WEBVTT 00:00:18.190 --> 00:00:21.469 Welcome back to Shecky's Jam Bandz. I'm Shecky, 00:00:21.890 --> 00:00:24.370 and I want to start today with a very specific 00:00:24.370 --> 00:00:29.609 image. It's 2007, late night in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 00:00:30.250 --> 00:00:33.909 A college freshman named John O 'Halloran is 00:00:33.909 --> 00:00:36.530 sitting alone at his parents' dining room table 00:00:36.530 --> 00:00:40.609 with a notebook writing songs. His younger brother, 00:00:40.890 --> 00:00:44.490 Nick, a ninth grader who just returned home from, 00:00:44.530 --> 00:00:47.729 and I quote directly, teenage shenanigans on 00:00:47.729 --> 00:00:50.590 a neighborhood golf course, walks through the 00:00:50.590 --> 00:00:54.109 door and sits down across from him. John looks 00:00:54.109 --> 00:00:57.109 up from the notebook and says, what do you think 00:00:57.109 --> 00:01:01.469 about chalk dinosaur? Nick, still in his golf 00:01:01.469 --> 00:01:04.250 course clothes, thinks about it for a second 00:01:04.250 --> 00:01:08.989 and says, yeah, that works. That's the entire 00:01:08.989 --> 00:01:12.450 origin story of one of Pittsburgh's most prolific 00:01:12.859 --> 00:01:16.319 most shape -shifting and most genuinely interesting 00:01:16.319 --> 00:01:19.760 musical projects in the history of that city. 00:01:20.239 --> 00:01:23.579 Two brothers, a dining room table, a notebook, 00:01:24.060 --> 00:01:27.099 and a name that came from absolutely nowhere 00:01:27.099 --> 00:01:31.140 and stuck permanently. Today, we're talking about 00:01:31.140 --> 00:01:34.180 Chalk Dinosaur. By the way, I love the name of 00:01:34.180 --> 00:01:37.379 that band. And this one is different from anything 00:01:37.379 --> 00:01:41.000 we've covered on this podcast. Trust me, stay 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:44.670 with it. John O 'Halloran was born and raised 00:01:44.670 --> 00:01:47.450 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By the time he arrived 00:01:47.450 --> 00:01:51.549 at college as a freshman in 2007, he was already 00:01:51.549 --> 00:01:54.849 a composer, someone who heard music in his head 00:01:54.849 --> 00:01:58.609 and needed to get it out. Not just songs, sounds, 00:01:59.030 --> 00:02:02.129 textures, the kind of internal music world that 00:02:02.129 --> 00:02:04.849 doesn't stop running even when life is happening 00:02:04.849 --> 00:02:08.110 around it. He started releasing music under the 00:02:08.110 --> 00:02:12.000 chalk dinosaur name in 2008. starting with a 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:15.139 self -titled debut album, and he didn't stop. 00:02:15.780 --> 00:02:18.819 Over the next 17 years, Chalk Dinosaur released 00:02:18.819 --> 00:02:24.900 28 albums and EPs, 28, spanning indie rock, surf 00:02:24.900 --> 00:02:28.620 rock, psychedelic rock, electronic dance music, 00:02:29.020 --> 00:02:33.340 funk, jam, and instrumental ambient music. Some 00:02:33.340 --> 00:02:37.360 albums are all vocals, some are entirely instrumental, 00:02:38.039 --> 00:02:41.990 some are solo recording projects. Some are full 00:02:41.990 --> 00:02:45.590 collaborative recordings made with a live band. 00:02:46.009 --> 00:02:49.810 Some sound like they're from the same universe 00:02:49.810 --> 00:02:54.750 as Weezer and the Pixies. Others sound like a 00:02:54.750 --> 00:02:59.009 film score that never had a film. For years, 00:02:59.370 --> 00:03:01.909 John carried the chalk dinosaur name as a solo 00:03:01.909 --> 00:03:05.169 creative outlet. A producer's project that lived 00:03:05.169 --> 00:03:08.810 primarily in studios and on hard drives. Then 00:03:08.810 --> 00:03:12.180 something shifted. younger brother Nick O 'Halloran, 00:03:12.580 --> 00:03:14.860 the ninth grader from the golf course I mentioned 00:03:14.860 --> 00:03:17.900 before, grew into one of the most versatile and 00:03:17.900 --> 00:03:21.699 creative drummers in the Pittsburgh scene. And 00:03:21.699 --> 00:03:23.680 at some point the brothers looked at each other 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:27.479 and said, let's do this together. With Nick on 00:03:27.479 --> 00:03:30.819 drums and