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Biography
Chris Snider
| Thanks for checking out my website... I'm posting this "bio" to share my history with those that are interested. As you'll see, I've been playing music for quite a while in one form or another... Before guitar... A family member persuaded me to take piano lessons when I was 9 years old. That lasted for a few months before I realized it was BORING. I was learning typical childrens songs and it just wasn't fun. I did keep fooling around with piano for a few years after that, but I never really took it seriously. Around the age of 10, I was persuaded by another family member to take up the tenor saxophone. I enrolled in the grade school band and did that for around a year or two. I enjoyed that more than piano, but it still wasn't my thing. Too bad, because I now think saxophone is a killer instrument! I wish I would've kept playing it. I was 11 years old when I first heard a rock song on the radio that really caught my attention. It was "Cum on Feel the Noize" by Quiet Riot. I bought that album and listened to it constantly. This was MUCH cooler than the other stuff on the radio at the time! Many believe that this song represents the birth of "hair metal" on the radio and I pretty much agree with that theory. Early on... I didn't start playing guitar until I turned 13. I picked up my first guitar (a $75 plywood Cort) around 1985 with money I received from family members for Christmas. I actually went to the local music store to buy a bass guitar, because I thought that would be a cool instrument and it would make me a bit different than everyone else (a few of my friends were playing lead guitar at that time). However, a relative talked me into getting a six string electric guitar instead. He said that I could always pick up a bass guitar later if I wanted to learn it, but it would be hard going from bass to guitar. He was right and I'm glad he gave me that advice. I really dove into playing guitar immediately. I loved it right from the beginning. Instead of learning crap like "Mary Had a Little Lamb", I was learning rock tunes that were actually fun to play! I went to my first concert this same year, which was Ratt and Bon Jovi. Ratt was headlining their "Invasion of Your Privacy" tour and Bon Jovi was their supporting act. This experience "sealed the deal". At that exact moment, I knew I wanted to play guitar in a rock band! I took lessons for a few months, but quit after realizing the "teacher" was just showing me how to play riffs from popular songs. There was no music theory involved at all and I couldn't understand why I was paying a guy to show me riffs from songs on the radio. I had a pretty good ear early on and was able to learn songs myself after only playing for a few months. So, I quit lessons and decided to just stick to teaching myself and learning from friends that played. We'd often had "get togethers" to show each other new songs and stuff, which was fun and very valuable. When I graduated Junior High School in 1985, a relative bought my first REAL guitar as a graduation present. It was a white 1984/85 Gibson Les Paul Studio! I was in heaven! I started to take it more seriously and began playing with local garage bands. We never played out in public for the first year or two I was playing, but we had a blast anyway. My first REAL gig was playing three or four songs at a reunion show for a local band that was around in the '70s. It was fun, but I was scared to death. If I remember right, I was 13 years old and had only been playing for around a year. We played "Crazy Train" by Ozzy and I froze during the solo. I stuck my arms up in the air right there on stage and just gave up! ha ha... How embarassing. Making the jump from basement to stage... I played regularly all throughout high school. Mainly just goofing around and jamming with friends, but never forming an actual band. I didn't play in a REAL hard working cover band until 1990, which was a few weeks after graduating High School. It was a three piece band named "United". I played lead guitar and did backup and some lead vocals. We gigged regularly around Herrin, Illinois, and other small towns in Southern Illinois for over a year. We played classic rock and some '80s stuff. We had a blast and kept very busy! Since then, I've played guitar in numerous bands and at countless live shows. I also played bass guitar in an alternative cover band based out of St. Charles, Missouri, for over a year and really enjoyed that. I learned how to be a REAL bass player, not just a guitar player on bass. I learned alot about playing along with a drummer "in the pocket". I still like playing bass guitar around the house and wouldn't mind doing it again with a band in the future. Bigger stages... One of the most successful bands I was in was named "Perpetual". We could do full night cover gigs or 1-2 hour all original shows. We mainly played around the St. Louis, Missouri area, but we did branch out a little and played shows around Illinois and even in Kansas City a couple of times. We headlined the "Midwest Rockfest" at Pops in Sauget, Illinois, in 2003 and also opened for a few national acts such as Angel and Jaime St. James from the band Black 'N Blue. Before I joined the band, Perpetual opened for Quiet Riot (too bad I missed playing that show, since this was the band responsible for me liking rock music in the first place), Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society, Mike Tramp from White Lion and Michael Schenker Group. Early in 2003, Perpetual released a 13-song CD titled "Fire Inside". I wrote some of the material, played all guitars and produced, engineered, and mixed the entire CD in my personal home studio. It was quite a challenge, but well worth the late nights. The CD turned out fantastic and even got some radio play on a smaller station in Illinois. We later released a 6-song EP with a different singer, which included remakes of previous Perpetual songs. You can hear a few songs from the EP on my Song Downloads page. In October of 2003, I did a tour with Perpetual around Missouri and Iowa with the bands Warrant and Firehouse. What a blast!!! We traveled on a LARGE tour bus and played huge theaters and arenas (the largest venue being an 8,000 seat arena in Council Bluffs, Iowa). The guys from Warrant and Firehouse really made us feel at home and we had a great time. We made quite a few fans on this tour and it's pretty much the highlight of my music "career" so far. A few months after the Warrant/Firehouse tour, we disbanded. Everyone had a different opinion of where the band should be and personalities were clashing in a BAD way. It became a headache and wasn't fun anymore and a few of us agreed to just call it quits. It was time and I saw it coming for quite a few months before it happened, so I wasn't shocked at all. Future plans... Well... My future plans are to play with guys I like and get along with, instead of searching for the best musicians. Personalities have become important to me now. :) Feel free to email me at hardrockguitar@gmail.com if you have questions or just want to shoot the bull!!! Band History: 1985-1991: Lead/rhythm guitar in tons of garage bands in and around Herrin, Illinois 1991-1994: Lead guitar & background vocals with "United" from Herrin, Illinois 1996-1997: Lead/rhythm guitar in various bands around Belleville and Greenville, Illinois 1997-1999: Bass guitar & background vocals with "HardDrive" from St. Charles, Missouri 1999-1999: Acoustic guitar with "Merrie Q" (acoustic duo) from St. Charles, Missouri 2000-2002: Lead guitar & background vocals with "Strange-Daze" from Greenville, Illinois 2002-2004: Lead guitar & background vocals with "Perpetual" from Belleville, Illinois 2004-2004: Lead guitar & background vocals with "Lethal Judgement" from Staunton, Illinois 2004-2004: Lead guitar & background vocals with "Rock Bottom" from Alton, Illinois 2004-2004: Lead guitar & background vocals with "Red Line" from Wood River, Illinois 2005-2006: Bass guitar & background vocals with "Lethal Judgement" from Staunton, Illinois 2007-2008: Lead guitar & background vocals with "Bad Monkey" from Breese, Illinois 2008-2008: Lead guitar & background vocals with "Jump the Shark" from Waterloo, Illinois 2009-CURRENT: Lead guitar & background vocals with "Broken English" from St. Louis, Missouri.
I also occasionally sat in with the bands "Voodoo
Highway" and "X-13" from time to time playing all original
music. I've done live shows and studio work with both bands.
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