Chris Hercules

Chris Hercules is his original name since birth that can only be associated with the name of that Greek god, because of his perseverance and determination. Chris remembers watching television in 1982 as a news caster reported that the great jazz musician Thelonius Monk had died. Not knowing who the individual was or what he represented, the name Thelonius Monk always stuck with him. He says that this experience and a late night television show that aired in the 80’s called “Night Moves” was his first introduction to jazz. However he never bothered with learning how to play an instrument while growing up, but started buying records at the age of 9. “I became a vinyl junky at an early age, I bought hiphop, rock and pop records and also enjoyed metal and hard rock as a skateboarder.”

Skateboarding was a big part of his life, starting in 1988 and continuing throughout the years, reaching his highest peak in 1991 when he decided to stop and get into house music. Skateboarding gave Chris the understanding of movement, hard work, acceptance and expression, this same freedom was also found in dancing and listening to house and jazz music.

Funky soulful jazz influenced dance music is what influenced Chris to start writing his own poetry and songs. Chris has written his own collection of house music, and has learned to be a versatile songwriter aswell, who has written and produced material ranging from reggae, jazz and pop music.In 1998 he got his first song “Sweet Days” released on Tang Lung Records. It was put out on the compilation Tang Lung, which was produced and published by the group Third Floor. As a producer, Chris has worked with Juno award nominee and Mixed Signals producer Gene King to write a song called “Love will fix it", which was released on Ultra Sound Recordings on November 2004. They also teamed up again to work on Gene Kings EP titled “The GK Experience” released March 2005 on Mixed Signals Music, with Chris providing the deep, dark, brooding vocals.Since 2005 Chris credits Lisa Particelli’s Girls Night Out jazz jam as his inspiration to start doing spoken word (“I wanted to be a part of the band, I couldn’t sing or play an instrument so I tried some poetry over jazz standards and it worked”) giving him the confidence to perform at many venues across the city such as The Cabbage Patch, Indian Motor Cycle, N’awlins, The Pilot, Ten Feet Tall, The Trane Studios, Dominion on Queen and The Red Guitar.Chris is currently studying jazz and harmony and looks forward to collaborating with great musicians and multimedia artists in the future.