Chantal with her band Morningwood

Please introduce yourself.
My name is Chantal and I’m the singer for Morningwood.

Now Morningwood isn’t a new band, you’ve been around for a really long time, but negative things have happened. So tell us a bit about your band’s history and your story.
I mean it’s kind of cliché, I think every band has had internal band drama, but we sort of fulfilled the stereotype of rock bands where we lost members because they did drugs or you know, whatever it is; we’ve had like exploding drummers, like a spinal tap and everyone, until it eventually ended up only being Pedro and myself and we realized we were the only two remaining members. And we were total opposites; Pisces, Virgo just complete different ends of the spectrum and we butt heads more than anything, but it’s also sort of what makes us work together so well and unfortunately at a certain point in time it was really what was causing us a lot of friction and not letting us work well together and ultimately we had to go to, because there was only two of us, couples therapy. It was like being in a marriage, and that marriage was generally four people, but in that case it was just Pedro and I, so it was two and we had to work out our issues. And we did, and now we’re better than ever.

But you guys aren’t a couple?
No, we are not. We are both married to two different people, but we’ve had a very long relationship with each other, I’ve known him for eight years. We’ve both changed a lot in the course of that time and I think like in any relationship, you have to like grow and realize that people change and things like that.

Wow. That is quite a story.
It’s pretty intense, yeah.

But you managed to come through it, so that’s the most important thing.
A 100 percent, it was one of the more fulfilling things I’ve ever done, getting this relationship working again the way that it should.

So now in the band, is it just you and Pedro?
Well we have two other guys playing with us, but you know the core of the band has always been Pedro and I. Everything else could turn to shit, and we love the people we’re playing with, but we know that Pedro and I will be there.

You’re the heart and soul of it.
Yeah, pretty much. As long as I get to be the heart and he’s the soul, no wait lets switch it around. We’ll figure it out.

You should be the soul, I mean the heart is a body organ but the soul is like amazing.
Alright, I’ll get to be the soul and he can be the heart. He’s not even here and we’re arguing.

Would he want to be the soul?
He would, if I wanted to be, then he would. We’d sit for an hour debating it, and then somebody would finally have to come in and figure out who would be what and convince us otherwise.

Sounds like fun to me. So your album is coming out on October 27th, what’s it about?
It’s not really a concept album, so it’s not necessarily about anything, it just a collection of awesome little songs that we’ve been working on for a really long time. You know how they say, every band has their lifetime to write their first album, and that’s why the second album sucks, well we had a lifetime to write the second album, so it’s pretty damn good. I mean we’ve written about two and a half records worth of songs before we settled on 13, lucky 13. I love every one of them, like a little baby.

You have 13 babies, you should be proud.
13 babies, I gave birth to each one of them and I don’t want to kill any of them.

Why would you kill them?
You haven’t had a baby that you don’t like yet, once you do, no I’m joking; neither have I, hopefully none of us will kill our babies.

Hopefully. So the album name is “Diamonds and Studs,” how did you come up with it and what is its significance?
Well “Diamonds and Studs,” we’ve had the songs finished for about a year at least, in demo form or whatever and we’ve been trying to think of an album cover forever and nothing was sticking out. And it finally got to the end of the line and started going through old movie titles, and I found this old movie called “Diamonds,” and I thought God that’s such a cool name and I was literally in studs and was just like what about diamonds and studs and then it just sort of mad perfect sense with the record and us; we’re sort of like hard and soft, and you know feminine and masculine, playful and tough, sweet and girlish, and diamonds are very feminine and studs are really dirty and masculine. But also visually, we just came up with the album artwork, some visuals of it as soon as we thought about it. I just wanted to see all studs, it almost like this very copacetic vision, where everything came together all at once.

Wow sounds pretty cool.
Yeah, it rarely happens that way, but when it does, you’re like yes, awesome, thank you we got some creativity.

Yeah. After months of crying and banging your head against the wall, now epiphany.
What’s it for you? Are there still some people in Greece who believe in Greek Gods?

No not really, I’m sorry to disappoint.
I wanna bring that back.

Okay, start your own trend.
I want to start believing in Zeus and then everybody.

Well good luck doing that. Which is your favorite song on the album?
I have probably, it’s a tie between three, which leaves ten. I would say the verses of “Killer Life,” the bridge of “Hot Tonight,” and then all of “Cat in a Box.”

Chantal with her band Morningwood

I like the titles of your songs.
Oh, thank you very much. We sort of just went for it, with our titles. Some of them don’t have anything to do with the song itself, like you won’t hear the title. It’s just like things that remind me of the songs. So like with “Bipolar Bears,” there’s nothing in the song that says “bipolar bears,” but to me it just reminded me of, oh bipolar, like the song is like I’m very very sweet, I’m very very angry. And “Bipolar” is very lame, so I was like what would make this more fun, and so our demo title was “Bipolar Bears” and it stuck. And then “Three’s a Crowd,” doesn’t say it anywhere in it, but it reminds me of “Three’s Company” the theme song where it’s like “Come and knock on our door, come and knock on our door.” And the way it’s sort of that back and forth, and it was like “Three’s that Company” “Three’s a Crowd,” so we call it “Three’s a Crowd.”

Wow, pretty fun process.
Yeah, they like have nothing to do with the songs whatsoever.

Well it’s a way for fans to remember the names just because they’re so random.
Exactly, because we didn’t have titles for them and I was like I don’t want to call it “Getting it On” let’s call it “Three’s a Crowd.”

