After 23 Years, The Chameleons Return: The Architecture of Arctic Moon

Transmission 264: Interview with The Chamaleons

The Chameleons are a Manchester group whose work is constructed from hypnotic guitar riffs and emotionally direct lyricism. They established a considerable following in the early 1980s with melancholic and energetic post-punk compositions. Their sound has had a substantial effect on subsequent shoegaze and indie music.

Title: Arctic Moon
Artist: The Chamaleons
Release Date: 2025-09-12
Genres: Alternative Rock, Dream Pop, Indie Rock, New Wave, Post-punk
Label: Metropolis Records
Description: Mark Burgess of The Chameleons discusses the intensely personal themes of the new album Arctic Moon, their first record in 23 years. Out on Metropolis.

Following a 23-year interval without a new studio album, The Chameleons released Arctic Moon via Metropolis Records on the 22nd of September. The record arrives after two 2024 EPs, Where Are You? and Tomorrow Remember Yesterday, and contains new compositions alongside a re-recorded version of the former EP’s title track. Frontman Mark Burgess classifies the album’s lyrical content as his most introspective to date, addressing personal struggles with anxious attachment, codependency, and suicidal ideation, as seen in the nine-minute track ‘David Bowie Takes My Hand’.

After 24 years, what was the catalyst that brought Arctic Moon to life?

[Mark Burgess] It initially started with Reg coming back. It was a natural assumption that when Reg came back, we’d start writing together because he’s the best writing partner I’ve ever had. That was the catalyst, with Reg coming back, and then COVID got in the way of it. The industry shut down for nearly two years, so we couldn’t get it off the ground. But that was quite fortuitous, because by the time COVID had passed and the industry started to revive, we had the right people in the band, we felt, to take the music forward. We started with Reg and I bouncing ideas around. Then when the others came in, as it developed, everyone started bringing their own input. That’s what Arctic Moon is. It’s a band, a real band, proper collaborations. Before Reg came back, I was doing Chameleons stuff, but it wasn’t the aim to do new Chameleons material. We were celebrating the legacy stuff. But when Reg came in, it seemed natural that we would carry on writing, pick up where we left off.

What is the significance behind the album’s title?

[Mark Burgess] It doesn’t have any significance. It was an in-joke between me and my partner. My partner is a non-native English speaker. She called us lunatics, but she pronounced it “luna-tic,” because she’s Romanian speaking English. So she says, “You’re both… you’re lunatics.” We were laughing about it, so we started using it; it became part of our lexicon: “You’re a lunatic.” Then I’m thinking about it and I’m going, “Luna… Arctic… Arctic Moon.” I said to the guys, “What about we call the album Arctic Moon?” And they went, “Oh, we like that. Yeah, that’s all right.” So that’s why it’s called that. There’s no deep significance to it.

Can you share the story or inspiration behind David Bowie Takes My Hand?

[Mark Burgess] By the end of 2023, just after Christmas, I was in a terrible place mentally, worse than I’d ever been. I was in a hotel room for 48 hours. It was a real battle going on inside me. It was a really dark place. I was playing music and I listened to an album that was really close to my heart, which is The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust. I was listening to “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” and it perfectly expressed how I was feeling at that time. I love that big ending crescendo where he’s going, “Give me your hands.” The lyrics started from that. It’s like, Bowie’s saying, “Give me your hands” and I’m going, “Yeah, yeah, take it,” because I need pulling out of this quagmire. That’s lyrically where it came about. But the weird thing was, we were calling it “David Bowie” before that. The song was pretty much written at that point. When we were doing it, we thought it’s got that kind of Bowie feel, with that sort of Space Oddity kind of opening and just the ambience of the vocal; it’s very Bowie-esque. So we had a working title, it was called “David Bowie.” Then when I finished it, I said we’re going to keep that. It’s actually going to be called David Bowie Takes My Hand because of what I’d experienced that 48 hours in Berlin.

What was the guiding philosophy for the album’s production? Were you consciously chasing a particular sound or atmosphere?

[Mark Burgess] We weren’t chasing anything in particular. There’s nothing contrived about it. It was really natural.

[Todd Demma] A lot of trial and error stuff. Some people came in with partial ideas or a riff here and there. We were down in the studio just kind of playing to see if anything would happen. And things started to gel rather quickly. Somebody would try this…

[Mark Burgess] It was really the producer, Christoph. He’s got an overview at the desk and he knows how to kind of… he could hear it better than we could. A lot of the time he’d come in and say, “Right, what this needs is this, and this needs this.” We were working very much under the direction of a very good producer. I love that, especially when I’m doing vocals, because I can’t be objective about it since I’m doing it. I need somebody who’s got an objective ear to tell me what’s working and what’s not. Sometimes he’d say, “Right, just trust me, trust me. Just do this.” And I’d do it because he knew exactly what he wanted to do with it.

