Chris Chalmers

Chris taught himself how to play the guitar at 14, “in the midst of the whole Britpop era.” Then at 17 he got a part time job in a record shop, where he discovered that there was “a whole universe of amazing music out there to be gobbled up. I went on to dabble with a few different instruments and ultimately stuck with singing, primarily.”

Up n’ Comin NI are proud to present this week’s artist, Chris Chalmers. Chris, as many may know, is the lead singer and acoustic guitarist of the band The 2:19. As well as Chris, the band is also made up of Paul Wilkinson on lead guitar, Ady Young on guitar, his brother Marty Young on bass, Monty Sneddon on drums and Andrei Marinescu on harmonica.

 

With a combined age of 264, one of the bands strongest features is their experience both as writers and performers. “That and the fact that showboating is strictly forbidden; there are no egos to worry about and we all just want to give the best performance, as a band, that we can.

 

Luckily for Chris, he was brought up in a music filled home. “My parents had been just the right age for the arrival of The Beatles, The Stones and Bob Dylan etc. in the 60s so I was very fortunate to have grown up in a house filled with fantastic music. My folks were also big fans of Blues, Soul and Country music so I was extremely lucky to be surrounded with all that stuff from a very young age.”

 

Similar to this style, the 2:19 play music that would be best described as Rootsy Rock, with small elements of Blues, Soul, Funk, Folk, Country, R 'n' B, Jazz and all sorts of other influences in there too. “Our first album was very Bluesy, but we spread our wings a bit more on the follow-up.”

 

"Even when it seems like I'm singing about something that couldn't possibly be autobiographical, in my songs there is always some kind of personal experience behind it. I find it much easier that way."

While the band probably didn’t know it at the time, their timing was extremely unfortunate. “The 2:19 started in late 2019 and completed the line up in mid-March 2020. This turned out to be the worst time in the history of music to launch a band! We had formed with the intention of playing covers gigs for a bit of craic but little did we know that gigs would not be an option for a couple of years.” At that stage it would have been easy for the band to throw the towel in, but Chris continued saying, “With this in mind, we felt the need to do something. We had a go at writing a few songs that we thought might suit our sound and the rest, as they say, is history. After we released our debut album ‘Revelator’ in November 2021 we almost immediately started work on the follow up album, ‘We Will Get Through This,’ which was released in January 2023.”

 

Writing music in a band is a completely different experience to writing alone as you are presented with collaborators and lots of different opinions. “We have a few songwriters in the band and I'm sure we all take a very different approach. When a song is up and off the ground the whole band will contribute to the arrangement of it, which is usually the most labour-intensive part. The other guys have a bit more songwriting experience than I have but I try not to analyse the process too much, otherwise I don't think I'd ever be able to come up with any material.”

Chris has always been a huge fan of John Martyn. “His stuff didn't always necessarily make sense but he just chucked the rule book out the window and whatever worked, worked. I've always tried to take that approach to music. If it sounds interesting, it's worth pursuing.”

 

"One of the biggest strengths of our band is that we all know exactly what we're doing. We've all been playing music for a long time and we're just very fortunate to have found each other. None of us can take any credit but the chemistry and magic is just there in abundance and it doesn't hurt that we all get on very well with each other."

 

Chris told me about an experience when he performed by himself. “I did a solo gig for the first time in years last summer and I didn't enjoy it at all. I would always much rather have all the lads with me.” 

While this wasn’t for Chris, he did tell me about another time when “We had a few session musicians in the studio too and it's always lovely to get a totally different sound on the records. The fabulous Amy Montgomery features on four songs on the new album and being in the studio to see her record her vocals was a fantastic experience. It was great to watch our songs become something else entirely right before our eyes. The wonderfully talented John McCullough plays all the keyboard parts on both records too and he never ceases to blow me away.”

 

While Chris told me “We only actually played our first ever gig in June of 2022, which seems like a lifetime ago now” the band are no strangers to the world of gigging anymore, playing at least once or twice a month. “Having said that, we recently played four gigs within the space of a month, three of which were sold out. Hopefully this trend continues!”

 

Chris discussed his favourite gig to date which took place in the Imperial Bar in Bangor in January 2023. “The audience was extremely responsive, and we even got a standing ovation at the end.” Another highlight for Chris was playing in The Pavilion on the Ormeau Road in November when Amy joined the band on stage for the last song.

 

There have been quite a few big moments so far for the band as a whole. Between receiving lots of rave reviews from journalists, selling out a few gigs and being nominated as ‘Band of the Year’ in the UK Blues Awards in 2023, they are doing extremely well for themselves. “Personally speaking, I think having both albums land at 5 and 3, respectively, on the UK Independent Blues Broadcasters Album Chart is probably my proudest moment. I never envisaged us being so popular with so many folks in GB, despite having never performed outside of Ireland.”

 

So, what is next for Chris and 2:19?

“We have loads of gigs lined up over the rest of 2023, including a few festivals, so keep an eye on our socials for more info. We've just released our second album in 14 months but we're working away at new songs so there may well be a third record on the way too. We're not getting any younger so we're keen to strike while the iron is hot!”

Make sure you follow him and keep up to date with all his songs, events and gigs: 

Instagram: 219band

Facebook: The 2:19

Spotify: The 2:19

YouTube: the219official