Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
"Chris Szajko is a music-school grad with a magna cum laude in guitar shredding. In addition to slinging his six-string, Szajko shows off his drum kit and bass guitar skills, and even takes on the vocal duties, as well as penning all the lyrics to his original songs. In other words he's about as close to being a one-man band as it's possible to be.
Under the Shyko moniker, Szajko sets out on an alt-rock path that demonstrates his fretboard fireworks."
- Splendid Magazine
"Nice. Shyko pens fun, poppy altrock and can actually hit the notes. They Dabble in a lot of styles, like any bar rock band worth chatting girls up to." - Lollipop Magazine
"The self-titled album from Shyko makes me want to grab a forty-ounce can of malt liquor, my skateboard, then go down to the parkade and rip off some hood ornaments. Really, it’s that good.
Shyko, the project of Chris Szajko (pronounced Shy-ko) is ten tracks of heavy guitar work and vocals that put one in mind of early Stone Temple Pilots or Sammy Hagar-era Van Halen. This dude can play guitar like mother-effing riot.
Track One, “Behind You” has already hit number one in some radio markets and after listening to this track a few times through I can see why. The track starts hard and stays so through the whole three and half minutes."
- Left Hip Magazine
Discography
Shyko released May 10th 2005
Polymath released 2001
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Chris Szajko (pronounced Shy-co)
An outcast as a heavy metal fan among his punk loving skater friends, Chris first picked up the guitar at age 14. With gentle encouragement from his dad, a.k.a. Red Foreman, "If you are going to sit around the basement like a dumb-ass and play that guitar, you are going to school for it" Chris moved to Minneapolis where he graduated from Music Tech's guitar program. Upon returning to South Bend IN, his hometown, Chris quickly earned local fame for his guitar work, playing the guitar 'like a riot' to paraphrase a dead guy. Fielding offers from dozens of area bands, Chris first played with an original rock band, “VanKamp” and also taught guitar lessons at a local music store. Then shortly after, he joined one of the most popular cover bands in Indiana, “Pfreak Show” breaking club attendance records across the Midwest. After touring for a while, he decided it was time to do his own thing, so he started his new project: “SHYKO”.
While he was writing and making records, Chris was also producing and engineering at Grand Master Studios Midwest, which is affiliated with Grand Master Records, a division of Grand Master L.L.C. His talent has been on dozens of artists’ CD's, movies, and commercials. Then Chris moved out to San Diego, CA where he currently resides and is exploding with his new self-titled record. Chris is a true musician in the fact that he sang and played all the instruments on the album, as well as engineering and producing. (with the exception of drums on a couple of songs.)
His first single from his latest release, “Behind You” is an energy-driven song with grinding guitars and a chorus that you won’t forget. The second single “She’s Got That Somethin’” is a bouncy pop/punk style with catchy vocals. It could be crossed with 80’s and new rock influence. As the album goes on, the styles progressively change showing his wide range of musicianship, but not leaving the pop/rock genre. Then on the last track of the album, to cap things off, Shyko covers “Free For All” by Ted Nugent as his way of saying thanks to Ted for the inspiration! “I was taught all styles while in music school, which helped me to become more rounded in music, but I have no desire to leave the pure enjoyment and energy of rock. I want to bring back the fun and challenge in playing guitar!” says Chris.
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