Chris Browder & Desperate Times
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Chris Browder & Desperate Times

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"Int. Country Music Data Base"

5 Star review of "The Way"
See review @ ICMDB.com - Mary Duval


"Interview for Indie Islands"

Interview with Chris Browder - 2/8/2008


Chris Browder may not be a household name, but he should be. He has learned how to write and choose songs that fit his voice and style. He's country to the core. I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with him. Here's what he had to say....



Mary: Thank you for sitting down with me and talking to me today.

Chris: My pleasure.

Mary: Let's start back in the beginning, how you got started in music. Now, when you were growing up, was there a lot of music in your family?

Chris: There really was. Not a lot of musicians, actually, as much as just music being played all the time around me. My dad sang and my uncle played guitar. Other than that, just mainly being around it a lot. My dad, if the truck was running it was on KVET and I grew up around here (Austin). So, it's just what I grew up listening to. As far as I knew, there wasn't any other kind of music [besides country] out there until I was about 13 or 14. Then I discovered KISS and Pink Floyd and that's a whole other [story]. Had to get wild there for a while. I'd been exposed to country for a long time. It made me able to cross over boundaries and lines.

Mary: So, it's good you have that foundation in country music and you bring in other influences and expand your musical horizons.

Chris: Absolutely.

Mary: So you grew up in all this music. When did you decide that you wanted to make music your career?

Chris: I used to want to make music my career. I still do, but it used to be a lot different of a vision that I had for making music my career. I decided to do that and then as I moved into doing that I saw how incredibly hard it was from every angle of the business and being completely new to it. As I said, there weren't any musicians in my house to teach me how that side of it went. As I grew into it, I just kind of did it myself. It turned into more of a life for me, I guess, instead of a career. And my monetary aspirations changed and I started doing it because I enjoyed doing it. That's really been over the last five years or so. Before then I didn't know enough to know that I wanted to make it my career or not. I just knew I liked being on stage, singing, and playing. Being around that atmosphere, it's a whole different culture, being on the inside circle of musicians.

Mary: Who really influenced you? Who inspires you to keep going forward in making music?

Chris: My grandmother actually inspired me to start making music. I'd go over to their (grandparents) house every weekend while I was growing up and they gave me drumsticks and gave me a stool to sit in front of. And I'd beat out the rhythm to every 45 that they had and I guess that would go under the other question you asked me. She was an incredible influence on my life. My grandfather, oddly enough, bought me my first KISS album at 15.

The storytellers, Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Rodney Crowell, those people inspired me by their songs. They [have] songs that mean something. That's why I like them so much and got into them. Just almost the counterculture of - I don't know. It's hard to say that because I really like the traditional stuff, too. These days you got to have something to come home to and I guess country's just turning into that for most people. I like to give people a place to go home.

Mary: So, before you hooked up with your current band you fronted a few other bands. What was that like? Was that kind of your proving ground where you got your start and started feeling out how music worked and how the business worked?

Chris: It's hard to really say. I was in a leadership position at that time, though pretty much everything revolved around me as far as booking the band, funding the band, buying equipment. Just everything that goes along with that. I kind of just taught myself and learned from some of the unsung local heroes around here: Dan Tucker, Jeff Reynolds from Bad Rodeo, a few other guys from Mojo, and just bands like that. I was so young. I didn't get to learn how to be a musician or a band leader or whatever you call it in a group of people my own age. They were all really older. In the early days that's really more [of] what it was like.

Now, I'm getting the idea of what it's like to actually be an effective band leader. I can actually deal with things with authority now because I feel qualified to. Before I was just a guy trying to get [people to] come sit on stage with me and play. A lot of musicians around here will tell you that's pretty much how it goes until you learn how to do it, unless you're just born into it.

Mary: Let's talk about your debut CD, The Way. Congratulations! You received my first five-star review of the year.

Chris: Thank you so much. I was just flattered that you would think that much of it. I haven't had a chance to get a lot of feedback, professional fee - Indie Islands


"Opened for T.Graham Brown"

Jan. 12, 2008
Harker Heights Event Center
Harker Heights, TX. - N/A


"Opened for Chris Young"

Oct. 25, 2007
Wild Country
Harker Heights, TX. - N/A


"Opened for Jason Boland"

Mar. 14, 2008
Cotton Club
Granger, TX.
- N/A


Discography

"The Way"
Released in 2007
LOKI Records

Photos

Bio

Born in Austin, Texas and raised in the nearby town of Round Rock, Chris was exposed to traditional Texas Country and Blue Grass music throughout his colorful youth. After high school and an Honorable Discharge from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Infantry Division stationed a short distance from (no accident) Nashville, TN., Chris returned home to Austin. Combining the traditional country he was raised on, as well as a healthy dose of Texas Country & Rock, allowed Chris to lead such successful projects as The 1:11 Band, followed a few years later by Riata and more recently, Cheyenne.
With a degree from the "Austin School of Hard Knocks and Live Music" in hand, Chris has been burning down Honky-Tonks, wedding receptions and collegiate events all over the state for the past ten years.
After taking some well-deserved down time to write some new material and lay the foundation for his new project (Desperate Times), Chris is back on the stage and ready to share his debute album “The Way” with fans. Joined with some previously released originals, the material he’s written over the past few years has produced a debut album sure to spark the interest of fans both new and old. Chris explains, "I feel I have taken the time to give the listeners an opportunity to really know me, the songs and what I felt was important to share with them on a debut album... good, bad or whatever!”
Together with powerful original music from his debut album, Chris and the band take the audience on a musical journey through some of yesterday and today's hottest Texas, Country and Rock favorites. They look forward to sharing their unique sound and energetic stage performance with fans near and far.