All the backward guitar ideas that he was doing and stuff like that. It’s working with a really good producer whose vision for it fits yours, but who comes up with things that you would never have thought of doing. Script of the Bridge was self-produced with an engineer. I really wish it had been in the hands of someone like Christoph to produce it, because I think it would have been better than it was. We have total faith in him. I knew he was a good producer because I’ve heard stuff that he’s produced for Spirit of the Destiny, Theory of Hate, A Certain Ratio, and all the things that he’s been doing. It’s a great studio, I knew that as well. So it’s just putting your trust in the producer. It was a very natural thing. We didn’t contrive it. It happened very organically, very naturally.

What led to the decision to incorporate orchestral strings on this record?

[Mark Burgess] It was Christoph and I. Well, I knew that I wanted real strings on End of the World. Originally, Danny was playing it with synth strings, but I’m like, “No.” I’m a big fan of records that have done that well. I’m thinking primarily of Tony Visconti’s work with T-Rex and Lou Reed, although that was Mick Ronson who did the scores for Lou Reed, but he learned from Tony Visconti. I was saying I want that, and Christoph said, “Well, I know an orchestral strings arranger who might be perfect.” He came in and took notes, and we told him what we wanted. He came in and played it and we’re like, “Yeah, about halfway there.” He went away and came back again. The second time he nailed it. We said, “Yeah, that’s exactly what we wanted.” We heard that it was crying out for it, because we tried synth strings and we’re like, “No, we need real ones.” Then we were saying for David Bowie Takes My Hand, it’ll be great for that ending. I heard cellos going and Christoph’s like, “Yeah, yeah.” So we got him to write that as well. That was definitely on those two tracks, we wanted strings.

What are some of the core themes behind the album?

[Mark Burgess] This is the most introspective writing that I think I’ve ever done. It’s really introspective. If you take Where Are You? for example, that is somebody who doesn’t know what love is. The guy in that song is saying all these things, but he doesn’t know what love is. The reason I say that is because if you listen to the lyrics, there’s a common denominator all the way through it. It’s “I need,” “I want,” “me, me, me.” When anybody describes love as what it does for them, how it makes them feel, “I love you because you make me feel like this and you make me feel like that, and I can do this, I, I, I”, that’s not love. That’s something else. That’s limerence. It’s not love. Love is when you want to give those things to people, not receive. It’s not about receiving, it’s about giving. So that’s somebody that doesn’t know what love is.

You’ve got Free Me, which is basically anxious attachment. He feels anxiously attached and wants to be free of that because it’s fucking him up. You’ve got David Bowie Takes My Hand, which is somebody on the verge of suicide. And you’ve got Magnolia, which is similar. Magnolia is somebody who needs someone else to fill the void. He can’t do it himself. Without this person, his life is empty. That should never be; that’s not healthy either. You haven’t got self-love if you feel that way. So there are very introspective things, and they are all things that I was wrestling with for most of my life, it turns out. But I’m happy to say I’ve resolved them. I’m not like that anymore. So that’s good. But yeah, it’s a very introspective album, apart from End of the World, obviously. That’s somebody looking around at everything and thinking it feels like the world’s ending, because it does to a lot of people. To me included.

I look at what’s happening around the world, what’s happening in the United States, what’s happening here, and I’m thinking it’s all starting to fall apart. It’s all starting to crumble. It feels like the fucking end of the world. It’s a companion to Saviors. Saviors was the last thing that I wrote, lyrically, and that really reflects the first hundred days of the presidency when Elon Musk and Donald Trump were in that dynamic together. He was pictured with a chainsaw; it was just like this cult thing. It could be any cult leader, really. But that’s what triggered it. It was that first 100 days of the American presidency that triggered that. But apart from those two, it’s all pretty personal, pretty introspective. I think it’s the first time I’ve really done that. I don’t recall doing that much before on previous work because I wasn’t aware of the things that I’m writing about.

All the things that I’ve just described to you were in me, but I wasn’t aware of them. I had to become aware of them. A big credit to my partner, because she really helped me in that regard. She’s been a mentor in a lot of ways. She’s taught me a lot about myself, and she’s learned a lot about herself as well. That kind of opened my eyes to the things that were going on in me that I wasn’t aware of. And they’re all there in the album.

What inspired you to revisit and re-record the track Where Are You??

[Stephen Rice] The lineup was different. I was on drums for that version of the song. Reg did all the guitars and Todd was away home.

[Mark Burgess] We felt if we wanted a single out, we had to have it delivered by a certain time. Suddenly it all became like, “OK, we’ve got to work fast if we want to put it out in time for the tour.” We couldn’t get Todd back from the States in time to do it. So Stephen played the drums on it and Reg did pretty much all the guitars on it, and we sent it off. But when we came to do our album, we wanted it to be the band. We’ve been playing it live, Todd is the drummer, and what he brings elevates it. Stephen is a guitar player, so having him now free to do his thing on it elevated it, developed it more. It was better from playing it live. So we wanted the album version to be the band, not just a couple of us or a few of us.

