chris

Chris

Lucier

Bio

Age: 24
Hometown: Mesa, AZ

Social

History:

Yo!! My name is Chris Lucier. I’ve been playing percussion since I was in 5th grade. The day I started was when my dad’s friend left his drum set at our house. I was bored at home and decided to set it up (in a fashion that I luckily can’t remember) and started hittin’ away. I kinda found out that day what I wanted to do with my life…hit stuff. So I joined my school band program and the rest, as they say, is history. Since, however, that would be a super short bio, I’ll give a bit more detail…

As I’m sure you already read in Joe’s bio, we met in Jr. High Jazz Band of all places. We started our little Nu-Metal band called No One Important, played a ton of valley clubs and bars, and that was my first taste of the performing life that I actually enjoyed. After that band dispersed, I tried my hand(s) at a few different projects, diving into Metal, Hardcore, Punk and pretty much anything that angered old people. I grew a bit tired of it after such little success or expansion and decided to concentrate on other aspects of drumming. I finished school and started marching in drumlines such as Coronado Independent Indoor Drumline, Fever Drum And Bugle Corps and Momentum Percussion Theater, among others. I then began teaching schools throughout the valley, including Paradise Valley High School, where I am currently the Assistant Band Director as well as the Percussion Caption Head. Once I was able to get those experiences out of the way, I had an even bigger urge to start playing drum set again.

Joe happened to contact me around this time to do some recording on a new project he was working on. That was about 5 years ago when I sat down and recorded the first drafts of Weightless and Summer’s Anthem, but I obviously had some work to do. I hadn’t really touched a kit in a good 3 years so it sounded pretty terrible. Then Joe and his brother Kenny gave me the gift of love. QUESTLOVE to be exact!! That drummer opened up the world of hip-hop to me, a whole new world of drumming I had never known, let alone had a chance to respect. Mainly cause I had no idea there were live drummers playing that kind of stuff. So as my hip-hop chops started progressing, so did my hunger for more styles to play. I began listening to modern day heroes like Aaron Spears, Jojo Mayer, Thomas Pridgen, Chris Pennie, Zach Hill, etc., and couldn’t get enough. I did my best to create my own style that captured their essence but maintained it’s own life. And although I’m not in a band that sounds like any of theirs, I try to apply what I’ve learned from them to a much simpler canvas.

After aquiring this knowledge, I started doing a small amount of session work as well. Sitting in for other bands, recording for a bunch of groups and performing with percussion ensembles like BOOM Percussion Entertainment. But none of them seemed to have the somewhat natural spark that the JAB has had. We’ve played in the biggest local venues with some great local and national musicians. All of which have already become some of my life’s greatest memories.

Hopefully you’ll never hear me complain or take myself too seriously, cause let’s face it…my job is to hit stuff.