The music world is celebrating the return of Post-Punk pioneers, The Chameleons and their first new music in over 20 years! “Where Are You?” was released as part of a three-song EP on May 24, 2024 via Metropolis Records in conjunction with Strange Times Entertainment. ‘Where Are You?’, along with the shimmery and mesmerizing “Endlessly Falling” and the acoustic and contemplative ballad “Forever,” is a taste of what’s to come off the bands’ forthcoming album, titled Arctic Moon, planned for later 2024.
The Chameleons formed in Middleton, Manchester in 1981 and are known for their intricately woven atmospheric sounds and shimmering guitar riffs. They’re noted as influencing (The) Verve, Oasis, White Lies, The Slow Readers Club, Interpol, The Killers and Editors, among countless others and known for their transformative musical catalog and intense emotionally charged live performances The legacy of The Chameleons extends beyond their four studio albums.
Following their debut single “In Shreds” in 1982, the band released three seminal albums: the widely acclaimed Script of the Bridge (1983), cited by many sources as a masterpiece way ahead of its time, its follow-up What Does Anything Mean? Basically!’ (1984), Strange Times (1986), and Why Call It Anything? (2001).
The Chameleons are currently celebrating their 1986 breakthrough album Strange Times with a North American tour. Tickets can be purchased HERE. Dates are listed below.
Mark Burgess so graciously took the time to answer a few questions for Torched Magazine that sheds some light into their new music, the bands’ origins, the John Peel Sessons, as well as their current line-up and Strange Times tour.
The John Peel Sessions were pivotal in the early success of The Chameleons. How did this come about? What are some of your recollections from these recordings?
I’ve told these stories so many times, I even wrote a book and it was something like forty years ago.
We didn’t want to waste our time, or so we felt, playing empty dives around Manchester. It would have actually been good for me, because of the three of us, I had the least experience. I joined Chameleons and six months later I’m recording at the BBC. Clueless. So anyway, we decided to focus on on our songwriting and push that. Our mate Tony suggested we try and get a Peel session, we were avid fans of the show, so that’s what we decided to do, except the session drummer we hired at the time didn’t show up, so we ended up sending a cassette of some early songs without drums. John wrote back and said he really liked it, that if we did an actual proper demo, to get it to him. We immediately sold everything we didn’t essentially need, recorded a demo at Cargo Studios in Rochdale, then Dave and I got on a train and waited outside the BBC for John. Peel. We showed him the letter, gave him the tape, he told us to give him an hour with it, he came back, said he loved it and was going to play it to his producer. We got the train back to Manchester on the Friday, and the following Monday morning John rang me and told me they wanted to record us asap,, We didn’t even have a name for the band at this point.
Can you tell me about The Chameleons origins / band formation. How did you come up with the band’s name?
I’ve known Reg Smithies for over 50 years, we were at the same schools. I met Dave Fielding when I was about ten. When we got moved to a bigger school I lost contact until Punk exploded out of London in 1977. I started seeing them at gigs around town. I had this little punk band going just for fun, but they saw me rehearse and asked me to join them, cause they were more serious about, at least Dave was. My drummer was a waste of time and my guitar player went to Oxford to read English Literature, so I fell in the Dave and Reg for something to do while I waited to apply to do drama at Manchester Polytechnic. Then we got the Peel session pretty soon after I joined and I had to make a choice.
If you could step into a time machine and go back to the origins of The Chameleons, are there any obstacles or challenges that you would change that you feel hindered your growth as a band?
Well, I feel like we’ve done that with this new record. We’ve gone right back to before the Peel session and headed off on a different tangent.. We’re not trading on any of that other than to play the material live. We’ve redone the first songs that we wrote together that we liked, as the band we are now, and both Reg and I are way happier with what we’re doing. We weren’t going to make new records with a guitar sound that wasn’t even ours and the guy who’s sound it was left the band 20 years ago, his sound. We’re forging our own and we’ve got good heads around us now that want to help and take care of us so we can get on with making the music. All that is way better than going back in Tardis and starting all over again.
Photo credit: Mick Peek
Your song lyrics are deep and contemplative, which I feel takes us all on a journey through a full spectrum of places and emotions. Where do you find your songwriting inspiration?
Same place as most good writers, from everything that’s going on around me and the questions those things pose in my mind. As a kid I didn’t realise I was an existentialist until Catherine at Statik Records gave me a book by Jean Paul Sartre. These days I’m less so, I’m more fascinated by love and human relationships, something I’ve mainly sidestepped in the past.
What was the inspiration for the new song “Where Are You?”
This crazy mad idea that some people have that somewhere out there is the perfect partner, one’s twin flame or whatever people call it these days. They keep hurtling through life needing all these checkboxes ticked, believing that the right one is just around the corner and end up alone and lonely because of course, any one of us can be that for any other if we’re prepared to work on the relationship. Know a great one when you have it, and do everything you can to make it work.
