WATERLIGHT PARK - Free Download
Hey hey.
Back in January, we wrote and recorded a demo of a song we called Waterlight Park. It won't fit on the next album but we like it all the same, so we decided to give it away here. If you dig it, check out the video, which was made by a friend of ours. And maybe come see us play it live in October! You gorgeous things.
P.S. The track was produced by us with Jamie 'Jellis' Ellis and engineered by Matt 'Ear' Wiggins at The Square in Hoxton.
New Colours....
We'll be playing our final shows of the year in October, and to celebrate will be playing 2 SETS EACH NIGHT.
The main set will feature songs from 'Palace' and the 'Wintering EP', and earlier in the evening we'll also play a special set made-up entirely of brand new songs.
Tickets are available now from http://bit.ly/nB8P5d
And in the meantime, here's a peek at one of the new tracks...
Autumn Tour
We're very pleased to announce we'll be touring the UK this October! For full details go to the 'shows' page at chapelclub.com
CCx
Got a burning question for Chapel Club?
CC Q&A: The band will be answering fans questions on Facebook. Just email your question through to dearchapelclub@gmail.com and answers to their favourites will be posted here shortly.
Free show for Facebook Fans!
Hey, we'll be playing a gig at the Shacklewell Arms in Daltson on May 18th. It's the first place we ever played so will be a pretty special night for us. For a chance to win tickets, go here
Our new video for Blind
is now up on NME.com.
http://www.nme.com/nme-video/chapel-club--blind/911161807001
Thank you. X
The Shore live at Waterloo Records, Austin, TX.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_SEuQF1jRs
Hello
This might seem odd but I'm a bit sensitive about stuff like this, so I want to set the record straight. I considered doing it at the time, but I didn't want to make a massive fuss of it and be seen to be starting a feud or anything like that. Plus I didn't want people to think that I was ‘courting controversy’ or that I think I'm vaguely important in any way. But I keep hearing people mention it and every so often someone will tweet about it like it's cool or funny, and that makes me uncomfortable, so I want to put my side out there.
Back in January, the band gave an interview to the NME in the lead-up to the release of 'Palace'. During the interview, we were asked about many things - the recording of the album, our views on art and religion, what bands we love etc. We were also asked (as a so-called 'buzz' band of 2010) to give our views on the buzz bands of 2011. Really, we should've kept our mouths shut: there's no good reason for one musician to do another down, even if they've got a fair point. It's hard enough to keep your head above water in this industry without all the childish feuding and sniping. But, being relatively new to it all and a little naïve (I guess), we tried to engage and give honest answers. Mine centred less on the artists themselves than on the media's coverage of them.
Most notably (for want of a better term), I talked about Jessie J, who I'd only heard of the night before, and who was the recipient of a pretty glowing feature in The Guardian newspaper that same morning. This feature said that Jessie's latest single, Do it Like a Dude, was part of a 'feminist conversation' in music. In the printed interview that appeared in the NME, my response was memorably reduced/paraphrased to read 'Jessie J is a lesbian from Essex who was mildly interesting until I heard her music. It's not subversive. It's mildly ironic.' This was the magazine's pull quote for the interview, in fact - and I've been berated (understandably) and celebrated (not so understandably) for saying it.
The problem is, I didn't: not quite – or at least, not in the way the article implied. I'm not trying to wriggle out of anything - stupid, colourful stuff like that actually serves to increase a band's popularity, I don't know why; at any rate, it's not like it's done a huge amount of damage to the band. But a few months down the line, I still feel uncomfortable with the implications of that quotation, and I just want to set the record straight for anyone who's remotely interested. Which I realise might only amount to two or three people.
So what did I say? The actual conversation went *something* like this:
Interviewer: What do you think of Jessie J?
Me: You know what, I didn't know anything about her but my friend was telling me about her at dinner last night.
Mike: I've never heard of any of these people! Fuck, I'm out of touch. Who is she?
