If you love heavy music with a massive heart, look no further than Get Out Alive. Grounded in philosophy, faith, psychology, and raw vulnerability, this solo alt-metal project is headed by scene veteran Chas Huff.
We sat down with Chas to talk about stepping out as a solo artist, collaborating with Zack Baker (Rain City Drive), and building a 'forever project' rooted in authenticity and hope.
I was actually just listening to "If I Leave." It's my favorite of your songs so far. And then you've introduced two other songs to us as well. Was there a reason you chose "Hornet's Nest" for the debut?
Chas: We just thought it was a really aggressive, cool song. It had some really cool, memorable riffs. That song is just kind of like a, "Hey, if you want to destroy yourself, go for it, but keep me out of it," type of situation.
And then "Death Has Been Defeated" is kind of biblically inspired by the fact that if you believe that there is more to life after death and you believe in a heaven or a place that you could go after this life, then not even death itself can win you over.
You have brought with you a lot of experience from other projects. So how did those past experiences shape what you wanted Get Out Alive to be like?
So, I think I've learned some of what to do and some of what not to do. And I've found myself in situations with previous bands where people tend to get afraid to be real and vulnerable. So sometimes you end up in conversations with some members while you're writing stuff, and they're like, "Hey, I don't know if we should do that. That's maybe a little bit too much." Or, "Hey, maybe we should dial back on this a little bit because the other bands in our genre are not doing that." And in my opinion, it's like I would prefer to just be authentic and enjoy the music. And I have no problem being an open book to literally anyone if there's a chance that it could help them with something. So I'm very, very transparent, and I just kind of felt like I was getting put in a box.
So, when I was like, I want to do this and I kind of want this to be my forever project instead of starting and building and then it collapses and then trying to start again, I was like, I'm going to just do this the way that I really want to do it. And however far it goes on its own is completely fine with me because there is a balance between you being very unhappy and playing arenas. And I'm not entirely sure where this project is going to go. I mean, so far it's been amazing. So I think that there's some beauty in just following your heart in those situations.
Yeah. And I think just being authentic and open, I think that's the best way to get fans, too. That's how you connect with people.
Yeah. There is a common issue where you could be inspired by your favorite band, and some bands will try to take from that and try to copy it almost, even if they don't admit that they are; they're trying to follow a formula. And one thing that I've been really adamant about with this project since I don't have anyone telling me not to, I've been very adamant on I want to continue to find what makes this music unique and what kind of makes it its own thing and just keep pushing into that and let it be its own thing that can pioneer a new lane of hopefully a little bit more positivity and gratitude in taking action to really help yourself in this. There's this musical journey in the scene and everything. So I know there are tons of great bands out there. I'm just trying not to fall into the box of the oversaturated clone bands.
Yeah, that makes sense. So, you obviously have some heavy themes that you're writing about. How do you protect your own mental health when you're doing that? Do you have anything that you do to ground yourself?
Truthfully, I think writing the music is the outlet for me, and sometimes it can be a bit of therapy in a way. Sometimes when I'm writing something and I get into a flow state, it's almost like it's unraveling as I go. So there are a lot of positive ideas behind things like journaling, and I don't necessarily journal, but I kind of view writing music and writing lyrics as a similar lane as that. So sometimes I'll have a rough idea of what I want to write about, and then I just really just get into it and crack it open and just let it come out. And then I learn things through the process and reflect on it.
Yeah. So when you're writing, what do you start with? Do you start with a lyric, or maybe a concept?
The truth is, for me, songs can come a lot of different ways. It could be a melody I have in my head while I'm out doing something else. It could be just messing around with a guitar and coming up with a riff, or it could be feeling inspired by what if I mix this with this and how can I do that and how can I make it sound cool? I think generally I start with a chord progression, and I kind of build a chorus. And then once I get a top line over the chorus with some vocals and I start to dive into the idea, the rest just comes easy.
It's definitely working for you, obviously. How do you know when a song is truly finished?
