I recently had the opportunity to speak with Kyra, Harry, and Kevin of the band Kyra & the Chameleons, a four-piece indie rock group that started out here in New Brunswick. Kyra is the lead singer, rhythm guitarist, primary songwriter, and occasional keyboardist. Harry is the lead guitarist, sings a bit, and helps write some songs. Kevin is the bassist. Their drummer, Calvin, was not present. I primarily spoke to Kyra and Harry, then Kevin joined in later.

(Left to right) Kevin, Kyra, and Harry of Kyra & the Chameleons performing at Sunday School on November 1, 2024. Shot by me. 

Give me the band’s origin story. How’d you guys meet? What made you guys start the band? How long have you been making music together?

Kyra: Our bass player that’s coming soon, Kevin, I’ve known since my freshman year of college, like first few weeks. We’d jam, like me on an acoustic and him on an acoustic, and we were always like “we should start a band”. Kevin lived with Harry and Calvin, and I was playing an acoustic show for the Core and asked Kevin and Calvin if they’d like to play in an ensemble sort of thing, then after that we were like we should do this more. 

Harry: That’s speeding the story along, a lot actually. There were a lot of times I’d try to weasel my way in… wander down into the basement with my guitar “Hey, can I join in??”

Kyra: We only played one show as a three piece then Harry joined in as an official member.

Harry: I like to make a big thing about not being in it from the get-go.

Kyra: First show as a four-piece was March or April of 2022, so about 2 and a half years ago. 

Harry: What is that, like three pregnancies? 

Kyra: Is it? Roughly? 

Harry: 9 months, 27, we’re premature.

Did any or all of you have a background in music or any other performing art? What got you all into music?

Harry: I ‘ve been playing guitar since I was 8 because I wanted an excuse to get out of class for my music lesson, which was fun. I wanted to learn more, I quit at some point and then picked it back up. My family’s not musical or anything, I just kinda picked it up.

Kyra: I started playing piano when I was 4, in my bedroom I have a folder of songs I wrote in 3rd grade. Picked up guitar somewhere along the way, and was in some bands in high school. I got kicked out of a band in high school actually, I was just bad at guitar. They wanted me to be lead guitarist and after one practice they kicked me out, and you know, I cried. So yeah, I’ve been doing music forever, I even did a little trumpet. I did classical and jazz piano, and was in jazz band. 

Who are your biggest musical influences and inspirations?

Kyra: I love Adrianne Lenker, Big Thief. Big Thief is my favorite band, every song she writes is gold. I’d be happy if my best song was as good as her worst song, which I guess she really doesn’t have a worst show. She’s on the level of Bob Dylan for me. 

Harry: We’ve also been listening to a lot of McGee, saw a 2 hour set of his. We love McGee and there’s a whole lot of influence in our songs. We play his songs to ourselves. Classic rock, psych rock, Pink Floyd, the Eagles, and anything with a guitar is something you can draw inspiration from. And songs without guitar! 

Kyra: You don’t know any of those. 

Harry: I know like three! And the Grateful Dead. Bassist Kevin has been a lifelong Grateful Dead fan as well. 

Kyra: It’s cool to think about the inspirations while you’re writing - a lot of times, song by song it differs. There’s a song I wrote this year, around my birthday, Jordan’s Year, that kind of sounds like a Soccer Mommy song. Or Snail Mail, we love Snail Mail, and Baby’s All Right. 

What are your personal favorite artists? Favorite songs?

Kyra: I would have to say one of my favorite songs of all time is “Cattails” by Big Thief off their 2019 junior album. There’s so many songs, I’d probably put a Beatles song up there. I mean, the Beatles inspire everyone, and I think about how good of a songwriter Paul McCartney is. I will say “Cathy’s Song” by Simon and Garfunkel, one of my favorite songs of all time. I cry like a baby every time I hear it, I’m sure there’s ones I’m forgetting, but yeah. 

Harry: “Here, There and Everywhere” by the Beatles is a favorite of mine, “Hello It’s Me” by Todd Rundgren too. Simon and Garfunkel’s definitely up there too, and they’re definitely a songwriting influence. Guitar wise and vibe wise, they’ve got a lot of cool finger picking stuff that I’ve tried to emulate.

Do you have any non-musical inspirations or influences? 

Kyra: Yes, I love that and I love that question. That’s a great question. There’s things in my life, and I think about things. When I recorded the solo album that I released called Creature of My Creation I was exclusively watching New Girl, it was really good for helping me stay in a flow state while writing. I watched this one movie called Eileen, Anne Hathaway was in it, I wrote one pretty good song after watching that, so that. I guess I’ll backtrack, I guess a lot of what I write is rooted in personal experiences. If I had a diary I probably wouldn’t write any songs. 

