CHAMELEON

Introducing Chameleon, aka young Irish singer / musician / producer Matthew Harris from Dublin. It’s an appropriate moniker, given his voracious appetite for all kinds of music, from hip-hop to yacht rock via R’n’B and cinematic soundscapes, he has the rare ability to make himself at home in multiple genres. 

Coming from a musical family, Matthew got his first guitar when he was 7, and started music lessons on piano, drums and guitar around the same time. Growing up he delighted in learning hip-hop raps verbatim - the faster and trickier the better - as a surefire way to impress the opposite sex. At 17, having started to get a decent grip on recording software, he cut a track called ‘Closer Than You Think’ which he says “was the first one I completed that I didn't want to immediately delete.”

In 2019 Matthew started to collaborate with Dublin rapper Malaki and they released the “Cuppa Tea” track. Further success followed with the release of “Fair Play” with Malaki and Lucy McWilliams (now on 8 million streams) and a fresh, 21st-century spin on the Van Morrison evergreen “Someone Like You 2” which gave Malaki and Matthew their first taste of national airplay in 2021. 

His favourite songwriters are James Blake and Bon Iver. He adds: “I'm obsessed with artists who’ve made a completely new and unique sound and those two certainly fall under that category.” He also admires Fontaines D.C. for their poetic lyrics and the one band he regrets not seeing live is Daft Punk: “I was so annoyed to have only come to appreciate their music after they stopped performing live so I would die to be able to see one of their live shows.”

At the end of 2021, slipping into his Chameleon skin, he was nominated for the Hot Press ‘New Local Hero’ initiative by Dublin radio station 98fm. Beating off fierce competition from artists all over Ireland, Chameleon came away with the top prize at The Academy, which included the release of a single through leading Irish independent label Rubyworks. A man of many talents, Matthew was focused on wrapping his Trinity College degree course in Film Studies before turning his attention to ‘Show Me Where Your Heart Is’ - on which he sings, plays all the instruments and produced himself - and delivering what is undoubtedly a hot summer jam for his Rubyworks debut.

At just 22 years old, the future for Chameleon looks very bright indeed.