Regina Chellew knows exactly how she wants her music to connect with her listeners. "I'd like it to hit them between the eyes," she says of Hits the Miss (Last Beat), her debut outing with her new project, Chao. "I hope it does what other people's music has done to me. Music can give you chills, make you cry, or piss you off. It becomes the soundtrack to your life ... music means something to me." Mean something, she illustrates, in the way that the music of the Velvet Underground, Roxy Music, Joy Division and David Bowie meant to her. Music like that is not born of indifference. Born in Southern California but raised and based in Dallas, Texas, Regina Chellew is Chao, in much the same way as Chan Marshall is Cat Power and J. Mascis was Dinosaur Jr. It's her first project since her previous outfit, Dallas' acclaimed art-pop trio Captain Audio, went on hiatus after fellow members Brandon Curtis and Josh Garza relocated to New York City. Written, conceived and co-produced by Chellew, Chao is a solo venture in all but name. "Phonetically, I like the word 'Chao,' and it seemed like a good title for what I consider this; a project, not a band," she explains of the alias. Quality music would be expected of Chellew, by merit of her work with Captain Audio and ruby (for whom Regina played keyboards and guitars on the Salt Peter tour). In April of 1998, shortly after Captain Audio's formation, Dallas Observer scribe Robert Wilonsky proclaimed them as "one of the best bands in town," setting the tone for most of the press that followed with the release of their 1998 EP My ears are ringing but my heart's ok and their 2000 full-length debut, Luxury or whether it is better to be loved than feared. The trio's live shows were just as well received. Eschewing the all-too standard gig routine of playing the same set of songs week after week in the same clubs, Captain Audio approached each show as an event. Every show they ever played had a distinct theme or artistic quirk, be it performing under a giant bubble sculpture, dropping balloons on the audience or playing nothing but Bowie's Hunky Dory album, or the Beatles' Abbey Road (but only Side 2). Captain Audio performed on the Dallas club scene with surprising frequency for a band that reinvented itself with every outing. Captain Audio songs were primarily band collaborations. Thoughts of a solo project began as Chellew amassed a store of songs which didn't have an outlet. When, in late 2000, the rest of the band moved to New York to concentrate on a new project, The Secret Machines, Chellew took the opportunity to sort through her demos, and Chao was born. Her own project was to make what she calls "pretty much a straight-up pop record. " But under no circumstances should Chellew's perception of "straight-up" be misinterpreted as "normal." It's a sweepingly diverse debut, as full of melodic snap and bite ("Bugs," "Find a Hole") as it is lushly beautiful arrangements ("Low") and inspired touches like the gorgeous duet with Marcus Striplin of Pleasant Grove on the cover of Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay" and the fluid foot stomps of a Ballet Folklorico dancer weaved into its rhythm of the seductive, Latin-flavored "Whisper." Chellew plays all of the guitar, bass guitar, trumpet, piano and organ parts on the record, in addition to drumming on one track and programming three or four others --pretty much every instrument on the album but the strings. "When I started, my songs were simply demo-ed with guitar and vocals only. I knew that in the studio I'd incorporate piano, strings and different instruments to flesh the songs out," Chellew says. " I had no idea how it would all turn out -- it was a mystery to me what was going to happen. After a few weeks the album just kinda took its own shape and the songs started to find their own way. " Endless possibility and fluidity is the closest anyone will come to defining her music. New album, " Art and Assasination" available late 2005!