BUILDING A BASE
By Kelley Simms
L
ocal rockers, The Outfit, have con-
cocted a classic blend of modern,
melodic rock with a Cheap Trick
meets Foo Fighters vibe on their self-titled
debut album (Pavement Entertainment).
Since 2016, the foursome has been method-
ically building an audience in the Chicago
area.
Consisting of brothers Mark (drums)
and Matt Nawara (guitar), Mike Gorman
(bass) and Andy Mitchell (vocals/guitar),
the band’s first gig occurred just a few
months ago at RocHaus in West Dundee to
an enthusiastic crowd. “Once we finished
the album, we thought, ‘Now we have to
get ready to do live stuff,’” Mark Nawara
said during a recent phone interview.
“Then we finally set up our show at the
RocHaus, and it went fantastic. We did the
show, and we were surprised. We had over
300 people there, which is pretty good for
a first show.”
While not picking any favorites, Illinois
native Nawara notices there is something a
bit more unique about Midwestern audi-
ences in general. “It just seems like, in
Wisconsin and Chicago, there’s a really
good rock vibe and scene,” Nawara said.
“People are really into their music and
study up on the music and the records. A
lot of people at the RocHaus already knew
a lot of our songs, which blew me away.
You go into one of your songs, and you
hear people cheering as you go into it.
Obviously, they knew what song it was.”
With Chicago being such a musical
mecca, The Outfit is a perfect fit within the
local rock scene. “It’s great because it’s got
the deep roots of all the bands from the
past who have come out of here. We’re
openly declaring [ourselves] to be the new
breed to reinvigorate the scene a little bit.
There used to be quite a scene here back in
the day, and it’d be nice to kind of get back
to those days in Chicago.”
The band’s self-titled debut album has
been well-received by fans and critics and
embraced by local radio stations. There
isn't a bad apple in the bunch of nine, mag-
netically-charged and memorable tracks.
The 29-minute runtime is the perfect dura-
tion for a debut melodic rock album. “We
wanted to keep the record short and
sweet,” explains Nawara. “I know a lot of
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2018
records that come out, and it’ll have 12-13-
14 tracks on it, but I think that’s overkill.
We wanted to do a nice, short and sweet
record with good, catchy songs — not long
songs — just hit the listener with a one-two
punch.”
With Mitchell residing in Phoenix, it
makes it geographically-challenging for
everyone in the band to get into the studio
at the same time. Therefore, the rest of the
group would record their instrumental
parts and send the files to Mitchell, where
he’d write the lyrics, record the vocals and
send them back to Chicago for the final
mix. “We kept writing and recording
together song by song, that’s why it took a
year,” Nawara confessed. “We’d go into
the studio and track the basics of no more
than two songs at a time and then ship it
off to Arizona. Then it’d come back to us,
and we’d do a rough mix on it.”
The album’s production is solid, with a
booming sound engineered by Chicago
music veteran Matt Mercado at Sonic
Palace Studios in Oak Park, while the mix-
ing was handled in Los Angeles by
Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum pro-
ducer and mixer Ulrich Wild (Pantera,
Static-x, White Zombie and more). The
lead single, “Soldier Boy,” peaked at num-
ber 34 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock
Radio Chart and currently has over 17,000
streams on Spotify. “I’ve known people
who have served,” Nawara began. “My
uncle was in WWII, and my dad was in the
war. Andy wrote it, and he told me that
basically, he wanted the song to portray
the American foot soldier who’s essentially
out there in Afghanistan and Iraq fighting
the war and [being] torn between every-
thing. It’s just a view of what tough times
that we all know that soldiers go through.”
In the coming months, The Outfit will
be performing its second headlining show
at Wire in Berwyn on Aug. 4, with more
live dates slated for October, including a
trip to Indiana, a return to RocHaus, and
an appearance at The Forge in Joliet.
“We’re going to get out there and tour this
album for a bit, and then get back in and
do a new one,” Nawara concluded. “We’re
out there and having a lot of fun, and
hopefully we can build the band up.”
Appearing 8/4 at Wire, Berwyn.