Tragic Chemistry

In the information age, when becoming a band and securing a name involves only building a makeshift website and attaching your chosen moniker to it, how does a new band go about generating a unique identity? For Tragic Chemistry, the answer was through a strange mixture of sweat and serendipity. The band went through a host of names including, “The Consequence”, “What Army”, “Pangloss” and “Scattershot”, among others; all the spawn of brainstorm sessions that generated no less than 100 possible names. With each seeming success, the band would cross-reference the name using various web resources, only to find another working or defunct band (or bands) with the same name. Singer/songwriter Aric Jorgenson, after concluding that no combination of letters or words existed in the entire English lexicon that had not been previously affixed to a band, argued they would simply have to, like grave robbers, take the name of a band that had previously broken up. That is, until he accidentally opened an untitled document which he believed was a set list he’d been preparing for an upcoming show. The untitled document was in fact a poem he had written some years before that contained a metaphor referring to humanity as “tragic chemistry” (the whole poem can be read on the band’s website). The name stuck, and was, after rigorous investigation, found to be unaffiliated with any other band past or present. The final band name was chosen only after their debut album was mixed—in fact recording engineer Scotty O’Toole did not recognize the album when it was mailed to him after mastering because of the unfamiliar name.

Tragic Chemistry’s music is in many ways like their name: a product of a creative process that is unique and somewhat remote from outside influence. “While we listen to a lot of music, when we’re writing we are always trying to create an atmosphere that supports the mood and tone of the lyrics for a particular song, not trying to achieve an effect like this song or that song by this band or that one. The process always involves trying to think about what we can do musically to convey the intent of the lyrics, which Aric spends a lot of time on,” says singer and keyboardist Leia Manuel about the band’s writing process. Jorgenson adds, “there isn’t much ego involved when we’re working. No one feels like they need the spotlight on them, only that if a song works at the end of the day, we’ve done our job”.

The result is a self-assured band that plays by its own rules and creates music that is immediately engaging, but that’s intricacy demands repeated listening. Their self-produced debut album Quiet Desperation (even the luminous photography for the liner notes was taken by the band), sounds sonically like a major-label release, but feels like an indie band’s labor of love.