Setting the tone with a dream pop energy featuring enigmatic and immersive guitars, Chic Chameleon opens his EP, Doomed with the song Samtree and the lyrics, “Enter cognizance, cover everything, bleed out innocence, you are tiring…”
The song asks us to go inward and delivers the introspective question “Why is it so hard to be?”
Speaking on the source of the inspiration for the record, Chic Chameleon, who is also known as multi-instrumentalist Patrick Froese, says, “Doomed was conceived during a time when my mother was diagnosed with throat cancer. I felt doomed. I felt as though my family was bound to lose my mom. My thoughts turned to my mortality. The harsh reality is that we all have to face death one day.”
Next up is Dreaming of Heaven, which asks yet further existential questions, fused with an enigmatic soundscape as Chic Chameleon sings”
Do you find
Every day
It’s on your mind?
You’re dreaming
Of heaven
Elaborating on his art, Chic Chameleon says, “A lot of loss, sadness, and healing happened over the course of the recording period and I think that these songs were a way to cope with all of the trauma.”
Noble Lies is the third track, and expands the cinematic, melancholic and dreamy vibes of the record as our protagonist asks us to tell him what is wrong with our lives.
Patrick Froese’s background, growing up on a farm on the Alberta prairies, gives his music a sense of vastness and self reliance. He uses lush reverbs, delays and thick choruses to achieve his evocative aesthetic. Behind his melodies are layered guitar lines and luxurious synths to create dimensionality that you can almost float away in.
The final track on the EP is the title track, Doomed, which features the somewhat prophetic lyrics, “Written in the sky, there’s inevitability, it’s right behind, blurring the lines…”
The awareness of existentialism is what really elevates Doomed as a conceptual record. The final track is the most immersive on the record and delivers a more alternative energy.
Speaking on the track, Chic Chameleon says “Doomed is the most personal and emotional for me.”
He continues, “If anything, I want to evoke introspection, melancholy, mourning, and hope in people. My goal is that this EP would be there to comfort people who are going through similar experiences that I went through and feel understood.”
We have added Doomed to our New Music Spotlight playlist and cannot wait to hear more from Chic Chameleon!