He has fronted successful Australian rock outfit The Living End for much of his life, and also has a side-project with Cold Chisel frontman Jimmy Barnes, but Chris Cheney is still terrified when he has to perform purely solo.
"[It] was completely terrifying, but also very liberating; it was great to be able to do a one-man show kind of thing," Chris says, "which I never would have believed I could have done – even ten years ago, I never would have done anything like that."Cheney's 2022 solo debut album, 'The Storm Before The Calm', was well-received by fans. "It's quite a trip to hear people sining those songs back to you when you're playing like, as opposed to 'Prisoner Of Society' and 'Roll On', and 'All Torn Down', which I've had for the last 25 years or whatever it's been," Cheney laughs.
"So the solo thing has given me this whole other tangent, I suppose, of options and experiences."
Cheney travelled to the USA six years ago to record some solo sessions in Nashville: five acoustic and five with a backing band. "I think there's only two of those that ended up making the record, and then probably two or three of the acoustic ones," he says.
"I hadn't planned on writing any more songs, but when I got back to Australia and went into those lockdowns I kind of set up a studio in my garage, and that's when I came out with 'California' and 'Corner Shop'[that both feature on 'The Storm Before The Calm'] and a couple of the others."
The additional tracks created balance Chris explains, giving some light to an otherwise quite dark record. "Before that it was pretty dark; which I didn't care about because I was like, well it just has that feel, and that's what I'm going through at the moment.
"So that's the stuff I was writing and dealing with and it was a therapeutic process, I guess," he says. "I was kind of glad, then, when I sat back and looked at the tracklisting, that I had a couple of pop songs and rock songs, and some diversity in there."
Cheney says he surprised himself a few times while working on the record.
"It wasn't like, 'oh, here's the singer-songwriter record, where it's just acoustic, guitar finger-picking kind of thing – I felt like there was these different layers and elements to it that I hadn't been able to express before in my writing," he says.
"I could never have written this kind of record in the early days of The Living End, I just wasn't capable of doing it; I would have filled it up with too much information, I wouldn't have been able to leave the space there, and wouldn't have been able to find probably that depth of emotion."
The opportunity to work alongside Jimmy Barnes on their supergroup The Barnestormers' record (the rest of the band consists of Jim Phantom from Stray Cats on drums, Kevin 'Caveman' Shirley on bass and Jools Holland on piano with the album landing late May) allowed Chris to re-visit his rockabilly roots, which he hasn't done for a considerable period of time.
"I always go back to that as my base for figuring out guitar solos and things – it always has to have that flashy rockabilly thing – but this was going back even further," Chris says.
"It sort of felt like coming home, almost. . . I could reach into that bag of tricks and pull out all those really cool, old rockabilly licks and stuff that I haven't played in a long time."
Cheney says although the melting pot of country, rock & roll, jazz and bebop that comprises his rockabilly-style guitar playing, his career has taken him far from the blues.
"[The Living End] became a little bit more of a pop band, I suppose – with things like 'White Noise' and stuff, it's far from blues," he says, "but that's me again trying to push myself as a songwriter and not wanting to play 12-bar blues for my entire career."
He is, however, keen to delve deeper into the blues at next month's Blues On Broadbeach (Gold Coast). "I'm looking forward to this. I've never been before, and I've obviously never played, either," he says.
"But you know what's cool about it? It's similar to Bluesfest in that it's all about the musicianship, and I just reckon there will be some amazing players and it'll be really inspiring."
Blues On Broadbeach (Gold Coast) takes place 18-21 May.
Blues On Broadbeach 2023 Line-Up
Tommy EmmanuelDon Walker
Melbourne Ska Orchestra (20th anniversary show)
Emma Donovan & The Putbacks
Chris Cheney
The Kevin Borich Express
Marcus Scott & The Bo-Keys
Tommy Mclain & C.C. Adcock
Blue Shaddy
The Turner Brown Band
The Mason Rack Band
Steph Strings
Jazzparty
Little Georgia
Albi & The Wolves
8 Ball Aitken
Julian James And The Moonshine State
Ian Collard
Frank Sultana Blues Band
Darren Jack Band
The Lecia Louise Band
Kee’ahn
Chris Finnen Band
This Way North
Mike Elrington
Heavy Wax
The Long Johns
Lightnin Jack
Aaron West’s Blues Guitar Junket
Transvaal Diamond Syndicate
BB Factory
Lily & King
Simon Kinny-Lewis
C.J.Lee
The Walters
Diamonds And The Blues
Adam Hole Band
Ben Westphal Trio
JB's Blues Breakers
Hemi
Just Be
