Chris Forsyth was born in 1973 and grew up in New Jersey in the '80's, listening to classic-rock radio, then got into underground/punk in his teens and college years. He taught himself to play guitar, and moved to Brooklyn in 1996, figuring New York would be a good place to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. He started to lose interest in contemporary rock music in the late '90's and started to appreciate improvised music, avant-rock, free-jazz, and experimental/outsider music of all stripes. He studied with Richard Lloyd of Television for 18 months, and had a group called Peeesseye in the 2000's that played drones, feedback, and very noisy high strung improvisations. In 2009 he relocated to Philadelphia, and became friends with the late guitarist Jack Rose, who inspired him to play more lyrically and expose the latent/dormant Richard Thompson/Jerry Garcia tendencies in his playing. In 1998 he released a limited edition album with Ethan Sklar, and followed this in 2001 with another collaboration, this time with guitarist Ernesto Diaz-Infante on 'Wires And Wooden Boxes'. Since then he has released a number of collaborative albums, with artists such as Chris Heenan, Nate Wooley and Shawn Edward Hansen, every one being released by a different label. In 2009 he released his first solo album in 'Dreams', with 'Paranoid Cat' following in 2011, and 'Kenzo Deluxe' the next year. 2013 saw the appearance of 'Solar Motel', named after a real place on Route 1 in Central Jersey, and which was his first full 'rock band' record. He put together a band to play it live, which he christened The Solar Motel Band, and this loose collective of various musicians has recorded three studio albums under that name between 2014 and 2017, as well as numerous live albums, both official and bootleg. They also recorded a live album with Garcia Peoples in 2020, under the name Peoples Motel Band, and yet to most people he remains an unknown artist, with his fans revelling in his status as their best-kept secret. Hopefully this sampler of some of his best work will introduce this superb guitarist to a wider audience, and he will start to get the recognition that he deserves.
Track listing
01 History & Science Fiction (from 'Dreaming In The Non-Dream' 2017)
02 Anthem I (from 'The Rarity Of Experience' 2016)
03 Anthem II (from 'The Rarity Of Experience' 2016)
04 (Livin' On) Cubist Time (from 'All Time Present' 2019)
05 Bad Moon Risen (from 'Evolution Here We Come' 2022)
06 New Paranoid Cat (from 'All Time Present' 2019)
07 Boston Street Lullaby No. 1 (from 'Kenzo Deluxe' 2012)
08 Have We Mistaken The Bottle For The Whiskey Inside? (from 'Dreaming In The Non-Dream' 2017)
09 Paris Song (from 'Intensity Ghost' 2014)
10 Tomorrow Might As Well Be Today (from 'All Time Present' 2019)
11 Robot Energy Machine (from 'Evolution Here We Come' 2022)
Tracks 1, 2, 3, 8 and 9 are by Chris Forsyth And The Solar Motel Band.
