User:Charmingliars

As teens growing up in London, England, the trio of talented musicians and songwriters that make up the core of this dynamic new rock band were shaken to their young souls by the crunching guitar riffs and memorable melodies that came out of the hard rock capital of the world, namely, Los Angeles.

The impact on these impressionable music lovers was so powerful that Charlie Cosser, Mike Kruger and Karnig Manoukian took the profoundly bold step of pulling up stakes, waving goodbye to the security of friends, family and a university education to follow their dream of becoming the next big thing by moving to Los Angeles – epicentre of American rock and roll for more than 45 years.

For the Londoners that are now the nucleus of Charming Liars, the move has paid dividends in ways even the most prescient or optimistic person could have imagined. The band landed a recording contract, earned a chance to work along side two of the most influential producers of the past quarter century – John Fields and Canada’s own Bob Rock, and more recently, a slot on the Fourth-Annual Rockstar Energy Uproar Festival tour, playing along side some of the biggest alternative rock acts on the planet. In October 2013, Charming Liars released a four- song EP called New Disorder (available now on iTunes), which is a powerful and compelling teaser for the debut Charming Liars full-length album which will be hitting stores in the Spring of 2014.

The songs on the EP: New Disorder (title track and first video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=- twbOiu6IO8), I’m Losing You, Break Away, Wasted, are bold, anthemic songs that bristle with restless urgency and passionate optimism.

New Disorder is filled with sweeping melodies, textured layers of guitars, complimented by singer Charlie Cosser’s fervent waiting vocals and all pulled together by lyrics rooted in the personal, the political, and the spiritual.

“We always wanted this album to have an over- all sense of positivity, and I think that has shone through. It’s about empowerment and independence, but in a good way. It’s not about fighting the man or starting a revolution; it’s about having hope and striving for happiness. Those are the things that we want to represent through our music. And it’s not contrived, it just naturally came out that way,” says vocalist Charlie Cosser.

“Where this came from was that we were fighting a lot of things that were holding us back in the UK: family, relationships, dead-end jobs, and deciding not to go down the path that all our friends did, which was the conventional path. We really were going to give this a go, and we have never regret- ted it.”

The powerhouse singer, whose voice reminds many listeners in Canada of OLP’s Raine Maida, said it was critical to the band’s career trajectory to be immersed in the centre of the music community that inspired them to actually want to pick up instruments and become rock musicians in the first place.

The band is fully aware of the significance L.A. and particularly the famed Sunset Strip has had in rock history. From The Doors, through the hair metal ex- plosion of the 1980s lead by Mötley Crüe through to Guns ‘n Roses, if the walls of the venerable clubs on Sunset Boulevard could talk, they would have reams of tales to tell.

“Karnig and I have known each other since we were nine and when we were about 13 we really got into the alternative and heavier music: everything from Slipknot, Blink 182, System of a Down and Silver- chair, and they all had a similar American sound in common with all the guitars, the big choruses stuff you could mosh to and stuff you could sing along to. And those albums were mostly recorded in L.A. So we knew if we wanted to get the sound we were looking for, and create the songs we wanted to create, we had to go to the source,” said Cosser.

The band played showcase gigs at The Viper Room, The Roxy, The Troubadour and the Whiskey A Go Go, carving a reputation as a band on the ascent in the highly competitive L.A. music scene. Fields, whose credentials include work with The Goo Goo Dolls, The Rembrandts and former Bare- naked Ladies frontman Stephen Page saw this raw potential and was the first L.A. music gurus to en- courage the band to at least try their hand at setting up shop in southern California.

“He responded to some of the demos we sent from England and said he was into what we were doing and said he would meet us if we could get to L.A. We went over for five days and built a relationship with him where we would send him demos and he would give us feedback. And then once we started the album he worked on three or four of the tracks with us as well. It was a great experience”.

Bob Rock’s name initially came up in a casual conversation but the band decided to approach the legendary Canadian producer knowing that the worst he could say was no. Rock said yes and eventually produced the majority of the songs on the Charming Liars forthcoming album.

“It was truly a rewarding experience collaborating with someone who has built a reputation for excel- lence working with the likes of Metallica, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams”, continues Cosser.

“We are a bunch of young guys from England and it’s been our dream to work with someone of that pedigree. We had so much faith in his choices be- cause he’s got the track record to back it up. He was tough and wanted the best from us, but he was also very kind and very patient. I think he approached this album as a chance to mentor us as well. It was such an amazing experience being in the studio with him.”

Being part of the Uproar Festival this past summer had the Charming Liars rubbing shoulders with the likes of Jane’s Addiction, Coheed and Cambria, Alice and Chains, and Duff McKagan’s (Guns ‘n Roses, Velvet Revolver) new project, Walking Papers. It afforded Charming Liars, which now included second guitarist Nick Krein and drummer Zack Riel, a chance for a first-hand real time master class in the music business.

“Those months on the road were a huge learning curve. We watched how they prepared every day. It was amazing to see that level of professionalism and dedication to the craft that these massive bands would do each and every day. We watched every- thing from how their crew worked, how they set up, how they interacted with fans – everything. We seriously got schooled”. Charming Liars is absolute proof that there is nothing wrong with following your heart and taking some calculated risks to make your rock and roll dreams come true. And what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger....right?

For more information: www.charmingliars.com