This interview series is a summer-long series spotlight on the band performs at Asbury Jams every Thursday at The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Produced by ElmThree – Asbury Jams brings rising local, regional and national touring bands from the jam scene to the City that Bruce Built.
Genre-defying is becoming more and more of an apt description for artists — in particular within the very nebulous genre known as jam.
Chalk Dinosaur fully embodies the concept. The collaboration between brothers John and Nick O’Hallaron draws influences from jazz, funk, traditional jam, rock and electronica and weaves these sounds into a beautiful cinematic tapestry of sound. The sounds these two create — as both a duo and a full ensemble — is a sonically enveloping sound that creates fantasical imagery in your mind. It’s truly a wild experience, and is undeniably the future of the genre.
We caught up with John and Nick O’Hallaron — the brotherly foundation of Chalk Dinosaur — about the their new album Electric Biscuit, their unique live arrangements, soundtrack inspirations and touring with Pigeons Playing Ping Pong this fall.
Let’s go for the layup question first — what’s the story behind the band’s name?
John O’Hallaron (Founder/multi-
Nick O’Hallaron (Drums): Weirdly, I vividly remember when John named the band. It was 2007, I was in the 9th grade, John was a college freshman, and I had just come home to our parents house after a night of teenage shenanigans with my friends on our neighborhood golf course – John was sitting at our dining room table with a notebook and when I sat down he pitched the name to me. It would stick as the name of his project (now our project) as well as the debut self-titled album released in 2009.
This year you released the album Electric Biscuit — can you talk about how this album stands out from the rest of the albums you’ve done in the past?
John: Electric Biscuit is a collaborative album between me and Nick, with most of it specifically developed for our live show. This album also features the highest amount of composition and sound design from Nick.
Nick O’Hallaron (Drums): This album is the first time I contributed more directly on the songwriting and production side of things – specifically “Pillars of Creation,” “Right all the Time,” and “Electric Biscuit” were songs that I wrote and recorded demos for in my apartment. They were sitting at various stages of completion on my computer during 2024. Once we decided to include them on the album, they were consolidated onto John’s machine for him to polish and enhance with his far superior production skills. For those songs, the characteristic chord progressions and melodies I had written largely remained the same, but John in some cases chose new instrumentation (or sometimes not), refined the structure and/or added new sections, added tasteful guitar solos, smoothed out transitions, and completed them into release ready songs. One of my favorite pastimes is giving John my partially completed song projects and observing how quickly the production quality improves once he starts working.
The band records and performs as both a duo and as a full unit. Can you talk about the sonic differences between the two, and how you decide which version of the band is going to record on a song or album and/or perform live?
John: Both arrangements draw upon disco, funk, jam, and psychedelic rock. The duo leans more electronic and the ensemble leans more rock/jam. The primary band arrangement is the live electronic duo. We do a couple ensemble shows per year based on availability. Each band arrangement has it’s own unique repertoire. Albums are either collaborations between the Ensemble, collaborations between me and Nick, or solo projects by me. Typically there are albums in the works for all three of those varieties at all times.
The duo (billed as “Chalk Dinosaur”) can best be described as a live electronic set with a repertoire including albums like Flow State, Punch Funk Love, Electric Biscuit, Starblazer, and Bounce among others. This set is inspired in large part by acts like The Floozies, Chromeo, Daft Punk, and Sunsquabi which include combine live instrumentation and programmed electronic support elements to generate a complete sound. The set is geared towards high-energy driving grooves with programmed sequences of electronic instrumentation and live drumming as the rhythm section to support live guitar layering and keyboard/talk box.
The full-band (billed as the “Chalk Dinosaur Ensemble”) is typically composed of four pieces (drums, bass, and two guitars) but occasionally more or less depending on the scenario. This arrangement is a more traditional jam band with a repertoire including albums like Stuck in Between, Sprout, and Spectrum with more emphasis on “Type 2” improvisational jam segments tying together swathes of the set, often with key and tempo modulation to transition between songs without pausing. This arrangement requires far more live communication and real time coordination between band members, which can lead to unpredictable outcomes and memorable and unique live shows, for better or worse.
Nick O’Hallaron (Drums): I personally enjoy playing in both arrangements equally and I think they have unique merits depending on listener preferences – ultimately the goal is to provide a sound that anyone can enjoy in either arrangement. It’s very important to note that the Chalk Dinosaur (duo) set is not just a stripped down version of the Chalk Dinosaur Ensemble set – they are unique experiences with no overlap between musical repertoires and full instrumentation across the board. It took a little while to familiarize promoters and fans with the difference between the two billings and what to expect from each. If you were to see 90+ mins of each set back to back you wouldn’t hear any repeats. You might, however, see me keel over from exhaustion depending on the setlist.
We mainly tour as the duo due to a combination of logistical factors like ease of coordination and availability. John and I don’t have children yet, while our Ensemble bandmates and longtime friends Michael Berger (bass) and Jon Henderson (guitar) do have young kids. As a result, John and I play the bulk of the tour dates as the duo (35-40 in 2023-2024) and Michael and Jon join us for special hometown shows and 4-5 select tour dates, usually festivals, spread throughout the year.
For the show at Asbury Jams — will this be the duo or full band?
John: Duo which is the primary format. Any shows featuring the four-piece band are billed as “Chalk Dinosaur Ensemble.”
Nick: This show will be the live electronic duo. If we do our job properly, our set should compel the people move their limbs around uncontrollably for 90 minutes or so.
So much of the music off Electric Biscuit feels so cinematic. For example – “Super Freak Out” is such a visually evocative song. When you write these instrumental pieces do you find yourself writing them as an audio visual journey or more of a feeling and a vibe?
