With “All I Want Is Hope and Nothing More” out now, we took some time to hear from Rich Chambers. Read below to learn more about Rich Chambers, the story behind “All I Want Is Hope and Nothing More,” and what’s to come.
Hi Rich Chambers! Let’s start with how did you get your artist name?
I have to say. I don’t have a problem at all with artists who use stage names. Some artists I highly admire, such as Elvis Costello, David Bowie, or Sting, use stage names. But for me, I have always used my real name. I like my name. It is who I am, and I like who I am.
What city are you from, and where are you based now?
I am born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. It is a beautiful city and other than awful traffic, I love living here and don’t see myself leaving anytime soon. I am a proud Canadian, through and through.
At what point in your life did you decide to pursue a career in music? How did you get started?
Like so many other fellow musicians, the bug hit me when I was a kid. My dad plays guitar, and I can remember watching him when I was a small guy and thinking that he was pretty much the coolest guy ever when he strummed those six strings. So, I guess I was following in my dad’s footsteps when I picked up the guitar at age 10, but it wasn’t until I turned 14, when I wrote my first song, that I really became hooked. I love songwriting more than anything and have been doing it my whole life.
How would you describe your sound to readers who may not be familiar with you?
About five years ago, when I consciously decided to go all in with my music, I knew I needed to brand myself. I thought of a few things, but ultimately landed on the tagline, “Rock n’ Roll Reimagined.” I thought about how the formation of rock n’ roll back in the 1950s came from an amalgamation of multiple styles. It had a lot of country and blues in it, and it also had some gospel and big band thrown in there. One can even point to bits and pieces of jazz, Broadway, and classical music. Essentially, rock n’ roll was a little bit of everything. Jump ahead to the 2020s and to what I am doing, and I am also amalgamating a bunch of styles. I am little bit classic rock and modern rock, a little bit country, a little bit blues, a little bit punk, a little bit pop, and even a little bit bubble gum pop; hence, the tag line “Rock n’ Roll Reimagined.”
Do you have any hobbies outside of music? What do you do to stay creative?
I have always been into sports. As a kid I played hockey, soccer, baseball, basketball, tennis, and track and field. As an adult I am still playing hockey (heck, I am Canadian after all! Haha!), and I am still running 4-5 times per week. I also love to read and write, although I don’t get much time to write fiction. It is mostly all music that I am currently writing.
Who are some of your main musical influences?
Geesh, this is a tough question to answer. I have so many different influences for so many different reasons, but I will try and stick to just a few. Along with a good chunk of the planet, I’ve always been a massive Elvis and Beatles fan. I also love Bruce Springsteen and Bryan Adams, who I often get compared to, which is alright by me. I am a big fan of Elvis Costello, BB King, Dean Martin, Melissa Etheridge, Waylon Jennings…and there are so many more, but these are among the biggest.
What’s one of the proudest moments of your music career so far?
I am hugely proud of my first ever release back in the days before streaming and mp3s. It was a full Christmas album of originals and covers. All of it has faded into obscurity except for my cover of the Snow Miser vs. Heat Miser from the old Rankin and Bass stop animation “The Year Without a Santa Claus.” The song has endured and emerged as a huge success, and outside of the original, is arguably the most popular version of the song on all current streaming platforms. I am currently at 2.6 million streams of that song on Spotify alone.
What would you say are the greatest lessons that you’ve learned so far?
I’ve had so many—lessons in music—lessons in life—lessons in everything. I think one has to always stay open to learn and to grow from life’s experiences. I will say that the one biggest lesson I learned was many years ago when my mother was killed in a car accident. I learned to never take life and our loved ones for granted. Embrace those you love. Embrace the moments.
Now onto your release, “All I Want Is Hope and Nothing More.” What inspired this song? What is “All I Want Is Hope and Nothing More” about?
When I wrote this song, I had been doing a deep dive into the Romantic poets of the early 19th century. I was particularly drawn to William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who I both mention in the song. Their imagery combined with their search for what makes them human really resonated with me. I came up with a driving, yet anxious and somewhat desperate rock music palette that allowed me to put my own lyrical poetry down. This song is my search for what makes us human…and hope is such a human experience that it just kind of naturally came to the surface to become the focal point and theme of the song.
What was the inspiration behind the cover artwork for “All I Want Is Hope and Nothing More?”
I really wanted to have a pensive shot that overlooked a vast and lonely landscape. A beach with the tide out seemed like the perfect fit. A beach represents the intersection of two distinct worlds, and the vastness of the landscape represents how big this thing called life really is. I wanted to be facing forward and away from the camera, as hope is something that causes all of us to look forward. I also wanted the shot to be ambiguous as to whether I am facing a sunset or sunrise, essentially leaving that open to one’s interpretation and/or mind set. And lastly, the colours needed to be muted. Not Black & White and not really colour, but somewhere in between.
What was the creative process like when making “All I Want Is Hope and Nothing More?”
Interesting question. The short answer is that it was a lot more hard work than creative inspiration. Sure, the birth of all of my songs comes from a creative spark, and this song was no exception, but at some point, that spark wears off and I am left with a song idea. If I am lucky enough, the creative spark held on long enough for me to complete the full song, but usually not. In this case, the creative spark helped me to put all the music for the song down relatively quickly. The lyrics came over a six-week span immediately afterward. One short verse, where I reference Lord Byron, was actually added in ten years after I wrote the song. But the writing is only one aspect of a song. The next is the arrangement followed by the recording, mixing, and mastering. It’s a lot of hard work, with a few moments here and there where I wonder where I got the creativity to come up with a certain idea, but I absolutely love every bit of it!
How long did it take to complete “All I Want Is Hope and Nothing More?”
The initial writing of the song took about six weeks. I didn’t actually record it until a few years after that, but I was never fully satisfied with that recording. I then shelved it for more than a decade and then came back to it with the new Byron verse and rerecorded a couple of the parts before remixing and remastering all of it. So, from start to finish, the song took about 20 years to complete. Kind of crazy, huh? Haha!
How did the music video for “All I Want Is Hope and Nothing More” come about? What was your vision for the video?
The video came about in three phases. My good friend Rob, who is also a video director/producer, filmed me under the massive tree in a solitary field and then later that day in front of an old, abandoned hospital building. That was phase 1. Phase 2 was filmed a few months later at a nearby beach with the tide way out. At that point, we figured we had the video fully shot. Rob pulled all the clips together and put together a rough cut for him and me to view. We both liked it, but we also both felt something was missing. The main theme of hope was not depicted anywhere in the video. It was implied by the various landscapes we chose to shoot in, but it just wasn’t jumping out at us. So, phase 3 became the addition of the chair, and suddenly “hope” jumped out, as the chair became a metaphor for all that we lean on to support us and hold ourselves up in times of distress—essentially, hope. Rob and I are both really proud of the video and are currently entering it into all kinds of film festivals. Wish us luck!
What do you hope fans take away from “All I Want Is Hope and Nothing More” and your music in general?
Great question! “All I Want Is Hope and Nothing More” is obviously about hope. But hope can be both a positive and negative thing. Hope can keep us going. It can give us something to strive for and to dig down and attain. But if hope is misguided then it can be a detriment to us. For example, hoping to win a lottery to pull oneself out of financial turmoil is not a bad thing at all, but if that is all one is relying upon to get themselves out of a financial situation, then hope becomes a detriment to us, as it can keep us from taking concrete actions to rectify the situation. I tried to present this dichotomy within the song, allowing the listener (or the viewer, in the case of the video) to interpret hope how they want to. I have been extremely excited to discover that most people are interpreting my song as a positive affirmation of hope. That kind of warms my heart!
What’s next for you? Are you working on any upcoming projects, or do you have any upcoming shows that we should be on the lookout for?
I would absolutely love to be booking live dates and touring, but I am not there yet. I still need to build a larger fan base and get my music out there before I hit the road. But hey, it’s starting. My followers are growing and I am getting more interest all of the time. This single is really beginning to open doors for me that have not yet been opened, which is super exciting! So, for now, I will keep releasing singles. I have so many in the works it’s actually kind of hard to decide which ones will be my next releases. It’s a good problem to have mind you. Expect them to drop regularly throughout this year and beyond.
Where can we follow you on social media?
https://www.facebook.com/richchambersrocknroll
https://www.instagram.com/richchambersrocknroll
https://www.tiktok.com/@richchambersrocknroll
https://www.youtube.com/c/RichChambers
Thank you for the great interview; wish you much continued success!
