Chief State Have Released A New Single And Video

Vancouver, BC pop-punks Chief State have dropped a new single and video titled “Burning Out.” The track appears on their long-awaited debut full-length ‘Waiting For Your Colours,’ which will be released via Mutant League Records on July 1.

Of the new single, frontman Fraser Simpson says, “I’ve been very introspective over the past year. I’ve asked myself a lot of questions about where I am and what I’m doing with my life. This song came about when I didn’t like the answers I was able to give myself. Approaching 30 with no real direction, no one really teaches you how you should live your life. It seems all we know is to compare ourselves with others and their achievements and comparing myself with others I felt disappointed and disheartened. Words flew out onto the page and resonated with me in those moments. I wrote the lines “I’m finding out that it’s only getting harder. I find it tough ‘cos my body’s getting older, I thought by now there’d be something I’d be proud of” and the rest of the song just developed from there. I’m trying to be positive with my mindset these days. I try to take the time to appreciate what I do have and not focus on what I don’t. I think most of us search for some kind of meaning, some affirmation that we’re doing ok. Really we just need to enjoy the ride, appreciate the small joys we win and strive for more of those happy feelings whatever they might be for each of us.”

The follow-up to the band’s 2021 stand-alone single “Metaphors” and 2020 breakthrough EP ‘Tough Love,’ ‘Waiting For Your Colours’ is the culmination of 5 years of relentless hustle (not to mention a boatload of blood, sweat, and tears).

The journey to get here began with frontman Fraser Simpson, who at an impasse in his life, decided on a whim to leave his home in the UK for Japan in 2014 and eventually move to North America to form a band via Craigslist, where he connected with Nik Pang, Chloe Kavanagh, Justin Pham and Joseph Soderholm to create Chief State.

Uncertainty, longing, a search for meaning, and assessing life choices make up the themes on the new album, which chronicles closing out your 20s at a crossroads and examining where we belong, our place in the world, and allowing ourselves the time to figure it all out.

Simpson says, “There’s definitely a coming of age theme on the new album. We’re asking ourselves: What am I looking to get out of life, out of being in a band? What joys do I want to pursue and where do I want to place my energy moving forward? We’ve come to the realization that we all need to stress less on the things we can’t control and enjoy more of what we have, what we can control and the journey itself.”

Collectively the band members spent their young adult lives struggling mentally, emotionally and financially, in pursuit of their dreams, but the grind appears to have paid off, as Chief State is now on the cusp of something great!

With an ever-growing legion of fans in their corner, a reputation for stellar live shows, and a new album’s worth of kickass songs in their arsenal, 2022 is shaping up to be the year of Chief State.