Chris Laney

NEWS:
Chris is now working at Polar studios (Led Zep, Abba, Stones, U2, Scorpions, Leppard, Europe, Genesis and many many more) and has signed a publishing deal with Sony/ATV.
CHRIS LANEY BIOGRAPHY
Since moving to Stockholm in the mid-90’s, Chris Laney has made a made waves as a songwriter, producer, engineer and musician.
As a band member, he’s the main songwriter, guitarist and also producer for Animal (USA) and Zan Clan (Sweden). He’s just finished mixing four tracks for Swedish rock veterans Europe.
He’s recorded the last two Candlemass albums (the former of which won a Swedish Grammy in the hard rock category). He had a big hand in developing and producing glam rockers Crashdiet’s first album. And he has collaborated with acts as diverse as Karl Martindahl, Bruce Kulick and Barbados.
His debut solo single as Chris Laney, ”Instinct Animal”, was one of the most requested songs in a contest at the influentual Canadian rock station Headbangers Basement in 2006.
Chris grew up in the town of Helsingborg in the south of Sweden and started to tour as a singer at the age of 13. His older sister, Gith, was the one who really got him into music. ”My parents and grandparents supported it all by buying me all kinds of instruments, so I’m able to say that im not just a guitarist, but also a singer, keyboardist, bassist and drummer”, he smiles.
Early bands included Satisfaction, Scratch and Seventeen. Within three years the latter had headlined big venues, released two 7” singles, (Easy Come / Easy Go & When The Nite Cumz) and made a video. Instead of riding the waves, naturally they split up… Chris kept the name Seventeen and formed a new line-up. Now in his early twenties, he got interested in producing and soon developed some serious skills in that area. The new line-up of Seventeen recorded at bunch of demos, toured and a 5 track promo CD was shipped.
Having left his hometown Helsingborg for Stockholm, he soon landed a publishing deal did co-writes and received a lot of feedback. Together with his longtime friend Anders Ringman, Chris built a studio, Platform. Since 2001 the two of them have recorded, written and produced a long list of releases, some of which have gone double platinum and many have charted.
But no matter how many successful pop songs he wrote or co-wrote, his reputation for being a great hard rock producer/mixer/player/singer/arranger landed him prestigeous jobs, lending his touch to acts like Europe, Talisman, Candlemass, Crashdiet, Bruce Kulick (the former Kiss guitarist with whom hes toured as a lead singer), Marc Ferrari (ex-Keel).
The next time Chris returned to the stage would be with two guys whose faces were once were to be found, in full make-up, on posters on Chris' bedroom wall.
Together with Zinny J. Zan (Easy Action, Shotgun Messiah) he put together a band new line-up of Zan Clan, playing arenas together with veterans Whitesnake. After having released an acclaimed live album earlier in 2006, their second studio is currently being written and recorded with Chris at the helm.
The other project that attracted him back to kick-ass rock’n’roll was the offer to join W.A.S.P. legend Randy Piper in the American band Animal. During mid-2006, the album has been released in several countries and climbed the hard rock charts in Germany.
Finally, Chris is also a sucker for infectuous melodies, and adores bands in the inventive pop tradition from The Beatles to Cheap Trick and Jellyfish. And don’t be surprised if, one day, he creates a concept album. Rest assured that this restless talent will stay creative for as long as he breathes.
ZAN CLAN "Heart N Soul"
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