During high school in the early 80’s Chris gained the knowledge and appreciation of groups like Devo, Talking Heads, Oingo Boingo, Kraftwerk, Ultravox and the Police. At the time, all of these bands were considered “punk” or “new wave,” but were a breath of fresh air in the face of the plethora of sappy arena rock bands like Foreigner, Journey and Loverboy, which flooded the airwaves. It was at this time Chris also learned of the local music scene and the independent record stores near the University of Arizona.

Chris joined his first band in late 1984 when he teamed up with former members of notorious Tucson band The Freds, who went on to be collectively known as Road Furniture. RF, with guitarist Tony Dow’s Jimmy Page meets Johnny Ramone style and Chris’ Stan Ridgeway meets Roy Clark vocal delivery, performed many live shows, mostly at the now defunct Nino’s Steakhouse. They opened for Tupelo Chain Sex, Screamin’ Sirens, Leaving Trains and many other local and touring bands. After a year and a half of playing locally, the band broke up. Chris did some recording with David Slutes and Pete Holmes in a project called The 700 Club. Their songs “Broken Glass” and “Phone Keeps Ringing” received regular airplay on Virgin Vinyl, the Sunday night alternative radio program, hosted by Jonathan L. Chris made some videos for a few of the songs and showed them on Electric Window, his weekly music video show, which ran on local cable for ten years. Over the years he produced and directed dozens of “no-budget” videos for local bands. In the late 80’s he became keyboardist for the Marshmallow Overcoat, playing alongside local guitar icon Al Perry. Chris recounts playing in the Overcoat as being the most fun and the best time he’s ever had making music.

Chris also produced and hosted a live call in cable talk show called The Kitchen Sync. Show. He would field calls on any subject, and frequently had in-studio guests, such as members of The Lazy Cowgirls and The Silos.

By the early 90’s Chris had all but retired from show business, concentrating on a career in filmmaking. Seeing Tucson as a less than fertile ground for film makers, in the mid 90’s he set his sights on Los Angeles where he now resides. He divides his time between working as a video technician in the motion picture industry and writing, producing and directing independent films.

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