Worry Club, an alt-indie band from Chicago, has been growing and flourishing since its beginning in 2020. Their blend of gritty guitar, vibrant rhythms and introspective lyrics has given the band a distinct sound and created a name for them in the scene.
Chase Walsh, lead singer of Worry Club, sat down with us in late April during their tour with Oso Oso, Spanish Love Songs and Sydney Sprague, to talk about tour and upcoming music coming out later this year.
How has the tour been so far?
It’s been good. We’ve been out for a while, we’re like in the fourth week of tour. It’s been good, we love all of (the bands). We’ve been hanging out every single day. (It’s) literally three of the best bands in the whole world, and then we’re okay.
Is that your favorite part of tour? Getting to be with them, or is it seeing fans or performing?
It’s seeing fans and everything and also being a fan. Being in the pit for everyone’s set is super fun. Every single night it hasn’t gotten old.
What’s the best part of getting to interact with the fans?
They usually tell us the first song of ours that they heard, and what it means to them. That’s been really crazy. People are driving super far and telling us where they’re from, and all their friends and who made them come to the show and now they really like us. There’s always someone getting dragged to the show, and we convert them into a fan and that’s really cool to see happen in front of you. There are a lot of these crowds too that don’t really know who we are because we have different kinds of fans, but it’s been really fun to see them cross over to the club and become club members.
What do you usually get about the first song (fans have heard)?
I get a lot of “Same Name,” obviously because that was a huge TikTok thing. And then “In My Ear” was one of the first songs that I ever released, so people have been around since 2020 when we released that song, that was a big one for us. Got all the indie kids, you know?
Does that affect your favorite song to play live, the fan favorite?
No, because we don’t play “Pretty Face.” Even though everyone wants us to. No, we definitely play what we want to play. It just so happens that a lot of the songs that people come to hear are on the setlist because they’re so fun to play like “Same Name,” “In My Ear” and “Nothing.”
Worry Club recently played at Round About Fest, a festival in Detroit Headlined by Mom Jeans.
How was the festival?
It was crazy. It was the coolest show we’ve ever played. It was like 2,000 people, circle pit every song. You’d look up and Eric from Mom Jeans was vibing with your set, it was crazy. We just got to hang out with all of our friends in Free Throw and HUNNY, it was dope.
So what is your favorite song to play live?
I think right now… “Nothing” is up there for sure. People have been really saying the words, it’s a very chanty song. Our new song that is gonna come out at some point this year called “Bones” which we’ve been playing that’s somewhere in the middle of the set has been super dope. It’s a very jumpy song and.. you know people don’t know it but they’re able to dance to it which is really cool… “Bored” is probably my favorite; it never changes.
What keeps you passionate about music?
I think it is seeing the people in front of you physically that are there to see you, or not to see you and are still vibing with it, I feel we feed off of that a lot. I mean we like to play live, we just have so much fun and just throwing curve balls every night keeps us passionate. We’re just changing songs up, making them louder, having terrible mistakes but it’s still fun. It’s more fun to make a mistake, to be honest. To have the crowd in on it with you like, “We all just made a mistake it’s okay, we can keep going.”
From what I know, and what I’ve read, you produce a lot of the songs. What’s the difference between your production process and some other musicians?
I would say the difference is I do everything by myself. I have a hard time working with other people in a room because I really like to be myself when I’m making it. I’m like, headphones on and just working away. I also think it’s different because I only have one microphone and only a couple of guitars. I’m just figuring out things myself. I did go to college for a lot of audio stuff but I feel like I didn’t learn at all how to make Worry Club music. I’m always learning about the process as I’m making it, I think that’s why it still feels so fun and so fresh.
Would you say you like the recording and production process or the writing process more?
Probably recording, but I think that they go hand in hand because I record and write as I go. I’ve never written a whole song and then recorded it, I’m doing it all line by line. So I think that the recording feeds off the writing and the writing feeds off the recording.
That’s so interesting, you can tell when people do it that way rather than writing the whole song and figuring out what beat goes with what.
Yeah, exactly. I don’t like that, I don’t like thinking about it that much. I like to be in the moment and just make it.
Is there any genre or different sound you want to branch out to?
I think so, just because the whole recording process is so tiny and small and in my head, translating it to live is almost like rewriting the song. It is really cool to see the way Oso does it because Jay also writes all of their music and ends up collaborating with all of these great musicians, just like I do… I think I’m just trying to get louder, to be honest. Just figuring out ways to get louder without pushing the volume but making things get harder and just having a ton of fun on stage, making songs fun.
I have some rapid-fire questions for you…
Top song right now?
I’d say Ferrari by Microwave on their new album.
An album you wish you wrote?
Birdie by Slaughter Beach, Dog
What’s the best concert you’ve ever been to?
I would say either The Story So Far or The Maine.
If you could write a soundtrack for any video game, what would it be?
I mean Bioshock is my favorite game ever; I think I could do some cool stuff with that old-timey kind of music.
Lastly, is there anything fans can look forward to soon?
Not that far in the future, but pretty far…We have a full-length album coming out. It’s just in the process of getting the finishing touches.
Worry Club is going on tour with Bear Hands in the fall, going through the United States and Canada, beginning in October.
