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ABOUT CHRIS Q
Howdy folks! Chris Q here, I thought I'd use this space to tell you a little about, well,
me. I'm from Gander, Newfoundland in the maritime provinces of Canada. I came to the states
as a child and grew up in Andover, Massachusetts outside of Boston. This was a cool place
to come up as a musician because basically in Boston, you're surrounded by music all the
time.
I wanted to be a musician pretty much since I can remember and started taking lessons
on the alto sax at an early age. I had a great teacher back then, a guy by the name of Jeff
Fisher. He's a pretty heavy jazz cat and is still playing. I owe a lot to that guy because
he turned me on to Coltrane and Charlie Parker in like, 4th grade. Aside from my great
great grandfather who led a travelling orchestra way back in the day I'm pretty much the
only musical type in my family, so thanks Jeff! He really got me going.
I had my first
experience with serious players in 6th grade when I got to perform with the Buddy Rich trio.
Talk about being in over your head! I'll never forget what Buddy said though. He said "what
a lot of young cats don't realize is that you can always do more with less," and then
proceeded to take this killer drum solo on just a snare, kick and hi-hat. Thanks, Buddy!
Around this time I picked up the bass and it felt right (besides, I had just been kicked out
of the all school band for taking sax solos in the middle of marches and shit). Bass was
really comfortable and I just dug the whole low end vibe. After a few garage bands I ended
up with some local older guys and went out opening for acoustic Hot Tuna. Another huge
learning experience, and I was 15. Those guys could play ... and party. Who knew I'd be
running into them a bunch more times later on.
Skip ahead 4 years.
I was nineteen, living in downtown Boston and playing in like 5 bands. Kind of a bass for
hire guy. I'd been through a year of music school, dropped out, played a bunch of gigs and
gone back to another school for something totally unrelated to music. Why? Your guess is as
good as mine. I kept playing a lot of gigs though, and soon I landed my first touring
situation and it was bye bye to college once again.
It was 1991 and I met the guys in Hypnotic Clambake at a benefit for something or other in
Boston. They were looking for a bassist and it just so happened that I was one. They gave me
a CD and said "learn this, we'll call you tommorrow." Long story short, I did, they did, and
off we went. We toured for seven years straight taking time off for albums and very brief
periods of sanity. There were years where I'd see home every four or six months and only
briefly. I wouldn't trade that time on the road for anything. We played everywhere, saw
every place and did everything. I really got to play with some heavy cats in the Clambake.
Mark Chenevert on horns was from the Del Fuegos, Maury had played piano for the Boston
Ballet, Grant Smith played drums in the Klezmer Conservatory Band, Billy Constable from the
Doug Dillard Band, and that's just to name a few. I was also playing in another band called
Stone Lily whenever I wasn't on the road. We recorded when we had the chance.
After seven years of constant touring I needed a little down time so I left the Clambake and
settled back down in Boston and played locally again, but not for long. After only being home
for about 5 months I was invited to go sit in with another Boston band, Jiggle the Handle.
We had a blast playing with each other and their bass spot was opening up, and so it was.
I was off and running again. Jiggle toured and worked hard hard hard. It was really cool
going back to so many places I'd been with the Clambake, but with an entirely different kind
of band. We played heavy jam oriented music, but it's pretty hard to classify. After some
national touring we did some H.O.R.D.E. shows and a string of shows on Allman Brothers tour.
Both those scenes were great. You know, getting to be a part of things on a whole other
level was cool. We made some recordings that I'm really proud of and took part in some
amazing music through those Jiggle years.
One night I was part of an impromptu band with
guys from Hot Tuna and The Other ones at a Further party. What a trip. You know, playing
some of those songs with the guys that PLAY those songs, wild. It was also during this time
that I was taking improv lessons with Bob Gulloti, who is one of the heaviest drummers on
this earth. It wasn't about bass or music theory. It was like, conceptual, visualization
stuff and it rocked. If you ever get to see him or his band The Fringe please please do it.
Well, like all things Jiggle came to an end in its full time capacity and we all started
doing different things musically. Everyone involved is doing well and playing a lot, much
love to Jiggle.
In the last year of Jiggle's touring we'd run across The Recipe a few times at festivals and
they'd opened for us in Boston. A few months after Jiggle I got a call from the Clambake's
sound guy who told me The Recipe was looking for a bassist. I called em up, flew down to
West Virginia for 3 days of rehearsal and it was back on the road. After "commuting" from
Boston to West Virginia for 6 or 7 months we all moved to Asheville, North Carolina where I
am now. After a couple of years in The Recipe it wasn't working out, but it was in that band
that I met Kris Kehr and here we are. We dig each other as musicians, and more importantly,
as people, so the LOWdOGS were born.
I realize that this was pretty rambling, but all these things were really important in making
me me, you know? Everything is a part of everything. As I've always said, I'm a
musician, and so are you ...
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