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Chris Conley (musician)

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Chris Conley
Musical artist

Christopher Lane Conley (born on February 29, 1980) is an American musician and songwriter/composer, and the lead-singer/rhythm guitarist of the band Saves the Day. As he is the only remaining original member as well as major artistic contributor, Saves the Day has been referred to as "essentially the Chris Conley show".

Background

Conley was born and raised in Princeton, New Jersey, and began playing the guitar when he was thirteen years old. He says that listening to Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith as a child made him interested in writing and playing music. The first song he ever learned on guitar was Stairway to Heaven .

Immediately after learning how to play the guitar, he formed a band with a group of classmates at Princeton Day School. The band was originally titled Indifference, but later renamed the band Sefler. Conley has cited some of his early influences as the Beatles, the Smiths, Billy Joel, Superchunk, the Smashing Pumpkins, Sunny Day Real Estate, Archers of Loaf, Screeching Weasel, Jawbreaker, Gorilla Biscuits and Lifetime.

Sefler was originally composed of Chris Conley, Bryan Newman and Justin Gaylord. They recorded a 3-track 7" entitled "13 Hours of Everything" one afternoon in a friend's basement. They then recorded a nine-track demo at Trax East Studio in New Jersey. While recording, a friend of the band (and later bassist), Sean McGrath, suggested that they change their name to Saves the Day, which they did.

Saves the Day

Saves the Day signed to Equal Vision Records and recorded their first album Can't Slow Down, which was released in 1998 during their first US tour alongside bands Bane and Countervail. Lyrically the album included idealistic dreams, feeling inadequate, honesty and unhappiness, which reflected Conley's life at the time. The style of music is often considered very similar to that of the band Lifetime.

In 1999 the band released their second album Through Being Cool. With this album, Conley's lyrics started becoming morbid and corporeal, and the style of music changed into a more pop punk sound.

At age 19/20 he started listening to the Beatles and has cited them as the main influence for In Reverie .

Conley with Saves the Day have released 4 other albums, lyrically are all considered similar except for In Reverie, which is a more positive album. This is largely due to the fact that there was no turmoil in Conley's life at the time, therefore there wasn't much to vent about as he recalls.. This lack of turmoil impacted upon Conley's songwriting ultimately resulting in them being released from their major label Dreamworks. In April 2006, Conley made comment in Rolling Stone magazine that Saves the Day's last release Sound the Alarm, is "about the black clouds inside my mind, It was these intense fears and paranoia and diluted thoughts that were eating me alive. It was utter insanity." in regards to the failure of In Reverie and subsequent release from Dreamworks.

Solo career

Recently Conley has been recording and touring as a solo artist ,, often releasing demo songs via YouTube. He has also been involved in music production, working as a sound engineer and producer on releases by Kid Dynamite and Bob Dylan.

Crohn's disease

Conley suffers from Crohn's disease and is active in bring awareness to the disease,. The Saves the Day song "Where are you" was penned highlighting his struggle living with the disease "I have a stomach disorder called Crohn's disease and it was getting really bad when we were getting ready to tour with Weezer. I had to take steroids, which disturbs your emotional state and balance; your equilibrium is thrown off and it makes the lows lower. I happened to be going through a sad period. The overall theme is about taking everything in, the depression, confusion and anxiety, but also the incredible highs."

Discography (Conley as primary composer)

Compilations featuring Conley's compositions

References

  1. Sound the Alarm album revue (Scenepointblank.com)(The Cavalier Daily)
  2. "Saves The Day : In Reverie". Modernrock.com. Retrieved 2007-08-10. {{cite web}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
  3. "A perfect world Princeton's Chris Conley puts life's imperfections in perspective", Home News Tribune, March 26, 2004. Accessed August 19, 2007. "Saves the Day - also Eben D'Amico, bass; David Soloway, guitar; and Pete Parada, drums - was formed in the halls of the Princeton Day School high school in the mid-1990s."
  4. "Band 'Saves' day with solid new effort" (The Cavalier Daily)
  5. Wilson, MacKenzie. "Saves The Day : Equal Vision Records". Equal Vision Records. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
  6. "Band 'Saves' day with solid new effort" (The Cavalier Daily)
  7. Change what you are(Aversion Magazine)
  8. "Article about Conley in Rolling Stone Magazine" (Rolling Stone)
  9. Chris Conley Tour Dates
  10. ReadJunk.com article announcing Chris Conley solo tour
  11. Chris Conley solo performances on YouTube
  12. All Music Guide
  13. Crohn's disease
  14. About Crohn's Disease
  15. Music emmisions

External links

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