Chris Chameleon is one of the most well-known faces and
voices in the SA Music Industry. He is a singer/songwriter/TV and film actor,
and performer extraordinaire. Multiple SAMA and Huisgenoot Tempo award-winner,
he is one of the few talents who has been successful in both the English and
Afrikaans music industries. His two album releases in less than a year proves
just that: ‘Firmament’ was released in September 2016 and has been nominated
for a SAMA Award 2017 in the Best Alternative Album Category. Chameleon`s new
Afrikaans album, ‘Jy en Ek en Ek en Jy’ his first since 2009, was released in
May 2017.
Chameleon says that while his Afrikaans work has kept him
very busy in recent years, there is still much coming forth from in his English
mind. “I feel like a different person in each of the 4 languages I speak
fluently and it has the strange consequence that I subsequently express myself
in dissimilar ways in each of these languages.”
In asking Chris Chameleon how he managed to release two
albums in less than a year, he answers: “It was possible to release two albums,
one English and one Afrikaans, in the space of a single year because the one
took very a long time and the other a very short time. Work on ‘Jy en Ek en Ek
en Jy’ started in 2012. The words happened very quickly back then, but it
wouldn’t be until 2016, after the release and recording of ‘Firmament’, that
the melodies started taking shape, and that happened rather quickly too.
‘Firmament’, on the other hand, was written and composed in a very short space
of time. Some of the songs were written in a half an hour of inspired frenzy. I
guess that’s what happens when you have been holding stuff in for too long, it
just comes pouring out. As for the release dates, I never really plan these
things, when I’m done, I put it out. Otherwise you start questioning yourself
and go back fixing the past, obsessing about it, while the future and present
pass you by unnoticed. Maybe that’s why we have eyes in the front of our heads;
because we are meant to move forward.”
Chameleon explains that the main drive of the theme of the
English album and why it is titled Firmament, is that he has reached a phase in
his life where he feels less bothered by what people think of him. He says: “It
is strange, because I am in the ‘vanity industry’ and one should care. On the
one hand it leaves you with the responsibility to not let yourself go. It is easy
to neglect your appearance and lose your grasp of protocol when you stop caring
what people think. So, I find the need to maintain some element of vigilance in
that regard.”
Listen to the catchy single “Can`t Stop Me Loving You” here:
https://soundcloud.com/chrischameleon/firmament-06-cant-stop-me-loving-you
Video: ‘Hurt’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U8SIOZm5YM
This long-awaited Afrikaans album ‘Jy en Ek en Ek en Jy’ was
inspired by Chris Chameleon's personal experiences with the search for and
experience of love. Chameleon says that the album is a work of emotional
disclosure. He speaks in the album about God, his beloved and matters of the
heart. "The album was not made on
demand or because it was time or because I had enough songs for a new album. I
gave myself full, unrestricted freedom of music and lyrics. I did not disguise
my feelings with artistic conjuring or ribbons and bows. The texts were often
written in free verse or naked prose, while still finding their form in the
regularity of song. This was a process that took a lot of honesty from me. I am
humbled by the mystery of love and was inspired to write an album that extended
beyond the understanding of my mind.”
Listen to Chameleon`s new Afrikaans single “Die Intimiteit
van ons Greep” here:
https://soundcloud.com/chrischameleon/die-intimiteit-van-ons-greep
Video: ‘Die Intimiteit van ons Greep’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEqVB0dcWGo
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