Chapel Club were a London, UK post-punk / shoegaze quintet: Lewis Bowman (v… Read Full Bio ↴Chapel Club were a London, UK post-punk / shoegaze quintet: Lewis Bowman (vocals), Michael Hibbert (guitar & keyboards), Alex Parry (guitar), Liam Arklie (bass guitar) & Rich Mitchell (drums). Formed in the church of St Luke Old Street's shadow (summer 2006), where - twice or thrice weekly - after nearby rehearsals, the five gathered to drink & discuss the band's name.

“Like everything else with us,” says Michael, “the name was unplanned and ill-defined in the beginning. We didn’t start out with one and we’d go ages without bringing it up. But on the occasions when we did talk about it down in the churchyard, there was a lot of disagreement.” Eventually, the answer came from the site of the discussions itself, and the embryonic band became Chapel Club.

The band’s founder, Michael grew up in the depths of Essex before moving to the capital. He spent some time playing in other people’s bands and often lent his abilities to friends’ projects, but his real focus was always on doing something much more personal. He began collecting ideas and inspiration – anything from vintage natural history illustrations and stop-motion film shorts to guitar lines, drum samples and snatches of melody – with a vague notion that, out of this ephemera, a band might one day be born.

When Michael met Liam (bass) and Liam introduced Alex (guitar), his best friend since junior school days in Swindon, the core parts were in place. What the band needed now was a drummer and a frontman – then the machine could start to move. Leeds-born Rich (drums) and Londoner Lewis (vocals) provided the missing pieces. Each was recommended by mutual friends and fitted in instantly with the existing trio’s tastes, temperaments and (importantly) savage sense of humour: in no time, the five were hanging out together, writing, rehearsing and trying to work out what form their strange new creation would take. For Lewis, who had never been in bands before and now found himself singing and songwriting for the first time, it was an intimidating experience.

In the end, it took very little time for the defining elements of Chapel Club’s signature sound to take shape: heavy drama from the guitars, a rhythm section as tight as a hanged man’s gullet, melodic intricacies aplenty and a vocal that crooned and swooned its way through stories of lust, love and loss like a modern-day Jacques Brel. It soon became apparent to all involved – as well as the growing legion of admirers the band picked up from early gigs and their first MySpace page – that Chapel Club were different from other bands. First, there was the music: they didn’t quite fit any of the existing stereotypes.

“I dread that question, ‘Who do you sound like?’” says Lewis. “Not because it’s a bad question, it’s natural enough for someone to ask that. I’d just love to have a quick and accurate answer. But I can’t think of anyone we sound like, especially live. I end up reeling off influences from Deerhunter and New Order to the Bad Seeds, Scott Walker and Chet Baker – and leaving the person who asked more confused than they were to begin with.”

The second thing that set the nascent Chapel Club apart was the words: Lewis drew on his love of wordsmiths like Ted Hughes, Mikhail Bulgakov, R.S. Thomas, Frank O’Hara, Ernest Hemingway and Knut Hamsun to create lyrics that flitted from the vivid and vernacular (the lovers’ argument of O Maybe I) or darkly poetic (the pained paean to desire that is Machine Music) to the acutely descriptive (After the Flood) and downright philosophical (Paper Thin).

The end result? Chapel Club aren’t run of the mill. They have their own formula, one they arrived at by chance and which they want to remain something of a mystery, in case they jinx it. More than anything else though, they are a band best described not in relation to other bands or musical precedents but in relation to the events, experiences and sentiments at the heart of their songs: sex, love, grief, frustration, pride, power, jealousy, even (in The Shore) the desire for the comforts of religious faith in a mind that’s far too cynical ever to accept the possibility of God.

Head down to one of Chapel Club’s fortnightly London events and you’ll most likely find yourself in an offbeat location – an ‘acid Rasta’ West Indian pub perhaps, or a disused gallery space – mingling with a fun-loving, forward-thinking crowd and watching a magical, moody, incredibly loud live show that will leave you by turns stunned, enraptured, anguished, awestruck and overwhelmed. ‘Intense’ is the word on a lot of listeners’ lips, and after two years of ensuring their musical abilities match their ambitions, you won’t hear Chapel Club complaining about that.

The band split in October 2013 after the release of their second album, 'Good Together'.

Sites: MusicBrainz.

Blind
Chapel Club Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Where to begin? the snake has left us with last year's skin,
Eyeless diamonds of a life that's been and gone, memory is blind.
Where did it end? We fell together like an accident,
...Two lives colliding like continents, there'd be mountains between us in time.

