Sup we're the guitarists in the band CHON ask us some stuff!

Does my super shittilly done CHON tattoo count as a back stage pass for when you come to San Francisco?

yes msg us on fb!

You two vs Tosin Abasi

Who wins in a fight?

Tosin loses.. jk we'd get KO'ed

Do you plan on having Drew sing on other songs besides Ecco? Do another Livestream soon!

We're gonna write some more tunes with vox 4sho 2014

Love your music guys, when are you coming to Australia?!?!

Also, whats your favorite Mathrock bands?

hopefully we'll be in australia soon. school of rock

What kind of shampoo do you guys use?

whatever is in whoevers bathroom

Who writes most of the music, and has there ever been a guitar riff/sequence that one or the other could not play or are you guys just mutants who can reach each other's minds?

its 50/50 between me and mario and we can pretty much play each others parts

What sort of musical ideas or techniques do you believe you take from your influences? I know you've mentioned artists like Hiromi Uehara as being relevant to the band's sound, but can you elaborate on that in any fashion?

we take a lot of influence from pianists.

sometimes one of us will be playing lower notes like the left hand of a pianist and the other will be doing higher stuff like the right hand of a pianist

what guitars are you using on tour?

Mario : my custom ibanez and an rg 421

Erick : rg 321 and rg 421

I saw you guys open for Evan Brewer at the Whiskey. You were the only opening band I have ever seen to be asked and then play an encore set. How has the response been so far on this tour?

that was a sick show. tours been tight as well, crowds are generally awesome.

I just saw you in Detroit, you were fantastic. That is all.

thanks that show was cool

what's your favorite song from the new animals record? I think another year goes ham

hmm idk the name but there's one with this gnarlyyyy slap guitar breakdown part

What is the story of how Chon came together? What is everyone's background and where did they come from before it was Chon?

we were all buddies and then we jammed and stuff. erick and I met when we started playing guitar and have been jammin together since

How long have you all been playing guitar?

mario : 8 years

erick : 10 years

yo

how do i get a hold of good quality old song recordings?

http://cl.ly/022q472s3D2n3o2b3t2e

How did you guys learned guitar ?

And when will you guys come to Paris ?

we just learned from tabs and youtube and stuff. also, our friend / mentor Seth Hollander sethmetal.com

Absolutely love your music! My questions are do you guys have any formal training in music? Did you study music theory?

we learned via the internet and sethmetal.com

Hey guys I caught you at the house show with polyphia. great set. You guys write sine pretty complex riffs and structures, do you guys have any kind of music education under your belt and if so, where did you go and what concepts did you learn that helped your writing?

thanks yo, nope. we just learn what the music we like is doing

Hey, thanks for doing the AMA! Do you guys consider joining a label?

thanks for the question home dawg! yes

What has been your favorite stop on the tour so far?

NYC cus they went HAM

Musical influences? Also east coast tour when? ;_;

we just played the east coast but we'll be back soon

what led zeppelin song were you listening to when you wrote dust?

never listened to them

How did you guys get a record label and a tour with Tosin? I want my band to tour with you guys one day.

we don't have a label, and aal just wanted us on the tour

any chance those old youtube videos will be unprivated again? that jam video with you and erick always motivated me to pick up my guitar. also love seeing how those old song ideas ended up becoming full out songs

ye we'll put it back up and make some more

Yo sup Chon! I caught you guys live last year in Hollywood on your tour with Evan Brewer and Last Chance To Reason, you guys are dope! The few of you that I met were really chill too.

One question for you guys.

I hate to bring the whole dispute of genre into the mix, but I've been curious. Would you guys consider yourselves more of a Math Rock, or Progressive Metal/Rock band? It seems that you have a fanbase set with fans of both these styles of music. If you had to put a label on your music, what would it be?

thanks that show was tight

idk we never think of that and prolly can't answer that correctly

What amps do you like to use? Your tone is really sweet! Overdriven but smooth.

mario : fender supersonic 2x12

erick : vox ac30

Do you guys have any kind of specific philosophies or techniques for writing and playing to make sure that you guys sound unique and CHON enough? Y'all have a very notable and defined sound, different from what a lot of other bands are writing and I was wondering how you guys develop that sound and keep that identity in what you write.

all we do is write what we think is cool, we don't think about anything other than making some cool music

So stoked to see you guys getting big, still remember listening to Elliptical Illuminations so many years ago and being enchanted.

