Chaz Cardigan

Chaz McKinney (born January 20, 1995), known professionally as Chaz Cardigan, is an American alternative rock artist. He is best known for his song "As I'll Ever Be", which was featured in the Netflix film To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You. His single "Not OK!" peaked at #18 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay Chart.[1]

Chaz Cardigan
Also known asSpazz Cardigan
Born (1995-01-20) January 20, 1995
Elizabethtown, Kentucky, United States
OriginNashville, Tennessee
GenresAlternative rock • indie pop • indie rock • art rock
Occupation(s)Singer • songwriter • musician • record producer
InstrumentsVocals • guitar • piano • bass • drums • synthesizer
LabelsCapitol Records • Loud Robot

Early life

Chaz Cardigan was born and raised in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.[2] His father was an electrical contractor, his mother was a travel agent.[3] He's described his childhood as "pretty midwestern",[4] adding that he was "awkward", "twitchy", and unpopular for being perceived as "abrasive" and "politically outspoken very young". Growing up in a rural area, he used creativity as a child to stave off boredom by making toy inventions using "duct tape and shoestring" and writing screenplays. His earliest musical memories were of his older sister playing piano and listening to late-90's pop music such as Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, and Britney Spears.

"I thought that *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys was what “music” was, so I picked up piano and guitar to be like Justin Timberlake." [5]

He became obsessed with making music after first hearing Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”. At age 11, he bought a TASCAM four-track tape recorder and began teaching himself to produce and record, while playing in local punk rock bands. He would upload early demos to Myspace and mail cassette tapes to record labels in hopes of attracting attention and signing a record deal.

For most of his teen years, Cardigan commuted daily to Nashville to pursue his career as an artist while attending Elizabethtown High School. He was active in theater and his school's debate club. After graduating, he moved to Nashville to pursue music full-time rather than attend college. He has mentioned that he planned to study film in college.[4]

Cardigan came out as queer early in life. Regarding that, he said: “I came out around the time I was 13. Which in Kentucky is not exactly a popular move. There was a lot of tension with students and parents and teachers around it, and that was an awkwardness I had to learn to navigate really early. Thankfully I had music as a way to cope.”[6]

Career

Cardigan made a living in Nashville working "every part-time job you can think of" and honing his production skills as a member of a hip hop collective called The Diatribe.[7] In 2015 he was briefly homeless before moving in with members of a rock band called Safe Secrets and joining as a bass player for a short time. He released his first single under the moniker Spazz Cardigan in 2016[8] before releasing his debut LP I in 2017.[9] He was invited to perform at a string of unofficial South by Southwest showcases in 2017 following the album's release. Cardigan became a fixture of Nashville's blossoming local pop songwriting scene. He self-released a series of singles throughout 2018 that continually were placed on Spotify's New Music Friday editorial playlist. Within an 8 month span these songs accumulated 1 million streams.[10] A quick rise in streaming numbers and a series of sold-out hometown shows attracted the attention of several record labels. Around this time he was commissioned by Google to create a series of instrumental songs for the YouTube Audio Library.[11]

In 2019 he performed as an opener for Julia Michaels and The Band Camino, as well as playing his first festival dates that summer at SunFest and Forecastle Festival. He signed with Capitol Records at the beginning of that same year, becoming the first artist signed jointly to Capitol and Loud Robot (a subsidiary of J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot production company).[12]

In early 2020 he released his major-label debut, Vulnerabilia. Like his previous album, Cardigan self-produced and played all the instruments on Vulnerabilia. The title was imagined during a silent retreat at a monastery.[13] The EP was preceded by the single "Not OK!", which became Cardigan's first radio single, and charted as a Top 20 Alternative song. That summer he became a fixture on the short-form video app TikTok for a series of political comedy songs, one of which was reposted by Jonathan Van Ness.[14] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chaz released a series of singles leading up to his second EP for Capitol, Holograma. The project was promoted by a series of animated music videos created using photogrammetry.[15]

Cardigan also writes and releases a weekly web-series called Wild World, condensing history, science, and philosophy ideas into 60-second episodes.[16]

Influences

Cardigan's music draws from a wide range of influences including Imogen Heap, David Bowie, The Beatles, Sufjan Stevens, Peter Gabriel, Kanye West, Third Eye Blind, Nirvana, Talking Heads, Gorillaz, Björk, The 1975, Kevin Gates, Sun Ra, Stevie Wonder, and Prince.[17][5][2][18][19]

Name

Chaz has stated that the name Spazz Cardigan was a reaction to being called "spaz" in childhood.