Harry: I also have inspirations as well, I think about things. I go entirely off vibes, and that’s when I get in trouble. I’m gonna try to think about an answer in a way, but it’s gonna be such bullshit if I’m being honest. I’d say everyday experiences, all the everyday life stuff, but you think about - I love really specific experiences that everyone has - it’s hard to explain. An image that everyone has seen but no one really thinks about. You know when you’re driving on the highway, and there’s strip mall everywhere and giant fast food signs around, like the 18 by Rutgers. Stuff that everyone’s seen but nobody really thinks about. It’s hard to put that into words in terms of a song - one of those is “You Don’t Know the Shape I’m In” by MJ Landerman, “stood by a half mast McDonald’s flag” everyones seen the arches but yeah. Also, fashion. It’s inspiring, it’s cool seeing multimedia and it influences how we function as a band and how we present ourselves, it influences your everyday style and life. Aesthetics in general, you know.

Tell me about your first gig. What was it like performing live together for the first time?

Kevin: Kinda like this (puts hand over Harry) because Harry was not in the band yet. You know he already brought that up. 

Harry: (reached back to show me the Polaroid photo in his phone case) Was this the first one? Yeah, I think so! 

Kyra: We played 2 shows without Harry. It’s like Fleetwood Mac. Our first show was at RockBottom, I don’t remember that much specifically. I remember being super sweaty and super hype and feeling really good about it after. Now when we play, we’re so tight, I feel like we could play the whole set with our eyes closed. I think we remember more so the rehearsals and stuff leading up to and after the show. When Harry popped in we all started to gel creatively and it started flowing, rather than just doing Creature of my Creation we started to go into our own stuff, putting a spin on it together. Everything that’s gonna be on the EP, which comes out Friday by the way! In reference to the Beatles set - we have never worked harder on one thing as a band. It was like ten songs that are nowhere near as easy as you’d think to play, and then it’s like, let’s add the harmonies, and that’s a whole other equation. Before, we did a Halloween cover set that was a Weezer cover set, MUCH easier. John Lennon was in my nightmares for a period of weeks. 

What have been your favorite and least favorite shows to play?

Kyra: I think we would all have very different answers. I think we’re usually on the same page with best shows, but other times we have different perspectives on how the show went. One time we played the church on College Ave, I think we’d agree that’s a top 3 worst show. I played alright, we sounded alright, but I know you, Harry, and Calvin weren’t fully happy with how we did. 

Kevin: Kyra almost kicked me out of the band after that. 

Kyra: I did not! The next time we played Arlene’s Grocery, that was better. I think that was a top 3 best. It’s interesting how it varies. 

Harry: I think we can all agree that that last show at Milky Mansion was fantastic. All due to the vibe they curated there, it’s so laid back, everyone’s so chill, we brought it, we closed it out, it was amazing, it was an honor. 

What are your favorite aspects of the vibrant underground/basement scene we’ve got here in New Brunswick? What’s it like being a part of that?

(Unfortunately, I did not space out who said what when I was writing this down, so this is a blended paragraph of things from different members of the band.) It’s fun. You meet a ton of cool people. It really is a community I’d say, everyone’s always down to help each other out, I feel like people in the scene really want to see each other succeed, and I love it. It’s great vibes, a lot of artistry can be pretty cutthroat in the world, but the New Brunswick scene is more about creating a comfy vibe where everyone’s kind and wants to be happy, it’s really cool. People actually dance at the shows. No, it’s been great. There’s been a lot of people saying we love your band, we love to have you, a lot of people want to open their doors to new creativity and new bands. That’s a great thing about New Brunswick, there’s always new bands coming, and good bands coming, there’s a lot of really good people running it and making some really good stuff happen. 

Where do you see the band going in the future?

Kyra: Straight to the top. Grammys, Billboard, yeah! I mean, I have no idea. I think we have a ton of potential. A lot of these things lock into being at the right place at the right time and meeting the right people to make things happen. I think there’s a lot of potential for this to really go somewhere, I think we have the capacity to do so. I think we make great music, sky’s the limit, theoretically based on that. As long as people are coming out to see us and enjoying what they see, we’ll keep putting it out. We wanna keep playing music because we’re buddies and it’s fun to play music together. The biggest thing for us as well is to continue to play shows that people want to come out to, we’ll play till everyone gets sick of us. Then we’ll keep doing it after that!!

Tell me more about the EP.

Kyra: It is called Of Honey, 3 songs have already come out, “Pagan Bluff”, “Mary”, and “Dizzy”, and one more song coming out Friday. We’re playing NYC on Friday at Arlene’s Grocery, yeah, on the Lower East Side, we’re very excited. I was actually listening to “Dizzy” today while I was at school and I was like yeah, this is good. I’m really excited for people to listen to this as a full project, I’m really proud of this and how it’s turned out.