You guys deserve every bit of recognition you get. Easily one of my favorite bands in the past decade.

Keep up the great work guys.

Also Mario you look mad dad status in the default picture, lol. About to go walk the dog in a nice neighborhood whilst smoking a corncob pipe.

Heck yea dude, that's tight

enjoy that walk

Do you guys prefer writing songs with vocals or no vocals?

both are fun idk prolly instrumental right now

Whats up Eric and Mario! I just wanted to say im from san diego and have seen you guys a bunch of times, and have watched you guys come a long way from the first EP to now. Im a huge fan so I have a few questions: How did you both get started in music? Whats it been like going from a true local band to a now national touring act? Is there any other genres of music you guys like to play a lot? Whats new for CHON this year?

Thank you guys!

that's awesome dude, we both just started playing guitar and loved doin it so we played together all the time

it feels awesome to tour and play songs we made 6 years ago. it's kinda crazy. we like playing prett much every genre.

we're just going to continue touring and make a full length album

I noticed erick was playing flappy bird in Joliet. What's your high score.

77

Hey CHON, Do you guys have plans to release a full-length album sometime soon? If so, would you do a headlining tour?

As well, how are the drum parts written in your songs? Are they written to compliment the guitar parts?

Cheers from Vancouver!

We're planning on making a full length album as soon as we're back from tour

the drums are mostly improvised, but we'll have suggestions on the types of beats for certain parts

What kind of guitar was used for 'super potion'? it sounds like there are effects on it or something lol

12 string baritone Martin

(If not already) Would either guitarist be willing to give guitar lessons while on future tours?

yee we will def do that on future tours

Hey guys huge huge huge fan!

What direction do you guys want to go with your music. Will you incorporate more vocals into songs in the future? What is one piece of advice you guys could give to me about applying music theory to guitar?

thanks for doing an AMA!

we will def be adding vox. i'd say study it enough so it's more of an unconscious application

I'll buy you food before the Seattle date just lemme know

hit us up on fb mayn

Not really much of a question but I saw you guys in Atlanta and it was so goddamn rad. It was pretty great to see the crowd so damn hyped to finally be seeing you guys! Woohoo!

yee that show was so awesome

Hey guys! I love your music, I just found out about you guys about a month ago and ive been blasting your tunes ever since. I myself am in a band but i dont play remoteley the same type of music you guys play and also being in the west coast I cant really see you guys play (:/) so i was just wondering how does a typical CHON show go? Do people go crazy or do they just sit back and chill to the tunes?

there are usually a few peeps goin hard but people mostly chill and listen to the jams

I'm thrilled to see you guys doing an AMA! I was introduced to your work just a few months ago by a friend and I have since not been able to get enough. Now that we got that out of the way, I have two questions for you:

1.) How did you guys think of such fucking adorable names for your tracks on Newborn Sun? Seriously, "Puddle"? "Fluffy"? "Bubble Dream"? I love it.

2.) Hypothetical: In a raging battle to the death, a war between tacos and burritos breaks loose on the border of Mexico and soon takes over the world in a reign of terror and hot sauce. Now at the end of the crusade, the victor must be chosen by you (based on your answer to this question); If you had to choose between consuming a burrito or a taco, which would you choose and why? Winner is eaten. Go.

we just think of names that sound funny to us, they're usually named within minuets of us throwing names around

burritos fosho, cali bs are the shit yo

What kind of bands did you guys grow up listening to?

Estradasphere was a favorite

Do you guys plan on doing more songs with vocals?

ye ye ye ye ye

Had the pleasure of meeting you guys in Tampa on the first night of the AAL tour. You all were really great to meet, and amazingly warm and receptive to everyone that came up to meet you guys. Thanks for being so genuine. I told you reddit loved you!

Thanks! that show was epic, seriously an awesome way to start the tour