A Conversation With Cheem
March 22, 2023 • Written by Ari Bowman
Hailing from Hartford, CT, burgeoning pop-rock band Cheem is no stranger to the prolific Boston music scene. Their show at Monkey Palace on March 3rd gave us a chance to speak with band members Skye Holden, Sam Nazaretian, and Gabe Weitzman about the 5-man-band’s sights for the future, musical inspirations, and what has led them to this point.
Emerging from the emo revival scene of the mid 2010s, Cheem describes themselves as a bit of a “black sheep” from the era they originated in. “We were never a twinkle band,” says vocalist Sam Nazaretian, referring to the math-rock inspired riffs used by many emo bands of the 2010s. “But we kinda grew up with [those] sorts of bands like Origami Angel, and even like, Prince Daddy and the Hyena.”
Currently, Cheem does a lot of genre-blending. “Right now, we’re known for sort of being like Nu Metal, [...] kind of just blending a lot of different styles and genres together,” says vocalist-guitarist Skye Holden. With a wide range of influences, from rap and R&B to video game soundtracks, Cheem’s sound could best be described as Fall Out Boy meets Limp Bizkit meets 311, which is fitting, considering they named said bands as major influences on their music. Their distinctive sound sets them apart from their peers in a way that is truly important; nothing they create seems stale or recycled.
Cheem was initially formed as a high school band between Holden and Weitzman, but the members say that it was basically an entirely different band. “That was like, version zero of Cheem,” says Weitzman, “version one was when we added Sam and Enayi, our first drummer, that was in freshman year of college.” Not long after, their current lineup would start to form, swapping in current drummer Sean Thomas and adding bassist Nate Porter to the group. “We’ve gone through several evolutions. We’re final form Cheem now, we’re all good chemistry, we don’t try to strangle each other.”
COVID-19, surprisingly, was really helpful for the band. “COVID was a huge thing for us because it helped us focus more on social media and because of that, we were like building a network of people that we were interacting with,” says Holden.
“We would start like, fake beef with other bands on Twitter, and just make like memes talking shit about them, but like harmless shit. And people got a kick out of it, and we would start interacting with them, and all of a sudden you know bands from Arizona and Oklahoma and all over the place. Whereas before our network was pretty Northeast focused, and now it’s like, if we want to tour, instead of reaching out to venues, we can just reach out to bands and be like, yo, would you want to help us set up a show in this area?”
Of course, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing – money is an ever-looming issue. The costs of touring are high – renting a van, gas, paying venues and stagehands, and all the regular costs of everyday life like bills and food add up rather quickly. However, “through trial and error, we learned like, okay, if we’re gonna fucking do this, we have to really be prepared and like make a bunch of spreadsheets and stuff, just get all our ducks in a row like at least a month or two before we actually hit the road, instead of scrambling last minute and just losing money.”
As for how Cheem’s sound has evolved over the years, they started out quite similarly to their compatriots from the 2010s wave of emo and pop punk. However, their sound began to shift after adding their first drummer, Enayi Tamakloe, coming in with a background filled with gospel and hip hop performance.
“Hearing him play pop punk, we write the riffs and be like, okay play whatever you want on drums, and he plays it like it’s not a pop punk song.” says Holden. After that, they started to “err on the groovier side of the rock spectrum,” integrating hip hop, R&B, and other genres into their music. “This is what a hip hop song would sound like if you played it as a rock band, that kind of stuff. We tried to incorporate it into our sound because we play the pop punk shit and it’s like, every band is doing the same rhythms and then you play the dancer song, and that’s the best song of the set, so it’s like, why don’t we just make every song the dancer song?”
Cheem notes that the Boston music scene in particular has changed a lot for the better. “There’s a very fresh and exciting basement show scene here which is something that like, growing up here, I’ve never seen,” says Nazaretian, who was born in Boston. “It’s so refreshing because like, obviously, you’d think there would be a lot [of bands] because of Berklee, one of the biggest music schools in the country, but like everyone really sticks to themselves, you know, like won’t go to shows. And maybe since COVID, it’s been a refreshing change.” Holden continues the thought: “People were just like, cooped up for a year and a half and finally said, okay, I guess I’ll do something, there’s a show happening, I’ll go. Because before that, like I don’t really do anything, the weather sucks all the fucking time…People love to complain about there being nothing to do, but they also love to not do anything…I feel like the recent experiences we’ve had in Boston have been much preferred to the pre-COVID times.”
The band also remarked on how sometimes the best shows are in the places you would least expect, and told a story about a funny experience they had with an opener last fall. “We were headed down to a festival in Florida [...], and we played a show in Atlanta. And right before the show we were loading in and there’s this guy standing outside. And I personally don’t like to use this term, but he introduced himself, he’s like, ‘Hi, I’m a crackhead, my name is Birdman, and I’m gonna rap for you,’ and he raps for like three minutes straight,” says Holden. Later, once Cheem started to play their set, their amp blew out and they couldn’t use any backing tracks to perform. The venue found a replacement speaker in a pinch, but it only had one mic for the two vocalists, so they ended up “throwing the mic back and forth to each other.”
“It was great. It was the best fucking set on the entire tour. The crowd was insane and Birdman came back and he also brought his pet ferret and his pet dog, which was like, painted red, like it was a dyed dog. And his ferret and his dog were both also named Birdman. Then we found out his signature move was doing a headstand, because he did it like four times during our last song,” says Holden. Weitzman adds, “And this was in a random building that held an AA meeting like an hour before the show.”
As for where the band sees themselves in the future, they hope that it becomes a more stable venture. “Hopefully not broken up,” says Holden. “In five years, I would like to see the band as a career, like, something self sustainable where we can just tour a certain amount of months of the year and play festivals and stuff like that and not have to worry about breaking even.” Some members, like Nazaretian, also want to get back at some people who have wronged them in the past. “Another thing on my bucket list is to play in the House of Blues Boston because, right when I graduated college, I worked as a green room server and production runner…honestly the worst job I’ve ever had. They were like, kind of abusive, so if they’re hearing this in the future, like, James I have beef with you, I hope he knows. I want to play there and have a green room and go to the production manager and be like hey man, remember me? Now I own you, now get me a kombucha, get me chips and guac and cured meats.”
Cheem’s show at Monkey Palace was truly a sight to see. The crowd was electric and so ecstatic that at one point Holden said he “felt like he was in Lemonade Mouth.” With songs like Snag and Mango, they show that they can harness more intense upbeat rhythms and melodies of pop punk, while also intermingling with rap, ska, and just about any other genre you can imagine. With others such as Cheem SZN, they’re a bit more laid-back, while still introducing their own flair. There is truly no band out there like Cheem – and they’re not afraid to lean into that fact. It’s really refreshing to hear in a scene that’s saturated with a lot of the same sonic content; they are not scared to dismiss the traditional stereotypes of pop punk – instead of writing about girls who have broken their hearts over and over again, you can listen to songs about how their lead singer is “smooth-brained,” or even a familiar lamentation on wanting to escape the confines of the genre they’re labeled as in Mango: “We can even play dancehall and they’ll still call us an emo band.”
Cheem has two shows left on their Spring 2023 tour, playing in Newark, DE and Providence, RI on the 25th and 26th of March, respectively. Joining them will be the band RILEY!, a self-described “queer commie weed band from hell.” Knowing RILEY!’s music, this is probably the best combination of pop-rock bands anyone into obscure, upbeat rock music could ask for.
