“I’m a very lucky man to be alive,” says THE ALARM’s lead singer Mike Peters, reflecting on his past 30 years living with cancer. Never one to let mortality stare him down, the resilient fighter is not only currently in the fight of his life (his leukemia had transformed into a deadly and extremely rare combination of leukemia and lymphoma known as “Richter’s Syndrome”), but he also wrote and recorded a new album TRANSFORMATION (Summer 2025 via Twenty First Century Recordings / Virgin Music Group), an extraordinary record made under extraordinary circumstances.
First single “Chimera” (pronounced kahy-meer-uh) is released today, January 23, 2025 as a symbolic rebirth for Mike as it is also the exact day that he receives a revolutionary new and hopefully lifesaving transplant known as CAR-T Therapy. Symbolically embracing the Greek mythos of a chimera that embodies multiple creatures’ characteristics, the CAR-T process involves harvesting and re-engineering his own harvested blood lymphocytes and re-introducing them into his system with hopes that it will destroy the Richter’s syndrome cancer cells.
“When I have CAR-T therapy I will literally become chimeric,” states Mike. “There will be two types of blood flowing inside of me. Two individual types of DNA in fact, and I’ve not been able to stop thinking about this ever since the process was explained to me by the doctors. The idea of an alter ego named CAR-T kept entering my thoughts while I was writing lyrics and singing on the microphone, and eventually this new persona forced its way onto the record.”
“The accompanying video for “Chimera” visually represents this duality with the doubling images of Mike. “I worked on the film concept with my cameraman Andy Labrow and also Alex Colettti of MTV Unplugged fame,” he explains about the startling imagery. “I wanted it to reflect the duality of the situation I find myself plunged into. There are two of me existing side by side, externally albeit with separate DNA markers. I really don’t know which side of me will come out on top post transplant but I do somehow hope to get to a new life because of it. Two DNA and Car-T gives me a fighting chance.”
“It’s amazing what a costume change can do to bring out your real personality,” he laughs. “Hopefully people will be able to see more of the real Mike Peters when they get to experience Transformation in full.”
|
|
|