John on guitar, keyboard, synthesizer, 00:03:31.020 --> 00:03:33.900 electronics, the Chalk Dinosaur live duo was 00:03:33.900 --> 00:03:37.300 born. And then they brought in guitarist John 00:03:37.300 --> 00:03:41.210 Henderson, bassist Michael Berger to form the 00:03:41.210 --> 00:03:45.750 full chalk dinosaur ensemble, a four -piece that 00:03:45.750 --> 00:03:49.030 takes electronic and psychedelic blueprints from 00:03:49.030 --> 00:03:53.210 the studio work and delivers them with live sweat 00:03:53.210 --> 00:03:56.009 and improvisation on festival stages across the 00:03:56.009 --> 00:04:00.210 country. Nico Halloran has talked about the dual 00:04:00.210 --> 00:04:04.069 nature of what they do with real precision. He 00:04:04.069 --> 00:04:07.669 said, There are no genre boundaries. I love having 00:04:07.669 --> 00:04:10.789 the level of creative freedom. My favorite part 00:04:10.789 --> 00:04:13.610 is connecting with like -minded musicians and 00:04:13.610 --> 00:04:16.449 meeting listeners who have been positively impacted 00:04:16.449 --> 00:04:19.170 by the music. Alright, if you have to pick one 00:04:19.170 --> 00:04:22.689 song for Chalk Dinosaur, it's Pillars of a Creation 00:04:22.689 --> 00:04:28.149 from the 2025 album Electric Biscuit. What makes 00:04:28.149 --> 00:04:31.370 Pillars of Creation the right entry point is 00:04:31.370 --> 00:04:34.500 what it represents. It's the moment Chuck Dinosaur 00:04:34.500 --> 00:04:37.779 fully became a collaboration between brothers. 00:04:38.379 --> 00:04:41.319 Not just John's project with Nick playing drums, 00:04:41.839 --> 00:04:45.579 but Nick contributing to the songwriting architecture 00:04:45.579 --> 00:04:49.980 from the ground up. You can hear that due authorship 00:04:49.980 --> 00:04:53.360 in the music itself. The song takes its name 00:04:53.360 --> 00:04:56.000 from one of the most iconic NASA Hubble Space 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:59.660 Telescope images ever taken. Massive columns 00:04:59.660 --> 00:05:03.990 of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula, where new 00:05:03.990 --> 00:05:07.610 stars are being born. And the music earns that 00:05:07.610 --> 00:05:10.350 title. It starts with something that feels vast 00:05:10.350 --> 00:05:13.850 and slightly unknowable, a synthesizer landscape 00:05:13.850 --> 00:05:17.389 that sounds like looking at something larger 00:05:17.389 --> 00:05:21.870 than you can fully process. Then Nick's drums 00:05:21.870 --> 00:05:27.050 enter and the enormity gets a pulse. Then John's 00:05:27.050 --> 00:05:30.250 guitar finds a melodic line through the architecture. 00:05:30.589 --> 00:05:34.089 and the whole thing breathes. It's cinematic. 00:05:34.930 --> 00:05:37.930 It's the word that keeps coming up in the reviews 00:05:37.930 --> 00:05:41.189 of Chalk Dinosaur. And Pillars of Creation is 00:05:41.189 --> 00:05:45.170 the best single example of that quality. It sounds 00:05:45.170 --> 00:05:47.290 like the score of something that hasn't been 00:05:47.290 --> 00:05:50.870 filmed yet, like the soundtrack to a story that 00:05:50.870 --> 00:05:53.990 exists only in mind of whoever is listening. 00:05:54.550 --> 00:05:57.610 That is the Chalk Dinosaur gift. The music creates 00:05:57.610 --> 00:06:03.060 a space that your imagination fills. Start here 00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:06.680 and go backward into the catalog in any direction. 00:06:07.480 --> 00:06:10.100 You will find something you love regardless of 00:06:10.100 --> 00:06:12.540 which door you open. Alright, let's talk about 00:06:12.540 --> 00:06:15.660 an unforgettable night at the Electronic Forest 00:06:15.660 --> 00:06:20.399 in 2018. This is the night that put Chalk Dinosaur 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:23.060 on a different kind of map and I want to give 00:06:23.060 --> 00:06:26.600 you the context that makes it meaningful. Electric 00:06:26.600 --> 00:06:30.000 Forest Music Festival in Rothbury, Michigan is 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:33.120 one of the most beloved and visually extraordinary 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:37.480 festivals in the country. A forest of art installations, 00:06:37.759 --> 00:06:40.800 lights, and music where the line between the 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:43.199 concert and the experience completely disappears. 