ChAsE ThE MONKEY dEBUTs

young Pittsburgh band Chase the Monkey turns up at teenage takeover iii on Saturday with a finished debut album, “how to Say Goodbye.”

Singer-guitarist alberto Sewald, who fronts the power-pop/blues-rock trio, says it was a long process that started with basement demos and kept evolving. “when we could feel ourselves outgrowing our older songs, we began to replace them with newer stuff that felt more challenging and genuine, and just more fun.”

they put the money from their merch tables into making a recording at wilderness recording Studio with Jay Vega earlier this year. Making a record in a studio, he says, “was an extremely humbling endeavor; i’ve never felt more frustrated or elated in my entire life than during the ups and downs of tracking and mixing.”

the record is finished just in time for teenage takeover and for the frontman, who just graduated from north allegheny high School, to take off for college at Belmont university in nashville.

“i’m going to be studying audio engineering and hopefully just immersing myself in the very cool and diverse music scene down there,” he says. “the plan is to eat, sleep, and breathe music, and just never stop writing songs, playing shows and making records.”

Bassist Matt hanson and drummer Paige Suvick have one more year of high school, “but the plan is still to keep going,” Mr. Sewald says. “i’m planning to come back to town and gig periodically, but what we’re really hoping to do is to play out of town more, and tour whenever we’re all off from school.”

Chase the Monkey plays takeover, at the Shop in Bloomfield, with the yetis (from allentown), nox Boys, Pachyderm and the Summercamp. it begins at 7 p.m. tickets are $5 at the door.