Catholicism Becomes More Than Faith, Evolves to Vocation for Student
by Lisi Genaidy
4.17.08

The self-described “powerpop rock” band Treaty of Paris originated in Chicago, Ill., in late 2004. After
a number line-up changes, the band ended up with Mike Chorvat on lead vocals and guitar, Dan Wade and Phil Kosch on guitars, Brandon Capetillo on bass and Chris Insidioso on drums.

These five released the EP “Behind Our Calm Demeanors” in the fall of 2005, and it immediately
began receiving airplay on commercial radio stations in Chicago.

A self-booked tour of the Midwest and East Coast
followed, and in spring 2007 the band was signed to
Airport Tapes and Records, an independent label launched by Andrew McMahon of Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin.

The band is currently touring with Yellowcard, The Spill Canvas and PlayRadioPlay!, but took a short break from this to play a small show at Sokol Underground in Omaha on March 9.

I got the chance to sit down and chat with them
as the local bands ran their sound checks before
the show.


Q: What are the band’s biggest musical influences?
Mike: We all like Motion City Soundtrack; I think we
can agree on that.

Brandon: I would say The Beatles.
Mike: Yeah, definitely The Beatles too, who are kind of the influence of all bands…ever. But, we always say like, Weezer, The Foo Fighters. It’s kind of straight up rock, but we like the poppy stuff too.


Q: How did the name Treaty of Paris come into existence?

Mike: Basically it started off as a joke. We were fourpiece before, and I played guitar. Then Phil joined the band and started playing with the guitar. The first thing, we were like, “Come up with a name,” and we looked at this huge list of names. Treaty
of Paris was on it, and we thought it was the funniest
thing in the world. We were like, “Who would name their band Treaty of Paris?” Well, it ended up, we played our first “secret show” under that for our friends and stuff, and basically we couldn’t think of
anything we liked better, so we were like, “Treaty
of Paris" it is.” And a month later Brandon was like, “Wow. That’s really our name.”

Dan: The joke was on us.


Q: What have you been listening to lately?

Mike: Lately I’ve been listening to the Phil Kosch Solo Acoustic Project.

Phil: I’ve been listening to The Chemical Brothers’
“Prodigy” and this band called Danger.

Chris: Hell’s Lions. And I also have been listening to
the Phil Kosch Solo Acoustic Project a lot.

Phil: And yes, we have been listening to Jack’s
Mannequin.


Q: What’s your favorite band that you’ve played with so far?

Dan: Well, we toured Europe with Metallica last year and that was probably the best tour we ever did. And U2 was pretty fun. I don’t know, what was your favorite, Phil?

Phil: I’d have to say, we actually played a zoo with a
band called Collective Soul, in front of 5,500 people,
probably my favorite band of the 90s. It was cool. We
rocked out, and we heard Gel, so we were excited.


Q: What can be expected from Treaty of Paris within the next year?

Dan: In the next year we can expect to do lots and lots of touring, traveling, just basically getting our name out. Promoting our record is pretty much priority one for us right now. Other bands like to call it “road doggin’ it,” so we’ll be “road doggin’ it” for the next year.

Mike: We’ll be playing lots of gigs.

Chris: Giggin’.

Mike: Giggin’ it up. You know we have to prepare for
the second record, because that’s the big record. It’s the one everybody’s really going to be critical about, so we’ve got to make it good.

Treaty of Paris’s first record“Sweet Dreams, Sucker” was released on Sept. 25, 2007, and can be found in stores everywhere. Their current tour withYellowcard will come to a close at the end of April, but watch for them in the Van’s Warped Tour from June 20 to June 29.