Early inspirations and a life devoted to music

Christopher discovered his love for music early on. As a teenager, he was captivated by MTV music videos, where he could see musicians playing up close, and he loved the sound of the electric bass guitar. Once he got into business, his goal was never to chase fame. He simply wanted to make a living playing music. Over the past 30 years, he has done exactly that through performing, teaching, recording, and writing music. Currently, he is very grateful for everything he has achieved.

Working with big names

Working with a wide spectrum of artists, he learned that musicians deal with the same insecurities that we all have. He felt comfortable working with big names as he tried to see them as fellow musicians, not as stars.

“Most famous musicians are quite insecure. They believe they got famous, rich or successful by accident, and that they’ll be discovered at any minute to be a fraud. There is a lot of ‘imposter syndrome’ with people who have gotten a lot of recognition. It’s not false modesty; they honestly do feel lucky.”

A long-awaited return

After a 20-year break between solo albums, Christopher’s new release, Lost and Found, marks a powerful return. The album touches a lot of genres — rock, funk, fusion, and even some pop, which makes the listening experience entertaining and enjoyable.

“With Lost and Found, I intentionally decided to record whatever I wanted, regardless of what stylistic labels. I think it helps when a listener can be surprised by what kind of song is coming next on an album.”

A songwriting process built on chords and curiosity

Christopher nearly always starts his songwriting process with chords. Sitting with a guitar or piano, he just plays through some relatively random chords until he hears something that he likes. After building a chord progression, he starts singing random sounds to find a melody that works. The lyrics are nearly always last, because he likes being boxed in by the melody.

A changing music industry

Having been out of the ‘artist’ industry for so many years long, Christopher has witnessed enormous industry change. The big challenge with artists now is that they have no physical product to sell. Now people buy CDs and vinyl mostly as souvenirs. At the same time, lot of things got easier as now artists can reach every music fan in the world via streaming services and social media. “Distribution has never been easier. An artist has a more direct connection with their fans than ever before.” he explains and he adds “There was a time where you’d have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to make a record. Now, you can do it all on your laptop. It used to be nearly impossible for people to hear your music.”

Credits: Supplied Image; Author: Client;

Finding home in Coimbra

Christopher travelled extensively throughout his music career and he loved it. Going to new places to experience different cultures, languages, food, landscapes, and people is one of his biggest hobbies. All that laid the foundation that he’d move abroad at some point.

In 2022, he and his wife created an online music education site that focuses solely on practice strategies for musicians. It’s called Practice Warriors, and they feel immensely proud of how it has helped convince so many people that they can become great musicians. Since Practice Warriors can be run remotely, they saw an opportunity to move and live abroad.

Credits: Supplied Image; Author: Client;

“Wanting to move to Europe and not wanting to be in too cold a climate, we immediately thought of Portugal. We did an extensive six-week trip here in 2022, where we saw about 16 towns and cities. But when we first step foot in Coimbra, we knew we were home.”

They found the people to be very kind, the food to be very healthy, and the lifestyle to be exactly what they were looking for.

Christopher quickly connected with the local music scene, and he already had the chance to meet some of the best musicians in town. He was invited to play for several weeks with great jazz musicians at the Salão Brasil venue in Coimbra and he has also done some free music clinics for local schools.

Christopher’s last videoclips were filmed in Coimbra and Figueira da Foz.

“I truly wanted Coimbra to be like a character in all the videos. Since I live in a place with so many beautiful places to film, I didn’t feel any need to travel anywhere else to capture the beauty I wanted in the videos.”

Advice for emerging artists

And here is Christopher’s advice to new artists: “Make the music YOU want to make.”

He has seen so many unique artists who moved to LA or NY, work with labels and producers who changed their sound, and they just ended up sounding like everyone else. “They lost their voice or, more to the point, they gave up their voice. And, of course, no big success followed. Had they kept what made them unique, they may have actually had a better shot at building a lasting music career.”