ION INDIE MAGAZINE October 2014, Volume 5 | Page 34

That’s when New York City-based DJ, ROBERT ALLELN III came into the picture–otherwise known as “Doctor Robert”. “Rob put
the beats onto what we were working on,” says Ross of the early collaboration. “That’s really how it began–just the three of
us.” Allen has since amicably ceased his activity with the band.
“It was one big jam session, really,” Lowery adds.
“It was bringing in all of the music that we liked,” continues Ross. “We mixed all of it together and came up with our own stuff.”
The first song that the newly-christened Chameleon would write turned out to be “L.A. Chameleon” the trance-inducing
moodscape of a track--complete with ambiently crunched guitars and death-defying beats--the lead song on the band’s
“Something In The Water” debut, released in early 2013.
“Rob came in, and had a bunch of ideas for us,” Lowery points out, “which led to the songs on the ‘Something In The Water’
EP, and few more that we then released on the ‘Monster’ EP (Chameleon’s second recorded collection, released in the
fall/winter of 2013). “We really decided that we needed to get our live act down; and this, being a new thing for us, we wanted
to really take our time in the studio and get the sound we wanted.”
After recording for the tail end of 2011, then making their live debut in 2012, the members of Chameleon say that they “put
it all together,” and made the move to Independently release “Something In The Water”–the band handling everything
themselves on a grassroots level--including distribution, promotion, and booking. Where the band is presently, musically
speaking, it’s hard to decipher from where it began–this is an outfit that bleeds versatility and range, not succumbing to any
pigeonholes or genre-specific stereotypes.
“That’s kind of the beauty of Chameleon,” Lowery confesses. “We’re taking everything that Andrew loved, what I loved, and
what Rob loved, and making something of it. In the beginning, it was a little more experimental; some songs were more
acoustic, some more electronic. Now, what we envision Chameleon as, is what we spent these last couple of years working
on– especially since Rob has moved on. We’re coming along a little more acoustically, instrumentation-wise, and not so much
electronic. But, that electronic element is still a part of our sound.”
With two esteemed vocal talents in the same group, how does the frontman/woman stance emerge in Chameleon? For Andrew
Ross, it’s an easy answer.
“Just from my standpoint, I wanted Chloe to bear the vocal responsibility, because I can’t even touch her as far as talent goes,”
he humbly offers. “In Chameleon, compared to Daredevil
Squadron, I definitely scream a lot less, but I