Over the last handful of months, my mate from Hobart, Tasmania, Damon Brown had asked me if I might want to play on some more music. We had done some stuff a few years ago under the name Freaky Genie. As I’m always up for collaborating on new music, there has been quite a bit of stuff coming out from these sessions. I love the spontaneity and overall freshness to this stuff. No overthinking or slaving away over anything for months and months. Just no bullshit rock n roll, take it or leave it. Below are the tunes that have been released so far, with more to come:
“We Are Strong” (Visualiser)
Music by Chris Szkup, mixed by Dennis Leeflang @Livelong Productions, mastered by Joe Carra @ Crystal Mastering, artwork by Dan Verkys.
Chris Szkup – Guitars, Bass, Spoken Word
Ben Todd – Drums
Jose Guia – Piano and Keys
Richard Curran – Strings
Dan Verkys – Spoken Word
Tony Gilbert – Spoken Word
Richard Anderson – Spoken Word
Gavin Burgess – Spoken Word
I wrote this track on the day we found out Alexei Navalny was killed. When I found out it hit me pretty hard and it was one of those times I knew some music was going to come. As I was getting ready for the day after my coffee I started humming melodies to myself, and luckily I remembered everything when I got back to my instruments. This ended up being the “chorus” if you will, and was enough to get everything else going, and it happened quickly. At this point “Deeper Than The Underground” was actually going to be an EP of 6 songs. But the strength of this one I could feel right away. It had to go along with the other six songs I had completed at this point.
The title comes from a scene at the end of his movie where he is asked “what happens if you are killed”, and he goes on to say that ““We need to utilize this power to not give up, to remember we are a huge power that is being oppressed by these bad dudes. We don’t realize how strong we actually are. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing, so don’t be inactive,”
When I thought about the impact of that scene and the way he delivers it, I thought “We Are Strong”. What a message.
And it also allowed me to think about other amazing feats of courage and strength I’ve witnessed in my life, so since we weren’t able to acquire enough people’s voiceovers for that spoken word section I ended up doing a bit where I ask how my Dad went on after going through so much, and also another personal hero, Jason Becker, who was set to take over the world of rock guitar in the late 80’s as a teenager, diagnosed with ALS at 19 and given a few years to live, but is still with us now and these days creates music that he hears in his head by programming a computer note by note with the muscles in his eyes. But speaking of those voiceovers I must send the biggest THANK YOU again to my friends Dan, Gavin, Kratae, Richard, Glen and Tony for adding their experiences to what was already a pretty meaningful piece. You guys really elevated it to another level.
New Album – “Deeper Than The Underground” – Coming March 2025!!
Coming in March 2025, my new album “Deeper Than The Underground”.
This was recorded over the last couple of years, was mixed by Dennis Leeflang mastered by Crystal Mastering and artwork by The Art of Dan Verkys
Ben Todd – Drums
Jose Guia – Piano and Keys on two tracks
Richard Curran – Strings on two tracks
Also some extra cool backing vocal and / or spoken word by these folks: Bella Szkup, Mathew Szkup, Damon Brown, Gavin Burgess, Kratae, Nigel Cunningham, Richard Anderson, Tony Gilbert, Glen “The General” Parker, Adrian Eyles, Dan Verkys.
I can’t wait to get it out there. Was a tricky one but also a pleasure. Will write more about this upon the release, which will likely be next Monday!
“Who Could Have Seen?” – Official Video!!!
Featuring cameos from Steve Triffit, Darren “Mossy” Bleathman, Mathew Szkup, Jake Cowburn, Nathan Adams, Dylan Beast, Matt Perry and Dallas Braddock, and footage from Hobart, Melbourne and Wellington.
The track features Brett Collidge on drums and extra piano, Rick Curran on strings, and myself on guitars, bass, vocals and piano. The “Chance” EP was mixed by Dennis Leeflang at Livelong Productions, mastered by Joe Carra at Crystal Mastering, and artwork by Dan Verkys.
It will be arriving in most online digital retailers on September 06, 2021, but is already available at http://cs-songs.bandcamp.com/
“Chance” EP Out Now!!!
Today sees the release of “Chance”, my new EP and first official solo release since 2014!!!
During the writing and recording of two albums with The Feckers during lockdown in 2020, I looked one day and realised that I had even more songs ready to go, and as fun and inspiring as doing The Feckers is, sometimes doing some tunes on a smaller scale is a good “yin” to the “yang” of that crazy but amazing situation we have created. I might not have looked at these songs again seriously for a couple of years, but with the pandemic hitting and so many friends losing months of work instantly, I thought of Brett, and figured that all things considered, that it might be a good “chance” to do some tunes together. Luckily for me he was keen! This whole “lets do this while we can” line of thinking, which is how I try to approach life anyway, was really apparent after something as big as what happened, and became a big theme to the songs, and meaning of the EP.
It was recorded very quickly mostly during July of 2020, with Brett busting out a track or two at a time, and myself chipping away on the remaining tracks over the remaining weekends in July and August with a plan to mix a song here and there for a while, and release it around July of 2021. Just a nice casual thing that wouldn’t interrupt anything else or be too stressful for anyone. When I did revisit things in the leadup to release, I noticed a couple of things I wanted to touch up which happened over the last couple of weeks literally.
