Chucky Trading Co

This time on The NAS 10 Questions, we get to know Chucky Trading Co – a brother-sister folk-rock duo based in New York and Nashville.

Their track ‘Make Your Own Sunshine’ is currently featured on the NAS Spotify Playlists

Tell us a little about where you are from.

We are a brother-sister folk-rock duo currently living in New York and Nashville, named CS and Patricia “Danger” Taber. We were born in the Central African Republic, and we have lived and travelled in a few different countries. As teenagers, we found ourselves in Tennessee in the US, and that’s where our musical journey began. I am a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and singer, and also an author and scholar. I currently live in New York with my wife, Sue. Danger is an artist, designer, and singer. She has worked in professional theatre, was a costume designer for Nashville Children’s Theatre, and sings a wide range of styles, including folk, pop, rock, and cabaret. She lives in Nashville with her husband, Dan, and their dog, Posy.

What inspired Chucky Trading Co. to start playing and making music?

It started with a four-piece band called Three a.m. This group featured acoustic instruments and four-part harmonies, and we played about half original tunes. When Three a.m. broke up, I went back to school and began a non-musical career. Some years later, during COVID, I had a bit of a flurry of songwriting, which culminated in the first CTC album in 2021. Danger’s path was a bit different! After Three a.m., she played in a folk-rock duo called Taber and Hart. She moved to Nashville and began working in theatre as well as music and visual art. Danger sees each song as a little play, which I love. We are so happy to be making music and telling stories together again!

Who are Chucky Trading Co.’s biggest musical influences?

We bring to our music a wide range of experiences and influences. From our childhood immersed in the spirits and rhythms of Central and West Africa to our coming of age in the rich acoustic traditions of Appalachia, we have always played to a broad tapestry of musical textures. In CTC, our songs combine folk, rock, country, and pop styles with sometimes literary and theatrical lyrics. As a songwriter, I am most influenced by the folk-rock artists of the 1970s, especially Paul Simon. But our overall sound comes from the crazy eclectic mix of artists we listen to, including CSN, Fleetwood Mac, the Head and the Heart, Eva Cassidy, Led Zeppelin, Brandi Carlile, The Roches, Pink Floyd, Wilco, Robert Plant/Alison Krauss, Joan Armatrading, Moody Blues, the Beatles, and the Lumineers, and so many more. For the last few years, we have been listening to mostly indie music, and I think our writing and performing have moved in some fresh directions as a result.

Tell us about your creative process

So far in CTC, I have written all of the songs, though Danger is also an accomplished songwriter. Like so many other songwriters, noodling on guitar is nearly always my first step. There is something intimate about a guitar that inspires songwriting! Most often, a song will develop over days or even weeks. Occasionally, a song comes to me fully formed, as though handed to me by the gods. As a cognitive scientist, I understand the role of the unconscious mind in such cases, but it still feels like a creative gift from the heavens. Danger and I work together on arrangements, especially vocal arrangements. In production, I play nearly all instruments, though Danger is also a guitarist and flautist. Our first album was produced by a very talented friend, Everett Young (who composes film scores), but he did not have time to produce our new album. So, I spent much of the last year learning how to record music from the point of view of an engineer and producer. I am glad that we decided to have it professionally mixed and mastered, or we would probably still be working! BTW, I need to send a shoutout to the brilliant Adam Whittaker of Deluxe Mixing! Dude’s a genius and so easy to work with.

What is your all-time favourite song by another artist and why?

This is the hardest question, both because there are so many and because it is ever changing. But rather than whine and complain and ultimately give you a list, I am going to say “Graceland” by Paul Simon. That entire album is a religious experience for me. And if Danger were answering, it would surely be different.

What is your proudest accomplishment?

The new album, A Sky of Hopes, which drops May 23, is my proudest musical accomplishment. Almost no one has heard it yet, but it speaks to me like no other music I have been part of. The first time teenage Danger and I got up on stage with guitars in hand at an open mic in East Tennessee is a close second. I managed not to drop my pick.

What’s been your most embarrassing moment so far?

I would like Danger to answer this question, but she’s more than 1000 miles from here, so I guess it is up to me. I once fell off a floating stage during a show on a Tennessee lake. There was quite a splash, and I am quite happy guitars float. I do not own that particular Gibson 12-string guitar anymore, but I can tell you it dried out just fine and kept that signature jangle tone.

Tell us about your lowest and highest points in music so far.

Speaking just for me, the breakup of Three a.m. was a very low point. As a 23-year-old, I believed that was the band that would “make it big.” The disappointment and disillusionment were enough to kick me into another career path! But when I started writing songs again during COVID, I regained my love of making music. My high point was when I sent two of these “COVID songs” to the most accomplished professional musician I knew, Everett Young, and his response was to get on a plane to persuade me and Danger to make an album with him. That became the first CTC album, released in 2021. I expect to experience a new high with the release of A Sky of Hopes!