Cheshires
The cult of Cheshires; photographed by Paul Stula.
Introducing Cheshires who present the world premiere stream of their debut self-titled album available September 16. Comprised of band members previously of Remy Zero, including Remy Zero himself (real name since 1990, fka Shelby Tate), with fellow RZ veterans Louis Schefano & Leslie Van Trease who resurrect their original intents & purposes with reinvigorated energy & focuses. Having been some 16 years since the previous Remy Zero record; the three collaborate again in a reunion to make the record they always wanted to since the 90s that shines with a strange allure like the cryptic, psychedelic smile of the cheshire cat (as depicted on the of their self-titled).
The trio bring the new day of Cheshires with the opening electric strumming “Drugz-I Love This Feeling” that takes off on a gorgeous arrangement that borders on near perfection. Like a jumbo jet blasting off on the runway for a holiday in the sun somewhere, Cheshires bring a renewed vibe of romanticism that rides high on their own mighty wings on ore adorned pop of “You’ve Turned (To Gold)” to the reflective & conversational musings of ennui & the pangs of longing that boredom inspires found on the power pop nugget “Wish Something Would Happen”. The three wisemen take on nightmares & fears with flying colors & confidence as heard on the addictive “Bad Dreams”, the gives rise to the serpentine chutes & ladders games of life on “Snakes” that crash lands into the melancholic ballad of “I Failed” that sings out from the bottom of the abyss crater reaching for a new chance of redemption & new opportunities for new realizations. These dramatic pleas & prayers are answered with the hyper-hymn of “Hollow Head” that is certain to turn more than a few noggins, to “Tell Her Everything” that watches the sun rise up in the early morning with the contemplation of intimate & privy expressions displayed in a lavish musical suite that finds the three reminiscing on where they’ve been & where they want to go next. Tate, Schefano & Van Trease show off their seasoned chops in every song on the album, while maintaining a fresh audio fragrance that is a sign of something more than a cult act that has yet to even reach their proper apex. Cheshires is Remy Zero re-born in a new economy of illustrations that captures the heart of our collective imaginations. The flicker of hope is everywhere on “Lamplighter’s Parade” that leads the Cheshires processional up to “Elixir” that cures what ails with a lavish mix that guides the listener to the perceptive look-out deck on “Watchtower” right before the closing nightcap tearjerker caboose of “Kry-War Out There”. Cry along with Cheshires while absorbing the various feelings and newfound frequencies from what is the next chapter from the band previously known as Remy Zero.
Remy Zero, aka Shelby Tate wrote the following exclusive introduction to their new era as Cheshires & more:
I started writing some songs as soon as I returned to the USA from Cambodia…All of a sudden I was in a very alien situation—I really felt like Cambodia was really my eternal home, that I would be there forever—so when I found myself back in the States I started just playing guitar again to try and re-acclimate—I hardly had even thought of the guitar in many years. I really just became just a listener. But it gave me some sense of familiar things, to be writing songs again. A few of the songs on this record are from the years before Remy Zero really was a band. We have hundreds of pre-Remy Zero songs still around, so we found a few that seemed to fit with what we were trying to do together…I hope someday we can re-master and put out some of the oldest songs, stuff I did before we ever thought of making Remy Zero, songs I hadn’t even heard in so many years, all in a bag of old cassettes….well, maybe they got transferred to something better by now…but Amiel [Morris], our producer, still had copies of them and it was really inspiring to listen to that stuff. Just full of so many memories…It really re-awakened my desire to make music again…
Cheshires stepping out of the shadows; press photo courtesy of the artists.
I hope these songs will be cool for the people who loved Remy Zero. Even though my brother [Cinjun Tate], the main singer in Remy Zero, is not on this—he just had a son in NYC and is taking a little respite from the madness of making records and touring…I always sang a few songs on Remy Zero records, and Remy Zero is my legal name, so I guess I see this as really the same thing. And, man, I really miss my brother a lot; I am trying to convince him to at least come and sing with us live sometime. But there were always so many people and issues to consider in Remy Zero, so it’s pretty nice to be able to make decisions as fast and easily as we are able to do with Cheshires. I wrote a song at the very start of RZ called “Cheshire’s Nostalgia” which we recorded for Capitol Records. But it was never released so we just used Cheshires as a name for this group. Louis was RZ’s first drummer, and Leslie played with RZ a lot, so this is just a little different assemblage, not a whole different thing…but I hope people who like RZ will be interested in these songs, too, even though it is a bit different.
Cheshires’ self-titled, self-released album is available now.
