Charming Arson serve up a mindful dose of power-pop with ‘Saving Chelsea’

The Boston alternative rock quartet emerge in kaleidoscopic color with a vibrant new single due out Friday, May 10

NOW PLAYING: Listen to ‘Saving Chelsea’ via Spotify

Charming Arson play The Jungle in Somerville on Saturday, May 11   

BOSTON, Mass. [May 10, 2024] – It takes roughly 15 seconds into Charming Arson’s vibrant new single “Saving Chelsea” for vocalist and guitarist David Cameron to issue a lyrical declaration right out of the gate: “Stand down, if you like this.” The words ring out in a clear and playful juxtaposition with the song itself, which should only serve to inspire movement, dancing, and any other physical activity that’s pretty much the exact opposite of standing down. 

But as is often the case with the Boston alternative rock and power-pop band, what dances along the surface of the music may not always be in perfect harmony with what’s going on just under it. With “Saving Chelsea,” Charming Arson deliver this layered sense of duality through their latest sonic dose of melodic, overdriven guitar-rock on Friday, May 10, the day before they return to the stage to play The Jungle in Somerville with Nate Perry & Rugged Company, Field Day, and Lonely Leesa and the Lost Cowboys. 

“Lyrically, the song aims to capture the inherent absurdity of trying to save someone who romanticizes their own decline,” Cameron says. “Personally, I've always wanted to do something that harkens back to Bob Mould from his Sugar days. This certainly comes closer to that than anything we've done.” 

A kaleidoscopic burst of pitch-perfect power-pop recorded, mixed, and mastered by Alex Garcia-Rivera at his all-analog Mystic Valley Studio in Medford, “Saving Chelsea” serves as the first in a series of new Charming Arson singles set for release this spring and summer, all leading to a new EP that’s the follow-up to last year’s Cabaré Apocalypse. And when the band busts it out at The Jungle just after release day, they’ll be not too far from the metro Boston city that first inspired its title.  

“There was a Boston Globe story about the city of Chelsea during the peak of the pandemic, and the headline was ‘Saving Chelsea’. I knew immediately that was a song title, so I ran with it, and the song went in a direction completely separate from the nature of the story,” Cameron admits. “I knew immediately that the Chelsea of the song would be a person, not a municipality. I actually like songs with characters, and I am not exaggerating when I say that almost 50 percent of all Charming Arson songs have a character's name in the title. It's almost become a band inside-joke.” 

Cameron co-founded Charming Arson during the pandemic with drummer Dave Gould, rekindling the pair’s musical chemistry that first formed when the two played in homegrown late-‘90s alternative and prog rock trio Zoot. Bassist Aaron Clark joined in time for Cabaré Apocalypse, the band’s sophomore EP, and the quartet has since been rounded out by guitarist Stefano Bellezza, who makes his sizable presence felt here with a memorably searing guitar solo just as the song reaches cruising altitude.  

“Our band has two primary settings: Melodic guitar pop-rock and slow-burn brooding,” Cameron admits. “Our typical setlist toggles back and forth between the two. But despite which setting we're on, any synesthesiac would paint our songs in blooming psychedelic colors. And that's what we go for: A lucid bloom.”

Cameron knows that “Saving Chelsea” finds Charming Arson at their most “guitar-saturated,” but the ‘90s-leaning track acts as a bit of a gateway to the band experimenting with new instrumentation on their forthcoming EP, like Bellezza on keyboards, and some dual vocal harmonies traded off by he and Clark.  

What emerges is a magnetic new single that blends a few different styles and sounds, united by a mighty riff and Charming Arson’s growing penchant for expressionist rock and roll that shows off a pinwheel of lyrical poetry, highly energized pop-rock, and hint of eastern mysticism sprinkled throughout.    

“We want our songs to work on multiple levels,” Cameron concludes. “If you love melodic guitar rock with some slick moves, we've got you covered. But we also want to create the kinds of songs that get better with repeated listens. Our dream is to find the listener who gets drawn in by the hooks, but after delving a bit more under the surface discovers emotional resonance. Music is a powerful way to find kindred souls.” 

It might even make us dance.

Charming Arson is: 

Stefano Bellezza: Lead guitar, backing vocals

Dave Cameron:  Lead vocals, rhythm guitar 

Dave Gould: Percussion, backing vocals

Aaron Clark: Bass guitar, backing vocals

‘Saving Chelsea’ production credits:

Written and performed by Charming Arson

Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Alex Garcia-Rivera at the all-analog Mystic Valley Studio in Medford.

‘Saving Chelsea’ artwork:

Charming Arson short bio:

There’s no difference between a great song and a great story. Both should thrill you and alter how you see the world. That’s the vision of Charming Arson. This Boston-based alt-rock power-pop quartet wants to excite your imagination and feed your mind. Soaring guitar licks and expressionist lyrics are the yin and yang in their songwriting alchemy. The song as story; the story as song. 

Charming Arson was hatched over a few beers at The Burren in Somerville, MA in February 2020, when Dave Cameron and Dave Gould decided to rekindle their musical flame. Both had played together in the late ‘90s in Zoot, an alt/prog-rock trio that worked the Boston scene hard until the untimely death of their guitarist, John Haley. Cameron and Gould parted musical ways, but never stopped talking about how they would one day fire up the tubes. Years later, brooding in that Irish pub over empty pint glasses and the mellifluous yearnings of ​​uilleann pipes, they realized they were idiots for not doing this ten years earlier. 

First band practice occurred on March 5, 2020, which just so happened to coincide with an up-and-coming respiratory virus named after America’s #5 selling beer. For the next 18 months, as the Cervecería Modelo brewing company launched a marketing counteroffensive, band practice consisted of Zoom meetings and GarageBand file transfers. In the summer of 2021, the band, now a four piece, convened at Quiethouse Recording and recorded their first EP/album, Breathe in Joy. One year, six songs, and a few shows later, the band returned to Quiethouse for their follow up, Cabaré Apocalypse. “Haley, you’re my comet,” dedicated to Zoot’s late-guitarist, was the first single. 

Charming Arson’s current lineup is Stefano Bellezza on lead guitar; Dave Cameron on guitar and lead vocals; Aaron Clark on bass; and Dave Gould on drums. Everyone sings backing vocals, especially Clark. 

Charming Arson leans into their commitment to melodic guitar rock aimed straight at your poetic imagination. Your spiritual imagination too. It’s all part of the same muse that draws you to what makes you feel alive. Glad to be alive. That’s where this band can take you. Make it loud. Make it beautiful. 

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