Chess Club is a band from Lawrence. Members include Griffin Nelson on guitar and vocals, Cooper Avery on drums and David Krejci on bass.

Avery and Nelson have been playing in bands since they were about 12 years old. “We were in a mediocre metalcore band,” Nelson said. Krejci’s old band played shows with Avery’s and Nelson’s band at the time. “Eventually the guitarist of that band quit,” Nelson said. Krejci joined up with the guys after that member left. “It was a rollercoaster,” Krejci said.

The band got it’s name after Avery and Nelson saw a sign at Nelson’s old elementary school that said ‘Chess Club meet.’ “We were thinking of starting a hardcore punk band and we thought that would be ironic,” Nelson said. “We can’t play chess and Checkers Club just doesn’t sound as cool.”

It’s hard to really label their sound. “It’s a mix,” Avery said. “We’ve been told that we’ve been like pop-punk and emo and math and all sorts of stuff that we’ve never heard before.” They classify their music under the emo and math-rock genres.

There are a lot of bands on their Facebook page that they say influence their sound. When asked to narrow it down, Nelson spoke for them all and said “One band that we all have listened to for a really long time is Tiny Moving Parts, just because they’re so melodic and intricate at the same time and they’re just a fantastic band.”

When asked what their dreams and goals are as a band, Krejci said, “Play as much music as possible and have some credibility, like around here at least. I mean that would be nice.”

“If we could all just live off of the music that we play as of right now that would be awesome,” Nelson said. “I mean that’s not realistic, but as a band if we could just get to the point where we can play a show in Lawrence and have all sorts of people come out and just have a good time listening to our music that would be awesome.” The shows they’ve played this year have had this result which they really enjoy. “Recently we’ve been playing shows and it seems like people come out to have fun and enjoy the music and that’s the main goal that we have,” Nelson said.

Their new EP was posted on bandcamp.com on January 29 and they had their EP release show on that day. They’ve put a lot of time and effort into their EP. Krejci said they’d been working on it for about six or seven months. They also had their release show on January 29^th. It was a house show which Nelson said “…are always the best shows to go to in my opinion because you feel so much closer to the band.”

If you’re looking for a new band with a really different sound, check out Chess Club on Facebook and Twitter.