By Kreig Marks, Oct 2026

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Kreig: Your story started with Chris posting alt-rock covers on Instagram before Jared Leto and Goo Goo Dolls themselves gave him the nod. What was going through his head the moment he realized one of his musical heroes had actually seen his video?

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CA: Yeah, I was really shocked about that. I have played guitar since I was a kid but had only just started singing. I was using the covers on Instagram to practice and build confidence in my vocals so I never expected that would happen. They are two of my favourite bands of all time. I met the Goo Goo Dolls at a meet and greet and told them they were the reason I started making music. The last time I saw Thirty Seconds to Mars live, Jared Leto came up to me and shook my hand, he recognised me from all the Mars covers I had been posting!

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Kreig: You cite Biffy Clyro, Bush, Goo Goo Dolls, and Thirty Seconds to Mars as influences, a pretty transatlantic mix. Is there a “Scottish” ingredient in your sound that those influences don’t quite capture?

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CA: We grew up playing alongside some great Scottish bands and have always been influenced by Scottish bands like Biffy Clyro, Twin Atlantic and Idlewild, but our sound is mixed with the American alt rock bands of the early 2000s like Switchfoot and Incubus. Also I think living in Scotland has probably given us a different perspective than those American bands.

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Kreig: Chris has spoken openly about anxiety and depression, and about wanting your songs to help people the way music helped him heal. Is there a specific lyric or song of yours that you think has actually changed someone’s day for the better, and how did you find out?

 

CA: Well, there is one song that comes to mind from our debut album called “We Are One”. It’s about losing my dad. A fan reached out to us and told us they were going through a similar thing and the song helped them through that difficult time, so it’s come full circle.

 

Kreig: Your name reads almost like a contradiction, calm versus attack. Was that tension intentional, and does it show up in how you write, from quiet verses to explosive choruses?

 

CA: Yes, it was intentional. We got it from the idea of music being able to calm down someone experiencing a panic attack, so for me Calm Attack is like the opposite of a panic attack. Yes, we often write songs that way, but we also have songs that are very quiet and calming as well as the loud, energetic, heavy ones. A lot of the bands we listen to have a mix of big rock songs and ballads.

 

Kreig: With just guitar/vocals, bass, and drums, there’s nowhere to hide onstage. What’s the most chaotic moment the three of you have had to recover from mid-song in front of a crowd?

 

CA: Well, as we are a three piece we do sometimes use a backing track for the piano and synth parts in the songs, and during one of our songs live we ended up out of time with the backing track somehow, haha. I still don’t know what happened. We just kept on playing to the end of the song, although it wasn’t easy. We got that concert filmed also, it’s pretty funny.

 

Kreig: You’ve played alongside Twin Atlantic, The Xcerts, and The Twilight Sad. What’s one piece of advice, or one bad habit, you picked up from watching those bands work a room?

 

CA: We actually played with The Xcerts under a different name when we were teenagers, and I think it was The Xcerts’ first ever gig. It was supporting a great band called “Miss Black America”. We saw Twin Atlantic recently and they sounded massive and really tight. They are a great example of how to keep the energy up in a room.

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Kreig: Your single “This Is Our Time” was recorded with Mark Morrow and the video directed by Stuart Alexander, both plugged deep into the Scottish scene. What did they push you to do differently that you wouldn’t have tried on your own?

 

CA: The original demo of “This Is Our Time” was more indie sounding and Mark helped us to make it heavier and more in line with Thirty Seconds to Mars and Biffy Clyro. Mark was great as he is a fan of the same kind of bands as us and has great production ideas. Stuart is great, he came up with the vision for the music video. He had us take all our equipment out to the sea and we tried to balance on slippy rocks while playing the song and getting some epic shots. Luckily I think we only fell a couple of times.

 

Kreig: Hearing “Demons” land on BBC Introducing and those Spotify editorial playlists must have felt surreal. Where were you the first time you heard yourselves on the radio, and did you have to pull over?

 

CA: “Demons” was the first song we recorded in a studio; before that we were releasing home studio recordings. The day it came out it was on the Spotify playlist “All New Rock”, which was pretty shocking as we are unsigned and we were alongside some big artists on that playlist. From there the song did really well and got on a lot of other big playlists and is now nearly at 100k streams all thanks to Spotify alone. Something about that song has resonated with people the most, on social media also. The first time we were on the radio was on Jim Gellatly’s show on Amazing Radio and that was really cool. He was actually the first radio DJ to play Biffy Clyro on the radio also. We were at home so haven’t had the experience of hearing it in the car on the radio, but that would be cool.

 

Kreig: Your lyrics tackle love, death, religion, and mental health, not exactly light barroom topics. Is there a song you’ve written that felt too personal to release, and what made you put it out anyway?

 

CA: On our B-sides album called “Lost and Found” we released a song called “Leaving”. It’s just acoustic guitar and vocal and it’s very personal and vulnerable. I wrote it when I was going through a lot of mental health problems and the lyrics are quite dark. For example the lyric “please can you switch off my batteries”. For some reason I would find comfort in writing songs like this. It has kind of a Radiohead sound. It did feel a little strange to release it, but I don’t worry too much about releasing. We have changed our sound a lot over the years and at the time it felt right to release it. We are not a band that sticks to only one sound, if you know what I mean.

 

Kreig: Fans can already grab your hoodies and caps online. If you designed one piece of merch that had to capture the entire spirit of the band in a single image, what would be on it?

 

CA: I think a lion’s face would capture the spirit of the band. We have music that is calm and emotional but also fierce and energetic.

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For further information about the band, visit Calm Attack Band. ​​