Take a 'Souvenir'

ing someone playing drums in the house," Staples said. "They always let me follow things I was interested in, so that was cool."

Working on the album was Staples' way of coping with the loss, which is largely why he didn't produce it himself like usual. He instead asked his childhood friend Jeremy Griffith, whom he met in middle school shop class.

Working on a record together is 20 years in the making. Griffith runs a recording studio

"He has a ton of ideas, so he was able to throw 100 ideas at a song and we could sort of pick through the best stuff," Staples said. "It was nice to have his musical language and mine together; we were able to flesh out these songs pretty fast. It was really fun and seemed effortless."

The album alone is several years in the making; Staples' prior album "Holy Moly" dropped in 2019, which was also the last time he toured. But like many other artists, he was derailed by the pandemic.

Staples is excited to be touring again—even if it means babying "Cloud Souvenirs" on vinyl, a temperamental medium.

"It feels like I'm a mother hen to thousands of dollars' worth of vinyl when I'm on tour," Staples said with a laugh.

The indie-rock musician was raised there and birthed his first band, Twothirtyeight, in FWB and Niceville. It's why the guts of his new album, "Cloud Souvenirs," are Northwest Florida. The album title was inspired by the abundance of souvenir shops in FWB, and the cover was shot by Thomas Humphrey on Pensacola Beach.

"A lot of the record has to do with growing up in Fort Walton (Beach) and my childhood," Staples said. "I was thinking about clouds and how they change and they're subjective; you can see things in clouds. I guess it's about memories and how they change over time and how the meaning of the past changes. I mainly thought they sounded cool together."

The song "Souvenir" was inspired by an open mic night he recently attended (but didn't participate in) at The Sound Café in downtown FWB.

"I used to go to this place called the Java Pit in Fort Walton in the '90s—and that's been gone for a long time—but it was a similar place," Staples said. "A lot of original bands would play there; I saw a lot of cool touring acts that would come through there. It made me happy that something like that is happening in Fort Walton. Sound Café is giving a place for young people to play."

The "Souvenir" music video was filmed at FWB landmarks, such as Goofy Golf and FWB founder John Brooks' gravesite.

Not every song is about the area though— "Take Your Time," for instance.

"I needed to see my parents, but I was waiting for them to get vaccinated, so there was a period of time where I didn't get to see them," Staples said. "So that song was about coming home and seeing them for the first time in a while."

The subject matter is especially meaningful, because Staples' mother Victoria died in September of 2022. She was a piano teacher and the organist at First Baptist Church in Fort Walton Beach for 40 years.

"Probably the reason I'm playing music now is because of her, because of her influence," Staples said.

His family has always been supportive, dating back to his childhood drum kit.

"They never complained even once or made me stop, which, I can't even imagine that, because that would drive me crazy hear-

Staples has a thing for performing in unexpected venues—an underground cavern in Tennessee and a cemetery in Virginia are a few of the notches on his tour belt. This summer's tour boasts a rooftop in Brooklyn, NY, a winery in Asheville, North Carolina, and a video production house in Boston, Massachusetts. He will perform 51 shows, with some in the U.S., Germany, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland, United Kingdom and Netherlands.

Of course, he's playing a hometown show in FWB on Wednesday, June 14. His Pensacola show on Thursday, June 15 is already sold out.

"It's going to be a fun summer," Staples said. {in}

CHRIS STAPLES

chrisstaplesmusic.com