Album Notes

Music is embedded in Christopher like road kill is to the road. His momma is his first influence, a classically trained pianist with a soul-deep love for music. She would always play when Christopher would start wrestling with his brother in her belly. All three of them would get high on diet pills, bennies, vodka 'n juice and jam to Mozart, Chopin, and Beethoven. Another prominent influence was his momma's fourth hubby, a multi-instrumentalist with a love for the juice. He played the Hammond organ, tuba and little guitar. When he was sauced, he would try to play all three of them at once. Dixieland was his forté. From '96-'98, Christopher was in a Rawk band called 10minute warning with Duff Mckagen (guns & roses), Greg Gilmore (Mother Love Bone), Paul Soldier (Green River), and David Garrigues. They signed to Subpop, recorded a record with Jack Endino (nirvana), toured briefly and pondered recording a second record. But, Duff got promises for a solo record from Geffen, so he left the band. At that point Christopher felt he needed to move on as well. From '93-'99, Christopher was also involved in a project called Ventilator. They signed to a little label in London (The blue-rose record co.). They made a record with John Cale (Velvet Underground) in the producers' chair. The record label went bankrupt before the record was released. " The whole thing began to feel like a coffin, full of concrete that was chained to my neck and I was trying to scale this impossibly steep mountain of a hill with one shoe on that didn't fit. So, I left the project. The last I heard, the record is sitting in a closet under a broken fan and a box of antique glass poodles." In '99, he met a man named Dan, a blacksmith who worked above the rehearsal space used by 10 minute warning. He asked Christopher to listen to a tape of his band and consider jamming. Christopher was excited by the angular rock and immediately wanted to join, thus, became 'Big Gun Project.' "We jammed like motherfuckers, made a couple of records and played a few shows. It was a transitional situation for all parties involved and in accordance with the law of impermanence, it ended." The experience exposed Christopher to sounds and musicians that are vital to him today: Cop Shoot Cop, Barkmarket, Mike Watt, and Jesus Lizard. "My musical journey thus far has come to this...I have learned about the importance of texture, sonic space, and lyrical truth. Life experiences are the stories that need to be told. Mastering the subtleties is the key and it will probably take an entire lifetime to accomplish this." Songs for lovers, loners & losers is Christopher's first solo offering but a continuation of his sonic and lyrical explorations. This record is 'a knot of abstract noise and americana road music'... good for listenin' to when you're on the run, wandering around town drunk on over-the-counter medicine...or when it's 3a.m and you just realized that everything you are doing with your life has nothing to do with where you want to be...or when your staring into the mirror, crying all over the floor, screaming at yourself regarding everything that reverberates in your head. The very best time to listen to this record is five minutes after your lover drives off in the moving-truck, full of everything that is theirs, yours, and yours and theirs together. Hopefully, they left you with something to listen to it on. If not, there is always the library. press: "Blue has captured the essences of these deep well-to-stratospheric heights travels in Songs for Lovers, Loners, and Losers, a solo disc that is as complex and unconventional as its creator. The album begins with a handful of desolate, early Howling Wolf-meets-Tom Waits-style numbers - Blue drawling over the steel buzz of open-tuned guitar - and it graduates to a radio-friendly-yet-lyrically intense middle section(fleshed out with piano, bass and drums), only to slowly disintegrate into remarkable spoken-word monologues and frightful howls of anguish, enmeshed in electronic noise. It's a bit schizophrenic, a bit brilliant, and totally unplanned ......." steve stav (ballard news 6/02)