Interview: Evan Seurkamp of The Laughing Chimes
The heart of The American Jangle Underground
In 2020 Captured Tracks unleashed Strum & Thrum: The American Jangle Underground 1983-1987. They struck oil in those College Rock fields. Across two LP’s there’s not a single skipper in the bunch. And all I could think was “damn I wish there were bands around that sound like this comp.”
Sometime in 2022 Slumberland Records advertised an upcoming EP by an unassuming group named The Laughing Chimes. The group photo showed a trio of fresh faced weirdos (my kind of people!). No cool guy mop top paisley shirt psych-dorks. I listened, liked what I heard, then completely lost them in the endless onslaught of new music suffocation.
Jump forward to September of this year. The Zoo Avenue cassette EP in the rearview, Slumberland gifted the world the supremely sublime Laurel Heights 7”. Back on my radar, it occurred to me that The Laughing Chimes are the College Rock janglers I’ve been waiting for. My REM-itch has been scratched. Being late to the game, there’s already a wealth of material to dive into headlong.
Between planning stage to publish date, The Laughing Chimes managed to slide out another EP. Within this interview there is mention of a single that has “just been released.” It’s a reference to Laurel Heights. A month later, just in time for Halloween, they dropped a new two song digital EP. A Promise To Keep pits the “Southern Gothic rock” of the title track against a spot on perfect cover of The Ocean Blue’s “Ballerina Out of Control.”
We haven’t even gotten to front-person Evan Seurkamp’s solo releases. It boggles my mind how someone can craft so many perfect pop songs. I dunno, some people just got it. Enough of my yammering. Take a look at and listen to The Laughing Chimes, the best thing out of Athens, OH since We March.
The band started in a small town. What was it like growing up in that environment?
Growing up in a small town is certainly a very different way of life than a lot of people are used to. There is also the added allure that our hometown, Shawnee, Ohio is a ghost town. It was big back in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s with coal mining in the southeastern Ohio area. Now most of the buildings are abandoned and there really isn’t anything to do there. I think this helped foster some creativity on our part though, because there is nothing happening, you have to come up with your own ways to pass the time.
How old were you when you got into music and what first hooked you? What were the first alternative sounds to draw you in and how did you find them? When did Laughing Chimes start and how old were you?
Around 13, something clicked within regarding music. I had never really cared too much about it before but I suddenly became very invested in music and started to actually develop my own favorite bands (back then it was mostly 90’s brit-pop). I have always loved REM too and my parents would play their greatest hits a lot, although I later discovered their earlier albums for myself and came to love those even more. The Laughing Chimes formed in early 2020. By this point, my brother, Quinn, and myself had already been playing drums and guitar for about 3 years. We weren’t very good then and honestly still aren’t to this day so what covers we could play were limited and I had a drive to write my own music. We cleared out this shed in the back of our yard and used it as a makeshift studio space. In this time we recorded some early demos that would eventually make it onto our first album.
You’re now based in Athens, OH. What’s the music scene like there?
We’ve been based in Athens for a little over a year now and the music scene here is very close-knit; to be honest, the entire community is. It’s a very art-centered town and it is great to be among other musicians in the abandoned Appalachian wasteland! There is a great venue here called The Union that is truly the best we have ever played at. The crowd is always super energetic and the people who run it are amazing. No corrupt promoters or asshole-sound people! The only thing we have noticed about the Athens scene and the Ohio music scene, in general, is that we play a very different style to a lot of the other bands around. It certainly helps us stand out but it is nice to be able to share a bill with a band that has a similar sound occasionally.
Your debut album, In This Town, came out on the Spanish label Pretty Olivia Records. How did you get hooked up with them? How did Slumberland come into the fold?
The original plan for In This Town was to release it and to just have my family members and friends listen and for that to be it. However, a few people began sharing it on some radio stations and small blogs. I got this email from Pretty Olivia about 2 months after the album was released. At first I was sure it was a scam, there was no way someone wanted to put our music on vinyl. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to respond to the email and from there I started talking with Javi and we made plans to release In This Town on vinyl that summer. It was a very exciting time and I feel super lucky because a lot of artists never get to see their music on a record. I can’t remember when I started talking with Slumberland but it was sometime in the winter of 2021. We self-released our next single, Laurel Heights, and then from there started talking more seriously with Slumberland about future plans. From there we began working on our Zoo Avenue EP and released that with them on cassette.
I know that the single has just been released, but are there any future plans to work with Slumberland?
We definitely have plans to continue working with Slumberland! The goal is to release more digital singles with them as well as our second album. We aren’t sure when this will be finished yet, we’re still finding our footing on how we want it to sound. However, we will hopefully have news to share in 2024!
Any shows or tours coming up?
We are brainstorming a summer 2024 tour, so fingers crossed we can make that happen. We’re still in school though and none of us are 21 so that limits the places we can play and time we can spend out on the road. Financially we are very limited too, haha.
How do you decide which songs go to Laughing Chimes and which ones go to your solo releases?
In regards to planning our releases, usually I go into the songwriting process with an idea of what project I am writing the song for. However, as of late the lines between those have been a little blurred and now I have been waiting until the sound takes some time to dissolve within my brain and fully soak in before I make a decision on what project it is going to. Often the difference between how heavily the song relies on a full band arrangement is a deciding factor as well.
What’s it like being in a band with a sibling? Do Laughing Chimes ever get comparisons to The Clean based on having siblings on guitar/drums like the Kilgours?
It’s strange actually, I don’t think we have ever really been compared to the Kilgours before. Even though I think that is an excellent comparison for us. Maybe we aren’t that cool yet to be on the same level as The Clean. Being in a band with my sibling has benefits and downsides for sure. Generally, my brother and I are on the same page about what we want to do with our music, but there is a varying level of enthusiasm related to some aspects of it. And we definitely argue a lot but that’s what siblings do.
What’s an influence that people might overlook in your sound or one that’d be unexpected? What’s your favorite record of all-time and why?
I really love 80s dance music and new wave dance music. There is a lot of overlap between that and jangle pop in some places but we haven’t played with it so much yet and I hope to do more of it in the future.
I used to not know what my favorite record was but I think I can say now that it is Bee Thousand by Guided by Voices. There is a little of every good part of indie pop on that album, it is truly a masterpiece.