On February 23, Brooklyn's CHAPPO return with DO IT, their third studio album and second release on Votiv Music. The album was produced and recorded by John Vanderslice at his studio Tiny Telephone Recording in San Francisco, CA.
Today, KCRW premieres "Cry On Me," the first single to be released from the forthcoming album.
KCRW said, "The warm/relaxed yet pristine style from producer John Vanderslice shines through, to ensure that 'Cry on Me' will take its rightful place as a glorious anthem for catharsis."
Stream "Cry On Me" via Soundcloud here!
"The idea for this song came from this feeling that we culturally see crying as a weakness. I was feeling extreme emotions with the loss of my best friend a year earlier and crying sometimes out of the blue," explains frontman Alex Chappo. "Certain situations would move me in a way that hadn't in the past. I was also appreciating the beauty of it all. It felt real, I felt alive."
DO IT find's CHAPPO - the trio of singer Alex Chappo, guitarist Dave Feddock, and and keyboardist Chris Olson - working through multiple traumas by engaging in the creative process of writing and recording an album together.
A series of tumultuous events occurred in succession: the band parted ways with their drummer, Alex's best friend committed suicide, a record was begun and abandoned, and Dave and his wife lost their young son, Winter. In the wake of this period, the remaining three members of the band scattered. The future of CHAPPO seemed bleak. "I think we all realized how delicate and fragile the life of the band was at that time," explains Alex Chappo. "We were acutely aware that at any moment the whole thing could unravel or fall apart."
"Almost immediately after losing our son I had a moment of clarity," says Dave. "It was like, more than ever, all the life and love that was missing needed to come out through the songs we were working on."
The resultant album, DO IT, is a lithe, spangled tumble of a record. Rather than creating a memorial, the band decided to strike nearer to the wild heart of things by paring their sound down to its most primal and joyful components.
From the smoldering "White Noise," to the kaleidoscopic, synth-tinged world of "Live My Life," DO IT manages to refine CHAPPO's psych-rock proclivities into something deeply essential. It's a record that transmogrifies pain, and sadness, and boredom, and all the less-than-great parts of being a human being into a throbbing, galactic party. "It felt amazing to find a fresh creative process and catch a new flow with just the three of us. We felt like Winter's spirit was ushering us into a sense of rebirth," says Alex
CHAPPO will hit the road for a short northeast run this February, with additional tour dates to be announced soon.
DO IT tracklist:
1) American Dream
2) White Noise
3) Success
4) Cry On Me
5) Live My Life
6) Get Back
7) Masquerade
8) Changes
9) Outrageous
10) Feedback Loop
Tour Dates:
2/9: Washington, DC - DC9
2/10: Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fu Necktie
2/11: Boston, MA - Middle East - Upstairs
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