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<\/a>\u201cWe felt like the direction that we had gone in was so far from where we had started that it had basically turned into a new project, so we just decided to make it official and start a new group under a new name,\u201d explained lead singer and guitarist Jackson Milgaten.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be launching a new project early next year and we\u2019re really excited about it. We spent this whole past year, all of 2013, making this record that will come out under this new project.\u201d<\/p>\n
For years the group felt it had a mixed identity. They were putting out records that fit a certain style expected of the name Cuckoo Chaos; meanwhile, their live shows had evolved into something entirely different.<\/p>\n
The group essentially stopped playing songs from their recorded albums during performances years ago, opting instead to play original songs that they had been putting together on the side that better fit the new direction they were going in as musicians.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had all started to feel totally separate, none of the music that we had recorded and released as Cuckoo Chaos was even getting played live at our shows,\u201d Milgaten noted. \u201cIt just seemed like there was no connection between what we were doing now and what we were doing when we were Cuckoo Chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n
The five-piece band is made up of founding members Milgaten and Jeremy Scott on guitar and vocals, along with Dave Mead on drums, Scott Wheeler on guitar and vocals, and Garrett Prange on bass.<\/p>\n
Without going into too much detail about the new direction of the group or what the name will be, Milgaten said they will push toward a darker and edgier style that better reflects where the band\u2019s members are today as musicians.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve moved past what we were doing, yet we found [ourselves] bound by it because the public and the media had an idea of what kind of music they were expecting us to make and we just weren\u2019t making that music anymore,\u201d Milgaten said.<\/p>\n
The new record has been under construction for the last two years, with everything already recorded and the album in the editing stage. It is expected to come out next spring as the group launches their new project.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wrote it over the course of the last two and a half years and we started recording in January and finished it this past August,\u201d Milgaten said. \u201cIt\u2019s different than what we\u2019ve done in the past; it\u2019s considerably darker.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially people were sort of confused by the change and thought we were breaking up, but it seems pretty clear at this point that we\u2019re all going to continue making music together so people have come around to it more.\u201d<\/p>\n
It seems fitting that Cuckoo Chaos ends its run at Soda Bar, where they have played so many shows over the years.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf any venue in San Diego, the Soda Bar has felt like a home for this project as far as live venues go, we\u2019ve played some of my favorite shows there as Cuckoo Chaos,\u201d Milgaten reminisced. \u201cI\u2019ve always liked that the stage is on the ground, there barely even is a stage so everything feels really close. The bar and the stage and the crowd are all smooshed together so it almost feels like a house party kind of vibe at a venue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last show is going to be a great time, we\u2019re gonna play a couple Cuckoo songs that we haven\u2019t played in awhile and then mainly we\u2019re going to play new material that is going to come out with the new project.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuckoo Chaos will be joined for their final performance at Soda Bar Dec. 28 by opening local act Most-Hi and North County natives Snuffaluffagus, who are coming to San Diego by way of Brooklyn.<\/p>\n