Chappaqua Wrestling frontmen Charlie Woods and Jake Mac met at school when they were 14 years old.
They both liked the indie music of the time. But, growing up in “boring suburbia” outside Brighton, what really cemented their friendship was a shared love of Manchester bands like New Order, Joy Division, and Happy Mondays.
“When you find someone who has an interest in what you’re doing, when you find anyone who’s on the same wavelength, when it feels like you’re in this sea of people who just don’t get it, those relationships are so, so special,” remembers Woods.
“It was obviously so exciting because we both had those similarities, but it was also exciting because it felt like we were the only two people into it. And that feeling’s probably what’s carried us on to now, because it’s like: ‘We fucking get this together.’”
Where it’s carried Woods and Mac is to the University of Manchester (a move inspired by their love of the city’s music) where Chappaqua Wrestling was born and gained some early attention, back to Brighton, on to London, a breakout single (2020’s The Rift), and now the imminent release of debut album, Plus Ultra. Along the way came Woods’ minor New York detour that inspired the band’s name.
All the while, the pair (who share songwriting, vocal, and guitar duties) have been making music together.
“We’d sit in a room, hungover, in T-shirts and our pants just writing songs, and then we’d develop them together,” Woods says of their early days in Manchester. “More recently, maybe because of lockdown, maybe because of other processes, we tend to write about 70 percent of the song ourselves and then the other person will help finish it.”
Echoing their creative process, in conversation Woods and Mac tend to build on and complement each others’ thoughts.
“I think naturally over time, where we’ve not lived together, we start songs and nearly finish them on our own. But that’s also confidence in writing. When we were younger, we used to look to each other to help write and finish songs, because we were starting out together. Over time we’ve been able to complete songs on our own a bit more, but a song’s never finished without the other’s input,” elaborates Mac.
“We’ve become such similar writers because we’ve learnt so much from each other,” he adds later. “So, I think a lot of people wouldn’t be able to tell who’s written what with a lot of our music. Also, when it comes down to our vocals, a lot of people can’t tell whose is whose sometimes. Which is nice, I think.”
Ask Woods and Mac what the other’s especially good at and they initially both reply, laughing, as only old friends would: “Nothing!”
Woods steps up first: “I love Jake’s lead guitar lines in some songs. For example, The Rift. There’s this guitar line in the third verse, which is quintessentially Jake where I didn’t think that those chords, the progression could be altered. And then there’s this line that just completely twists the harmony and brings this whole new mood in.”
Mac responds, grinning: “I’ve got to think of something nice for Charlie now. Charlie’s amazing at writing big tunes, big anthemic songs. But also one thing Charlie’s really good at that I’m trying to get better at over time is getting the track across in a demo so the production’s realised before you go into the studio and start wasting time.
“And also some beautiful abstract lyricism over the years.”
Their individual — and combined — strengths are on full display on Plus Ultra, which takes its name from a phrase used on old-world maps that roughly translates to “nothing lies beyond”.
Largely recorded over 12 days in a studio in Wales, it’s a bold, honest debut stuffed with urgency and confidence, raging social commentary and soaring hope, huge anthems and quiet introspection.
“We tried to make an album story and just give enough light and shade as a flow,” explains Woods of the tracks picked from the “fucking shitloads” they’d written over the years.
“And lyrically we’ve tried to venture into some new places and there are just some songs on there where we went: ‘Well this is something we want to talk about’ and they were chosen because of how fucked up and shit the world seems right now.
“So, songs like Full Round Table or Wide Asleep are particularly relevant to some of the problems that we are seeing every fucking day with our friends, for us, things that are going on,” he says, alluding to issues like the cost of living crisis, the NHS, student debt, social media, and mental health.
Mac picks up the thread. “All the tracks that we write that instantly connect when we show them to each other or when we write together are the songs which are truthfully about something. And I think every musician will say that songs and lyrics that are truthful and honest about what’s happening or what the artist sees or feels are always the songs that sound best and come off best.
“Full Round Table, Wayfinding, Wide Asleep, Fair Game, Kulture, they’re all tracks which got fast-tracked through the process because they were honest and they were saying something truthful about how we felt about things going on around us, society wise,” he continues.
“But there are also tracks on the album which we couldn’t avoid because they’re just big bangers and they’re just mindlessly fun.”
Adds Woods: “It’s also important to let your hair down and enjoy life because sometimes it’s just so serious, some things just feel so serious. There’s a collection of songs on there about different feelings.”
“It’s a rock album so it has to have a big bit of release, relief, mayhem,” reiterates Mac.
That being said, do the co-frontmen care if the average listener misses the point of their more serious lyrics?
“A lot of writers, punk writers or post-punk writers, will write solely to deliver the message about what they feel and what they say. And obviously that’s massively important,” replies Mac. “There are elements of that on our album, but as a listener of music I don’t seek out lyrics all the time as being so important. Sometimes I like a song simply for its melody, regardless of what it’s saying. I think it’s important to have that on the album as well.”
Woods continues: “Like some beautiful, beautiful songs have such abstract lyrics and people find their own meanings for what it is. Like one of our favourite songs ever, Ceremony by New Order. Some troll might pipe up and say: ‘Well, you can find out what it’s about’. But I’m telling you, if you listen to it, you can’t really know what it’s about because the lyrics don’t spoon feed you. But you know when you’re listening to it, what it means to you.”
“A song is sometimes a mirror of how you feel and I think an abstract lyric can [allow for that],” adds Mac.
If it’s not clear from thoughts like these, the duo at the heart of Chappaqua Wrestling still love music now as enthusiastically as they did when they were 14. Woods says as much: “We are massive music lovers at the end of the day. We love writing, but we absolutely fucking love other bands and other artists.”
So how do they feel now that Plus Ultra is about to be revealed in full to other music lovers?
Woods steps up: “A band’s debut album is always going to have a big story and we’ve been friends for so long, since we were pretty much kids. So to have that first big project out just hits on so many levels. And we would always feel that, whether the album was crap or not.” (It’s not.)
“Whatever people think of it, it’s always going to be something that’s just so exciting. It’s our first big project. It’s really exciting on so many levels.”
And within weeks of its release, Chappaqua Wrestling (rounded out by John-Paul Townsend on drums and Coco Varda on keys and percussion) are heading out on tour again.
They’re understandably thrilled.
“It will be the first time we’re going out on the road where people who come to see us will know our music in full,” says Mac. “On our first tour, most of our set was off the album. So people were getting into it and going mad, but they didn’t actually know what they were listening to, because it was unreleased music. So we’re excited, because it’s the first tour where people are actually going to know what we’re talking about and know our tunes.
“It should get hectic.”
“It’s going to be huge,” echoes Woods. “Absolutely can’t wait. It’s what a band should be doing, is connecting with new fans and having a lot of fun. So it’s going to be brilliant.”
- This article originally appeared on Louder Than War.
Nils van der Linden 