Chris has been playing drums and percussion from the age of 10. Before that he had messed around on his grandparent’s piano and organs and his father’s guitar. He played with his middle school bands, first on French horn (required to learn a melodic instrument for one year), then on percussion.  In 8th grade, he marched snare with the band at Epcot Center. At 12 he started taking guitar lessons from Fred Capitelli, in Jupiter, FL. 

Not wanting to give up a week of his summers or be forced to go to football games, he didn’t join band in high school, because it was required to also be in the marching band. Instead, he decided to start his own punk band playing guitar. He got his best friend to learn bass and put a flyer up at the local music store to find a drummer and a singer. He found them plus another guitarist and his first band was born. They played around the West Palm Beach music scene until their drummer moved across the state because his mom divorced. So, they held auditions for new drummers with one criteria. “I wanted the drummer to be better than I was. I sucked, so I didn’t think it would be hard to find someone. But no one was able to hold it down. That was weird and made me think, maybe I should just play drums.”  Chris decided to get an after school job so he could buy a drumset; he would take the throne. 

Fast forward two years. Chris moved to Gainesville, FL, after a stint in upstate New York, to go to school and meet back up with his old band mates. They started the band back up under a slightly changed name and started playing as many shows as possible around town.

Also at this time, he was working on an AA in music from Santa Fe Community College and after achieving that, transferred to the University of Florida as a percussion performance major. He would participate in UF’s orchestra, Agbididi Africa (west African dance and drum ensemble), Jacrae Brazil (Brazilian ensemble), Marimba Ayin (Guatemalan marimba ensemble), concert band, and many of the student musicals including Cabaret (guitar), A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (percussion), and Anything Goes (percussion). 

He eventually earned a Bachelor of Arts in music. 

After graduating, he worked as a stage tech for the Phillips’ Center for the Arts for a year. 

Then he decided to study drum set, after studying classical percussion at UF, at the Collective School of Music in New York City. He studied there for two years earning a certificate of completion and the Director’s Award. 

He then moved to where it’s warm year-round; Los Angeles. 

He has been teaching, playing, and recording based in Los Angeles since 2009. Some artists and producers he’s worked with are VNV Nation, Sejo Navajas, Daniel Jimenez Afanador, the Insect Surfers, Surfer Joe, Chris Mullins, the M-Squad Hollywood Soundtrack Quintet, Smoke Season, Jim Wirt, Nomi Abadi, Davie Allan and the Arrows, and many others.