00:06:44.040 --> 00:06:46.959 The audience that attends Electric Forest is 00:06:46.959 --> 00:06:50.620 one of the most musically adventurous, most open 00:06:50.620 --> 00:06:54.420 -eared festival crowds anywhere. They don't just 00:06:54.420 --> 00:06:57.240 want to hear music. They want to be transformed 00:06:57.240 --> 00:07:00.740 by it. When Chalk Dinosaur earned their slot 00:07:00.740 --> 00:07:05.680 at the Electric Forest Weekend 2 in 2018, they 00:07:05.680 --> 00:07:09.379 came in with what the Asbury Jams interview later 00:07:09.379 --> 00:07:13.079 described as a performance approach built around 00:07:13.079 --> 00:07:16.319 what the jam world calls type 2 improvisation. 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:20.439 For listeners that aren't familiar with what 00:07:20.439 --> 00:07:24.310 the term type 1 improvisation is, It's when a 00:07:24.310 --> 00:07:27.129 band extends a song but stays melodically rooted 00:07:27.129 --> 00:07:31.370 in that song. Type 2 is when the jam leaves the 00:07:31.370 --> 00:07:33.550 song entirely, goes somewhere else completely 00:07:33.550 --> 00:07:38.069 free, a full departure into open musical territory 00:07:38.069 --> 00:07:41.189 where anything can happen. The Chalked On A Star 00:07:41.189 --> 00:07:44.810 Ensemble Electric Forest set was built around 00:07:44.810 --> 00:07:47.610 that promise. The set was described by those 00:07:47.610 --> 00:07:51.569 who saw it as a continuous evolving sonic journey 00:07:51.839 --> 00:07:56.540 songs that didn't end so much as transform, with 00:07:56.540 --> 00:08:00.220 key and tempo modulation used to shift between 00:08:00.220 --> 00:08:04.040 pieces without ever breaking the flow. One song 00:08:04.040 --> 00:08:07.300 became another, became another, stitched together 00:08:07.300 --> 00:08:10.540 by the kind of real -time musical communication 00:08:10.540 --> 00:08:13.779 that requires total trust between every musician 00:08:13.779 --> 00:08:16.980 on the stage. Nick has spoken about the live 00:08:16.980 --> 00:08:20.300 show's inherent unpredictability with a candor 00:08:20.300 --> 00:08:23.579 I appreciate. That is what Chalk Dinosaur does 00:08:23.579 --> 00:08:27.220 when everything aligns. The cinematic quality 00:08:27.220 --> 00:08:30.120 of the compositions, the electronic depth of 00:08:30.120 --> 00:08:33.379 the textures, the live improvisation of the ensemble, 00:08:33.940 --> 00:08:36.320 and the two brothers are at the center of it. 00:08:36.440 --> 00:08:39.379 John having written the soundtrack to the whole 00:08:39.379 --> 00:08:42.379 thing in his head, Nick having approved it on 00:08:42.379 --> 00:08:46.440 a golf course night in ninth grade, finding each 00:08:46.440 --> 00:08:50.000 other on stage in exactly the music that they 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:52.419 were always meant to make together. Alright, 00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:54.700 let's talk about some things that make Chalk 00:08:54.700 --> 00:08:58.279 Dinosaur genuinely unlike anyone else. Well, 00:08:58.419 --> 00:09:03.340 they had 28 albums. Let's count that again. 28. 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:08.740 Since 2008, ranging from indie rock to surf rock 00:09:08.740 --> 00:09:12.559 to psychedelic rock, electronic dance music to 00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:16.720 funk to instrumental ambient music, some entirely 00:09:16.720 --> 00:09:20.029 instrumental, some entirely vocal, The diversity 00:09:20.029 --> 00:09:24.110 of the catalogue is not a stylist accident. It's 00:09:24.110 --> 00:09:27.289 a deliberate refusal to be defined by genre. 