"It was a nickname that stuck around the family, and particularly around school. A lot of people knew me as Spazz before they knew my actual name… I’d been sorting names for months, and it just popped into my head. I asked my roommate at the time, ‘Have you heard of Spazz Cardigan?’ He says, ‘no, who’s that? What’s he done?’ And I knew — that’s the one! It sounds like a name."[17]

After becoming aware that the name was considered derogatory in much of the world, he resorted instead to using his birth name.[20]

Reception

In 2020 Billboard wrote that Cardigan was "known for his soulful, strong singing voice and genre-bending brand of music – a mix of folk, R&B, and modern pop", calling him a "certified 21st century pop artist, unafraid to mix sounds as he sees fit." Alternative Addiction praised "vocal diversity" and his "ability to write a catchy song".[21] The Nashville Scene noted that "he writes songs grounded in compassion and honesty, often grappling frankly with mental health".[19] He's been publicly vocal about mental health, gun control, and LGBT equality. The Advocate called him "an alt-rocker for a new, angsty generation, making space for himself in a genre in which LGBTQ musicians aren’t often seen." [22]

Discography

EPs

Studio albums
  • I (2017)

Singles
  • "iDeologue" (2016)
  • "Episode" (2018)
  • "Medicine" (2018)
  • "Over" (2018)
  • "DOIDOIT" (2018)
  • "Not OK!" (2020)
  • "As I'll Ever Be (2020)
  • "S.O.S." (2020)
  • "Everything's Wrong" (2020)
  • "Middle Of the Road" (2020)
  • "Live A Little" (2020)
  • "Room" (2020)
  • "Losing Touch" (2020)

References
  1. "Alternative Songs Chart". Billboard. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  2. News-Enterprise, ANDREW CRITCHELOW The. "E'town native to 'spazz' out on the music festival circuit". The News-Enterprise. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  3. "20 Questions with Chaz Cardigan: Writing About Anxiety & His Advice for Voters". Billboard. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
  4. Ep. 27: Chaz Cardigan (Talking Lion Interview), retrieved June 1, 2020
  5. Scarpino, Gina. "Get To Know: Chaz Cardigan". Beyond The Stage Magazine. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  6. Blynn, Alex. "Chaz Cardigan Embraces the Weird with His Gummy Bear-Laden 'Not OK!' Video: Premiere". Billboard. Retrieved July 10, 2020.
  7. "Chaz Cardigan | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  8. "YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  9. "Interview: Spazz Cardigan". CelebMix. January 20, 2017. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  10. "A&R Pick of the Week: Spazz Cardigan – Industry News". frtyfve. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  11. "YouTube". accounts.google.com. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  12. "Chaz Cardigan Interview: Signing to Two Major Labels, His 'Not OK!' Music Video & More". Billboard. January 23, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  13. "Chaz Cardigan Finds Help, and Hope, with "S.O.S" « American Songwriter". American Songwriter. April 30, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  14. Vigil, Dom. "Chaz Cardigan Shares New EP, "Holograma"". Prelude Press. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
  15. 360coordinator (July 30, 2020). "Chaz Cardigan Drops Everything's Wrong Video". 360 MAGAZINE | ART + MUSIC + DESIGN + FASHION + AUTO + TRAVEL + FOOD + HEALTH. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
  16. "Chaz Cardigan - Music & Animals - Wild World (Episode 3)". March 11, 2020.
  17. Griffin, Taralei (January 18, 2020). "Melodize The Zeitgeist". Medium. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  18. "Chaz Cardigan: Cracking Codes To Emotion". www.thehypemagazine.com. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
  19. "Chaz Cardigan Faces What's Uncomfortable Head-On". Nashville Scene. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  20. "Chaz Cardigan". www.facebook.com. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  21. "Alternative Addiction: Review of Vulnerabilia - EP by Chaz Cardigan". www.alternativeaddiction.com. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  22. "8 Emerging Queer Artists Who Are Giving Us Life". www.advocate.com. April 23, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2020.


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