| Chris Mendelis is a multi-faceted musician with many years experience considering his young age. Born in 1979, in Ithaca, NY, Chris started playing violin at the age of 6, but quit due to disinterest a year later. At 9 he began messing around with the piano, learning Beatles songs and other such music. This eventually led to 2 years of lessons. Around this same time, the first synthesizer was brought into the Mendelis household, and Chris began vigorously learning how to program his own sounds, which was no small feat for a 10 year old in the days of menu-based programming. Everything changed when Chris' brother John gave him an electric guitar when Chris was 13. The keyboard fell by the wayside while Chris focused on emulating such musicians as Kirk Hammett, Dave Gilmour, Kurt Cobain, Jerry Cantrell, etc... Over time Chris' taste in music broadened to include bands such as Yes, Rush, Parliament, and many heavy metal bands such as Slayer, Testament, Pantera, and of course, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. By this time, Chris was about 15, and while his friends were pouring their attention into punk rock, Chris was drawn to more complicated music, such as progressive rock. This was best demonstrated in the band Dr No, a collaboration with longtime friend/bassist/keyboardist Andrew Thomas. Andrew was drawn into music when Chris and friend/guitarist Brian Burke needed a bassist for their band. Upon their request, Andrew's reply was "What's a bass?" He soon picked it up though, as well as keyboard and guitar, and showed a great flair for writing the type of complicated, yet melodic and usually mellow, music that he and Chris were listening to at the time. This project culminated in a 4 track recording made by the two at their homes. Chris played electric guitar, drums, and bass; while Andrew laid down piano, bass, and vocals. Meanwhile, Chris was also playing with an "interesting" band called King Size, featuring the raving/antics of singer/lyricist Justin Schwaab. The rest of the band was Chris on drums, Andy Valentine on bass, and the very "unusual" John Locke on guitar. The band mixed a hard rock/metal sound with Justin's David Byrnesque vocals. Quite a strange mix indeed. This band peaked with an appearance at the IHS talent show in '96. Shortly after, Chris and Andy left due to creative differences, and the band recruited Vibhor Gupta on drums and got Andrew to play bass. This short lived ensemble played one show at the old Haunt, then replaced Andrew with Joe Wojtysiak, who had just moved to town from Chicago. That group fizzled out shortly thereafter, but Chris met Joe and they started jamming together. Beginning with covers of The Police, The Cars, Tool, and similar tunes, they soon began writing thier own songs. This evolved into the infamous band Omega Monkey. The duo's sound could best be described as a mix of rock, jazz, and noises. Inspired by semi-local heroes Yolk and Who Cares, Joe and Chris also started mixing in heavy doses of funk, exemplefied by Joe's slap bass and Chris fractured chords. The group would write in various rhythms and contrasting styles which could only be called "Monkey Music" They would also use odd, often politically motivated song titles such as "Guns AND Butter", "Public Display Of Infection", "Vasco De Gamma...NOT A Nice Guy", and "As Soon As I Get Enough Money, I'm Going To Switzerland To Have A Sex Change, Dig Up Benito Mussolini's Rotting Corpse, Extract His DNA, And Have His Love Babies" (Joe came up with that one). Their zany style was displayed when this duo played a two night stint at IHS Cabaret Night in '98. Beginning with Joe playing a classical piece by Erik Satie, while Chris abused his guitar with a power drill, they moved through moods ranging from folk, to prog, to experimental, to straight, bluesy rock, with hints of "Roxanne" and the Zelda theme song thrown in for good measure. Someone in the crowd was recalled as saying "These guys must thrive on pissing people off". True, if not sounding like Dave Matthews Band is a cause for anger. The band aslo played a backyard party at friends the Veverkas', opening for Who Cares, who even crashed at Chris' place that night. After that, Chris went off to the Army, beginning with Basic at Fort Jackson, SC, and ending up at Fort Myer, VA, just outside DC. He jammed on and off with many interesting and not so interesting musicians, but nothing permanent until November '99 when he joined the band eventually known as Random Reality. The band was started by singer/lyricist Melicia Lockett and guitarist Junito. The band mixed rock with funk, jazz, and prog overtones; which, along with Melicia's beautiful vocals and Junito's chimey guitars, made for a very interesting blend. Chris began on bass, but quickly began adding guitar and keyboard textures to the band's sound. Unfortunately, Random Reality is currently dormant, due to Melicia's busy schedule. In the meantime Chris has been jamming with more musicians, including a metal/hardrock band and an indie rock band as a bassist, a jam band as a keyboardist, and various other individuals and groups as a guitarist. He then went on to record an album in 2001 with Nigerian soul/r&b artist Abdul Kuku, who he met while Kuku was stationed at Ft Myer in the Army. Together the two are created a unique mix due to Kuku's r&b leanings and Nigerian heritage, and Chris' rock background and jazz stylings. Chris played almost all of the music on this album to complement Kuku's lyrics and melodies. This includes live guitars, keyboards, and bass; plus drum and keyboard programming. He also engineered the entire thing in his 14x16 ft barracks room on a $700 Boss 8 track recorder. Now Chris' main focus is a project with vocalist Hoda Rahmi. This new music combines many of the styles that Chris has worked in throughout the years. The main foundation is straight forward rock, similar to bands like Garbage, The Cars, Led Zeppelin, and Heart. They also mix in a heavy dose of danceable funk. They top this off with elements of jazz, folk, electronica, and influences from Hoda's homeland in the middle east. Currently they are working on recording their first album and also searching for a bass player, drummer, and keyboard player. He is also always looking for interesting side projects. His main goal now is to form a band that plays metal (like Black Sabbath, Machine Head, Type O Negative Living Colour and Tool) mixed with psychedelic/prog elements (like Yes, Deep Purple, etc...), and add electronic elements (like Tangerine Dream, BT, Crystal Method, etc...). The idea is to create music which is heavy and powerful with a strong groove element, but which also has a lot of melodic and harmonic content, and some very interesting textures going underneath/over top of it all. Or failing that, a good organ trio/fusion group would do. |
| Biography |