A1 Artist Spotlight .Com interviewed Chris Juergensen in Tyoko about his new recorded Strange Phenomena. Parts of the interview are in the podcast.
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Chris Juergensen was born in the mid sixties and grew up in Greenwich Village in New York. Chris said his sister got him interested in music. She was listening to Areosmith, The Rolling Stones, Peter Frampton, and Jeff Beck mostly the early seventies bands. Chris started playing guitar after seeing his friend doing it. Thought this is something he could do also. Next week they both went to guitar lessens together. The first thing they were taught was how to play the blues. Every day they got together, one would play rhythm while the other played lead then switch off. At night Chris would practice so the next day he could beat his friend in their blues’ wars. One day Chris stopped at the music store where they were having auditions which landed him in a band. At 18 years of age Chris Juergensen hit the road with this new band for about three years. Chris keep getting better and better as they toured but wanted something better to fall back on.
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Quitting the band he went to the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles. In L.A. Chris started getting session and recording work. Mostly in blues then rock. As Chris studied music more he was doing jazz also. Chris started teaching at the Musicians Institute when he was offered a job to teach in Japan for one year. Around 25 years of age Chris Juergensen was teaching, doing session work and recording his own cd in Tyoko. Unforgetably the first cd Prospects did not sell well. In hindsight Chris said a cd of instrumental, jazz and fusion is a hard thing to sell. Most radio stations won’t even play it if you go by his website. (click on “Media“) you can listen to some Prospects. You’ll see it’s a very well done record and you can really tell he is an expert guitarist. For the next cd it was back to his roots, the blues. Big Bad Sun is a blues’ rock record that sold well all over the world. You will be able to hear and feel the emotion in the songs. As you probably already know it was loved and played by many podcasters. Chris decided to go the independent route instead of going with a big label. This way he has more control over what is on the cd as well as being able to promote his own records his own way and probably doing a better job than what the record companies would have done. This is good also because he does not have to split the royalties with a recorded company. Now Chris has released his third cd called Strange Phenomena. It is a mix of new studio tracks with great live versions of songs from the studio cd Big Bad Sun. Guess you could say it is the best of both worlds.
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Chris Juergensen new cd Strange Phenomena
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“The Spirit”
Chris said this is kind like a New Orleans type of blues. The song talks about all the things Chris could have been doctor, lawyer, preacher, or whatever until the spirit of music came to his door. This is very lucky for us, listen to his guitar solo on this song. Chris really digs in to his Telecaster (guitar) for a great solo. This is just the opening song for the new cd Strange Phenomena, you have nine more great tracks to go.
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“Long Time Wondering”
While in Tokyo Chris got a call from SSL who is a manufacture of high end mixing conceals. They came out with this new mixing conceal called The Duende Board which had been installed in a studio in Tokyo. This was the first one ever installed so they wanted to see what it could do. They called in someone who could give it a work out, Chris Juergensen. Chris however was to meet his old friend Joey Carbone who was just in town. Joey was the music director for The Gong Show and Star Search. Joey had produced music for Britney Spears, Beyonce, Christina Aguilerra, Justin Timberlake… you get the ideal. They may not be our cup of tea but Joey knows how to produce. Being a good friend, Joey said he’d produce and arrange the song Chris was going to work on through this new conceal. Joey also played piano and organ on the song.
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“Nothings Got Me”
This is more of a rock song than a straight blues song, there is some elements of blues in it. Chris said he wanted to use this song to showcase his guitar playing and boy o’ boy did he. Long solos that fit perfectly in the song. You just want to hear him keep going on but he knows for the song to work as a whole it must be balanced with the rest of the parts. The guitar playing is just from one or two takes. This really let’s you hear what a great guitarist Chris is. Chris, being an independent artist, has to pay for all his studio time and for this reason, Chris does not rerecord tracks over and over again. He has to get it right early on and as you will hear he nails this baby down real good.
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“Living the Lie”
Long held cords and sustained guitar notes with a steady drum and bass behind him.
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“Blood on the Street”
Another upbeat fun rock n’ song. Great guitar solo again and again and again, are we finding a pattern to these songs?
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Those are the studio tracks from Strange Phenomena. The one Joey Carbone worked on and four songs Chris had recorded in the studio later.
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Chris Juergensen was set up to do some concerts in Tyoko. While at the sound check he saw the hall was hard wired to record concerts. Chris had the concert recorded and used what he really liked on the Strange Phenomena cd.
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The songs “House on the Hill”, “Sweet Melissa”, and “Tell Me a Story” were some of the high lights from Chris’s last cd Big Bad Sun. Now you get to hear them live on the new cd Strange Phenomena, “Sweet Melissa” being the runaway hit. The song is about the time that keeps slipping through his hands as he misses his daughter, Melissa, while being in Japan. This song has a lot of very beautiful guitar playing on it.
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The other two songs picked from the concert are “Boot Hill” and “Born to Love You”. This is a real treat because the’re live but ther’e new songs also. Not very often do artist have the confidence to release their new material live. Both songs work out very nicely with the older live songs. Strange Phenomena is giving you the best of all worlds. You have five new studio songs, three live highlights from the past and two new live songs.
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The Band on these tracks:
Tetsuya Hoshiyama - drums
Kenichi Fujisawa – bass
Chris Juergensen - guitars
There is some keyboard playing on a few tracks but did not get the names, sorry.
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The songs played in the podcast:
The Spirit
Long Time Wondering
Nothings Got Me
Sweet Melissa - Live
Born to Love You – Live
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Big Bad Sun (at the end)
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If you’re a guitar player check out Chris Juergensen demo for Xotic BB Plus distortion box and Xotic guitar. The video of Chris playing is awesome.
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Chris Juergensen Website
Chris Juergensen MySpace page
To buy Chris Juergensen NEW Strange Phenomena at CD Baby Website
To buy Chris Juergensen NEW Strange Phenomena at FretTunes
To buy Chris Juergensen Big Bad Sun at CD Baby Website
To buy Chris Juergensen Prospects at CD Baby Website
Also the NEW Strange Phenomena is available at the iTunes store.

 

 032 - Chris Juergensen – Brand New Record, Strange Phenomena. [37:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download