GONE TOO FAR Chevy van Dorssen
Chevy van Dorssen’s “GONE TOO FAR”
While taking on Ed Sheeran!
With Ian Browne Shamrock News
With her roots in indie pop, Sydney creative Chevy Van Dorssen has taken her song writing skills and produced a single for her coming EP ‘Dreamer’. Gone Too Far is a heartfelt plea for a better humanity, springing to life with the clang-n-jangle of acoustic guitar; wrapped in the droning wistful antiquity of this splendid red continent.
…it was one of those magical days where the stars aligned for me.”
Chevy
I played guitar in an original indie/pop/grunge band for a decade from the end of high school, and we performed regularly at Sydney pubs and bars, and at venues like The Landsdowne Hotel, The Hopetoun Hotel, and one wildly fun gig at The Enmore Theatre.
“Artificial dreams - superficial beliefs - synthetic creatures…
Gone Too Far…
I am the sole songwriter and was lucky enough to have control over the direction of the tracks. Super talented drummer Nick Kennedy came onboard to drive the songs and help bring them to life, and Derek Turner brought his special touches to each song to bring all the elements together for me.
Is that you on guitar? The old wise ways of yidaki, what made you decide on this sound?
I play guitar on all the tracks, and as soon as the music and lyrics were written for 'Gone Too Far' I knew I wanted to hear a didgeridoo particularly in the breakdown/instrumental. So, I got in touch with a former yoga teacher of mine, Ryan Henson, as he would often finish his classes by playing the didgeridoo during the last few minutes of class and it always had such a powerful effect on me. I was so fortunate that he was in Sydney at the time, I was recording the song and he created the beautiful sounds just as I had heard it in my head. I love the earthy tones of the didgeridoo; it feels both grounding and unnerving alongside the drums.
“Do we know where we are going? Will we know when it’s gone too far?”
…and the songster?
The singer on this track is CJ Schafer. It was one of those magical days where the stars aligned for me. On the morning of the studio session, I didn’t yet have a vocalist, but when I picked up Ryan, he introduced me to his friend CJ who happened to be there when I arrived. CJ had a great energy about him, so I invited him to join us in the studio for the didgeridoo recording session, just to hang out. I didn't realise he was a musician himself, so when I found out I asked him to give the vocals a try, and I got immediate goosebumps. That was the voice I needed on this track.
….it began to feel like a sort of disease, that was spreading in great numbers.”
Where did the song idea & meaning come from?
The first thing to spark the lyrics was the rise in popularity of social media, and the ever present pressure for beauty and looking flawless. It began to feel like a sort of disease, that was spreading in great numbers. I was also watching 'Filthy Rich and Homeless' on ABC at the time and felt like I was hearing about a new cancer diagnosis almost constantly. It was very much my intention for the lyrics to evoke questions about current issues and to encourage self-reflection and also give a sense of hope about certain issues that may be "curable".
Have you begun producing the other songs for the Aug EP release?
Will you be going for a Triple J Unearthed?
The "Dreamer" EP is finished and ready for release on 27th August. There are 4 songs with 3 different singers (I sang backing vocals on 2 songs). At this stage I won't be entering Unearthed, but I've been looking outside the box to try and promote the songs. For my first single release, I've been having some fun on my socials campaigning for music lovers to "support an independent artist and help me compete with the heavyweights". This came about after reading a post from Ed Sheeran saying that his new single will be released on the same day as my debut single. He had 2.5 million likes on this post in the space of a few hours, and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but it got me thinking about how difficult it is for smaller artists to get their music noticed in comparison to huge artists. I decided to have a laugh and took it as a challenge to invite people to message me for a link to hear my song before the release date. My promo flyer is "Chevy vs. Sheeran 25.06.2021" with a pair of boxing gloves in between the text.
So far, I've had great feedback, lots of support for the song as well as a few messages of early condolences. Ed hasn't made any comments as yet...
Gone Too Far will be available from 25th June on all the usual streaming/download platforms, or from https://chevyvandorssen.bandcamp.com/
