There are songs to get down to — and I do mean get down — and then there are songs like CHAPPO‘s “I’m Not Ready.” According to lead singer Alex Chappo, it’s a jam to “have sex while drinking wine and fist-pumping” to. Whew.
That kind of multi-tasking might not seem possible to the average layman (pun intended), but CHAPPO is all about the mythological and impossible, so start brushing up on your Kali-style moves before pressing “play.”
“It’s at times like wandering into a strange new forest,” Chappo said of an average CHAPPO live show. “Animals are playing instruments, insects are vibrating and creating a pulsating drum circle; the trees and plants are dancing and a hazy, foggy atmosphere swirls around you, excites you, and at times confuses and scares you. You’re suddenly without clothes.”
We’d expect no less from a man whose earliest musical memory is: “Wandering through the streets of New Orleans hearing Iko Iko and random groups of people chiming in and singing ‘Hey Now!’ ‘Hey Now!’ and then stumbling onto different jazz and zydeco bands on the street.”
“I’m Not Ready” evokes that same kind of wild confusion. A swirling, poppy kind of jam that seems like it should be straight-forward on the surface, the song takes you to some weird mind-corners, with Chappo singing emphatically, “Tell my baby it’s not her fault/ She’s long passed but that’s your job/ Rack your brain and travel back” before wailing, “You and I have got to try something.”
When it comes to “I’m Not Ready” — along with the rest of the tracks on the band’s upcoming record Future Former Self — this kind of obfuscation is the name of the game.
“Don’t confuse language with reality,” Chappo said. “Expect a selection of moments within one man’s journey to a black hole. Expect an album that you can unravel if you want. There are experiences stacked on top of themselves like a book of transparent freeze-frame memories sputtering and splattering outwards and inwards.”
Cool. We’ll just be over here, drinking wine and fist-pumping, waiting for our clothes to disappear.
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