Double Vision, fronted by the explosive voice of Chandler Mogel, began life as a Foreigner tribute band. They have now begun the transition to original music with the release of their self-titled debut. The record is a glorious mix of modern melodic rock with a nod to 70s and 80s rock. Recently, Chandler took some time to sit and talk about the record and the unique trajectory of Double Vision.
Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws Chandler Mogel interview –
On the lineup of Double Vision – We got Scott Metaxas from Prophet. We got Scott Duboys from Warrior Soul. We’ve got somebody who’s been in the band since the very beginning. Alex Lubin on keyboards. He’s been a fixture on the scene for since the eighties. We’ve got Chris Schwartz on guitar, one of my dear, dear friends, for over 20 years. We also have Paul Baccash on guitar, who’s a big Jersey guitar player, well known in the Jersey scene. So, all that together makes a nice recipe for rock and roll here.
On the decision to record original material – I originally had the idea, to be honest, ever since I started the band in 2018, I had kind of had that idea for down the road and with the right guys, the right lineup and would transfer into an original band or split and become an entity of that as well. The opportunity just came last year from Frontiers. I reached out to them and I said, “Look, we can sell, we have a built-in audience here. We can sell CDs at shows, we might even be able to play a song or two at a show here or there, but most importantly, move product.” They loved it. I really haven’t worked with the label since 2009. Actually, that’s not true. I had another record on the label about five years ago that I sang on. But they were familiar with the band, and they loved it. So, I pitched them the whole idea and here we are.
We made the record over a period of about six months from the inception to the final master, without a hitch really. Here we are like less than a month from the release. It’s come full circle. I’m very proud that my vision has come to fruition from that long ago.
On their original music not sounding entirely like Foreigner – We certainly didn’t try to be derivative. That was the first order of business. Don’t take the riff from “Double Vision” and Cchange two notes and make a new riff. We didn’t want to do that. Wewanted to make something that maybe was a hat tip to Foreigner, another similar bands, because obviously it comes from our roots or whatever, but we wanted to make something all original, all our own. I think that’s what we’ve managed to do. When we were writing, we didn’t think too much about, “Oh, does this sound like Foreigner?” We weren’t thinking about that. We figured that naturally that would come out, that would naturally come through based on what we did. So, we didn’t try to force that. I figured that would be a mistake because there’s too many bands nowadays that are just too derivative.
So, we wanted to do something fresh and original, and I think that it’s come out. Come across in a way that that is enough of Foreigner for the people that will want to compare it. We’ve gotten some comparisons. The first singles “Silence Is Louder”, people say, it sounds like Styx. We’ve gotten multiple messages of that. I was like, “That’s fine, that’s in the same realm”. I don’t mind, that’s one song, there’s definitely other songs on there that could more directly sound like Foreigner, but again, not forced, just in that wheelhouse and in that genre. I think we wanted to make the best record we could with the best songs we could, which was the goal.
“Silence Is Louder”, actually, the one I just mentioned starts out with a piano part and a vocal kind of just like “Cold As Ice”. It’s very reminiscent of that. There’s other songs that have paid tribute on different eras of the band. There’s some stuff that sounds like the older seventies stuff, the eighties stuff, and then also maybe some stuff that sounds a little bit like Can’t Slow Down the 2009 record, which I think is great. I love that record. So, all sorts of things coming from different directions, which is how you essentially establish a new band on the original market. That was the how I approached it.
On if they considered changing the name to do original music – There were thoughts of it. Certainly didn’t want to change the name because we wanted to keep our identity, but at the same time split into another kind of direction with it. So as a result, we have two entities now. We have Double Vision, the band. Which is doublevisiontheband.com, which is the, the tribute band. Then we have doublevisiontheartist.com, which is the original act, and you’ll see there’s obviously similar graphics, but different colors and different branding for a different venture.
That’s kind of just how it happened and how we felt would be the best way to carry it forward. Because we do have the name where, like you said, we’ve been working on being established for a number of years, so we wanted it to be a continuation, a different direction, obviously with that, because it’s a different market, but also a continuation of what we’ve already established.
On creating the songs for the record – Once the opportunity to do original music came, we obviously worked with the band on them. I had some ideas. The guitar player had some ideas. A bunch of things came together. But most importantly to mention, we did use a lot of outside songwriters.
