Interview with Chad from Masterpiece

Mike: Please state your name and band role.

Chad: My name is Chad Harley Leddy and I do vocals, come up with horrible shirt designs, book shows and say dumb shit on stage.

M: Okay, well give us a quick rundown of the other members and how you guys came together.

C: The rest of the band is Jimmy on drums, Wade on guitar, Pat on bass and Mike on guitar. Me, Jimmy and Wade have been in since the beginning but Pat and Mike joined later. Jimmy came up with the idea of doing a straight edge band in Motel-6 at the first Sound and Fury. I have always wanted to do an edge band anyways so it just made sense. Our first practice was the day after S&F.

M: Awesome. So this past summer, you guys did some euro gigging. How'd that go?

C: It was out of this world. Niclas from fields of hope booking hooked us up with AYS from Germany. Niclas is probably the most punk kid I have ever met in my life, that dude doesn’t give a shit. AYS ruled and were so nice. The shows were insane and we had a much better reaction than what we expected. At one show in France some vampire goth dude showed up wearing fish nets and a corset and paid with a check.

M: Oh wow. That sounds amazing. Were they puppy dog checks?

C: I'm going to assume they were checks with images of the band Candlemass printed on them.

M: That would be awesome. Okay, enough funny stuff. So you guys are from San Diego, which from an outsiders view seems to have a rich and diverse music scene. Do you believe this has helped in your bands success at all?

C: San Diego has a pretty bizarre scene. The shows are mostly made up of the same regulars. The Chula Vista kids, the North County kids, etc. We live in a city with over a million people within city limits and when a big tour comes through shows are packed. No one cares about the local bands and its bullshit. If we play a big show we get an insane reaction but if its a local show there will only be like 20 kids there. There’s a lot of crappy metal bands, a lot of shitty pop punk bands, but also some sweet SD bands around right now though are Lewd Acts, Northern Towns, Impulse, Fed to the Wolves, Modern Man and Take Offense. All the bands from Tijuana rule.

M: Shitty about those kids, but all those bands are sick as fuck. So you guys released a 7" e.p. back in 2007 on Words of War Records. How is your relationship with the label and what are your plans for future releases?

C: Zak WoW is a good person. He loves guns a little too much though, ha-ha. I used to be in the marines so every time I talk to him he wants to know my opinion on some new scope or something. I'm always like, "I was a combat photographer and haven't shot a rifle in 2 years, how do I know?". We actually have an LP coming out soon that we recorded a while ago called “No Rest“. Its been delayed a million times but I am really excited about it coming out.

M: Looking forward to it. Did you or the band take a different approach to writing this record compared to your e.p. or the demo before that?

C: We are notorious for writing songs and then forgetting them. This album has 10 songs on it but we wrote around 17. Wade and Mike come up with most of the songs but I get ideas for full songs and since I can't play anything I have to make stupid sounds with my mouth to get the song I want.

M: Haha! Jud Jud status. It seriously sucks trying to get across an idea for music when you have no knowledge of how to play an instrument. I’m pretty sure half of everyone that listens to music can relate. So who would you say are some of you’re bigger hardcore and non-hardcore influences in writing song lyrics?

C: Life of Agony, Blacklisted, American Nightmare, Stone Temple Pilots, and Earth Crisis are some of my influences. Really, I just write what I'm feeling but all of the bands I listed are bands that have lyrics that actually mean something to me. I can sit down any time and pull out the inserts for their albums and read them. Actually, in some of our songs I will borrow a line kind of as an homage to their bands. For example, the "I am straight edge" in Living Legend is from Earth Crisis. Another example would be "My souls worn thin, time to catch a ride" in the song “Piece of Mind“ is a line from a Stone Temple Pilots song.

M: That’s pretty sick. A lot of bands are to stuck in the way that they’re just trying to replicate a sound already heard and it seems they’re not really interested in looking outside of hardcore for any musical/ lyrical for influences.

C: Yeah, one of the most important factors for me liking a band in 2008 and now 2009 is there has to be something unique about them. I can't keep listening to the same youth crew songs cycled through every couple years.

M: Well on that note, what are your thoughts on the current California music scene, specifically hardcore?

C: California overall is pretty tight as far as music goes. There are some fucking awesome bands doing great things out here, A Better Hope Foundation, Violation, Ceremony, Rotting Out, Pressvre, Trash Talk and Terror all kill it and are my favorite Cali bands. There are so many new kids showing up all the time that its insane. The only downside to that is that it seems like they burn out fast. Shit, I'm 25 and people act like I'm some old man. Hardcore is the only place in the world that 25 is considered old.

M: The hardcore crowd does seem to be getting younger and younger. I’m only 20 and it amazes me how many kids I see getting dropped off at shows by their parents. Hopefully they'll stick around and do something positive for the subculture.

C: We have all been there. I remember going to shows like 11-12 years ago and getting rides from my friends parents, but most of the time we relied on the bus or the trains/subway to get us where we were going.

M: Yeah, for sure. You mentioned earlier that masterpiece is a straight edge band. Are there any other ideologies or movements that are backed by yourself or your band mates?

C: Well, there are a couple guys in the band who are vegetarian or vegan. Pat is very into the whole politics thing and is very anti Wal-Mart, even though he will devour McDonalds like no big deal. In Europe he must have spent $200 at that place. Wade doesn't give a shit about anything though. As for me, I just try to live a decent life and see as much as I can because you only live once.

M: Haha, I work at wal-mart. Place is crazy. Well, do you have anything else you'd like to say?

C: Thanks for doing the interview. Be on the lookout for No Rest. Straight Edge RULES.

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