John: Soundtrack music is a big influence for me, so I think it comes out naturally. I don’t usually have visuals in mind while composing, but have an affinity for music that evokes feelings of triumph, perseverance, valiance, and joy.
Nick: Not the song you asked about, but “Pillars of Creation” was one I initially wrote with space travel visuals in mind from the very beginning – sitting in the cockpit of a space shuttle looking out into a nebula or some sort of celestial body in the silent vacuum of space somewhere. John wrote Super Freak Out, I’ll let him comment on that one. Another one of John’s songs off the album The Long Road definitely gets my imagination going personally.
Also, have you ever thought of or been approached to do music for film or television. Personally, I think your music is perfect for it.
John: I’ve worked as a freelance composer for TV since 2012, mostly writing for reality tv series, but I’ve also produced some things for games, movies, commercials, and karaoke. It’s a really competitive and saturated space, so my approach has been to try and make my mark as an artist/producer and hopefully that will lead to an opportunity to score something down the line. I think the same for sync opportunities with existing Chalk Dinosaur music. If you can get the music out there enough to make some fans that are music supervisors, that seems to be the ticket. I feel like they have to find you, and not the other way around.
Nick: Funny you say that, John does TV music as a career. If we could also sync license our albums in tv and movies that would be ideal!
The band will be hitting the road with Pigeons Playing Ping Pong this. Can you talk about your excitement to be part of the tour and how the opportunity came about?
John: Firstly, we’ve been long time fans, so getting to know them and work with them is really cool. Kudos to our manager Rob and booking agent Sam who got this show arranged. Getting to play Boston for the first time with Pigeons is huge. It’s like skipping several steps and we’re grateful for the opportunity. Pigeons is known for their advocacy and support of the artists they like, and they’ve gone out of their way to support us over the years by sharing their audience with us via their events and the recent collaboration we released in May (Cranes). I met them in 2018 at a festival called Summerdance. They had heard some of my recorded work and have been listening and supporting ever since. In the past couple years I’ve had the opportunity to do some keyboard and sound design work on a couple of their studio releases, as well as getting to sit in with them on stage last NYE. We’ve talked about playing a show together for a while, and we’re really grateful to them and their team for having us on board in Boston. They’ve been incredibly nice and welcoming every time I see them.
Nick: We’ve been big fans of Pigeons for many years and have been watching them since well before we started playing shows in the jam scene. It’s amazing to now be able to support them on stage as friends and colleagues. John can speak more on how we got to know them.
What is it that you love about being in Chalk Dinosaur?
John: I love the process of writing, recording, and releasing music, and Chalk Dinosaur provides the vessel and audience to do that. The craft of songwriting and production is what I live for. With Chalk Dinosaur there are no genre boundaries and I love having that level of creative freedom. In regard to the performance side of things, my favorite part is connecting with likeminded musicians and meeting listeners who have been positively impacted by the music. It’s been neat getting to play some really cool events over the years, festivals I used to attend as a patron. It’s also cool being exposed to such skilled and talented musicians and groups on a regular basis. It feels like everyone is so much more advanced than us as players, and being in that kind of environment makes us better through osmosis.
Nick: This is a very long answer, but I feel strongly about this and sometimes have to take a step back to fully appreciate how privileged I am to be able to tour the country playing shows with many of my musical idols from formative years i spent as a fan in the mid-2000s jam and festival scene. If you told me in 2015 that in 2025 I would be on a first name basis with members of these bands, that we would be playing shows together regularly, and that the guy who throws the Werkout would be our manager and friend, I would have said that’s ridiculous and unrealistic.
We didn’t really start playing shows in the scene until ~2019, so I’m very proud of our progress in such a short time. We owe a debt of gratitude to our manager and booking agent, Rob Chafin and Sam Hutchinson respectively, who have greatly accelerated our progress and are constantly pushing us to new heights. We would not be where we are now without their guidance and insight.
All in all, I love the whole experience, bad days and all, of being a part of this amazing music scene that I have loved deeply for many years as a fan. I love being able to give back to the fans now as an artist, and to tell our idols just how much they impacted our lives and musical journeys. I love looking out into the crowd during a set and spotting a person lost in the music, experiencing a feeling that I immediately recognize from many of the better moments of my personal life – being completely immersed in not only the music, but the organism that is a fully engaged concert crowd living in the moment, with the common goal of having an amazing time. I’m not religious anymore but I consider this my church, I think I get much of the same fulfillment with none of the Catholic guilt.
What are 5 things you’re excited about for Chalk Dinosaur for the rest of 2025?
John O’Halloran:
1. Working on the next Ensemble album.
2. Writing new music for the duo arrangement.
3. Recording a solo concept EP, probably a tropical/surf, easy listening, or house collection.
4. Finishing my outstanding collaboration projects, maybe creating a new Chalk Dinosaur & Friends album featuring some of my favorite players.
5. Boston, Denver, Domefest, Jam Cruise shows.
Nick O’Hallaron:
1. Eggy Denver Halloween show at Cervantes
2. Boston Pigeons opener at Paradise Rock Club
3. Domefest, one of my favorite mid-size fests, thrown by none other than PPPP.
4. Finally owning one of our albums on vinyl, we are in the final stages of pressing copies of Stuck in Between to vinyl and I can’t wait to add one to my collection.
5. Hoping to release a new Ensemble album this year but we will see if that happens pre-2026. We are still in the writing phase but need to finish writing the songs, agree on final arrangements and instrumentation, rehearse the songs for live recording, schedule studio time, give time for post-production normally by John, commission artwork, etc.
6. Bonus thing I’m stoked for, Jam Cruise Feb 2026, OH BABY YEAH!!
