The midwest had numerous, great "emo-core" bands in the 90s. Back then, the bands represented exactly what that kind of label should entail, and that's simply, emotional hardcore. Amidst the bigger emo-core bands of the 90s like Split Lip and Falling Forward, Chalkline was one of those bands and was a little underrated.

Chalkline put out their debut 7" on Toothless records called "Parade" in 1996, it contained 4 intense songs of emo meets screamo, later on they released a split 7" in the same style with Figurehead. At the end they released a 12" called: "in the present tense" which was way more melodic than their previous stuff.

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Erasing the Chalkline

An interview with Don Tyler and Matt Jauch of Solo Flyer

By The Nate

In 1996 a band called Chalkline formed playing a brand of hardcore that by 2000 was a mainstay in independent (and not so independent) music known now as screamo or melodic hardcore. Whatever weak name you want to give it, the music was damn good, and their release ‘In the Present Tense’ turned enough heads for them to get great gigs with bands like Reach the Sky, Boy Sets Fire, Snapcase and Brother's Keeper. A tour of Europe almost followed but for logistics reasons never happened. After four years, too many shows to count, and the loss of a drum set, I felt former Chalkline members Don Tyler and Matt Jauch might want to set things straight on the demise of the local act in 1999 and where they may be headed in Solo Flyer, their most recent endeavor since Chalkline.

Chalkline ended when the band realized that the music scene they loved didn't reciprocate quite as much as it used to and when drummer Tony X sold his drums to make a car payment. Things got rough for the guys as they also had no label support, so Don and Matt decided a new start was in order for the two members who still wanted to play in a band together. Matt laments, "We knew we wanted to start a new band before we broke up Chalkline. We wanted a fresh start, playing different tunes. We had horrible, horrible structuring problems in Chalkline and we wanted this to be a more straight-up, hook-driven alt-rock type of band, to be more listener friendly I guess. This wasn't because we saw bands like Foo Fighters getting big or anything like that, but more because we listened to a lot of music that was different from what we played in Chalkline and didn't want to rehash the old band." The new stuff varies intentionally from Chalkline with hints of bands like Radiohead and Jawbreaker while still being original.

Regardless, the band almost was Chalkline as it initially began with the same members minus Tony X. But as the fresh start theme continued, changes began to take shape. Matt took over singing duties instead of Don who had the role in Chalkline, keys of songs were changed, and many experiments with new sounds ensued ushering the boys into an intentionally new direction. "We never ever wanted to be a band that just started off as 'ex-members of' just so people would come see us play,” says Matt. “We kind of didn't think Chalkline was good enough. We don't want to be like Jets to Brazil or anything and get fans off of our last band. We had no desire to be affiliated with the end of Chalkline or even hardcore anymore. We really needed a new start on every level." Don agrees; "We really waited to get started playing out so people would distance us from Chalkline a little bit, and so far people don't really compare the two."

So with phase one of their new start complete, Matt and Don began promoting, getting a street team together, and doing a website for the band. They also began booking as many shows as possible, again taking a different approach than with their previous band. "In Chalkline I booked all the shows," says Matt. "Every bar, basement, vfw, church gym, whatever we wanted to play anywhere for anyone. Now we discriminate a little bit to make sure we don't end up being the house band at some dive. We want to play a lot, but at the same time we want to play to our audience, and also a relatively big audience."

Also helping is a new local sponsorship from Red Bull that spawned from Solo Flyer meeting Alfi (sorry no last name given), regional marketing director for the company. "We met and became good friends. I even lived at his house for a few months. It started with free beverage, but has moved on to bigger things," says Matt. Big things indeed, as Solo Flyer hit the road for the European based energy drink company on their Neurung tour that traveled most of the Midwest including Saint Louis and Chicago along with stops in Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania and of course good old Cleveland Ohio. The band was on the road with Disengage, The Party of Helicopters, and Interfuse. The boys proudly admits that this band made considerably more progress than Chalkline did, and not just on a musical level. "We sort of broke new ground on that tour. For the first time, people who were in bands got laid," says Matt.

While Solo Flyer is certainly enjoying the perks of being a touring rock band, they still get down to business when necessary. The band recently recorded a three song EP entitled ‘New Years Night’ that they self-released and played a gig at the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. Now the band plans to start working on getting their shows packed and people into the music, something that wasn’t always the case with Chalkline. Matt says, "We want people to care about the music, because it (playing live) was so much of a social thing for the audience. No one loved the music, and it really seemed like Cleveland was the town where bands are forever paying their dues. Now we want to draw people in and get them excited about music again and not just be a device for a social outing.

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