours. We've been soley focused on the album release up until this point. Making music videos and getting everything in place.

TDG: Would touring be exclusive to the UK so far or is there any chance of hitting North America again?

CC: Touring will be worldwide if everything goes well. We're entirely self funded so we can't afford to fly over to the USA, rent gear and tour, but if the fans support us, buy the music and merch, we'll have the finances available to tour as far as we can. People have been asking us to play Soundwave festival in Australia. We'd love to, it's just hugely expensive. There's no label, no investors, it's just us, so every penny that people spend on our merch or CD's goes to us (minus online retailers cuts of course). This money is our touring fund.

TDG: Is there any new music you have been listening to lately? Any favorites of 2015 so far?

CC: I'm looking forward to the new Bullet For My Valentine album. Padge was saying they've gone back to more of a "The Poison" feel with it. That was my favourite Bullet album and I really like the single "No Way Out". People are usually pretty shocked when I tell them I don't really listen to music, so I don't really know what's come out or is coming out. I just keep working on my own material.

TDG: Was the last Mutiny Within release the end of the band or is it possible for any kind of reunion in the future?

CC: We're in the slow process of doing another album. It's just finding the time, we all work and have our own lives now. Mutiny Within was a full time job. We'd work for 14 hours a day on music so when we only manage to devote a few hours a month to it, you can imagine it takes a while. After the Wearing Scars release hopefully I'll have some time to work on it. I actually emailed AJ about it a few hours ago.

TDG: Finally, is there anything you would like to bring up, plug, or mention that I have not mentioned yet?

CC: Check out the Wearing Scars album when it is released July 24th. Big thanks to Devin for all the help he's given me over the last few years!

Check Out Wearing Scars' Debut album A Thousand Words available July 24th!

Check out Chris Clancy and so many other killer artists at Metal For HIre