Chamberlain

The origins of Chamberlain trace back to Split Lip, the Indianapolis outfit that dominated the Midwestern hardcore circuit from 1991 through 1995. While its members were still too young to hold driver’s licenses, the group—singer David Moore, guitarists Adam Rubenstein and Clay Snyder, bassist Curtis Mead, and drummer Charles Walker—inked a deal with Doghouse Records and issued the now-rare “Soulkill” single in 1992, followed by the full-length For the Love of the Wounded in 1993. Persistent road work built a loyal domestic audience, and Doghouse’s robust European network simultaneously cultivated an overseas following that made a 1996 European tour feasible. In 1995, after Rubenstein enrolled at Indiana University, the rest of the band relocated from Indianapolis to Bloomington and kept developing fresh songs. That same year saw the release of Fate’s Got a Driver, which was promoted through an extensive U.S. trek; by then the musicians had decided to retire the Split Lip name, feeling their evolving sound had moved past its early hardcore roots, and adopted the moniker Chamberlain. The new identity was first documented on a split EP shared with fellow Bloomington act Old Pike in autumn 1996. A brief licensing arrangement with the British imprint For All the Right Reasons produced only the import-only EPs Five Year Diary and Her Side of Sundown. Shortly after The Moon My Saddle appeared in fall 1998, Snyder and Mead departed, making room for guitarist Stoll Vaughn and bassist Seth Greathouse. Vaughn, nephew of John Mellencamp guitarist Mike Wanchic, exited the lineup in March 1999.