After I send it to Zack Baker. We've worked on every song so far and the ones that are to come, and he's a good friend of mine. We've done pretty much everything remotely, even though we both live in the same state. It's just that I have a setup here in my garage. He's got a setup at his place, and I just shoot him over some demos, and he helps me co-produce some of the stuff. He'll have his own ideas that he throws in there. And we just go back and forth a little bit and get it to where we want it to. And I feel like he does a really good job of putting a finality to these songs. Once I'm able to listen to it, I'm like, okay, I don't feel anything dragging. You can go through a song and either have a thumbs up or a thumbs down. And if you can go through the whole song and there's nothing that catches you and makes you want to revisit it, then it's good. I can be a perfectionist in some ways, but when it comes to songwriting, I mean, I find a lot of beauty and sometimes some of the rawness in certain transitions and stuff like that; little imperfections are musical to me.
How do you picture Get Out Alive translating to a live experience?
I'm actually working on that right now. So I've been putting together a live band, and we have our second rehearsal tomorrow. Pretty much, I just really want the energy to be there. Obviously this is a solo project technically at its core, but I want to have live guitar, I want to have live bass, I want to have live drums, and the rest of whatever's there, because there are production and synths and stuff like that, that stuff can obviously be in the back. But I think it would be awesome live. I mean, I have so many ideas for how to make a live show have some purpose to me that fits the theme of the message that I'm trying to get across and allow the songs to do the talking.
So if you're able to get all that going the way that you have in mind, how do you want a fan to feel after they experience Get Out Alive?
I would hope that they would walk away feeling inspired and hopeful and hopefully have a bit of a new perspective on the importance of just gratitude and positivity. And I think some people fall into a little bit of an ego situation, or some people just sulk. And I get it because I've had plenty of years of experience with feeling depressed and stuff like that, and you have to be willing to change in a lot of those situations. I'm not saying that's the cure or anything, and it's obviously a super complex situation for everybody—everybody's situation is unique. But for me, what's really helped me is trying to build up some form of faith in whatever it is. Just trying to be okay with not having all the answers all the time. Sometimes you just have to have faith and believe that things are going to go good, and you have to allow things to go good.
Would you say that the singles so far point towards a larger theme overall that you're working towards?
Yeah. It will all wrap together. So there's a psychologist, Carl Jung, who had this shadow theory. And I was diving into that, and that inspired me in the importance of everything having a shadow. So there's kind of a trade-off to everything. Even good things a lot of the times have a trade-off. So I kind of just dove into that and branched off of it and ended up creating my own archetype idea. And that's the theme of the entire bundle that I have coming.
And then what do you hope listeners walk away with after listening to Get Out Alive? Would that be the same as what you were saying about the live experience?
Yeah. If there's any chance that somebody could walk away just feeling better than when they arrived, then that's a win. It's what it's done for me, and that's what I just want to play for.
Who would you say your inspirations have been that do that for you personally?
Lyrically, I'm not too sure. When I was younger, my mom used to play Three Days Grace CDs, Breaking Benjamin, Chevelle, Godsmack ... we listened to all sorts of that type of stuff. My dad also had a Crossfade CD; I loved that CD. Daughtry. I listened to a lot of that stuff growing up, and that's where my roots formed.
But when I really started getting into writing music, I mean, I was listening to Asking Alexandria, A Day to Remember, and Bring Me the Horizon. Truthfully, I think a good band to narrow that down would probably be Bring Me the Horizon. I don't think I necessarily have the same viewpoints as some of the stuff that they talk about, but I do appreciate how they've gone about it. Their music is very meaningful, and that's definitely inspiring. I may have a slightly different message than they do, but they're very inspirational.
Is there anything else you would want to share with any potential fans?
I would just say if you want to give it a shot, I've got three songs out. "Hornet's Nest," "Death Has Been Defeated," and "If I Leave." And there are more coming that will be announced very soon. There's going to be plenty of material coming. I hope to come to your city soon and get rolling with the live stuff. And we're still in the planting the seed phase of this whole project, but with what's happened already, it's been amazing.