00:09:27.769 --> 00:09:30.809 John O 'Halloran describes the project as a shape 00:09:30.809 --> 00:09:34.690 -shifting musical entity. That is earned, not 00:09:34.690 --> 00:09:39.029 aspirational. Second fact. Nick wrote his first 00:09:39.029 --> 00:09:41.730 songs in his apartment and sent them over to 00:09:41.730 --> 00:09:45.090 John via email. For the Electronic Biscuit album, 00:09:45.289 --> 00:09:48.440 Nick's songwriting contributions including Pillars 00:09:48.440 --> 00:09:52.460 of Creation, started as apartment demos sent 00:09:52.460 --> 00:09:56.440 to John digitally. No rehearsal room, no face 00:09:56.440 --> 00:09:59.620 -to -face session, just a drummer composing chord 00:09:59.620 --> 00:10:03.120 progressions on his own, recording them on his 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:06.019 computer and sending them across Pittsburgh to 00:10:06.019 --> 00:10:09.460 his brother. The modern jam band creative process 00:10:09.460 --> 00:10:12.220 fully realized. Last thing you should know about 00:10:12.220 --> 00:10:15.159 Chalk Dinosaur, the live show description in 00:10:15.159 --> 00:10:18.799 their bio is poetry. Chalk Dinosaur's own website 00:10:18.799 --> 00:10:22.059 describes their live show as high energy and 00:10:22.059 --> 00:10:25.799 emotional diversity. That is four words, high 00:10:25.799 --> 00:10:29.059 energy, emotional diversity. I want to put that 00:10:29.059 --> 00:10:32.059 on a t -shirt. It says everything and nothing 00:10:32.059 --> 00:10:35.279 simultaneously, which is exactly right for a 00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:39.019 band that can be one person electronic set or 00:10:39.019 --> 00:10:41.960 a four -piece psychedelic jam band depending 00:10:41.960 --> 00:10:45.309 on which night you catch them. Okay. Here's what 00:10:45.309 --> 00:10:47.629 I want to leave you with about Chalk Dinosaur. 00:10:47.929 --> 00:10:50.669 John O 'Halloran sat at a dining room table in 00:10:50.669 --> 00:10:55.149 2007 with a notebook full of songs that had nowhere 00:10:55.149 --> 00:10:59.429 to go yet. He wrote down a name. His young brother, 00:10:59.769 --> 00:11:03.389 fresh from a night on the golf course, sat across 00:11:03.389 --> 00:11:08.190 from him and said yes. And in the 17 years since 00:11:08.190 --> 00:11:11.870 that moment, they have released 28 albums, played 00:11:11.870 --> 00:11:15.419 Electronic Forest, and the Peach Music Festival, 00:11:15.860 --> 00:11:19.240 opened for George Clinton, built a live electronic 00:11:19.240 --> 00:11:23.700 duo act and a full improvising ensemble, wrote 00:11:23.700 --> 00:11:26.159 their best songs in apartments and sent them 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:30.059 to each other over email, and has been described 00:11:30.059 --> 00:11:33.220 in every combination of the genre words the music 00:11:33.220 --> 00:11:36.519 press has available. They're not trying to be 00:11:36.519 --> 00:11:40.500 one thing. They never were. The name Chalk Dinosaur, 00:11:40.740 --> 00:11:45.039 impermanent and enormous, playful and prehistoric 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:48.360 was always a signal that this project would be 00:11:48.360 --> 00:11:51.080 whatever the music wanted to be on any given 00:11:51.080 --> 00:11:55.700 day. And that creative freedom over 17 years 00:11:55.700 --> 00:11:58.840 has produced a body of work that almost no other 00:11:58.840 --> 00:12:02.440 band in this world can match in sheer range. 00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:05.679 Start with Pillars of Creation, find Electric 00:12:05.679 --> 00:12:08.340 Biscuit, their most recent and most collaborative 00:12:08.340 --> 00:12:11.559 album, then pick any direction in the catalog. 00:12:12.450 --> 00:12:15.409 electronic, psychedelic, ambient, funk, you follow 00:12:15.409 --> 00:12:17.610 it. You will follow something that moves you, 00:12:17.669 --> 00:12:20.509 I guarantee it. And if Chalk Dinosaur is playing 00:12:20.509 --> 00:12:23.889 anywhere near you, as a duo, as an ensemble, 00:12:24.269 --> 00:12:28.649 in any configuration, just go. You will not know 00:12:28.649 --> 00:12:31.429 exactly what you're getting into. That's the 00:12:31.429 --> 00:12:34.669 point. That has always been the point. That's 00:12:34.669 --> 00:12:37.149 Chalk Dinosaur, and that's Shecky's Jam Bands. 00:12:37.570 --> 00:12:39.570 Thank you for listening, and I'll see you next 00:12:39.570 --> 00:12:39.929 time.