‘Raw emotion’: Pierce County musician mixes PNW heart into songs and shows
To say Chad Quist is a rock guitarist doesn’t go far enough. He’s more of a Swiss-army musician.
He writes original progressive rock music, a genre that can challenge the listener and musician alike. But he’s also helped turn groups like Led Zeppelin into easy listening for the Muzak company. Quist loves to embody the spirit of legendary Seattle band Heart on stage, to the delight of hardcore local fans. The next day, he’ll happily mix someone else’s recording alone in his Edgewood studio.
If it’s local rock, especially with a jazz influence, he wants to be in the thick of it. If we had a county-wide coolest dude contest, he’d be my nomination.
Quist grew up in the Bay Area, but his parents were from Washington and moved back to the Seattle area after he finished high school. While spending time with his family in the 1980’s, he’d make his way out to clubs in Pioneer Square to see as many acts as he could in one night. He helped start Hoi Polloi, a pop-rock band influenced by the horn-heavy group Chicago.
“It was a cool time to be in Seattle,” he said.
The feeling lasted. He’s been in several tribute and original bands since then, in addition to teaching guitar and getting behind the mixing board as a professional producer.
In total, he’s visited and lived in the region for about 40 years, with a 10-year break making connections in Los Angeles. In 2017, he settled in Edgewood, where he runs Luscious Moss Studio in a converted garage behind his house.
A Pacific Northwest flavor makes its way into most parts of this eclectic career. Yes, Quist plays in Heart by Heart, a tribute band that includes Heart’s original bassist and drummer. But the local influence is there in his studio, too.
Supplying the edge from Edgewood
When I visited Quist’s recording studio, he was mixing a track for local musician Billy Shew. He can produce music recorded in his studio, or play “the fix-it guy” on partially mixed music that isn’t quite there yet.
He also builds on tracks sent by out-of-state producers. A lot of times, they want to make a song stand out with a backing vocalist or instrumentalist not found in their neck of the woods.
Aspiring musicians in Nashville, for example, have access to a streamlined recording industry that can crank out demos. But the system can make everyone sound a bit too similar, Quist said.
That’s where the local flavor comes in, and that’s not smoked salmon or teriyaki chicken. For Quist, it’s the lasting influence of the grunge scene.
“It’s that raw emotion from that style of music that I want to bring out,” he said. “I like to have a little bit of an edge in the music I produce.”
In his Heart by Heart Era
Quist has spent time around greatness. He once opened for Ray Charles in front of a crowd of around 13,000 in the old Seattle Center Coliseum in 1993. He also played “Piece of My Heart” with Janis Joplin’s former band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, in 1997 at the Swiss in Tacoma. That launched a nearly ten-year run with the band.
But his biggest claim to fame right now might be his work with Heart by Heart, which he calls a hybrid tribute band. The group includes two founding members of Heart, who have songwriting credits on some of the original band’s music. Safe to say, the tribute band legitimately brings the driving rhythm you can hear on tracks like “Barracuda.”
Fans love it, Quist said.
“It’s an incredible energy locally, especially because there’s so many Heart fans,” he said. To them, he added, “we might as well be the original Heart.”
There’s also a good fan base in the Midwest, where Quist says a love of classic rock runs deep. But most importantly to Quist, he’s a fan. He has to be.
“If you’re in a tribute band, you have to really like the band that you’re giving tribute to,” he said. That lets you notice all the details that bring the music to life. “That includes not just the notes, but how the notes are played, the tone of the guitar, or the keyboard, or the drum.”
