About

Born in Boston, May 16, 1967, Chris was ten years old when he fell in love with playing drums. He spent a year drumming on the couch, pots and pans with plastic frisbees suspended from the ceiling by kite string. Weird yes, but you have to give him points for being creative.

Chris got his first drum set on Christmas morning at age 11. According to his mother, it was just a "faze" he was going through. That faze continues today, 30 years later, with no end in sight. The drums were a significant upgrade from the couch and frisbees.

The drums were of generic brand, the shells made from a composite material and most of the hardware could be bent with bare hands. Chris played them until they fell apart.
The first item to break was the bass drum pedal assembly. The return spring snapped, preventing the pedal from returning to its original position. With no money for a new pedal, Chris improvised by strapping his foot to the pedal with rope. His foot had to perform double duty by manually lifting the pedal upward to pull the mallet back off the drum head. The first few years of playing this way gave Chris a pretty strong and lightening fast right foot, - an unexpected and welcomed by-product of playing with cheap equipment.

Chris kept a record player next to his drums to study legendary jazz drummers and then tried to imitate them on the drums. Buddy Rich and Louis Bellson were just some of his early influences. When Chris was 16 years old, he stood just 15 feet from Buddy Rich during a performance at the Hyannis Sheraton Ballroom (Cape Cod, MA). In the late 90's he met his other drum idle, Louis Bellson at Scullers (Boston, MA).

This was not only Chris's first recorded live performance, but also his first experience performing live in front of an audience. The venue was a church charity musical revue at the Park Theater (Brookline, MA). After one of the singers succumbed to a bad case of Laryngitis, it was mentioned to the producer that Chris played the drums. After an impromptu drum solo audition, the producer was impressed and immediately wrote Chris into the playbill as the replacement act. His surprise debut performance "brought down the house" and gave Chris the taste for performing live.

Later that same year, a bet was waged that Chris didn't have the guts to appear on a locally televised talent show. Chris accepted the challenge, auditioned, got called back and taped the show less than 4 weeks later.
Oh...and he won and returned to tape a 2nd show.

In 1989 Chris attended the Hartford Art School and took a few classes next door at the Hartt School of Music. That’s where he met artist and guitarist Francisco Lugo. During an open jam at the art school’s annual “May Day” party, Paul Eaton (Hartt School of Music) grabbed a bass and jumped in. The chemistry was tangible and a new campus band called "Stillife" was formed. Their no holds barred rock and roll style catered to the college party atmosphere quite well.

A few years after graduating, Chris and Francisco met up with bassist Mark Brunner and formed an all original power trio called “Amongus” (Allston, MA). The band's dissident and heavy funk sound captured a devoted local audience. They played extensively in the Boston and New York area for 3 years and in just about every venue that existed. They headlined rock clubs such as The Paradise, Local 186 (formerly Bunratty's) and the Rat.

The band also doubled as the core rhythm section as the house blues/funk band at Harper’s Ferry. The band played weekly and was often host to various local musicians. vocalist extraordinaire, Dan Labich, currently of King For A Day (Fairfield, CT).
On one particular Harper’s gig, Chris was approached by Darius Rucker, lead singer for Hootie and the Blowfish, who was so impressed by the band’s performance, gave Chris a generous $600 cash tip.

In 1997, Chris’s animation career suddenly took off and music was set aside for a while. For the next few years Chris’s life shifted when he married Rebecca Williams and had 3 wonderful children within a span of 5 years. Throughout this time, Chris continued to hone his chops and discipline himself as a groove-oriented drummer in the solitude of his basement.
In December of 2006, Chris and Dan Labich reunited briefly. King for a Day (KFAD) was Dan's current project and he was in need of a drummer. Chris jumped at the chance to play with Dan and drove 2 hours each way to rehearse with the band in Fairfield, Connecticut. Chris played 1 gig with KFAD at the Lion's Den in New York City. The 4 hours of driving for just an hour of performing was a bit taxing on the family schedule.

Through an ad on Craigslist, Chris found One Moe Time, a 7-piece cover band based much closer to home just north of Boston. Chris has been happily performing with OMT for five years and counting and not once has their been a single argument between any of the band members. OMT performs throughout the Boston and Cape Cod areas for several venues, charities and benefits and can be contacted through their website.

Chris also performs with a side project called Morris Les & the Stray Tones based in Holliston, Massachusetts, an eclectic mix of funk, surf and rock with a flare for choosing the musical path less travelled.

When not gigging, Chris can also be found at a weekly "drummer's hang" hosted by Jimmy Pemberton at the Stadium Rock Club most Monday nights. Here, many of Boston's local drummers gather to hang, talk drums, not talk drums, show and tell their select gear and above all, build a strong network of drummers who share a common passion for their craft.