Chelsea Lights call it a day

After roughly 2 years together, Matt and Ben are (separately) heading overseas indefinitely, so we are deciding to call it a day. I did want the title to read "(Chelsea) Lights turned off amid gas crisis", but I think we've squeezed enough lame puns out of our name.

While we will miss the shows, friends and writing new material, this really isn't anything for us to be sad about. Frankly, we've got as much out of this band as we can and it's a good time to say goodbye. We'd be lying if we didn't say we'd love to have been "bigger" than we were, and admittedly it took a while to intimately find the meaning in something that may have ostensibly been a "failure" when held against the standards with which people typically judge the progress of a band. However to judge our band (or any creative or artistic endeavour for that matter) in careerist terms against pre-determined standards is to ignore what it did for us as people and ignore the fact that as a result of this little band we have achieved some of the greatest things in our lives. It is to ignore the fact that we did this because, most of the time, we loved it.

Over the last 2 years we've simply had a truckload of fun. We're incredibly proud of our EP and single which both received national airplay and incredibly positive reviews. We have a number of photos and videos to pull out when our kids refuse to believe we were once cool. Some of the gigs have been shit (failure to bring our friends to the Bog competition and really, an empty mid-week Swan Basement is never particularly fun) and some have been brilliant (NYE 2007 at the Hydey, UWA oak lawn and trying to get a snowball happening at the Civic), but all have been the best way to spend any given night. There is nothing in this world like getting on stage and letting loose. In particular, the EP launch at Rocket Room will forever remain one of the favourite nights of our lives – everyone who attended made us feel like bona fide rock-stars. Ultimately, this band is no more than the 4 people in it, and the best part of it all simply boils down to hanging together talking shit and playing Mario Kart.

There are a number of people that we would like to sincerely thank. First and foremost, someone telling us they enjoyed a song or set was probably the number one kick we got out of what we did, and the novelty of gaining a new fan never wore off. So to everyone who ever came down to see us, thankyou. Special mention in this regard to Tamara, Rossi, Evey and Fitzy to name a few. Without you guys we'd never have done anything. To everyone that ever offered us a gig and shared a bill with us, it was usually a pleasure. Good Little Fox, The Preytells, Killer Grapes, Myles Vincent, Violet Flames and Offbeat Antics all deserve special mention. Who else to single out…? Brandon, for his infinite patience in recording our single. Sarah at Fork Magazine. Stevie at SLAM. Chrissy and the Colosoul magazine crew. Amy, Cam and James for taking some of the most amazing photos I think any of us will ever possess. Dave for drumming for us once. Family, partners and friends of course. Hopefully everyone else knows who they are.

In order to say a proper thanks and goodbye we will be having a farewell gig on Thursday July 10 at the Velvet Lounge in Mt Lawley. Entry is free. Suffice to say we'd absolutely love to see anyone we've ever met down there for one last drink and a dance.

And that was that.

Well the big night has been and gone... we'll start by saying a massive and sincere thanks to everyone who came down… the turnout was amazing and all that we could have hoped for.

We had a brilliant time – to be able to feed off a crowd like that meant we played our best show to date. The vibe was great, and by the end of it we'd forgotten we were playing a gig and it just felt like a party.

Thanks to the bands that played with us: The Chemist, The Freudian Slips and Blackmilk… all played great sets and were well appreciated by the crowd.

The whole week was a bit of an awesome blur... started off with interviews in Drum and Xpress, and thanks to everyone who tuned in to RTRfm on Friday morning to hear us have a chat and play 'Mirror to the World' acoustically.

The initial EP pressing has almost sold out, so as soon as we get another run printed up they'll be in the usual stores.

And to all our friends under 18 who couldn't make it down, we're having an All Ages EP launch on Friday the 30th of November at HQ in Leederville – also playing are Short Fuse and Good Little Fox.

After that, well who knows, we'll be gigging around so keep your eyes and ears peeled, and we'll probably head back into the studio to start work on another EP to do this all over again next year.

Set-list ran:

Mirror to the World
Judas
Teardrop
Backburning
Pieces
Grace
Train Wrecks
Saunders St
Dead to the World
Nine Lives

Paul discovered the joys of overdubbed G.I. Joe, Matt quoted Anchorman (a lot), Ben set career-defining times on Mario Kart 64, and Danny endangered life and limb to entertain us on the balancing beam.

And so it was that we emerged from SoulSkool studios with 'Mirror To The World', 'Judas' and 'K2' intact. Some mixing stands to be done, but so far so good.

*** Update 2 ***

The mixing process has finished and we've sent the disc in for mastering. At this stage the likely tracklisting is: K2>Judas>Saunders St>Mirror To The World.

We'll be releasing the EP in around 6 weeks, with a launch to follow sometime around October/November. Stay tuned.

Some studio shots:

Our first single "Nine Lives" is now available as a free download below. Click on the link below for artwork, lyrics and b-side "Cedar Breaks". 

Written: Chelsea Lights
Recorded: Brandon Davids at Distillery Sound
Mastered: James Hewgill

As reviewed by Matthew Hogan in Issue 36 of Perth Drum Media:

"Chelsea Lights have released themselves a pleasant sounding melodic melancholic pop piece with their debut single Nine Lives. While there are an awful lot of soft pop/rock bands rolling around in this town with their heartfelt vocals and hook-laden leads, Nine Lives truly stands out from the pack. Passionate singing and thoughtful lyrics are the key ingredient to this gem. Piano-led b-side Cedar Breaks steers away from the upbeat sounds of its predecessor and offers a more sombre look into Chelsea Lights."

So the single launch has now been and gone, and our first recordings are out in the open. We got to play our favourite venue with bands that we think are just brilliant, and there were over 170 people through the door. If I had a dollar for every person who came up and said what an amazing night it was, well I'd have a lot of dollars. We got a tonne of positive feedback; everyone had a great time and was so impressed with the consistent standard of the bands all night.

Andy from The Avenues opened things up with his big ukulele. The Avenues have some damn brilliant songs, and it was a personal highlight of the night for me to hear them so stripped back.

The Novocaines rock. Pure and simple. When your mum compares them to a young Stones you know there's something going on. These guys have a damn bright future and it was awesome to have them rip open the show. Front-man Corey is a livewire.

Good Little Fox – We played one of our very first gigs with these guys, were blown away and have gigged with them ever since. They are winning fans all the time and it's well deserved. Typically great performance, and whatever that new song they closed with was, damn! Front-man Carl is a dreamboat, even if he did give me a badge without a pin.

The Preytells – Who else was gonna get the dance floor up and moving like that? The nicest and coolest band we know, it was an honour to have them close out the show. Thanks to their quick thinking we were able to squeeze out one last jam on stage that pretty much summed up the party vibe of the whole night.

Suffice to say we had a blast and loved every minute of it. Many people heard the new songs for the first time, and even though we've kept telling them, seemed surprised at the slight change in direction the new line-up and material has taken.

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So yes, if you hadn't noticed, there is a slight difference between our live show and recorded material to date, but with the finalisation of the EP this should be rectified a bit. We're itching to get the new material out there and onto the airwaves. The response we've had to the single so far has been great, getting good airplay on RTR locally and various community stations over east.

We've got a few good gigs coming up this month, so come down before we head back into the studio to finish up the EP. We have a fair few new songs in the pipeline so listen out.

Chelsea Lights