Chris Conley

Chris Conley
Chris Conley (Photo: Mary Gaston)
Background information
Birth name	Christopher Lane Conley
Born	February 29, 1980 (1980-02-29) (age 31)
Origin	Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.
Genres	Emo Indie rock Power pop Punk rock
Instruments	Vocals, Guitar, Bass
Years active	1994–present
Labels	Equal Vision DreamWorks Vagrant
Associated acts	Saves the Day Two Tongues Razia's Shadow: A Musical

Christopher Lane Conley (born February 29, 1980) is an American musician and songwriter/composer, and the lead-singer/rhythm guitarist in Saves the Day. As he is the only remaining original member as well as major artistic contributor, Saves the Day has been referred to, in recent years, as "essentially the Chris Conley show".^[1]

Chris and David Soloway (former Saves the Day bandmate) have joined forces with Max Bemis and Coby Linder from the band Say Anything to form the supergroup Two Tongues.^[2]

Background

Conley formed a band with a group of classmates at Princeton Day School.^[3] The band was originally titled Indifference, but later renamed the band Sefler. Conley has cited some of his early influences as the Smiths, Led Zeppelin, Billy Joel, Superchunk, the Smashing Pumpkins, Sunny Day Real Estate, Archers of Loaf, Screeching Weasel, Jawbreaker, Gorilla Biscuits and Lifetime.^[4]

Sefler was originally composed of Chris Conley, Bryan Newman, Chris Zampella 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.^[5]

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.^[4]

During the writing of Sound the Alarm, Conley was heavily influenced by Bad Brains, The Damned, The Misfits and The Stooges.

Conley, with Saves the Day, has released 4 other albums. Lyrically, all are considered similar except for In Reverie, which is a more positive album. Conley cites a lack of turmoil in his life at the time as the cause of the change in tone.,^[6] Conley made comment in Rolling Stone magazine that Saves the Day's 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.^[7]

Solo touring

While there are no plans for any solo recordings, Chris and David Soloway have toured throughout the USA, playing acoustic versions of Saves the Day songs.^[8][9] Conley, and an army of committed fans recently have posted performances via the bands website, the band's official YouTube account and elsewhere on the YouTube site. Conley also finished up a solo three week acoustic tour with Matt Pryor of The Get Up Kids. Beginning in 2009, Chris joined fellow front men Dustin Kensrue of Thrice, Matt Pryor and Anthony Raneri from the band Bayside to form the Where's The Band? tour, where each play acoustic renditions of fan favorites. There have been three legs of this tour between 2009 and 2010, the latest taking place in December 2010. ^[10]

December 1, 2010, Chris Conley announced he would be opening as a solo act for Dashboard Confessional, on the West Coast end of the "swiss army romance tour" In January. This is Following his East Coast touring on the "Where's the band? Tour" in December.

Razia's Shadow

In 2008, Chris lent his voice to Forgive Durden's musical project Razia's Shadow: A Musical as the character "Toba The Tura"

Two Tongues

Main article: Two Tongues

Two Tongues is a collaborative project between Chris, former guitarist of Saves the Day David Soloway, Max Bemis and Coby Linder of Say Anything. Their debut album hit shelves February 3, 2009. Three tracks on their album releasing in February 2009 are available for listening on their Myspace page.

In Fall of 2010, Two Tongues made their first performances as a surprise in the middle of Say Anything's set each night of the Motion City Soundtrack, Say Anything, and Saves the Day tour. They performed the song "Crawl". Arun bali (current guitarist of Saves the Day) played guitar, Kenny Vasoli (of The Starting Line, and Person L) played bass, Jake Turner (of Say Anything) played guitar as well, Coby Linder played drums, while Chris Conley, and Max Bemis sang.

Work as a producer

Conley worked with The Promise Hero to record a demo at his home studio "The Electric Ladybug". Conley has also co-produced albums such as Dr Manhattan's album Jam Dreams.

Discography (Conley as primary composer)

• Can't Slow Down (1998) on Equal Vision Records
• I'm Sorry I'm Leaving EP (1998) on Immigrant Sun Records
• Lisa's Birthday Tape (1998) self-released
• Through Being Cool (1999) on Equal Vision Records
• Stay What You Are (2001) on Vagrant Records
• In Reverie (2003) on DreamWorks Records
• Ups and Downs: Early Recordings and B-Sides (2004)
• Bug Sessions Volume One (tour exclusive) (2006)
• Sound the Alarm (2006) on Vagrant Records
• Under the Boards (2007) on Vagrant Records
• Bug Sessions Volume Two and Three (2008)
• Daybreak (2011) on Razor & Tie

Compilations featuring Conley's compositions

• The Rebirth Of Hardcore:1999 on Supersoul Records, Good Life Recordings, Temperance Records (1999) (features "The Art of Misplacing Firearms")
• Punk Uprisings: Incompatible, Vol. 2 (1999) (features "Shoulder to the Wheel")
• City Rockers: A Tribute to the Clash (1999) (features cover of Clash' "Clash City Rockers")
• Equal Visions Records Sampler (2000) (features "Always Ten Feet Tall")
• Vagrant Records: Summer Sampler (2000) (features "Holly Hox, Forget Me Nots")
• Another Year on the Streets (2000) (features "Sell My Old Clothes, I'm Off to Heaven", "A Drag in D Flat")
• Another Year on the Streets Vol. 2 (2002) (features "Ups and Downs", "Nightingale")
• Welcome To Vagrant Records (2003) (features "At Your Funeral")
• Living Tomorrow Today: A Benefit for Ty Cambra (2003) (features "A Drag in D Flat")
• Another Year on the Streets Vol. 3 (2004) (features "When It Isn't Like It Should Be")
• A Compilation to Beat Cancer (2004) (features "Don't Go Outside")
• Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (2005) (features cover of Dead Boys' "Sonic Reducer")
• Warped Tour 2006 Compilation (2006) (features "The End")

References

1. ^ Sound the Alarm album revue (Scenepointblank.com)(The Cavalier Daily)
2. ^ http://www.sayanythingmusic.com/news/two-tongues-release-date
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. ^ ^{a b} "Band 'Saves' day with solid new effort" (The Cavalier Daily)
5. ^ Wilson, MacKenzie. "Saves The Day : Equal Vision Records". Equal Vision Records. http://www.equalvision.com/artists/show/60. Retrieved 2007-08-10. 
6. ^ Change what you are(Aversion Magazine)
7. ^ "Article about Conley in Rolling Stone Magazine" (Rolling Stone)
8. ^ Chris Conley Tour Dates
9. ^ ReadJunk.com article announcing Chris Conley solo tour
10. ^ http://www.myspace.com/wheresthebandtour/blog

External links

• Saves the Day official site
• Chris Conley's MySpace Page
• An Audio Interview With Chris
• Skratch Mag Interview
• Sound The Sirens Interview
• Wrank Music Interview
• The Tech Interview
• Aversion Interview
• Subburban Horror Interview
• Two Tongues' Myspace

Persondata
Name	Conley, Chris
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Date of birth	1980-02-29
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