Bio
I grew up on a sheep farm near Vermilion, Alberta. While other kids raised steers, I dressed in matching costumes with Fluffy at the fair. We did win 3 years in a row, but nobody was impressed. In rural Alberta, the only radio stations we had were talk radio, oldies, new country and the Prairie Farm Report. Asking the bus driver to play my tapes of Queen, Aerosmith or Weird Al resulted in many confused looks from the other kids who “politely requested” we switch back to Alan Jackson. I knew there had to be more to life than mutton busting and country music, so I said goodbye to the farm and headed up to the big city.
Moving to Edmonton for high school opened my eyes and ears to a whole new world of music. I learned about Punk, Metal, Acid Jazz and Swedish Throat Singing. I also learned that if you have a bass, and the guy who sits behind you in English class plays guitar and knows a drummer with a car, you have a band!
My band, Small Potatoes was my first experience in the “biz”. We played some all ages hall shows and made some demos I’ll never play for anyone. But like most high school endeavors, it was short-lived. Our drummer sold his car and joined a Buddhist monetary in Hawaii (really!), so that was the end of Small Potatoes.
I moved to Vancouver after high school to pursue an acting and music career. My very first professional audition led to a 4 episode run on a really funny show called The Sausage Factory. Look for the hippy, skateboarder student with dreads who yells “Food Fight!” I used the proceeds from that show, and a few other acting gigs to buy a recording box and set out to record my DEBUT ALBUM!
After a few months locked in my bedroom, I released Das Christoff… and it sucked.. really bad. I had some cool songs, but didn’t really know anything about recording. Also I couldn’t sing. The album was promptly shelved.
I spent a few years playing in various bands, trying on different hats, and honing my skills. Once I learned how to sing and wrote some songs that people wanted to hear, I founded The Chris King Maneuver! With my long-time drummer Alec Smecher and old high school buddy Nathan Salloum on bass, we play great songs, put on high energy shows and melt faces with our rock awesomeness.
Our first album Rock Harder Than Your Enemies was released in 2010. A collection of songs written over a span of 5 years, the album ranges from light-hearted love songs to angry punk songs about cannibalism to introspective songs about life and death.
We are now hard at work on our 2nd collection of tunes, tentatively called Triumphs and Tragedies. All the songs were written over a much narrower time-span, a crazy summer I had after the breakup of a long-term relationship. The album touched on the loneliness of falling out of love, the excitement of finding new love, the gut-wrenching feeling when your new love tears your heart out, and surviving Zombie invasions. It’s a very personal album and it’s got some of the best song I’ve ever written. I hope you like it.
So what exactly is The Chris King Maneuver? Well, I’ve always had a very specific way of doing things that often seems to be very different from the norm. When I eat sushi, I never get fish. I have a Foosball move that scores every time. I eat cottage cheese and hot sauce for breakfast. I used to dress up in matching costumes with my sheep to win money at the fair. I play fast punk songs but still have melody in them. I play soft love songs that have pep and energy. All these things, and many more, are Chris King Maneuvers. Hang out with me for an hour and you’ll be sure to catch a few.