Plaid Brixx
By: Nicole Juliette Hetlyn
While in Columbus, we caught up with Chris Duggan of Plaid Brixx to do an interview! We’ve been a fan of Plaid Brixx for a while now – they were our very first photoset/interview for Savvage Media. Check out what Chris had to say about Plaid Brixx’s new music, corgi’s, pizza, and more in our exclusive interview!
NH: We are at a lovely coffee shop, Stauf's Coffee Roasters, here in Columbus. What is your “go to” coffee drink?
CD: Cold Brew!
NH: Same!
CD: Cheers! [we “cheers” to our DELICIOUS cold brew we are drinking, thank you Stauf’s Coffee!]
NH: Your new single, “Beat Comes On,” was just released on Friday. It’s fantastic, I was jamming to it in the car. Can you tell us about this song?
CD: “Beat Goes On,” – It’s about persevering and never giving up, which is important in life and especially in this industry. It’s kind of like a self-empowerment song that I wrote for myself, but it applies for anyone that’s going through life. It also ties in nicely with the departure of Mark and Jared from the band, the beat goes on…”
NH: How was that transition?
CD: We’re still homies! Mark is a teacher and has a serious girlfriend, but it was five years and he gave it a really long haul. I am very grateful! Jared went on to pursue other things as well. I wish them both the best, they will both always be like my brothers.
NH: Now that it’s just you by yourself, how do you find the songwriting process?
CD: I’ve always been the only “songwriter,” so that hasn’t changed. As far as recording, I have 6 in the can right now, so if I release one every month, that’s enough material for one year. Those were all done in LA. The ones that I am working on now, I am taking a more direct role in the producing. I want it to be more local, “Columbus.” I’ve put a lot of time into figuring out who I want to work with here. I want to give back locally. I love Columbus. Our single artwork was by a Columbus artist, Cassidy Rae Marietta (website / Instagram). She’s an amazing lady! She will be doing all of our cover work this year.
NH: How did you get your inspiration for your “Valen-Grinch” video?! We love it! It was such a cool way to announce your new single!
CD: I realized that if I am not performing all the time, I need interesting ways to promote myself. I have always loved YouTube and making videos, but I never felt like I did it enough with Plaid Brixx. Now I have an assistant who is a director, writer, and helps with social media. He’s coming over today to film a “behind the song.” We were going to release a different song “Want to be Loved,” with super cheesy tag lines. But we are going to hold off on that for another time, it wasn’t quite ready! We are going to release a video, similar to the spirit of ValenGrinch, every time we are ready to release a new song, so be on the lookout!
[Chris and I exchanged quite a few touring stories, and were talking about “life on the road..]
CD: When you’re on tour and you’re traveling, you don’t have a lot of time to see the actual cities. I want to start a “pizza blog” on the next tour, if I have time. Hopefully, when bands come into Columbus or any city, they can go to my pizza blog to figure out where to eat. Maybe they can submit their own favorite pizza and rank them.
NH: This is a great idea, pizza is a staple. Everyone likes pizza, it’s a scientific fact.
Stay tuned... We see a Plaid Brixx x Pizza Blog in the future!
NH: I see you post a lot about corgi’s… Do you have one, or do you just love them?
CD: My parents have three, I love them! It’s almost cheating when I post them on Instagram and whatnot, because everyone is like OH MY GOD CORGI, then I get a lot of likes.
NH: They are cute, not gonna lie!
CD: They are prissy dogs though, but we try to keep it real on Twitter!
NH: You are so much fun to watch in concert, you give off so much energy and have great dance moves. What’s your secret?
CD: Being in really great shape. I do yoga. I also do a lot of high intensity working out, that helps me to dance and ding, while jumping around. By the end of tour, my body was like “please help!”
NH: What can we expect for 2018 from Plaid Brixx?
CD: New single every other month all year! My ultimate month is to do that… forever! Now that I can do that all myself here in Columbus, it’s a lot easier. I just wrote a new song, with my friend Scott from Columbus producing it. We finished it in two weeks. I didn’t have to fly out to LA or get on Skype or anything to revise anything. It was a 5 minute drive, not 5,000 miles. When my mom can, she gives me sky-miles, since she flies for business. So shout out to mom, MOM!! She’s our businesswoman. When we were in LA on the We the Kings tour, it was St. Patrick's Day, and my dad’s name is Patrick. He is 100% Irish and it was a sold-out show. He was in the balcony and I was like, “SHOUT OUT TO MY DAD!” He was so excited, he tells that story all the time. I’ll have to bring him on stage next time for a dance off. I like to think of my dancing as interpretive dancing. I think I should take some hip-hop dance classes.