“Chance” EP Out Now!!!

“Chance” artwork by Dan Verkys

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

Another sneak peak…..

Yet another sneak peak into the new music coming your way very soon! Unfortunately Skube (drums / lead guitar) and Paul Jolley (keys) couldn’t make it due to living in Tasmania and England respectively, so instead you get the CS Trio for the footage!

Guitar Solos!!!!

Here’s some more video from my new music to come. This will be in the second lot of songs, and it’s the heavier stuff from the bunch for the most part. The nature of the music calls for some really aggressive “digging in” on certain bends and things, but my Elixir strings were totally holding their tune despite the punishment – love those things!!!

New CS music news / Full length Feckers track!!

Hey all,

Just a quick note that as long as all the planets align and nothing goes wrong, I’ll be handing over the new songs to Mr Andy VanDette for mastering late next week when I’ll be also posting cover art and track listing!! As a writer I feel I’ve really raised the bar since my last releases, so to say I’m looking forward to people hearing them is an understatement!

On another note, here’s a full length track from The Feckers album “It’d Be Rude Not To” that we released last year.  It features my cuz Irene Slade on vocals, Mr Dennis Leeflang on drums and myself on guitars and bass, and was mixed and mastered by Mr Stew Long at Red Planet Recording with artwork by Dan Verkys. Enjoy!

Dennis Leeflang – Tribal Drums!!

Hey folks! The EP tracks are coming up great – at the time of writing we’re six mixes into things. More on that soon!

This week Mr Dennis Leeflang added some tribal drums on one of the tracks and he’s posted the drum only files up on his soundcloud page – check it out and tell my what you think!!