The death knell for many local bands, at least those with aspirations beyond their hometown, is their inability to escape their own backyard. Rare is the group that can build and sustain a substantial following without hitting the road, logging the miles, and earning the approval and admiration of faceless strangers night after night. As much as the internet has shrunk the world and made even the most trivial recordings available to millions at the click of a button, “success” remains largely relative to a band’s willingness to seek out and snatch it.

When Brett Reagan (guitars/electronics), Sarah “Snare-uh” Wilson (drums/percussion), and Brandon T. Pittman (bass) came together to form CHEW in 2015, they did it with the explicit intent of creating a band that would make its bones on the road (“It was literally almost why we started,” Wilson confesses). Since then, the instrumental trio have spent the better part of the last two years touring across the United States, developing a shared chemistry, and constructing a style of experimental rock, funk, and prog that is as agile as it is mercurial.