Interview with CHALK: SXSW 2026

by Vijay Davis

Welcome back to Austin Underground. 
Today we're here with CHALK. Could you introduce yourselves and what you play in the band?

Ben: I'm Ben. 
I play the guitar in CHALK. 

Ross: I'm Ross, I do vocals.

Very good. What’s your SXSW Festival experience been like? Tonight at Bushy St. Commons will be your last show for the fest, right?

B: That’s right. It’s not been too crazy, we’ve like four shows. Luckily it wasn’t something like fifteen shows, but the plan was to keep it kind of tight.

How have you felt the reception here has been for the music?

B: I think it’s been pretty nice. Our album came out five or six days ago so it’s been nice to just get out and play the new stuff.

You had the album release at Waterloo Records the other day- how was that?

B: That was great. We've never done an in-store before, so it was interesting to play our music especially at 4:30 in the afternoon, but it was really nice to meet everyone that showed up. It was a nice moment.

Let’s talk about that tone. I can hear comparisons to Nine Inch Nails, Underworld on that second-to-last track as well. It’s very dark… kind of sexy. What do you imagine as the visual environment you’re building that sound around?

R: We both grew up around Belfast, so I just picture venues we love; that very industrial kind of scene. But also, it’s very personal– being alone with your headphones, in your car. It’s very much a nocturnal thing.

I love the richness of it all. What’s the origin story of CHALK- how did you two start playing together?

B: We met in film school and we were just looking at starting a band or something together. We kind of knew each other but Ross had a poster for this band called Yellow Band - they used to be called Girl Band - an Irish industrial punk band. I saw that, loved them as well, and was pretty certain nobody else on our course knew who that band was. So I sent him a message, saying “we should do something together.” 
And we just kind of treated it as a hobby for a few years while we were at uni, then it just kind of took off. We’ve been playing on and off for about seven years, and as CHALK, about four years. But as a hobby we started just by messing around together. 

How has your sound changed in that time?

R: We always wanted to do something electronic-based, but we didn’t know what we were getting into. It was more of an art project; us exploring different things. We thought it’d be a guitar band, then brought in more electronic elements, using samples and software on the laptop. We started to make more effects on our pedals and just went from there.

I’m curious about the album, because I know you went in with the mindset of it being ‘CHALK’s only album.’ Tell me a little more about designing that.

Ross wrote a manifesto for the album, and at the top of it was ‘CHALK’s only album.’ It;s more of a conceptual thing than a literal one. But we wanted to go into this project wanting to treat it as the best we could make, the most true to CHALK as a band. It's been a very interesting thing because you’d think you’d get decision paralysis, but it’s actually been a very freeing thing, pushing us out of our comfort zones in a way we might not have otherwise.  

How did you push in those new directions?

We took a lot of risks as well- autotune on the vocals or certain other things like that. It was tricky at times, but we pushed through.

I want to talk about your live performances, especially the new videos– the black leather and spike costumes. What does that signify for you?

R: Well usually Ben is directing the music videos and I follow his signal, costume-wise. Those gloves were made for one video, but then we sort of decided that this aesthetic could exist throughout the album. Working with an independent label allowed us to work with a crew of people to build on these ideas, so we were able to step up with other collaborators in the last year while finishing the album. 

Are you happy with how the album came together in the end?

B: Oh, yeah. It was a labor of love, on and off for about six months. We kind of thought about it everyday– even though we weren’t in the studio everyday, we were touring a lot at the time as well. We’re very proud of what it ended up as. We were open to what the album might sound like– we didn’t go in with all the songs written. The reception’s been quite nice, I think it’s reached a lot more people than we thought it would.

Must feel great. What’s the scene like back home? I know Ireland’s really in the zeitgeist at the moment, music-wise.

B: It’s a cool scene. It’s amazing that there’s this kind of spotlight at the moment. Dublin’s a great scene, more of that guitar-forward stuff, and Belfast has a great electronic kind of scene. I think on the island as a whole, it’s inspiring. You feel proud to consider yourself a part of that.

What else are you passionate about outside of the music?

B: Well, we stuck the Dune 3 trailer on the TV today, so that was a big moment for us. We met in film school and still love movies and stuff like that– I think that’ll always be a part of CHALK. 

What went into crafting some of the more personal lyrics on the album?

R: There’s usually a lot of notes written down beforehand. The last few years I’ve been saving a lot of stuff for the album, sometimes that’ll come out in our videos and sometimes lyrics themselves.

What do you hope that people who hear your music for the first time here in the States take away from it?

You know, seeing a band live is a very different experience from listening on your own or something like that. If people can have some kind of a foreign experience, or a kind of euphoria, that would be what we want. We care a lot about how we plan our sets. We want to take people on a journey with us.

Anything else you want to share before we wrap? 

We'll say, go see some live music. 
Go support your local cinema and bands.