Back in the 70s, Chris Cole played lead guitar in the Old Lyme based Muttz Brothers Band. His bandmates, siblings, and friends were sure that he was going to be a big Rock Star and often told him so. At least, he has a memory of a dream of a memory of a dream of a memory along those lines. But anyway, at 21, he quit playing music and went on a spiritual quest of sorts --a very "in" thing to do back then -- and then he went back to college to finish his degree. (See the Mark Walhberg film, Rock Star. It was nothing like that.)
As adjuct faculty while still an undergrad at the Universtiy of Hartford, Chris taught English for a few years. Meanwhile, he dabbled in lyrical poetry and songwriting, among other distractions. He slowly got back into playing guitar, especially acoustic guitar. Before long, he was doing the occasional solo acoustic act at clubs and restaurants in the Hartford area.
Chris joined the Connecticut Songwriters' Association (CSA) in the early 90s and within a year or so became Vice President of the organization. Songs that he wrote and recorded in his home studio appear on a number of CSA yearly sampler albums.
In the mid-90s, Chris became a frequent caller and studio guest on Colin McEnroe's WTIC-AM radio show. Nicknamed "Annoying Chris" by Colin, Chris wrote and recorded a number of humorous bumper music pieces for Colin's show. Colin continued to use them for several years. Chris also became, in Colin's words, "the most asked for and asked about of any of my guests," and "one of the most original thinkers" Colin knew. (This is what Colin found so annoying.) Chris' relationship with Colin soured, however, about the time that Colin lost his morning show and clever, frustrated Colin became the afternoon sidekick of the doltish, envious Bruce Stevens. (Stevens relentlessly assassinated "Annoying Chris," who being only an on-air persona would not stay dead. In time, the wet-blanket, low-brow sarcasm of Stevens would demote Stevens to sidekick status, and then he'd get the boot. But the damage done in the meantime to Chris and Colin's friendship was irreparable.) Chris later wrote and recorded some pieces for Jim Vicevich's "Sound Off Connecticut" radio show, but they saw little air time: Jim is a little too Country, Chris a little too Rock-and-Roll.
Over the long years, Chris always yearned to experience again that glorious feeling of playing rock music live, the way it was meant to be played and heard. Two or so years ago, after dealing with all the doubts about whether he could find the time and the people to make it work, he finally began a search for the right bandmates.
He did NOT want to do the played-to-death material that every band had been doing for the past fifty years. He wanted to do B-side stuff with original energy and flair, or perhaps some of the memorable but more challenging music that most bands would not do because it was just too hard to do right. He also wanted to do some of the newer material that has a classic rock feel, e.g., the grunge of Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots.
Thanks to the Internet, Chris was able to get together with a few dozen musicians at a half dozen places before things finally clicked with Dan. The two had the same vision and commitment and tastes, and their styles complemented each other well. Both could play lead and rhythm guitar and sing lead and backing vocals. That versatility would give them a lot of options. They learned a few songs together, then began auditioning drummers. None really seemd a good fit, though, and they feared that they might have to settle ... until along came Bill, and the magic started to happen. Soon Bill brought in his friend, Rich, to play bass --and sing, too -- and it all just came together, musical alchemy.
"I think that it is somewhere around here that, to be consistent with the bios of the other guys, I should say something about how 'professionally polished' the band is," says Chris. "Yes, it is that. We are all serious about producing a quality product. We know it's about the music. So, when we practice or perform, we can trust each other to be prepared, respectful of each other, and willing to give and take criticism, no egos involved. I love playing music with these guys. One thing I especially like about Bill is that he does not sing, which means that he has no microphone, which means that I can blame him for anything that goes wrong and he's nearly defenseless."
On his electric side, Chris is drawn mostly to blues- and folk-influenced rock, but also Fusion and Grunge: Cream (and Robben Ford takes on that sort of material), the Jeff Beck Group, Tom Petty, Pink Floyd, ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin, SRV, Dire Straits, Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana, David Bowie, Allman Bros., old Santana (esp. the "Welcome" album), Mahavishnu, The Grateful Dead, Tonic, Collective Soul....
At some point down the road, Chris would like to add some original material, if practicable. He has written many marketable songs on his own -- folk and rock -- and he does enjoy collaborating with other songwriters.
If you have seen Hard Rain perform, you have seen the rack of guitars -- "the arsenal" -- that Chris brings to every gig. He really does need to bring all those guitars along. No, it's not just that his house is already so stuffed with guitars that he doesn't have room for these. Not just that, anyway. And no, if he had a pickup truck, it would not necessarily have a guitar rack in the rear window.
Perhaps because so much of Chris's musical experience has been in the studio, listening through headphones, he is very particular about guitar tone. He likes to have a wide variety of tones available, and he wants every one of them to be as appropriate, harmonically rich, and musically appealing as he can make them. To that end, Chris has experimented with a variety of guitar woods and shapes, pickups, strings, potentiometers, capacitors, amps, speakers, tubes, and effects, and he continues to tweak his tone to this day. His pedal board morphs regularly. None of his guitars have their original pickups in them, and Chris has custom-wired each to get the tones that he is after for any given song.
That's the theory he uses for cover, anyway. He's really just a bit of a pack-rat.
Chris also plays harmonica. He's got, like, seven of those. They fit in a little box.
In addition to making music, Chris enjoys sailing, astronomy, and writing about himself in the third person.