Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.
For Chief State, Keep Your Friends Closer is less a slogan than a hard-earned truth. The album arrives after a decade marked by persistence, near-collapse and the quiet work of rebuilding trust. Trust within the band and in the relationships that surround it. Written for the first time with everyone in the same room, our interview with Chief State’s Fraser captures a group rediscovering who they are by holding tighter to what matters: friendship, honesty, and the simple act of showing up. It’s the realization that sometimes one song, one with the right people beside you, is enough to keep everything moving forward.
Keep Your Friends Closer is a title that feels both comforting and ominous. At what point did that phrase become the emotional center of the album?
Relatively early in the writing process Nik came up with the title. He noticed that a lot of the lyrics I had been writing for the demos were about what was going on in my life, friendships breaking down and losing touch with people. I had also written a bunch about wanting to be closer to the people around me who are always there through thick and thin, to let them know how much they mean to me. I think we all often forget to tell the ones we love just how much we love and appreciate them. The moment Nik suggested the title it was like a light switched on, we now had our North Star for the album.
You describe this as your most authentic and collaborative record to date. What changed in the room this time that allowed that honesty to exist?
Actually being in a room together, everything before this album was usually written individually. Myself or Nik would come up with an idea, the progression, midi drums, the lyrics and then would present it to the rest of the band. The others would then add their parts or adjust what was already in the song. This album was the first time we all sat in a room together and would write from scratch as a unit. Ultimately, we’ve ended up creating something that is Chief State rather than just mine or Nik’s interpretation of what Chief State is.
After a decade of grit and determination, do you feel more driven by proving something… or by protecting something you’ve built?
Neither, we don’t feel we need to prove anything to anyone. We write and create music because we love to. We’re 5 genuine friends that hang out every weekend and would do so even if we weren’t in a band. The fact we get to create music together is a bonus, it’s an incredible outlet we have to share our lived experiences. And when listeners resonate with what we write about, it truly is an honour, we’re extremely grateful to connect with people all over the world through music.
Pop-punk has always been tied to youth, but this album feels grown without losing urgency. How has your relationship with the genre changed as you’ve grown?
It’s funny being pigeonholed into this genre or that, my relationship with genres is simply a way of categorising – “I feel like listening to this right now, what other artists sound similar?” For me at least, it always comes down to the instrumentation and feel rather than lyrical content. Over the years we’ve never purposefully tried to write pop punk, angsty lyrics, they’ve been real words from our own experiences. Now that we’re older our lyrics reflect that, slightly less angsty but still just trying to figure life out! So my relationship with pop punk hasn’t really changed, I love fast punk music, I love the way it makes me feel…. Even if Blink’s early lyrics no longer feel relevant to me at this stage of my life, the songs still fucking rock!
The phrase “the album that very nearly didn’t happen” jumps off the one-sheet. How close were you really to calling it a day before this record came together?
We were down to 2 members left so it was pretty damn close! In 2023 Chloe and Justin decided to move onto other things, other music projects, school, life. Nik also briefly decided to leave to focus solely on his other project. We’re no longer in our early 20s and being in a band can be a lot of work a lot of the time. Me and Joe continued on with the Acoustic EP in 2023/24 and we were really soul searching as to whether to continue on and find new members. And then one day I sent Joe a riff, we got in a room together and finished the demo, that song is called “Somebody” and made it onto the album. Joe then came up with the intro to what became DAMN! And just like that we were back in it, excited, determined, driven.
You’ve talked about that moment where only two of you were left standing. What does it do to a band’s identity when it suddenly becomes that fragile?
I think many people might have considered us to be on the way out a couple of years ago. There’s a lot of pressure involved in music and making it, we’ve all seen it happen to bands over the years and we were certainly showing the signs. I think going through what we’ve been through provided a lot of perspective. We’ve been able to determine what we want and what this band means to each of us. We’ve definitely come back stronger because of it.
Instead of overthinking the future, you wrote a song. Why do you think one song can still be enough to reignite everything?
Music is the fabric that connects the 5 of us. It’s what connects us to our fans in every corner of the world. The fact this band even exists is because while living in Japan I put up a Craigslist ad, Nik replied and I sent him a song I wrote. If one song can ignite a decade-long project then I don’t see why one song can’t reignite another decade and beyond!
The writing process is described as “natural and effortless,” which is wild considering the chaos behind the scenes. Do you think pressure actually stripped away the bullshit?
I think having the space to reassess what the band means to each of us allowed us to turn the pressure off completely. It’s a lot easier to write music with your friends when you’re not worrying about whether this one is going to be the one that changes everything and helps you make the leap to the next step. No bullshit, just friends writing music together.
The title track feels sharp but deeply personal. Was it written from a place of hindsight, or while things were still very much unresolved?
It was written in hindsight. I had shut myself off from friends for the first couple months of the year, I needed space after something personal had happened. But the longer time went on I started to doubt myself, my friendships and was worried that by giving myself space that I had actually destroyed many of my relationships. Thankfully I reached back out and was reassured that things were good, it was all just in my head!
“No Brakes” helped set the tone for this era. Looking back now, does that song feel like a warning shot or a mission statement?
A little of both, we felt that song had the right energy to announce our return. It felt very us, fast, drums-forward, technical guitar rhythms and we also got to tell a story from our last US tour. It’s been received well and is always a great one to play live!
When people listen to Keep Your Friends Closer front to back, what do you hope they take away about friendship… and about not giving up too soon?
I hope people understand the ups and downs in relationships we’ve been through over the last few years and can relate back to their own lives. The album goes on a journey from breakdown to redemption and all the emotions in between, for me it’s a reminder that you can always take a negative situation, push forward and be stronger for it. We’ve written about our experiences, our lives and life itself and our message is simple, keep the ones you care about close, let them know how much they mean to you and as best you can, weed out the people in your life that don’t have your best interests at heart!
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/