What were the key early influences that first inspired you to create music?

[Mark Burgess] Reg, what would you say?

[Reg Smithies] Alice Cooper, David Bowie, The Beatles.

[Todd Demma] Earliest for me, classic rock, things like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and then later in the 80s, things like The Police, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and a bit of show tunes, actually. Jesus Christ Superstar. I know.

[Stephen Rice] I really liked punk music, the Pistols and The Clash and Chameleons and The Cure and bands like that.

[Mark Burgess] With me, it was the same as Reg to a point. It was David Bowie, the original Alice Cooper band, T-Rex. I like film score music. I listen to a lot of orchestral film score music as well. That influences me, John Barry and John Williams and people like that. I’ve been listening to records since I was four and buying records since I was six or seven. So there are so many influences on me from buying records myself. Danny?

[Danny Ashberry] For me, the day I knew I wanted to be a musician was when I went out as a very young teenager and bought the Paranoid album by Black Sabbath and put the album on the turntable. When the music initially stops, it goes doo-doo, and it’s just Bill Ward with his hi-hats. Doo-doo. That blew my mind. I thought, “Right now I want to be in a band.” Just that one passage of music completely changed, for some reason, the way I looked at it. I thought, “Yeah, this is what I want to do.” And I did.

[Mark Burgess] So you see, there you are. That’s quite a diverse band of influences between the five of us. We’re all bringing all of this into what we do. I think it’s in there. It’s reflected. That’s what’s cool about it. We’re not all coming from one particular period of music. We’re bringing all our influences to bear. There’s such a wide, diverse range of influences. Danny’s into Jethro Tull and stuff. It’s never been my thing, but it excites him. You can tell how he brings that classic prog thing to what we’re doing. And I love it. I think it’s a great combination of influences that we’ve got here now. It’s the same with the Chameleons, though. John was really into Peter Gabriel and all that. He brought that to his drumming. We all brought different things to it. It’s always been that way.

How does the artwork for Arctic Moon connect with the music within? What was the concept you wanted to convey visually?

[Reg Smithies] It’s called Arctic Moon, so we had the Arctic and the Moon, and then I just added things to it. That was all it was. What’s the olive branch? Well, there’s a thing going off, isn’t there? Atom bomb going off. There’s a girl there. Then you’ve got your monk fading out because it’s what’s happening. He’s fading away.

[Mark Burgess] Cool.

[Todd Demma] It’s a great cover. I love it. It’s really great. That’s the first time we’ve heard the explanation in full. Good question.

[Reg Smithies] Basically saying, “Stop it.”

[Mark Burgess] Maybe that should have been the album title. Knock It Off.

Is there a piece of equipment you consider essential to the Chameleons’ sound?

[Todd Demma] Micro-Frets. Oh, yeah. Well, explain what a Micro-Frets is.

[Stephen Rice] Micro-Frets is the brand of the guitar.It’s got a very particular sound.

[Mark Burgess] It’s unique.

[Danny Ashberry] On a different point, retrospectively, I think there have been a lot of Solina strings on previous Chameleons albums, but there are absolutely zero Solina strings on this album. I use an ARP 2600 mainly, and a Mellotron as well as a piano. That’s basically it. Just different sounds on a classic synth.

[Mark Burgess] For me, the one essential thing that has to be on the Chameleons records, we’ve done it on all of them, and it’s on this one, and I’ll keep putting it in somewhere, are those pipes that whirl around the head. I want that on every record because it’s been on every single thing we’ve ever released. Our first thing ever came out on a track on a compilation album called Your Secret’s Safe With Us, and that is even on that. We just kept it going. It’s on every single record that we’ve done. I really want to keep that going. Christoph used it differently than we’ve used it before, but it’s recognizably there. So I would say that.

Are you already working on new material?

[Mark Burgess] We’ve got a lot of ideas that we didn’t have time to get to because we already had the 42 minutes that we needed. We’re going to do that. We want to write new material as well. We’re looking at when in the new year, hopefully January, we can start to come back in, start the process again for the next one. We’re very eager to get on with the next one.

[Todd Demma] This guy’s already writing new riffs. He was just downstairs playing new stuff.

[Mark Burgess] I’ve got ideas as well. I’m sure there are ideas Danny and Stephen and Todd want to bring into the mix.

[Danny Ashberry] Yeah, I’ve been working on new stuff in Canada in our basement recording studio.

[Mark Burgess] I’m really excited and fascinated to see what happens from here. I think we’ve set a high bar for ourselves, but that doesn’t faze me.

Photos courtesy of The Chamaleons

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others