One of my favourite moments from the creation of this EP with when the song “Who Could Have Seen” was coming together. It came about from a little idea I captured in my hotel room in Brisbane during a trip there visiting friends and family the previous year, and when it was time to record it for real it was likely going to be a stripped back acoustic song, with maybe a cajon but lots of space. I sent it over to Brett, mentioned this and said “what do you reckon”, and he responded something like “give me a couple of hours”. I had lawns to mow, so figured I would do that and come back and check my emails. Not too long after I had finished I had a version of the song from him with a drum track AND a totally cool orchestral section that he had mapped out on his keyboard. DAMN!!!
When it came down to those beautiful lines appearing on the song, there was no choice but to have real instruments playing them, which is what led me to coming across the amazing Rick Curran, a great person and player from the UK. Boy did he deliver!!!
To listen and / or purchase, check out my Bandcamp Site.
Links to more digital stores will be coming asap!!!
CREDITS:
Words and music by Chris Szkup (Except “Who Could Have Seen” – Words and Music By Chris Szkup and Brett Collidge), mixed by Dennis Leeflang @Livelong Productions, mastered by Joe Carra @ Crystal Mastering, artwork by Dan Verkys.
Chris Szkup – Vocals, guitars, bass, piano
Brett Collidge – Drums, extra piano
Rick Curran – Strings
“Chance” EP Out August 27, 2021 – Preview Clips Available!!!
Happy to announce that “Chance”, my new EP and my first official solo release since 2014, will be out on August 27, 2021, here and on my Bandcamp Page!!! I hope you enjoy these preview clips!!
It features Brett Collidge Musician on drums and extra piano, Rick Curran on strings and myself on vocals, guitars, bass and piano.
Mixed by Dennis Leeflang @ Livelong Productions, mastered by Joe Carra @ Crystal Mastering, and artwork by The Art of Dan Verkys.
New EP “Chance” – Coming soon!!!
Happy to share the artwork for my new EP “Chance”, which will be coming out asap!! During the lockdown of 2020, we had such a creative rush of songs with The Feckers and when I thought about it for a second, it turned out I had even MORE songs ready to go.
Hearing about so many of my musician friends having their work instantly vanish on them, I thought it might be a good “chance” to check in with Brett Collidge and see if he was up for playing drums on a few tunes. Lucky for me he was, and it was a real pleasure to do!
On the last song we did, I sent a stripped back demo to see what he thought, went to mow the lawns, and when I got back inside there was a message that said “let me know if its too much, but…” and a file that included drums and a beautiful string arrangement for the song!!! We got Rick Curran from the UK to play those lines and it is really something!!!
I couldn’t release music without the amazing mixes of Dennis Leeflang or the incredible artwork of The Art of Dan Verkys either! Thanks to all of you guys for making me sound and look much better than I am! 
This is going into mastering and then will be released digitally asap. Will keep you posted.
BEHIND THE SCENES AND TACOHAT:
Me being a typical vain, arrogant musician, shooting THE cover image for the “Chance” cover took a few go’s. If I recall correctly, three shoots in total. Some I looked ridiculous in, some were a good vibe but the quality wasn’t the best, and some were really good except for me stepping outside the view of the greenscreen thus making it useless. During the process for a laugh, Dan commented on this and sent back a “Tacohat” version of the cover that just killed me!!!!
This was a few weeks ago. I knew I HAD to post it, and would when we nailed the real cover and the release was a bit closer as well. So we had some fun with it on social media – seemed like it would be a cool thing to break up all the divisive stuff in Facebook feeds for a minute. Anyway, the gags continued, and we came up with an idea of a “World Tour” for the Tacohat EP, and the following poster came to be. Make sure you click on the QR code haha!!
As always, the BIGGEST appreciation to my mate Dan Verkys for the consistently amazing work over a long time, always going above and beyond, and laughing with us along the way!!!! 😀
See ya’s on tour!!!…..Haha!!! 😛
Chris Plays Acoustica Tonight!!!!
Will be going live tonight for #MetallicaChapterDay2 tonight at 8pm (AEST). Feel free to sign up on the video above, and also register at the Facebook event here. See you tonight!!! 😀
“Your Song” – Live at The Sloth Bar (April 08, 2021)!!!
Here is a pretty loose version of my opening song for that night, “Your Song” at the Sloth Bar on April 08, 2021!!! I’ve never put this on an album, but it was released on Youtube a couple of years back as a tribute to my mate Kedi the cat when he passed. Special THANKS to Dean J Miller for the Audio / Video!!!! ?
The Feckers “Live To Fight Another Day” album – Audio previews and pre-orders available!!
The new album is out October 29, but you can check the video out for audio previews. Self recorded over the last couple of years, and was mixed by Dennis Leeflang, mastered by Thomas “Plec” Johannson, and artwork by Dan Verkys.
Visit http://www.thefeckers.net/ for pre-orders, which are available now!!