Why not, it’s your creative license.
Exactly, we’re artists…not really.

“Best of Me” has been chosen to be featured on VH1’s “You Ought to Know Artists,” how do you feel about that?
I am ecstatic. I don’t see how to look at it any other way besides being very happy, it’s a great pleasure and honor for them to feature us. It’s such an amazing opportunity for an emerging artist, which we are. We’ve released records, but it’s been a little wild, so it’s such a great way to come back on the scene and be reintroduced to people that know us and people that don’t know us as well.

So what’s next for you guys after the album release?
We’re going on tour in November for a couple of weeks with the band Jet and Papa Roach, it’s a very interesting and eclectic tour, so it will be a very big rock tour. And then probably more touring after that and we’ll probably doing the late night circuit with David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel and stuff like that. And all the sort of usual haunts. It’s very exciting. It’s been a while since we’ve been on tour so I’m very excited to get back out there and see actual people.

Give our readers one good reason why they should listen to your music.
Because our music is better than most of the music pandered to teenagers, we actually mean it, and I think it’s very catchy and it’s good to work out to, and make-out to, work to, party to, whatever you want to. It’s sort of for whatever occasion.

You’re such an artist.
Not really. I hate that term, I hate musicians to do “art speak.” It’s really getting on my nerves; I don’t consider myself an artist at all.

If you were a cartoon character, who would you be?
I would be Ariel, from “The Little Mermaid” hands down.

It matches your red hair.
Yeah, why do you think I have red hair? It’s between that and Jessica Rabbit, you know where I’m going with this or if we were going on a third, I would be the squirrel from “The Sword in the Stone,” the girl one, whose actually such a tragic character, because she has the worst luck ever but I totally identify with her. Or I would be the dog from “Lady and the Tramp,” the one who sings “He’s a tramp…” love her too. So I would be a lot of characters, I love cartoons, basically girls with big hair in their face, and poufy animals with hair.

Nice little collection. What’s the last dream you had?
The last dream I had, I had a really horrible dream, of mostly people beating me to death.

Okay, that’s not very positive.
No, but it comes out in your dreams, I’m a really positive person in real life but in my dreams I get super nightmares. I don’t remember any of my good dreams; I only remember the really bad ones.

That sucks.
Yeah, it sort of blows.

Disturbing. Which is your favorite fairytale?
I am going to have to say, does “The Little Mermaid” count, that’s an old story.

That’s not a fairytale.
It is though, who did the original fairytale of “The Little Mermaid” it like a classic, because what’s his name just redid it, Miyazaki did it, it’s a classic story but I forget who did it, is it Hans Christian Andersen?

I have no idea.
Well you know, for old time’s sake, I’m just gonna say “Hansel and Gretel.” But I know I have a better answer somewhere inside me. “The Little Mermaid” is Hans Christian Andersen, so I’m going with “The Little Mermaid,” that’s the original.

If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?
I was gonna say Greece, so I can come see you, but I’m gonna go back to Bora Bora, because it was amazing there.

Oh, fine don’t come see me.
Sorry, next time, you get second on my list. So you can ask “What’s you second place you want to visit,” I’ll be like I’m seeing you in Greece. But I’m going to Bora Bora.
And this time I’m bringing massive amounts of sun screen, I’m not making the same mistake twice.

Oh gosh, did you get absolutely sun burnt?
Oh, I was beyond, like I went March of last year, I still have a tan line. It was really bad, I couldn’t even leave the hotel room for about four days and it didn’t even matter, that’s how amazing it was its still the best place I’ve ever been in my life.

How would you survive a crocodile attack?
Would I survive a crocodile attack is the question. I don’t know. I don’t think I would to be honest. I mean I would probably be without a limb. I mean if we’re talking about animal attacks, sharks would be my biggest fear of all time. I don’t go into the ocean because I have the biggest fear of sharks. Irrational fear, because I know the chances of me getting eaten by a shark if I go in the ocean are slim to none, but now I feel like I deserve it because I built it up so much, so if I do go into the ocean, I’d totally be justified in getting eaten by a shark.

Well if you come to Greece, we don’t have any sharks.
Really?
But you have the Adriatic Sea right?

We have the Aegean, Ionian, and Mediterranean. We have turtles.
How far is Croatia?

I don’t know the exact distance, but it’s not too far.
I can go to Croatia; I have a place to stay when I go there.

What’s your secret addiction?
It’s not really a secret, I’m definitely addicted to television and the internet. I don’t really have any secret addictions.

Aw, you disappoint.
I’m really proud of myself that my only television and internet are my only addictions, but they are addictions.

They’re legal addictions at least. What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve done on stage?
I don’t think I’ve ever been embarrassed on stage, everything sort of made sense to me to be honest.

That’s actually better for you.
Yeah. Off stage I get embarrassed all the time. I’m very mindful of the myself and what I do, on stage I sort of just lose all that inhibition. I throw up to the side of the stage once, but I wasn’t embarrassed I was totally sick.

What’s your most treasure possession?
My husband, he’s totally mine, I own him.

How can fans contact you?
I have a twitter which is ChantalClaret, http://twitter.com/chantalclaret, which I answer all the time. I have a facebook which is Chantal Claret Euringer. MySpace, they can go to the Morningwood MySpace or they can go to Morningwood Rock and there will be a message board. Any of those ways and I’m very assessable and reachable.