:chorus:
Low-slung and highly strung she said run with that (x4).
Alright, you can take me for a long ride.

My heart is high like a returning tide.
Hard at your body like a coastline.

Hey miss, I always said I wouldn't reminisce-
Became too busy with regrets to create a kiss,
Oh but I was unwise.

Once I thought, I was the hero they were waiting for.
And with my words I would change the law.
And remake it as mine.

:chorus:

When you were born, the golden apple...
Tell them I'll answer instead.
You are my one, my only salome.
Go and present them my head.

Alright, you can take me for a long ride.
My heart is high like a returning tide.
Hard at your body like a coastline.
Alright, you can take me for a long ride.

My heart is high like a returning tide.
Hard at your body like a coastline, coastline.

Overall Meaning

In Chapel Club's song Blind, the singer reflects on a relationship that has ended, using metaphorical language to paint a picture of the aftermath. The opening lines "Where to begin? the snake has left us with last year's skin, Eyeless diamonds of a life that's been and gone, memory is blind" suggests a sense of displacement and loss. The past is no longer present, and memories of it can be only glimpsed through a distorted lens. The "snake" here could be a metaphor for someone who has shed their skin and moved on, leaving behind the remains of a previous version of themselves. The "eyeless diamonds" could represent the way in which memories of the past can glitter brightly but are ultimately hollow and without substance.

The singer then reflects on the relationship itself, describing it as an "accident" and an unexpected collision of two lives. The metaphor of "mountains between us in time" suggests that distance and separation have been introduced since the end of the relationship. In the chorus, the phrase "Low-slung and highly strung she said run with that" seems to suggest that the singer's former partner was a free spirit who encouraged him to embrace his impulses and follow his heart. This is followed by a series of sensual descriptions of physical desire, with the heart as a metaphor for the powerful urge to be close to someone else's body.

The second verse of Blind contains some heavy themes, with the singer reflecting on lost opportunities and unwise decisions. The lines "Once I thought, I was the hero they were waiting for. And with my words I would change the law. And remake it as mine" suggest a sense of grandiosity and hubris, with the singer believing that they could change the world with their words. However, this is followed by a mournful admission of regret: "Oh but I was unwise". The chorus is repeated and then the song concludes with an allusion to the biblical story of Salome, who famously asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Here, the singer is asking their former partner to present their head, suggesting a sense of submission and defeat.

Line by Line Meaning

Where to begin? the snake has left us with last year's skin,
We are starting anew, leaving behind the past, shedding the layers that we no longer need, like a snake sheds its skin.

Eyeless diamonds of a life that's been and gone, memory is blind.
We can only remember fragments of the past like broken, sparkling diamonds but our memory is not reliable.

Where did it end? We fell together like an accident,
Our union was a chance occurrence, an accident in the way it came into being.

Two lives colliding like continents, there'd be mountains between us in time.
Our love, like two colliding continents, was a force to be reckoned with but in due time, it would turn into an obstacle separating us with mountain-like proportions.

Low-slung and highly strung she said run with that (x4).
My lover is carefree and ambitious, ready to run towards whatever is ahead.

Alright, you can take me for a long ride.
I am willing to join my lover on a journey, no matter how long it may be.

My heart is high like a returning tide.
I feel my heart swelling and overflowing with emotion, much like the tide.

Hard at your body like a coastline.
My feelings for my lover are as strong and unyielding as a coastline.

Hey miss, I always said I wouldn't reminisce-
I promised myself that I wouldn't look back on the past with nostalgia but rather choose a forward-looking approach.

Became too busy with regrets to create a kiss,
I was consumed by my past mistakes and missed opportunities, making it difficult to move forward with my lover.

Oh but I was unwise.
I have come to realize that I was foolish in my previous actions and decisions.

Once I thought, I was the hero they were waiting for.
I used to believe that I was destined for greatness and had the power to change the world.

And with my words I would change the law.
I believed in the power of my words to bring about change, influencing the establishment or legislation as a lawmaker would.

And remake it as mine.
I imagined that I could create a new world, shaped to my desires and ideals.

When you were born, the golden apple...
From the outset, you possessed something special and invaluable that others wanted.

Tell them I'll answer instead.
I will take on the responsibility that others are trying to evade and answer their call.

You are my one, my only salome.
My lover is my everything, my only and most cherished one like Salome was to King Herod in the Bible.

Go and present them my head.
My lover may face persecution or adversity on my behalf, but I am willing to offer everything, even my own head.

Hard at your body like a coastline, coastline.
My love for you is unyielding and eternal, as strong and sure as a coastline.

Contributed by Natalie I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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