Interview: The Chameleons (UK)

UK post punk outfit The Chameleons, who some argue were the bridge  between the post punks proletariats and the new wave creeds, have seen decades of shedding their skin and driving forward since their incarnation in 1981. While the band, originally consisting of singer and bassist Mark Burgess, guitarist Reg Smithies, guitarist Dave Fielding and drummer John Lever, made a whole splash with their melodic, brooding pop full length debut Script of the Bridge the band disbanded in 1986, before finding new stature and rejuvenation in the early 2000s. Since then the band, led by Mark Burgess has been charging forward, living in the moment, and crackling with newfound energy. They’ll be making their first historic stop in Beijing this Sunday, January 7th at Yugong Yishan. I chatted with the upfront and unapologetically direct frontman Mark Burgress ahead of the show. 

-The Chameleons always embodied the ‘state of being alive’. Is that notion of having one eye looking to the past and one eyelooking forward still the driving force behind the band?

Hi. No actually I’d have to say that I’m much more focused on the moment, than on notions of past and future. For me, the moment is the only thing that I can say with 100% conviction is REAL. The past exists only in subjective memory, and the future is a blank page or a sea of unrealised probabilities. So I try and stay in the moment. 

-Though you were embraced by Manchester, London andeventually the US, it wasn’t until years later that a wider group of listeners discovered you. It must have been heartening find new audiences in this new millennium. What does your fanbase look like in this day and age?

Fans of our music tend to be very similar to each other regardless of language and geographical location, believe it or not. This is kind of what I meant when I started uttering the phrase “we are all chameleons”. I read the same emotions and feel the same depth of expression from people desperate to tell me the extent to which this music has touched their lives and their souls. Young, old and sometimes somewhere in between. Yeah it’s always heartening and very often humbling to be greeted that way. 

 

-Since then you’ve been all over the world, including, most recently, your first ever Australia tour. Is it still flattering to be able connect with new fans and audiences across the globe? What have been one of the more memorable gigs in the past few years?

Whenever I go to a new place we’ve never been before I just hope that we have an audience there and the shows are successful for the band and everyone around us that have worked to make them happen. I think new experiences for me are the spice of what I do and there aren’t that many new ones these days because I’ve been doing this a long time. Still you do still get a few. China and Australia are definitely new experiences for me and I’m looking forward to them very much. 

-Margret Thatcher’s reign definitely burrowed its way into The Chameleons music and sound, but how does it compare to today with Brexit? Does the current political climate of Britain find its way into your music you write today? 

Well I think we’re still dealing with that legacy yeah although I think BREXIT is way worse than anything we had to cope with during Thatcherism and that includes the Falklands War. Yeah I think the alienation, suffocation, claustrophobia and paranoia that BREXIT has caused is definitely affecting me both as an artist and socially as a human being. I always felt more European than British and now that’s being taken away from me I think I’ll be in an increasing state of mild panic right up until the final divorce whenever that will be.  

-I imagine it’s hard not to reflect on the passingof original Chameleons’ drummer and longtime collaborator John Lever at the age of 55 this past spring. Do you find that and other experiences in the last decade making these songs pop (or better yet sting) in a way only hinted at when you were younger?

John lived his life the way he wanted to live it even though he knew, like we did, that is was killing him faster. Yeah it was tragic and a shock when it happened but I wasn’t surprised. Alcoholism is an illness and when it’s chronic it’s brutal and ravaging. John isn’t the first friend I’ve lost to it and probably won’t be the last. When he went back to drink around the time he left the band for the final time a few years back there was only one way that was going to end. 

 

-In the 90s, The Chameleons could be heard in bands like Oasis and Blur, while in the 00s, it was found in bands like Interpol and The Editors. Today where do you hear the remnants of The Chameleons? Any bands you believe are holding the torch today?

Even if I did hear it I wouldn’t say anything publicly. I hated that, when people in the press compared us to this band or that band. Pretty much every time they did it was bullshit. I’ve read in some review or other than I’m influenced by bands or artists that i reality I couldn’t actually stand. So I’m not going  to do that. If other younger bands, or other bands want to name check us or cite us as an influence, well that’s really nice, very cool, but I’m not going to point at other bands say “oh yeah I hear us in this record or that record.” It doesn’t really matter. A great record or even a good record is simply that, how it came to be that isn’t important to me. 

 

-What are we expect on your first ever China tour? Any words to all the Beijing fans out there?

We are all Chameleons. 这句太他妈酷了!