Chantel McGregor releases her third studio album, ‘The Healing’, on May 23, 2025. Over the last 15 years the Yorkshire-born guitarist, singer and songwriter has carved a reliable presence on the British gig circuit, traversing the length and breadth of the country and appearing at some of our biggest festivals. It would be easy to presume that we know what makes her tick.

However, ‘The Healing’ is set to blow such preconceptions clean out of the water, revealing a whole new side to Chantel McGregor in both a musical and emotional sense. Back in 2011, McGregor introduced herself with an enjoyable yet (by her own admission) fairly blues-by-numbers set entitled ‘Like No Other’, and a full decade has now passed since a harder-edged successor, ‘Lose Control’, which began to absorb the rock and heavy metal that Chantel listens to away from the stage. 

‘The Healing’ is the next logical step of McGregor’s journey. “This is definitely, definitely a rock album – not a blues album,” stresses Chantel. “It’s heavy and dark and it introduces elements of prog-rock, which is a form of music I absolutely love. It has those ‘wobbly synth vibes’ from the 1980s,” she continues, laughing. “Steven Wilson went down that route of being disturbing, dark and also slightly wobbly. It’s got a bit of that.”

Besides McGregor, the album features her regular band-mates Colin Sutton on bass and Thom Gardner on drums, a pair of players with whom she has developed a form of musical telekinesis. Where things depart from the norm is the presence of the two newcomers. Noted UK guitarist Oli Brown handles what Chantel describes as “programming and synth-y things” and is also a co-producer. “I’ve known Oli for donkey’s years, but when I heard the work he was doing with his band The Dead Collective I really wanted to see if we could do something together,” McGregor states. Wayne Proctor, another member of The Dead Collective, handled production mixing and mastering.

In another huge break with tradition, both Oli and Wayne were involved heavily in the songwriting process.

“Working with them has given me a completely new angle on things,” McGregor states proudly. “I’ve used synths before, but bringing in a Moog really boosted my creativity because it made me think outside the box. Best of all, it all felt completely natural.”

“I’ve really loved making what I consider to be a mash-up of dark, grungy heavy rock with my prog influences – the weird time signatures and the Moog,” Chantel continues. “To me, it sounds really interesting.”

And, just to clarify, ‘The Healing’ isn’t blues? “It’s definitely not blues,” she chuckles.

Will all of this come as a surprise to those that think they know all about Chantel McGregor?

The answer is equally emphatic: “Yeah. Maybe. But I’m lucky with my fans. I believe that a musician must evolve and grow. I’m sure there are still some people might want to hear me still playing Robin Trower songs, like I did when I was 18, but on the whole they’ve always been so accepting of what I do.”

By now you will have heard the album’s first single, ‘Broken Heartless Liar’, a real belter of a song that spits venom at several of McGregor’s ex-boyfriends. “I grew up listening to Alanis Morissette and I wanted to write one of those angsty songs that she always does so well, so I went back in time and channeled how I felt about every destructive relationship I’ve had.”

The album’s hugely emotional title track – an epic, cathartic piece – is saved till last. McGregor was moved to write it after her mum was seriously ill. “We nearly lost her,” she reveals, struggling to keep the emotion from her voice. “God alone knows how I’m going to sing the one live. It will be emotional.”

In yet another departure from the norm, ‘The Healing’ marks the first time that Chantel has written material of an autobiographical nature. Previously, for instance, a song like ‘Anaesthetize’ (from ‘Lose Control’) was inspired by the cult US TV show True Detective.

“I’ve sung about vampires and addiction, but the only things I was ever addicted to were cats and chocolate,” she smirks. “Making this album, I saved a fortune in therapy.”

Given all of the above, a case could be made for the statement that ‘The Healing’ is the first time that we have seen the real Chantel McGregor. 

“That’s right,” she affirms enthusiastically. “This album is a hundred per cent me, like you’ve never seen me before.”

Although a common thread exists between several of its songs – which also include ‘I Will Breathe’, ‘Tears’, ‘Stand On My Own’ and ‘Echoes’ – McGregor insists that ‘The Healing’ is not a concept record.

“Its central themes are loss, grief and heartbreak, but the album isn’t exclusively about sadness because we come out the other side of it all,” she explains. “There is light and positivity at the end of the tunnel.”

At 14, McGregor was complimented for having a “great voice” by a major record label though the same talent scout reminded her that “girls don’t play guitar like that”. Well, actually they do, and misogynistic gatekeepers had better get used to the fact. 

To celebrate the album’s arrival on May 23, Chantel and her band will play a special launch show at a legendary venue, the 100 Club, on the same day. Like its two predecessors, ‘The Healing’ is a self-released product, issued via Tis Rock Music. Although McGregor has received offers from record labels keen to obtain her signature, independence and complete artistic freedom are too vital to sell off.

“It’s important to make my own decisions. If someone came along and offered the right vision and financial backing, also the possibility of supporting Steven Wilson, I would definitely consider that,” she explains, grinning cheekily.

Chantel continues: “A prime example is what I’m talking about is the amount of time that elapsed between the last album and this new one. A record label would have exerted pressure to get it out much, much sooner, but doing that would have been forcing things. Who wants to put rubbish out every other year just to suit schedules? My whole premise is that everything I do must be the best that it can be.”

Another of McGregor’s personal favourite songs from ‘The Healing’ is ‘Truth Will Out’. 

“That one has a massive prog ending that to me sounds a bit like Opeth,” she beams, namechecking the veteran Swedish prog-metal band. “Lyrically speaking, it’s about people in the music industry that say: ‘You must wear this’, ‘You have to behave this way’ or ‘Your music should sound like this’. And I’m replying: ‘No’. I will always stand on my own two feet. I’m doing what I love doing. I carve my own path. And if people don’t like that… well, that’s tough on them.”

Dave Ling, Classic Rock magazine

Multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer

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