Worcester’s Chris Reddy Experiments with a Wide Range of Genres
Saturday, March 02, 2013
Spiritwolf Photography (http://www.facebook.com/spiritwolf.vega)
During his impressive career, now spanning some part of five decades, he has founded and/or played with a number of successful bands before embarking on a predominantly solo career in the late 90's. But no matter where, with whom or for whom he has played, he has always had the same goals in mind.
"Music has always been an important part of my life. I think music makes the world a better place and without it nothing would be the same. Playing music has always been a release and creating and recording original material is one of my favorite things in life," says the Leominster native.
As for the fans lucky enough to hear him, he states, "I hope people just find the music to be emotional in some way. Songs should make you feel some sort of emotion one way or another or they are not a very strong song. Regardless of whether a tune makes you feel sad, angry, uplifted, or even just having a catchy groove that gets you into a better mood. I hope people enjoy the recorded and my live performances looping. The feedback so far has generally been great."
Listening to his music one can hear the immense talent and almost visualize the speed and accuracy with which Reddy strums his instrument of choice, often producing a borderline hectic but beautiful harmony of acoustic and electric guitars. His latest challenge he says is to create more complex loop structures (In fact, his current solo project is called Chris Reddy's Acoustic Loops from Hell) and start using a live vocalizer for harmonies when performing solo. In other words, he is attempting to bring the unique magic of the studio to the live stage.
Reddy produces his own music at the Digital Kitchen Recording Studio, made especially for those experimental types looking for alternative, creative and relatively inexpensive ways to produce their music.
"I love tracking vocals and creating harmonies in the studio," he says.
As early as High School, Reddy helped form the band Transit with whom he played guitar and eventually took on the role of vocalist for over 25 years of playing, performing and recording with the band. They were described as progressive rock, and you can still hear progressive influences within his recent work, but Reddy isn't simply limited to one genre, especially now that he's largely on his own.
"I really enjoy all styles of music so I don’t really have a true favorite genre. Lately, I have been finding some new enjoyment playing obscure 80’s stuff by bands like The Smiths, The Waterboys, Echo and the Bunnymen, but now we are into that special St Patrick’s Day time of year and I will be switching gears for a few weeks as I play predominately Irish artists over the next few weeks; i.e. U2, the Cranberries, The Pogues, and Flogging Molly," he describes.
He also cites Steely Dan, Frank Zappa, Death Cab for Cutie, Coldplay, Jeff Beck, Steve Morse, Ty Tabor and Kings X, Brand X, Andy Partridge & XTC, and Adrian Belew as influences. In the recent past he has been the opening for many nationally known musicians including Marcy Playground, Dave Mason, Stan Ridgeway, Gary Hoey, and Johnny A.
Reddy is currently working on his fifth CD which he hopes to release this summer. Once again, he plans to use his wide-range of influences and abilities to his advantage.
"The new CD will be my 5th solo CD and I look forward to the work already. This CD will be a departure from the others with more ambient pop and more old rave elements and lofi direction," he says.
Now you can see Chris regularly performing at Michael’s Cigar Bar, The Mill, Blacksheep Tavern, Gardner Ale House, The Sunset Tiki Bar & The Outlook at Nashoba Valley, The Old Salt in Hampton, and various other one night shows throughout New England. You can also see him as part of the cover band Doctor Robert with fellow local musicians John Docimo, Ron Oimette, and Doug O'Malley at Sakura Tokyo, Chopsticks, Jillian's and Rye & Thyme.
For more information on Chris Reddy and to hear some of his music please visit his website or find him on Facebook or Reverbnation.
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