Christopher Oberst has been playing guitar since he was a 15 year-old goofball metalhead, and he has been writing and recording his own compositions for most of that time. This has led Chris to his current status as a 37 year-old goofball metalhead = who happens to dabble in prog stylings, as well. In addition to playing guitar, Chris plays and programs all of the other instruments on his recordings. Jeezus, what a drag that is! But it's much easier than trying to record other musicians inside his small apartment = plus, it gets him out of his wife's hair for long periods of time. She appreciates that.
Chris, his wife and their goofy dog currently reside in Arlington, Virginia just a mile or so from the heart of the American Military-Industrial Complex. Despite that location, Chris has a rather more prosaic way of making of living--at any given time, he is either an editor for legal and political publications, or he helps highly-paid Washington lawyers sue people.
Come to think of it, maybe the world would be better off if Chris joined the Military-Industrial Complex...
The short piece that Chris contributed to this album is called "Sincere Flattery." This is the first track that Chris recorded for his new album-in-progress (tentatively titled "Shred Ahead"). The title comes from the fact that the piece ended up blatantly showing the influence that a certain famous guitar shredder had on Chris - see if you can guess who it is. Chris's contributions to the previous AMYCD compilation "Cyberian Khatru" had a more overt prog sound than does this track. However, a bit of Mr. Squire's influence might be heard in the big moving bass part underlying the piece. Even though Chris (Oberst, that is) is a guitarist by nature, he has been influenced by Squire's fabulous bass-playing even more than by the work of the various guitarists in Yes. Go figure. The best part of "Sincere Flattery" has to be the little 'wakka-wakka' porn music breakdown sections. Is porn music great, or what?
Ibanez RG620x guitar
Ibanez RG7620 7-string guitar
Jackson Concert V 5-string bass
Boss DR-770 drum machine
Two MIDI-synchronized Akai DPS-12 digital recorders
Line6 PODxt guitar modeling preamp
Line6 Bass PODxt bass modeling preamp
TC Electronics G-Major effects processor
M-Audio BX-8 nearfield monitors
Chris is currently working on his seventh album of new material. The first four albums are so bad that he doesn't let anyone else hear them = he hopes for a great deal of Hendrix-like exploitation of this material after his passing many years from now. The two most recently completed albums, "Rhythms" and "Frankly Speaking," = he lets people hear those. They are available for play or download at his artist page: