Sometimes chasing a new horizon means journeying back to where it all began.
Ask Bradley Beach guitarist, singer and songwriter Frank Bressi, who founded anamorphic punk/pop trio The Chilling Details in August 2004.
"When people talk about evolution, I think they automatically envision something linear," Bressi said. "But that's not necessarily the case. Really, it's just a state of change that you try to keep yourself in as a way of staying fresh."
Following the release of their debut full-length, "Innerdialogue," in July 2007 and nearly four years of gigs, in June '08 The Chilling Details played their maiden show — one more time.
Making its onstage "debut" at Asbury Lanes for the annual Wave Gathering emerging music festival, the band came complete with a look and sound that may have struck a familiar chord with longtime supporters.
"It's a different lineup; the name has been augmented to Frank Bressi & The Chilling Details," Bressi said. "I'm playing with a new drummer and a synthesizer player; there's no bassist.
"Ironically though, the very first lineup of The Chilling Details was just a guitar, synthesizer and drums," he added. "The person that was originally playing synthesizer couldn't keep playing with us. So it became a lot easier to find bass players, and we kind of just rolled ahead that way. But that never was really what the original vision was."
The band's lineup now consists of Bressi and guitars and vocals, Danielle Kavendek on synthesizers and Joe Chyb on drums.
Bressi added there never was a definitive end point to the "old" Chilling Details, which included drummer James Griffith and bassist Chris Smith. He instead sees the band's transition as an ongoing artistic project that's always been greater than the sum of its parts.
"I wouldn't say the band disbanded. The bass player needed to move on, and the drummer and I played with a few fill-in bass players while we looked for someone permanent," he said. "And while that didn't seem like it was happening — it became very difficult to find a bass player for some reason — (my drummer) decided that he was just going to explore other options too, so I just got some new people to play with."
Bressi has been fleshing out the band's sound and repertoire with a combination of new material and variations on older compositions.
"This group is basically taking cuts from ("Innerdialogue") and also things that the old band hadn't recorded yet," he said. "The material also includes things that were played previously and pulled from different groups that I've been in, as well as new songs. So it's an amalgam. It's really more the vision that I had originally, to be able to play my songs with a group."
Bressi, whose previous projects include Casanovacane and Psychedelic Oven Mitt, has for several years been involved with Philadelphia-based booking/promotion company Hey Cole! Presents and its founder, Cole Lipman.
"The interesting thing about Cole, which is not very common these days, is that she doesn't necessarily ask for exclusivity," he said. "As far as booking goes, it's basically like, you're welcomed onto her roster but you're not prevented from taking other shows," he said.
"That definitely fosters your ability to be creative, because you don't feel constricted. A lot of it is based on trust; she's a good person who cares about the music.
"She understands that just booking a show isn't enough. She wants to create an event, something memorable for the people who are there that will make them want to come back," he said. "When they hear it's a Hey Cole! Presents show, they'll associate it with a certain level of quality and entertainment value. With the way the business is now, that's important to me as a fan and as an artist."
