Chicago band The Handcuffs pays homage to musical influences on new album

Photo by Christy Bassman

 

By ERIC SCHELKOPF

 

On its fourth studio album, “Burn The Rails,” Chicago band The Handcuffs lovingly pays homage to some of the bands that have provided musical inspiration over the years, such as T-Rex and Mott The Hoople.

As it so happens, Mott The Hoople keyboardist Morgan Fisher is featured on the album. “Burn The Rails” was released in June on Chicago record label Pravda Records. The Handcuffs recently performed at a concert celebrating the label’s 38th anniversary.

The CD release party for "Burn The Rails" will be on July 23 at Liar's Club, 1665 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago. Doors open at 8 p.m.

The Handcuffs is led by drummer Brad Elvis and his wife, singer/guitarist/saxophonist Chloe F. Orwell. Elvis and Orwell formed The Handcuffs following the breakup of their band Big Hello.

I had the pleasure of talking to Brad about “Burn The Rails.”


Q – Great talking to you. What were your goals for the album?

The same goal as for our first three albums. We always try to write good songs.

Our approach on this album was to kind of pay homage to all those bands and albums that we loved and inspired us and influenced us when we were starting out and all the way through our careers.

There’s so many influences on this album. And we kind of make it our own, obviously.

Q – You were talking about Mott The Hoople being an influence and Mott The Hoople keyboardist Morgan Fisher is featured on this album. So that must have been an honor to have him on this album.

Oh, definitely. That came about after we went to see the band perform as part of its 1974-lineup reunion tour in 2019.

Chloe was just knocked out. They were so great. And so she wrote this great review just for the fun of it for her Facebook page.

And then a national magazine wanted to use the review. Someone had sent the review to Morgan Fisher and he reached out to us.

He knew that we were working on a new album and he told us, ‘If you need any one to play the keyboard or synthesizer, let me know.’ He played on two of the tracks on the album.

It was just an honor. And now we’re friends.

Q – It seems like there is a meaning behind the name of the album “Burn The Rails.” Is there any sort of meaning behind the name of the album?

There is. I actually discovered it myself probably about 10 years ago.

I saw a picture of rails in flames during zero and subzero temperatures. They put stuff under the tracks and they burn the rails.

It’s really kind of weird and eerie looking, especially the nighttime photos. But it’s such a Chicago thing and we wanted to do that because it’s such a compelling photo of tracks on fire.

And it sounds like a line out of a Mott The Hoople song. So we thought that would be a cool title and a cool image.

Q – And I understand you wrote a book about your life as a musician.

It’s about my long rock ’n’ roll life. I've always documented and wrote experiences down for many of my gigs.

We would go out on the road as youngsters and do crazy rock ’n’ roll things because it was fun and that’s what we thought were supposed to do.

We were emulating “The Who” or whatever. We would just get out of our minds after a show.

I was in my first band in 1970. There’s stories about me meeting David Bowie and Pete Townshend and playing with The Ramones and playing with The Clash.

I’m kind of hoping it will be released by the end of the year.

Q – You’ve been in the music business so long that I’m sure a lot of people look up to you as a mentor. Do you see yourself as a mentor?

I don’t see myself as that, but I realize at this point there are people that say that.

And it makes me feel good. I just keep going like the Energizer Bunny.

Q – I understand that the late Keith Moon is a big influence of yours. 

I always had a natural ability to play drums and without thinking about it, I just started playing and teaching myself. I started playing drums at the age of 11.

I would play along to records in my bedroom. One day, I thought to myself that I should find a drummer that I relate to and learn from.

I really liked The Who’s song “I Can See For Miles.” The drumming on it really stood out and I never had heard anybody playing like that.

Long story short, I started buying anything related to The Who which helped develop my style of drumming and performing. Add many other influences and here I am, still performing, writing and releasing albums like I had always dreamed of doing.