Could you introduce yourself to anyone who doesn’t already know you?

Yo I'm Chad, I sing in a band called Witness Chamber from Boise, Idaho.  I'm vegan, I'm straight edge, I collect and spend too much money on physical media in the form of PS1/PS2 games, VHS tapes and CRT TV's.

What was your introduction to punk and hardcore? (Age, how you found it, first bands you got into, first shows, etc.)

I vividly remember hearing actual real deal hardcore for the first time after my friend and current bandmate Jason showed it to me in my Freshman science class when I was 14 years old.  My initial reaction was " wow, this shit sucks" but I had just met Jason and I didn't want to be mean so I pretended to be down haha.  It didn't take long for me to find bands that clicked for me, Down to Nothing, True Colors, Floorpunch, and No Warning just to name a few.  The first hardcore show I ever went to was actually my first time ever seeing live music in general outside of seeing a friend's band play in their garage.  It was October of 2013 at a now closed venue in Boise called The Crux and the lineup was Six Feet, Headxlock, Compromised, and Cross Me.  There were maybe 25ish people there and more than half of that was people in bands playing that night.  I moshed my ass off and probably looked so dumb but it was awesome.

Boise the last few years seems to be a hotspot for wild shows and a bunch of newer really good bands. How would you describe the boise scene currently and how it was when you first started going to shows, if it was any different?

Boise now is FAR different than it was when I initially started going to shows.  Often times my friends and I are the oldest ones in the room at 26-28 years old and we are all now vastly outnumbered by the new wave of kids who are either still in high-school or have just graduated and it's awesome.  Before covid getting 30 people out to a show was a good night but the first show I went to after covid in Boise was an all-local show and there was upwards of 200 kids there.  It has died down only a little since then but the real ones stuck around and are starting all sorts of bands and booking shows.

Witness Chamber is one of my favorite current bands of the last few years. When i first heard Paradise Awaits, I was blown away and instantly had new gym music. How did the band come to be and how did you guys decide on a sound or direction you wanted to go in?

Witness Chamber came from the ashes of an old band called State of Suffering that shared a lot of the same members that are currently in Witness Chamber.  We had been playing shows like crazy for a few years in Boise and Salt Lake and we even bought a van and went on tour.  That older band had sort of hit a wall after a few years and when covid hit we called it quits.  Before that band had called it quits, we had written a bunch of new songs that sounded like none of our other songs and we decided to record and release it as a new band, that new band being Witness Chamber.

How has the reaction to Witness Chamber been both locally in Boise, other parts of the northwest and outside of the NW?

Our city has always put on for us since day 1, we were honestly surprised at the amount of love we got in the northwest and just in the greater hardcore scene in general.  We owe a lot of that love and early exposure to Matt who put out our first EP on his label Words of Fire which has since ceased operations.  It wasn't long before we were getting asked to play shows outside of Idaho, it was a surreal experience.  Being from Boise (especially before covid) it can feel like you're sort of on an island so getting all that love pretty much right out the gate was really special to us.

What are your dreams that you'd like to do with the band? Do you have anything coming up that you want to/can speak on?

I just want to go on as many cool tours with my friends as I possibly can, that's all I've ever wanted to do ever since I started being in bands.  As far as cool things coming up, we are currently in the process of recording our first LP and I cannot wait for people to hear what we've been cooking.

What are some of your favorite memories from shows locally?

The first thing that comes to mind is the time that I got knocked out during Malfunction in Boise in like 2014? My first thought after coming to was "If there's something wrong with me then my parents will never let me go to a show again.".  Boise didn't have an all-ages venue for some time so there are a lot of good memories from house shows.  Seeing Power play in a basement here after the previous band blew out the PA was really awesome.

Who are some of your all time favorite nwhc bands?

Odd Man Out, Gag, End of Dayz, Power, Brotherhood, Trial, Apex Predator, Ingrown

Who are your favorite current locals or bands you think people are sleeping on?

I think Ingrown is the only band from Boise, right? no but actually Ingrown, Swarm Beating, All That Matters and then Stomp and Wasted are the newer kid's bands that have all been playing hella shows and moshing their asses off at all of them.

What would you like to see from the scene currently?

Less silly main character shit at shows, more punk hardcore bands! I love breakdowns more than anyone but someone please start an SSD worship band or something before I do it myself.  Just get involved in shit because you love it and want to be a part of it and not because you're expecting some sort of clout out of it.

Is there anything you’d like to leave people with?

Go vegan, sentient life holds so much more value than a temporary sense of pleasure obtained from consuming products stolen from or cut out of the dead bodies of animals.  Take your vitamins, get your protein in, you're going to be okay.