Artist of the Day | KEEGAN CHAMBERS
ARTIST OF THE DAY
01.08.2021
KEEGAN CHAMBERS
LOCATION
Toronto, ON, Canada
GENRE
Pop Rock
CURRENT MEMBERS
Keegan Chambers (vocals), Daniel Tsourounis (bass, producer, mixing/recording engineer); but we collaborate with a variety of musicians as well.
With the current pandemic, the state of the music and touring industry has dramatically changed. Where were you when everything was brought to a halt?
In the months leading up to the pandemic, I was just starting to get comfortable playing live shows. But about a month before the first lockdown, my guitarist and drummer actually informed me that they couldn't continue being in the band. At the time I was super bummed because I felt like we had built so much momentum, and finding new band members would mean starting from scratch in a way. And then the whole world shut down. I was actually visiting my grandparents at the time - I know, worst place to be lol - but after a couple days of watching the news I realized I needed to get back to the city.
It was decided that I'd move in with my producer and bass player (who also happens to be my boyfriend) until things blew over (not realizing it would be well over a year) and I've been here ever since! lol If it weren't for the lockdown, we certainly wouldn't have moved in together so quickly, but we also wouldn't have had the time to write and record so many of the songs we'd been playing live up until that point.
How has that affected your plans for the coming year? Did you have a tour planned, upcoming album release?
I only had an acoustic EP out at the time, so getting some more content out there that was more reflective of how we sounded live & plugged in was pretty high on the priority list.
We spent the first few months of the lockdown working on demos to apply for Factor Canada's Artist Development grant. We didn't hear back until the fall but we still kept writing and recording music over the summer. When we did find out that we got the grant, we were able to start releasing stuff quite quickly. Hence this EP bringing our number of releases this year to a total of seven tracks so far. So really, it's been kind of nice not having to book/plan shows and put all that time and energy into making music instead.
We've made it work for us, that's for sure!
What have you been doing to fill/make the most of your new-found free time at home? How are you supporting your mental health through all of this?
As someone who used to have panic attacks several times a week, I have to say, the slowed pace of the lockdown was really a welcome change.
Working on music stuff has kept Daniel and I quite busy. It's been amazing to be able to collaborate with other artists throughout the process as well. We're currently finishing up some new tunes and hoping to release a lot more content before the year is up! Having something to work on and look forward to has been great!
Aside from music, I think the greatest contributions to supporting my mental health has been prioritizing self care, staying connected to my body and breath with physical activity like yoga, boundary setting with friends and family, personal and group therapy, and reading a lot of self help books. It's been a journey - and I'm still on it to be honest - but just like meditation, the important thing is to start, and remember to always come back to your breath.
As things are reopening & restrictions are lifting have you booked any new gigs? Tours? Etc? If your region is still under restriction, how are dealing with the Covid third wave?
We're finally having things open up slowly here in Ontario and I actually just got my second vaccine today! Just in time to be full vaccinated for my birthday on July 25th :) We have no plans to do much in terms of live shows this summer. I think we're gonna keep doing what we're doing and wait to see how things play out before making any plans. I'd love to have a belated EP release party though! haha That and go on tour next summer. I don't know how or with whom but I'm putting it out there in the universe and I'm gonna do whatever it takes to make it happen.
Favourite Starlite Room Moment?
I've never been!! But hopefully on that tour I mentioned previously hehe
Do you have a message for everyone at home reading this?
If they've made it this far... send me a dm on instagram and I'll mail you a free sticker bc i <3 u.
If you would like to be our next ARTIST OF THE DAY please email us at:
JEN@CONCERTWORKS.CA
