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Chernobear ready to get serious about its music
By John Benson
Chernobear sounds like a character from Adult Swim that can shoot lasers out of its eyes and has Wolverine-esque claws. As cool as that bear would be, it turns out this bear is just a Youngstown band with the name reflecting its members’ sense of humor.
Nevertheless, is the experimental/post-hardcore quartet — Casey Engstrom (vocals), Scott Lowery (bass), Dan Dominic (drums) and Michael Skruck (guitar) — as scary as its name suggests?
“We’re not really like a scary band,” said Skruck, a 2008 Hubbard High School graduate. “We don’t go out there with blood on our faces. It’s more of a comical thing. The singer and myself were watching a documentary about bears that had been getting to radioactive vats at Chernobyl. We made a joke about it, and it kind of stuck.”
He quickly added, “Yeah, we’re the weirdest band to hang out with, and have the weirdest sense of humor. When you hear our music, you’d think we’re dark people. We’re just normal goofballs.”
Goofballs or not, Chernobear, which formed two years ago, is ready get serious about its music, which has some ties to emo. Skruck admits the early 2000s genre tag fits but stresses the band provides aggressive music with emotional boundaries and atmospheric sounds.
“I’d say we’re more hard rock,” Skruck said. “We kind of scream, but it’s not just that.”
The band’s sound is evolving with its follow-up to 2013 debut EP “Mountains of Books Become Mountains,” due out in July. Skruck said the new effort is directly tied to lessons learned from the EP.
“The EP was like our first batch of songs we made,” Skruck said. “We really wanted to put something out quickly that we can use to hit the venues and stuff like that. We all wish we did take more time on it. What we’re doing with the full-length now is taking our time and putting a lot more preparation into it.”
New tracks in the mix that have the band excited include “Bottle Full of Ghost Towns,” which Skruck said finds Chernobear moving in a different — if not more focused — direction. He said the tune is aggressive and sonic, textured with backing tracks and guitar effects that make it just short of sounding epic.
“Then there’s ‘This Can’t Be Right,’ which is the opposite,” Skruck said. “It’s a lot more flowish and feel-goodish.”
Chernobear has big plans for the new CD, which will be released in digital, CD and vinyl formats. While the group has flirted with regional touring in the past, longer jaunts through the Midwest and even to the East Coast could be coming this summer.
Skruck said the group has found “more appreciative” audiences outside the Youngstown area.
“It seems like when we branch off from this area, which is really into the straight forward rock ’n’ roll kind of stuff, and we play bigger cities like college towns, we get a really good response,” Skruck said. “I don’t think [Youngstown audiences] are missing the point. It’s just we’re doing something that has been done before, but on a different scale.”