Following your new three song EP, there is a new album Arctic Moon, set for release later this year. What can fans expect from this new album?
A band that’s identifiably the Chameleons doing something completely fresh for a change and writing and arranging and performing in a much more mature way. We’re very excited by it, which is the only yardstick we can use.
The Chameleons’ newest additions consist of Stephen Rice (guitar), Danny Ashberry (keyboards), and Todd Demma (drums), along with founders Reg Smithies (guitar), and yourself.. Mark Burgess (bass, vocals, lyrics). What have the newest members brought to the band? Has the dynamic changed after the passing of the original drummer John Lever (2017) and the departure of Dave Fielding?
What they’ve brought is their A game, a deep love for the legacy of the band, but the talent to help take that forward. Their input is huge on various levels and it’s the first time really I’ve felt I’m in a proper band since the original band split. We all get on really well and have a good time, it’s all positive, so unlike the days in the past when negativity, narcissism, alcoholism, drug addiction just pervaded everything we did. I mean it produced great music, but it killed John in the end and it almost sent me insane. The other guy actually did go insane, it was all very sad. I’m just really happy those days are gone and I’m with people that just want to focus on the music and taking that as forward as we can. Every single member is vital to the whole, so I’m very lucky to get to experience that twice in a lifetime.
During the early days of The Chameleons making money from touring and creating music was tough. Did any of the original members have side jobs? If so, what did you do to make ends meet?
Well, it wasn’t tough, it was impossible. Until the year 2000, I’d never been paid for a Chameleons performance. I’ve never done anything else but music, well actually no, there were a couple of years at the end of the 90s when I took an office job, but that didn’t last long, I quit that to rejoin the band at the invitation of Dave. I mean, I’m not going to say how we got through those times, sometimes even I have to wonder how I got through it.
Do you have any hobbies or pastimes outside of music that help rejuvenate your creativity?
Well, I’m in an FLR with a brilliantly intelligent and very beautiful person who resides in Berlin, so I just want to spend as much time as I can with Her and I want to do more to help promote the lifestyle. It’s not for everyone I understand that, I’m not even sure if I can do it long term, but when it comes to exorcising masculine toxicity for me it’s the best path and it’s already having benefits. We’re all damaged by our childhood to varying degrees and for some that damage can take a lifetime to put right, but death isn’t the end of the journey, so for me it’s worth it. I’d also like to write a second book.
Is there anything that I may have missed that you would like to share? Thank you so much for taking the time for Torched!
We’re going to be performing ‘Strange Times’ for the first time in the US since it was released, and even back then we didn’t play the whole thing. So while I don’t ordinarily like album performance tours, believing instead they should be special one-off events, I feel differently about this record, because it’s a challenge to do, so we’re all looking forward to it, and we’ll be throwing in some surprises along with the new single, which is out on May 24th. Digital downloads from Metropolis Records and the vinyl can be had at our shows, that’s 12 inch vinyl through our own company ‘Strange Times Entertainment.’
That’s it I think 🙂
Thank you.
TOUR DATES:
- May 30 San Diego, CA Music Box
- May 31 Los Angeles, CA The Belasco
- Jun 4 Vancouver, BC The Pearl
- Jun 5 Seattle, WA El Corazon
- Jun 6 Portland, OR Hawthorne Theater
- Jun 7 Sacramento, CA Harlow’s
- Jun 8 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
- Jun 9 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
- Jun 11 Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge
- Jun 12 Denver, CO Oriental Theater
- Jun 13 Kansas City, MO recordBar
- Jun 14 Dallas, TX Sundown at The Granada
- Jun 15 Houston, TX Dark Ceremony Festival
- Jun 17 El Paso, TX Lowbrow Palace
- Jun 18 Albuquerque, NM Launchpad
- Jun 19 Tucson, AZ 191 Toole
- Jun 20 Phoenix, AZ Last Exit Live
- Aug 8 Philadelphia, PA Underground Arts
- Aug 9 New Haven, CT Space Ballroom
- Aug 10 Boston, MA The Sinclair
- Aug 12 Montreal, QC Theatre Fairmount
- Aug 13 Toronto, ON Opera House
- Aug 14 Buffalo, NY Town Ballroom
- Aug 15 Pittsburgh, PA Spirit Hall
- Aug 16 New York, NY Webster Hall
- Aug 17 Washington, DC Black Cat
The Chameleons are Reg Smithies (guitar), Mark Burgess (bass, vocals, lyrics), Stephen Rice (guitar), Danny Ashberry (keyboards), and Todd Demma (drums). Where Are You? was produced by Christophe Bride and The Chameleons and mastered by Guy Massey. Released on May 24, 2024,via Metropolis Records in conjunction with Strange Times Entertainment and is available for purchase via Bandcamp.
Feature photo by Mick Peek
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