We have some great, great people who helped us out because we wanted the best songs possible. We had to look introspectively for a minute and be like, “We’re, we’re professional musicians, but we’re not professional songwriters”. There’s a whole other technology and skill to this. We want the best possible songs for the record. So let me call my dear friend Aleena Gibson, who’s a great songwriter from Sweden. She lives in L.A., she’s written stuff for Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys, Mr. Big, all sorts of stuff. Hit songs in Sweden. She’s co-wrote about half the record with us, and we’ve got some other great writers. We’ve got Stevie DeAcutis who wrote a song, who’s been a, a fixture on the Jersey scene and beyond. We have we have a guy named Doug Kissner, great, great writer who’s worked with a lot of guys from Steely Dan, Chicago. He’s co-written a couple songs and then a great guy named Jon Statham as well. A big Nashville writer, great, great writer who co-wrote a song called “I Know The Way” with me on the record, which is the most Nashville sounding song, but I love that. It’s still one of my favorite songs on the record. In no short, short order, we assembled a team to make this work. We must have spent, I think on the recording and mixing and mastering, we spent over 150 hours trying to just get everything just right with this record. We had a great producer named Ethan Bill, who spearheaded that and just worked tirelessly on this record. It wouldn’t have the record without him really. It has been a labor of love.
On if they specifically stayed away from including a cover – We’ve been doing covers for six, seven years. We wanted to just do our own thing, make our own stamp. Certainly didn’t feel a necessity to do it. I mean, obviously if you wanna hear us play Foreigner all night, come to a show. We got plenty of promo videos and things with that on it. We wanted to focus on the music, on the original stuff direction.
On f they will combine Foreigner and original material live or keep them separate – Mostly separate, for the most part. Discussing on the upcoming shows this summer, we have a lot of shows in July and August. August, especially busy. We’re going to you know be pushing the record a lot, but we probably wouldn’t play more than one song, maybe just to just to basically let people know we have a new original record out. Definitely would not be more than that. At our tribute shows, we’re contracted to play the music of Foreigner, so that’s what we’ll stick to doing in that entity. But however, we will be playing original shows eventually with the, with. Double Vision, not the foreigner experience, just Double Vision.
Might be confusing at the beginning for some people, but we’ll see what happens. “Hey, where’s the Foreigner music and, oh, I bought a ticket”. We’ll see. We’ve already started discussing some options for the original stuff. We do have a lot of gigs this summer. So, it will be probably come the fall. But that’s definitely something we’re obviously working on. Right now is you know, to get pre-orders for the record leading up to July 11th and do as much as we can to, to promote that.
On the vision for both bands moving forward – I see both growing, ideally growing in an equal way. Obviously, the original music is a different market per se. Maybe some of the same, but also a little bit different because, there’s people who still go see original music, people who like original music and buy original music even, which is a rare thing, you know, aside from streaming it. Then there’s people who want to just see, hear, come and hear the music of yesteryear and be entertained in that order, and that’s fine too. Just trying to appeal to all those outlets, while not doing too much and spreading ourselves too thin. It’s a tall order. It is a lot of work for sure. Having these two things, and we have a lot more ventures and things coming up as far as the tribute stuff. We plan to do as much as we can with it. It’s on its own trajectory. Hopefully a lot of people dig it.
There’s a lot of different a lot of different kinds of vibes, songs, and the melodic rock classic rock world on that record. I think it keeps you engaged, keeps you listening. It does, for me anyway, it’s the first record I could listen to of my own, from front to back, constantly. I’m like, “Whoa. I just love this record”. I don’t listen to it as myself. I listen to it as like a fan. It’s incredible. First time I’ve been able to do that, really. I’ve never prouder of a record than this one.
On his upcoming plans – I’m always doing studio work, always doing sessions. There’s always songs popping up saying, “Featuring Chandler Mogel”, or records even. Just did a great record with this progressive metal band based out in Sacramento called Lunar, fourth record we did. Really great, great, great band, young band. Just did a show with them actually out in, Vancouver, Canada in April. Great, great, great players, great band. So really proud of that. Also have a record with a band, a Long Island band called Saint Renascence, good friend of mine, Paul Manno and Vinny Cook. Really great guitar players, had that record out for a little bit. Now we just did, again, that band, just did its first show earlier this month. So, these bands are a little bit ahead of Double Vision in that department. We’ll have our first show soon enough and everybody will definitely know about it. But right now, just trying to focus on promoting the record, get as many people as possible to pre-order it, and getting ready to sell it at the shows, you’d be able to buy it at the shows as well if you come see us, Northeast, Midwest we’re slowly making our way out west and down south, down the East Coast, Florida some shows coming up. A bunch of stuff from Michigan, Illinois Kansas, Northeast, New England bunch of stuff, so we’ll be out and about.
