Christopher Joel profile picture

Christopher Joel

christopherjoel

About Me

I'm normal. At least, what used to be considered "normal". My parents are still married, happy, and we see each other often. I have a good relationship with my two brothers and sister. I attend church weekly and volunteer often. I'm happily married to my best friend. We aren't on drugs, don't party all night, don't beat on each other, and the neighbors don't have to call the police when we disagree with each other. We're the ideal chick-flick married couple. And we watch too many movies.
I wear khakis and a tie every day to my day job, though not by choice (I prefer jeans and sandals). I don't have any piercings or tattoos, although I've debated both. I don't have long hair; I'm always impressed by people who can pull it off, but I can't. Mine just gets frizzy and dry and poofs out. Short is easier, but I'm still too lazy to style it most of the time.
I like going to the grocery store. I'd never want to be so famous that going to the grocery store is not possible any more. Or drive myself. I like to drive myself. I drive a Toyota, but I'll get one of those cool, electric eco-cars someday. I'm a Mac fan and not ashamed to admit it. I don't consider myself very political, but I do have opinions, which I mostly keep to myself. I'd love to change the world, but I'll start by entertaining them first.
My songs are diverse and catchy, at least I think so. I don't like just one style of music, but I guess pop-rock is my favorite. Shuffle on my iPod would bring up James Brown right after Soundgarden, followed by Frank Sinatra, then some weird artsy stuff of unknown origin. That's how I write, too. It's just whatever comes out.
Most people I know are the same way in their musical tastes. They want something accessible, understandable, clever, and catchy. Something artsy enough to be cool and unique, but still familiar enough to sing along. I really sing, I don't scream (usually). And I play guitar. I can play other things, but my friends are better at it than me.
I've often thought that famous people have to be screwed up in order to become well-known. I hope not. I don't think I'm that screwed up; I think I'm pretty ordinary. But I'd like to be well-known, but still drive myself to the grocery store.
So that's me. I'm Christopher Joel.
Oh yeah, I'm also working on my first recording. I'm calling it Fantasy World, after the song which you can hear on my site (go to the music page) or any of my profile pages. It should come out in July of 2008.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 10/29/2007
Band Website: christopherjoel.com
Band Members: CJ: Vocals, Guitar
Mike Estok: Guitar, Vocals
Taylor McRae: Bass
Paul Francisco: Keys, Vocals
Jeremy Skowronski: Drums

Influences: Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, Coldplay, Deathcab for Cutie, Train, Matchbox 20, Soundgarden, Rocco Deluca, John Mayer, Black Crowes, Foo Fighters, Switchfoot, K's Choice
Sounds Like: Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, Coldplay, Deathcab for Cutie, Train, Matchbox 20, Soundgarden, Rocco Deluca, John Mayer, Black Crowes, Foo Fighters, Switchfoot, K's Choice
Record Label: Wilch Records - Independent!
Type of Label: None

My Blog

The Get Out Clause

Buh-rilliant! This band, The Get Out Clause, from Manchester, England found themselves short of funds, but needing a music video. So they setup their rigs in front of dozens of security cameras all ...
Posted by Christopher Joel on Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:52:00 PST

Prince DMCA’s Youtube again

Doe Prince just enjoy hacking off his fans? A fan posted his performance of Radiohead's song "Creep" from Coachella. Prince and his people sent a DMCA request to Youtube and it was pulled down. I u...
Posted by Christopher Joel on Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:51:00 PST

iTunes Subscriptions

I have never liked the idea of subscriptions for music. You pay $x amount per month and you get to play all the music you want. Stop paying, you’re outta luck. It just seems mobster-ish to me...
Posted by Christopher Joel on Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:47:00 PST

Limewire launches music store

I’ve tried Limewire once or twice. I’ve gotten away from the whole file sharing thing, although I will be adding my own files there once we get them all finished up. Anyway, I was pleasa...
Posted by Christopher Joel on Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:40:00 PST

Obama a Christopher Joel fan?

I saw this speech given by Barack Obama and he actually references one of my songs! Ok, so he doesn’t mention my name, but he does make a big point of "not this time" and repeats it several ti...
Posted by Christopher Joel on Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:27:00 PST

Radiohead does cartoons

Radiohead has announced they want their fans to come up with some animated videos for any of the songs on their newest release "In Rainbows". It’s a pretty sweet setup, if you ask me. Everyone...
Posted by Christopher Joel on Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:08:00 PST

Legal payola squeezes out the little guy

Artists will apparently just continue to get screwed. You can add technology, you can change the terminology, you can interchange companies, you can even change continents...but artists will still ge...
Posted by Christopher Joel on Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:03:00 PST

Working on 11:11

Tuesday night Mike, Paul, and I got together and continued working on an acoustic version of 11:11. Mike and I started it last week, so Paul came in to add some really cool Tremolo Rhodes to it. Unf...
Posted by Christopher Joel on Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:42:00 PST

Amaranth and the Long Tail

My wife has been reading The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. From what I’ve heard from her and other people, it’s a pretty good book. I found an example of what it talks about last night.I ...
Posted by Christopher Joel on Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:41:00 PST

Reznors success

Trent Reznor, aka Nine Inch Nails, has had quite the year so far. Late last year, they split from their major record label and began producing music on their own (not that he hadn’t done some o...
Posted by Christopher Joel on Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:40:00 PST