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Christian David Wentz was born the son of two musicians with completely different tastes in music. Christian’s father, noted composer Bill Wentz, had bestowed upon his son an interest in classical composers, funk and jazz, and most importantly, progressive rock. Christian’s mother, a guitarist, pianist, and award winning songwriter Kate McGuire instilled in her son a sense of traditional music, poetry, lyrics, and composition. At the age of 7 Christian began his own musical discovery with KISS and began learning to play the drums. Armed with music ranging from the progressive mastery of Kansas, to the hard grinding three chord rock of AC/DC, Christian began a musical journey of his own. Growing up in the Wentz household was an incredibly musically rich experience. Always surrounded by the hugely talented friends and co-workers of his parents, Christian was influenced by so many fine players. It was at age 11 that Christian began learning to play the piano and to read music. Giving up the drums, he found more musical satisfaction in the music he was able to create with his father’s keyboards. As the heavy music of the early 1980’s became popular, Christian had discovered the love of his life: the guitar.
The monster guitar work of the legendary Randy Rhoads had a profound impact on the young guitar player. Christian began learning the complexities and the techniques of Rhoads, Yngwie Malmsteen, and the incredible Criss Oliva. He played in and out of several of the local bands in the San Francisco Bay Area, but could never quite find the right musicians that could appreciate his sense of orchestration and the complexities of the progressive music that he was writing. In 1989, Christian and bass player Markus Gatz formed the monster progressive metal outfit Randall Flagg. Working with some of the Bay Areas most talented musicians, Randall Flagg had gone on to win a huge battle of the bands, beating 519 other hopeful acts in 6 months of competition. Selling out every venue they played, Randall Flagg had earned a reputation for their excellent live show and their forward thinking musicianship. 4 years later, Christian found that he was musically frustrated, and had decided to move on.
Christian began learning the craft of songwriting on his own during a move to Las Vegas in 1993. He started writing songs for any genre he could think of, pop, reggae, metal, television, and solo vocal artists. For the next 4 years he would work with singer songwriter Jennifer Jensen, whom he later married. While in Vegas, Christian became the lead guitarist for Dirt Road Gang, a bar room rock band featuring singer/songwriter Ray Dawg Hancock. He found himself playing in the Vegas pubs for the next several years until divorce and financial difficulties left him disillusioned with the Las Vegas music scene. In 2002, Christian headed back home to the Bay Area.
Once back at home, Christian had rediscovered his love of progressive metal and began working on honing his skills and improving his technique. In 2005 Christian recruited former Randall Flagg/ Picture This bass player Markus Gatz to form what would eventually become Surface Tension Project. Going to work for KWTF the Edge radio in 2006 as a DJ, he soon found himself in the world he had always dreamed of, the world of progressive metal. Finding that the genre had exploded over recent years, Christian was excited to join forces with monster guitarist Marc Pattison to create their progressive metal project Futures End with former Zero Hour vocalist Fred Marshall.
In the spring of 2007, Christian had discovered the amazing music of the Brazilian progressive metal outfit The Element and had instantly become a huge fan. Getting to know the band members through the radio station, Christian became fast friends with singer guitarist Rafael Macedo. Impressed with Christians playing, The Element asked him to join the band just a few months later.
Christian is busy recording with all three bands, and expects to be touring during the spring/summer of 2008. Stay tuned!