Craig Kester
Born in Santa Monica, CA in 1959, Craig has been involved with the music world for 20 years now. His first band, Republic of Sherpa became a local legend with its "shocking performances" in 1981-82. They went on to form Sherpa Studios (1982-87) in Fullerton, Orange County. In 1984 Craig and composer/guitarist David Lex formed Tao Mao which eventually Spinal-Tapped into Torn Memory (1987-1997). Torn Memory relocated to San Francisco in 1989, leaving the suburbs of Southern California behind. In 1993, finding themselves in the midst of the vibrant pre-dot.com music scene, Torn Memory recorded their debut cd. But as luck would have it, the band found itself plagued with problems from which it would never fully recover. Lex, suffering from tenitis was not able to continue at the pace the band had hoped and the cd, Organic remained unreleased. Craig considers this unreleased cd the Smile of the 90's. It wasn't long before Craig set out to explore his potential as a composer and songwriter, knowing that this was his one chance to do so. Out poured over 50 acoustic and electric songs, musings, etc. ... but now he needed a new band to realize these visions. It wasn't long before he met Sean Chiki (see below) in the art-damaged Wings cover band, Broken Wings. By 1998, Craig had been approached by producer Matt Boudreau to record a cd on "specs". Attempting to reconstruct Torn Memory, Craig brought in Sean on guitar, and the band eventually transformed into Go Go Galaxion. Craig later also worked with Sean in the ambient/experimental project Shraddha.
Sean Chiki
Born in Washington, PA in 1966, Sean has been playing, writing and recording music since 1985 when he joined his first band in Dallas, Texas. Named at various times The Mad Daddies and Johnny Zhivago & the KGB, they eventually settled for The Blind. After getting kicked out of the Blind in 1987 for missing rehearsals and not being a very good vocalist, Sean formed what was to become an ongoing musical collective called SVS with a few friends, John Kent and Christie Torian. Moving to Pittsburgh, PA in 1988, he continued making obscure recordings under the SVS moniker until a brief alliance with one Tyrus Fluharty spawned a new recording project known at various times as White Trash, Ubermensch and Sirius B. This project failed to produce any significant material and Sean returned to solitary composition and recording, producing a large body of work under the name Sodom-Apples. In 1996, Sean relocated to San Francisco and there continued the Sodom-Apples project for a short time. In early 1997, he teamed with future Go Go members Craig Kester and Brian Weaver to form Broken Wings, a Paul McCartney tribute band with Andy Peters. Broken Wings proved to be short-lived and Sean continued recording additional material at home until 1998 when he was asked by Craig Kester to replace Torn Memory's lead guitarist. Numerous personnel changes put an end to Torn Memory and thus was born a new band, Go Go Galaxion. Between 1998 and 2002, Sean worked with Go Go Galaxion as well as contributing to other local groups, Dolly Rocker as bass player, The Andy Peters Show as electronics and keyboard player and reviving SVS as a solo electronics-based project, SVS Sound Lab. Sean continues to write and record with various projects such as Estrada, Stigmata 9000 and serves as composer and sound designer for Pullover Productions and Atomic Radio Hour.
Go Go Galaxion history
Go Go Galaxion has it's beginnings in the spring of 1997 in San Francisco when guitarist Craig Kester and bassist Brian Weaver came together with guitarist Sean Chiki, recently arrived from Pittsburgh, PA and vocalist Andy Peters to form Broken Wings, a Paul McCartney cover band. After two performances, the group disbanded. Chiki and Peters went on to form the tape project Estrada which would eventually provide the nucleus for the Andy Peters Show, Kester and Weaver both returning to their respective bands.
Kester's band at the time, Torn Memory had been playing in San Francisco for several years and was approached by producer Matt Boudreau with the prospect of making a new album. Torn Memory's lead guitarist, David Lex had recently quit the band and moved out of town and Sean Chiki was called in to replace him. As the group began rehearsing new material, it also began to adopt a new sound as well and it was decided to drop the Torn Memory moniker in favor of a new name to be decided. While Kester and Chiki continued to collaborate on the new material, the other former members of Torn Memory eventually exited, followed by a number of temporary drummers and bass players. Brian Weaver, then playing with the Cubby Creatures, joined the new group as bassist and the group finally decided on the name Go Go Galaxion. Chiki and Weaver would also go on to play together in the Andy Peters Show.
The first Go Go Galaxion recordings commenced in 1998 at Division Hi Fi in San Francisco, with Matt Boudreau producing. These recordings (Attraction Distraction and I Couldn't Take You) featured drummer Greg Cooper. After Cooper's departure, recordings were resumed at Studio 684 and netted the songs Breathe and Severance with Boudreau taking over drumming duties. Eventually drummer Darron Weasler was brought in and over the next two years Go Go Galaxion recorded six more songs at Roof Brothers Recording in Emeryville, CA.
In late 2001, Go Go Galaxion collected the recordings of the last three years to comprise the album Great Attractor which was released in the spring of 2002. By summer 2002, both Weaver and Weasler had exited the group and a new rhythm section was brought in comprised of drummer John Lakian and Bob Spector on bass, both veterans of the Andy Peters Show. This line up went on to gig and promote the album during late 2002.
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Tracks from the 'Great Attractor' CD
