Meet Me At The Chain

Recording Meet Me at the Chain: the first album by Diggem, a Los Angeles based group of music whizzes whose roots span the US; sounded like a challenge. The band's philosophy of Turned Up, Get Down music is not taken lightly. Starting with the in-your-face rock lick of Rich Girl and immediately turning the tables with the 2-beat swag of Tale of Jesse, Meet Me at the Chain announces it's intentions to not just be your typical rock-funk album but an attempt to sonically explain the meld of their differences. The band wrote these songs over the years both separately as bassist Chris Schmoke did in New York while keyboardist Valerie Taylor did in Santa Barbara, and together as drummer Rich Kaylor and guitarist Francis Sablan did in Pasadena. What brings the material together is a shared sense of realism about the band's lives and interests - no one is trying to force themselves to be anything other than what they are: independent musicians and composers living in the music capital of the West Coast. What makes this work so well are the bridges we've built over the music we love, Valerie shares, which connect and intertwine around our relationships with each other. So, how do you get from Heavy Metal to Jazz? More easily than you might think, as it turns out! Diggem began in 2000 when Rich met Val for their first musical project together, a band called Retro Transit Authority. Francis had already left Guam for California at that point, and Chris was building a family in Gaylord, MI. Cut to 2008 where Chris had just moved to Los Angeles and was seeking out one of those projects that feeds the soul. He met up with Rich and Val in August and five years later they're still going strong. Francis joined a year later, and as he puts it I was looking for a way to express myself and still keep some individuality. When we jammed that first time it was like everyone got that about me...and I got that about them! A 2012 video for the funk track The Get Down highlighted the band's sense of humor about themselves while showcasing their tight grooves and sense of musical style. Other tracks on the album prove the structural parallels of Won't You Wait and Take My Good Time; and the blues-based licks of Last Night and The Ledge, aren't an accident as it all comes together in the band-composed title track, Meet Me At the Chain. The band's philosophy becomes a directive - challenge accepted and met - as the album takes you where you want to go: amps on 11. Turned Up, Get Down indeed.