Christopher Harrison-vocals,guitars, mandolin, synth.
Joe Theiler-Bass.
Bob Ackerman-Drums,percussion.
Influences
Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, ELO, Supertramp, underground 80's, Irish folk, most Brit pop, Americana (love the Jayhawks), REM, U2, Pixies, The Pogues, The Frank and Walters, The Tragically Hip, The Clash, Wilco, The Hothouse Flowers, Stone Roses, Echo and The Bunnymen, Supergrass, The House of Love, Catherine Wheel, Shane McGowen, The Cure, The Smiths, Peter Murphy, Billy Bragg, Bauhaus, Teenage Fanclub, The Charlatans, Beck, Moby, Air, The Elected, Sparklehorse, Guided By Voices, Cracker, Dave Lowery, Camper Van Beethoven, Talking Heads, The Church, Steve Kilbey, Marty Wilson Piper, World party, Karl Wallinger, Geoffrey Oreyema, Mike Scott, The Waterboys, matt Johnson, The The, Morrissey, Oasis, T-Rex, Donovan, Belle and Sebastian, Texas, James, Travis, Coldplay, Lush, Belly, Blue Rodeo, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, The Eagles, Alan Parsons Project, The Levellers, Neutral Milk Hotel, Elf Power, Olivia Tremor Control, The Cult, Sarah McLauchlan, Tori Amos, Styx, Queen, Sweet, Elton John, Bob Geldof, Ultravox, Little River Band, 10cc, Warren Zevon, Kraftwerk. The Swell Season, The Frames
Sounds Like
Me!,British Indie rock, The Waterboys, Robyn Hitchcock, World Party, Radiohead, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, The Pogues, REM, James, New Order, Sinead O'Conner, U2, Belle and Sebastian, The Wonderstuff, Julian Cope, Midnight Oil, Echo and The Bunnymen, Ian McCulloch, The Doves, Travis, Brian Eno
Recording wise I use Tracktion software, a Line 6 UX2 interface, Submersible Drumcore software as well as real drums. I play eveything myself these days except the drums. The synths are Sonik Synth and CronoX3 played on a Line 6 KB37 keyboard controller. The mics I use are a Sennheiser E865 and a E855. The guitars are through a Line 6 Floor XTLive and Line 6 Gearbox software. I also incorporate a Tascam 2488 as a preamp/mixer. My story goes like this. I immigrated to South Georgia when I was a kid. I taught myself guitar back in 1988 when I was in a military brig in Japan. I was busy getting kicked out of the Marine corps at the time. Once out of the Marines I moved back to my native London, England where I started my first band "Full Circle". 3 years later I was living in Montreal, Canada playing with a new band called "Mental Pictures". A couple of years after that and a couple of tours backpacking around Europe and I made my way down to Athens, Georgia to record my quickly growing repetoire of songs. I used to be a busker on the Montreal and London Undergrounds. I had a couple of albums worth of songs spinning around in my head at that time and I was dying to get them on tape so I enlisted the help of some great local musicians in Athens and headed off to a couple of local studios to record my first two CD's "Skitso In The Watershed" (Recorded with Andy Baker) and "Mowahi Mohladi" (recorded with Van Barry Roberson and Peter Fancher). I made loads of friends along the way and got to record with some very accomplished players. Among them Aaron Perett (who was so bloody cool he had Son Volt play his backyard) and George Norman who had toured on R.E.M.'s "Green' tour back in 89' on mando. Athen's taught me much and I attempted to steal as many songs from the hole in the sky that exists above it as I could! Unfortunately life in Athen's can also consume a person and I was getting swept up in the haze so I decided to move down to Saint Simons Island in South Georgia in 2001. I got together with my good friend Bob Ackerman and fellow underground music lover Joe Theiler and we started doing shows as Tone Deaf Radio. That has now evolved into a 2nd project called "Konichiwa"in which I play guitar and sing. I live with my lovely wife Elena who is from Russia and our 3 dogs, Tex, Blue, and Happy. We are expecting a kid come April 2009 and I'm looking forward to that side of life. It's been an amazing journey so far! Tone Deaf Radio is basically a melange of all the things I find interesting. There's mythology, shamenism, human sexuality, traveling , politics (I'm a big John Lennon fan), surrealism, history, conscious dreaming. Lyrically I hope people find it's a bit like Salvador Dali meeting with Carl Jung, Gore Vidal, Joseph Campbell and Noam Chomsky in a public toilet. Throw in some Lord Byron, a bit of Roger Waters, add a touch of Oscar Wilde and make me a woman! Voila! Lots of good weirdness. I write songs for and about whales, space, trains, monkeys, intertubing, horses, boats ,love, the sky, kafka, H.G. Wells, and Cervantes, physics, art, Mary Shelley, mother universe and her satellites.I believe in dreaming. That it should be part of ones reality. I proudly support Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd in all they do. Like I said I'm a bit political. I'm an agnostic pagan type who loves life and music. I hope you enjoy my songs as much as I enjoyed creating them. Cheers big ears, Chris
Hello my fellow one man bander.. Reading your notes our progress sounds very similar, Busking is the best teacher, those long empty windy tunnels interupted by the steally faces of the marching throng. Great audience ... not, getting someone to stop smile and reflect now thats the magic ! I hope your keeping strong and creative over there Austin way, big ups from Byron Bay way.
Hi Elena and Chris! Great to hear from you both. I am so happy for you two :)! I know that your trip was a blast. I will come for a visit very soon. I miss seeing yall~
Hi, I've read your bio and smiled ;) I'm listening to Here's to war, at the moment. I dig your inspiration. Nice page, music & layout. And ideas, of course. Wow, so many words just to say: nice to be your new musical friend!
Hey Tone Deaf Radio, thanks for being my friend. I like your tunes. You should check out Glen Hansard and The Frames (myspace.com/theframesofficial) and also the Irish film "Once." I didn't notice those on your list but I think you'd love them. Finally, my buddy Justin Pittman (myspace.com/tobypittmanjr) writes songs that I think you'd dig. Good luck and good day! -MDH
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