Me: [to the interviewer] She won the Brit Critic's Choice award and the BBC Sound of 2011 thing, didn't she? [To Mike] She's a lesbian, she's from Essex and she co-wrote the biggest-selling single in the US last year, Miley Cyrus or something. I thought she sounded really interesting and then I was reading the Guardian this morning and there was this piece talking about how her new single, ‘Do it Like a Dude’, is part of a feminist conversation in pop. And I watched the video and I was so disappointed. I was like, This is not part of a feminist conversation on any meaningful level - this isn't subversive. It's just part of a trend of female pop stars and singers trying to do something sexy but vaguely alternative to sell records… [and so on].
That dialogue is not verbatim because I didn't record the interview. But it's nonetheless an honest depiction of what was said and - most importantly - the way it was said. Taken somewhat out of context, especially in the pull quote (ethical sub-editors could probably change the world), it reads like I'm an airily dismissive or disdainful, vaguely homophobic misogynist; in context, I hope you'll agree, it reads more like a slightly anal, absurdly completist guy explaining to his friend and bandmate (in answer to a direct question) the key facts he'd learned at dinner the night before as to the public identity of a pop star - facts which seemed relevant to the Guardian piece's claim that Jessie J's song is actively engaged in 'feminist conversation'. The full NME article didn't change the content of what I'd said a huge amount, though I think Mike's interjection and the fact I was explaining Jessie J to him rather than to the interviewer is a pretty significant omission. But the decontextualised pull quote must (in my opinion) have been aimed squarely at cooking up controversy from something fairly uncontroversial.
Anyway, I still regret saying anything at all, because Jessie J sounds like a nice person and the video to that song is actually pretty ace on a few more viewings. Not that she needs to worry what I think! But I do maintain that there's an element of irresponsibility (or shit-stirring) when any publication takes someone's (slightly drunken but still valid) viewpoint and reshapes it (even ever so slightly) into something that seems more aggressive, more offensive and more intolerant than was ever the case. The tone and intent of what I said was massaged into something uglier somewhere between the journalist's dictaphone and the newsagents' shelves, and that seems a little sad and unnecessary to me.
Also missing from the printed version of that interview was my subsequent (and directly related) assertion that some journalists seem to fall over themselves to read poetic and/or political depth into the work of more obviously mainstream/pop artists while more 'alternative' artists trying to work in a more 'meaningful' space (arsey as that sounds) often find it hard to get a look-in. It can sometimes feel that way, at any rate - like it's hardly worth trying, because the very fact of doing so renders you somehow pretentious or a smart-arse. I realise many people think I’m a pretentious smart-arse anyway: a ‘self-proclaimed poet’ or whatever (I’d like someone to dig out an interview where I say anything but the opposite, but still), but still I don’t think it’s a particularly terrible thing to talk about.
Anyway, I remember the journalist nodding and saying that this was an interesting point before asking what female artists I like. I mentioned Joanna Newsom (the journalist said she found her irritating). She then recommended Anna Calvi - I said I'd definitely check her out (I think she's great). Anyway, I'm telling you this simply to show that the journalist hadn’t misunderstood me; I don't think there was any chance she thought I was being aggressive or homophobic towards Jessie J - she knew I was talking about artistic intention and worth and validity, the active choices musicians make as to how and what they communicate to the public – and the media’s various responses to them. Credit where credit's due, and all that.
I might also note that virtually none of the stuff about art, religion or the bands and musicians we love was printed, but I guess rounded reportage and editorial balance don't sell magazines. Actually, I bet they would, but there are probably very few music press editors or publishers that have the imagination to try.
Anyway, that's it for now. Thanks to anyone who bothered to read all of this. Apologies if it seems self-indulgent, but I don't want anyone to see me as a standard-bearer (and yes, before the caustic remarks begin, I know it would be of the very poorest sort) for any kind of intolerance or narrow-mindedness.
My apologies also to Jessie J, and to anyone else who may have been upset or irritated by the implications of what was printed. I imagine there'll be a bit of grief to come just for posting this, but whatever.
Love as always x
L
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