Chris Haskett profile picture

Chris Haskett

Have you had your Haskett today?

About Me


Purchase Ben Justus and the Trespassers' debut album, "Based on a True Story" by clicking here!! .
BIOGRAPHY
After years of performing solo in coffee houses and bars in the midwest, over two years fronting the accomplished independent band The Brand Plastic, and a lifetime of playing various instruments, Chris has become one of the few solo/acoustic Indianapolis songsmiths to captivate audiences without the use of a backing band. With love-gone-wrong and internal conflict as his favored muse, Chris focuses on strong melodies, full guitar chords, and personal experience to convey his message. Originally a percussionist, Haskett inherently hammers out the rhythm with his six-string while howling and crooning to the crowd with a unique sincerity and depth of emotion, in-part learned from his operatic mother. Though his former band was compared to everyone from Radiohead, Coldplay, The Beatles, Weezer, and My Bloody Valentine, Chris’s solo material is more akin to Elliot Smith, Ben Harper, or the Red House Painters' ballads
Chris Haskett's new project is called My Special Purpose .
In addition to his new band, Chris has started playing drums again with his good friend Ben Justus .
Chris has been asked to open for national acts such as New Model Army, Superdrag, Phantom Planet, Convoy, Mary Prankster, Mike Errico, Matthew, Bare Junior, Jen Chapin, and Paul Thorn. His music has been featured on X103 WRZX, 92.3 WTTS, Z99.5, WKLU 101.9, and WKWH 94.3 among others. He has been apart of the following music festivals: Midwest Music Summit (Indianapolis) 2001-2004, Benchmark’s Battle of the Bands (Indianapolis) 2001-2003, Midpoint Music Festival 2003 (Cincinnati), and Jammin’ on Jersey 2003(Indianapolis) (featuring Ben Folds, John Prine, Ween, Gomez, among others).
PRAISE FOR CHRIS HASKETT
“Haskett is a towering mass of talent with a voice and skill for writing great tunes.” --Danica Johnson Nuvo Newsweekly
“Haskett is no beauty queen delivering the standard “world peace” platform, but the longing in his voice professes his sincerity… Someone, please get [Noel in Israel] some national distribution so Haskett can live comfortably off the royalty checks.” --Kristen Leep Indianapolismusic.net
“Chris Haskett is known as an idea man within the local music community” --David Lindquist The Indianapolis Star
“…Haskett launches an intense lyrical plea with Reign Over Me.” --David Lindquist The Indianapolis Star
"...some of Indiana’s best indie-rock... Brilliant balladeer... [Chris Haskett] sailed on the notes of his original material." -- Matt Arant Nuvo Newsweekly
“Strength is my best way to summarize his performance. He makes the acoustic guitar bleed, while lyrically he has some of the most defining messages of hard-taught and learned-well life experiences. Life experiences that were unexpected to an unsuspecting man who howls to the crowd his story by the fireside. The stage the comfortable rug, and his voice and guitar the poker that stir the sparks.” --Indypromo.net

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 12/14/2004
Band Website: myspace.com/myspecialpurpose
Band Members: just me and my guitars, melodica, harmonium, didjeridoo, moog, keyboards, etc...
Influences: The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Red House Painters, Tom Petty, Pixies, Frank Black, Travis, Radiohead, Soul Coughing, Miranda Sound, Loretta, Fred Brown,Coldplay, Morphine, Wilco, Elbow, Doves, Neutral Milk Hotel, Elliot Smith, Bob Marley, Lenny Kravitz (the early years), the Flaming Lips, Air, The Cure, Beck, Ben Folds 5, Paul Kotheimer, the Shins, R.E.M., Weezer, Spoon, Arcade Fire, My Morning Jacket, and Old Pike.
Sounds Like: You'll be into it if you like The Beatles, Rufus Wainwright, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, the Shins, Doves, Travis, Coldplay, Elliot Smith, Red House Painters, and/or Sondre Lerche. As far as who else i sound like... ummmm... i dunno, you tell me.
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Cover of my song "Taboo"

a friend of mine, who wishes to remain anonymous, has recorded a cover of my song "Taboo" complete with a casio drum track.  its pretty funny... check it out at:  http://www.myspace.com...
Posted by Chris Haskett on Wed, 23 Jan 2008 02:05:00 PST

Drumming again after 12 years

so my good friend Ben Justus moved back to indy from California for several months and while he was here i played several solo shows with him.  Ben's always been a good friend and alot of fu...
Posted by Chris Haskett on Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:25:00 PST

someone stole my bicycle

someone broke into my garage in SoBro and stole my bike and lawn mower (yellow and green).  My bike is a 25" frame (yep, i'm a tall boy) silver TREK 7300FX hybrid mountain/road bike wit...
Posted by Chris Haskett on Wed, 20 Jun 2007 02:48:00 PST

New Band

So after years of playing solo and losing faith in the music industry as a whole, i've got a new band.  We're called My Special Purpose and we're made up of myself, my long time friend (bald) Ben...
Posted by Chris Haskett on Thu, 29 Mar 2007 05:39:00 PST

Christmas Show Review

I played the annual Birdy's X-mas party this year, performing my own renditions of White Christmas, Silver Bells, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, We 3 Kings, and my Christmas song, Noel i...
Posted by Chris Haskett on Sat, 24 Dec 2005 07:57:00 PST

I'm an uncle!

Abigail Jayne Hastings was born at 9:43am on November 25th 2005. She is the daughter of Andrea and Andrew Hastings.  She weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz. and was delivered after 29 hours (!) of labor.  ...
Posted by Chris Haskett on Fri, 25 Nov 2005 08:41:00 PST

Noel in Israel recording

I wrote and recorded this song right before the christmas of 2002 as the UN weapons inspector's were searching in Iraq and tempers were starting to flare in the middle east.  I recorded it with E...
Posted by Chris Haskett on Thu, 17 Nov 2005 08:36:00 PST

Grow Old with Me Recording

So i played John Lennon's Grow Old with Me in a couple weddings last year and those people wanted me to record it for them. i finally got around to it this weekend. at the weddings, it was just me and...
Posted by Chris Haskett on Mon, 12 Sep 2005 08:07:00 PST

Article in InTake

here's a link to an article about the Art by Architects exhibit that appeared in this week's InTake:  http://www.intakeweekly.com/articles/9/023076-2159-160.html. ..
Posted by Chris Haskett on Mon, 01 Jan 1900 12:00:00 PST

Nuvo Interview

i was interviewed by my old friend Danica Johnson, of the local indianapolis entertainment rag, NUVO.  check out the interview here: http://www.nuvo.net/archive/2005/07/06/speakeasy_with_chris_ ha...
Posted by Chris Haskett on Mon, 01 Jan 1900 12:00:00 PST