“For the last two months, I have been working behind the scenes, developing a couple of TV shows, which I am excited about for the future,” he said. “This quarantine has allowed me to be incredibly creative and it has restored my passion and drive to create things and entertain people. I actually gained energy during this horrible time. I gained a new fan-base and it has been a lot of fun.”
Mann is known for his classical crossover background, and it will interesting to see how people will perceive him in the future, now as a more comical Chris Mann. “That is something that I will have to figure out,” he said. “In fact, I had a couple of Christmas shows that I won’t do this year. Also, I would have to answer that question sooner than I would like. The truth is that my show is going to change because of what has happened and I am very happy about that. I’ve done the ‘old me’ for about 20 years and I am happy to do something different. Music will be the center of it all.”
“There are tons of new people that only know me as a comedian and are unfamiliar with my music,” he added. “I want to bring people on a journey as opposed to only delivering parody after parody. I want to mix it up and make real music.”
He decided to do a “Ben Still Thriller” parody that was centered around Halloween. “This was purely for entertainment, I wasn’t trying to say anything special,” he said. “I wanted to make people laugh.”
Mann served as a meditation guide in a parody where he poked fun at the Trump presidency over the last four years. “That one has been getting a huge response. I filmed it on a whim and I spent very little time on it but I had a lot of fun,” he said.
Equally impressive was his “I’m Friends with AJ!” Backstreet Boys parody, where they tackle “I Want It That Way” in a new and refreshing way. “It really did happen the way as I said in the video. AJ did call me on the phone,” he said. “AJ was amazing to work with. He was at home and excited to do something with me. It was definitely a moment for sure.”
He had complimentary words about Emmy-nominated entertainer Randy Rainbow. “Randy is a friend of mine. He’s brilliant and obviously, I am a huge fan of his. I wanted him to know that I wasn’t trying to get in on his territory, it was a complete accident that it happened in the first place but he was totally fine with it,” he said.
His latest album Noise came out in mid-October and it is available on Apple Music, Amazon Music, and on Spotify.
“Amid the pandemic, I wrote a couple of more songs for the Noise album, which came out a couple of weeks ago,” he said. “The horn section is really big on this record. There is a video that will premiere probably next week for ‘Good Days,’ which is the new single. Noise is an upbeat album, which is a lot of fun. It’s a great time to have music that makes you feel good right now.”
“Lyrically, with this album, I wanted to represent who I am at this point,” he said. “This album was a combination of me fighting back and representing the protest movement for the year 2020. I am glad that I released all of these songs as one album. All the songs still sound great and they mean the right things.”
“I wrote ‘Good Days’ more recently, within the last year,” he said. “I was reflecting on my own life and asked whether the glory days have happened or not. Once the Black Lives Matter movement started, the song took a new meaning for me. I feel, we, collectively should have ‘good days’ left, that way we can get out of bed. The video for ‘Good Days’ will include Black Lives Matter because that’s the new meaning of the song. The world has evolved since I wrote it.”
To learn more about singer-songwriter Chris Mann and his music, check out his official website and his Facebook page, and follow him on Instagram.
