Chris Harris

2020 will be my eighth 50/90 and I'm really looking forward to hearing what everyone comes up with this year. We need to focus more on doing things that bring joy and pleasure to people right now, and for me that means making music.

I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do this time around, but the fact that I've acquired a large number of virtual instrument and synthesizer VSTs in the last six months or so inevitably means that I'll be adding more keyboards to the mix this year. And after 35 years of making do with a wonky two-tier stand that's held together with gaffa tape, I've finally upgraded to an A-frame rack which has enough room for ALL my polysynths, so fat eighties analog sounds are back on the menu, folks. Rest assured, however, that all the usual guitars and keyboards will be making their traditional appearances along with my basses, guitar synth, theremin, stylophone, cowbell, melodica and Chapman Stick.

Update (July 14th): It has come as just as much of a surprise to me as it has to you (because you know that I much prefer being the guy *behind* the camera), but I've started doing a regular Sunday night live stream on Twitch TV that's intended for ANYONE taking part in Fifty Ninety this year:
https://www.twitch.tv/headfirstonly

It's all about getting better, musically speaking. I'll be waffling on about stuff like how to get the best out of your microphone, what should you look for when you're buying a new keyboard, and what on earth is a compressor for anyway? I've been archiving each show on YouTube and there's a playlist of all the episodes to date here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIFt2zuOrBSGoNTSObZJhBaBs4QpvKl05

Throw a question my way and I'll attempt to answer it on the show.

As always, a list of my musical influences can be found here:
http://headfirst.www.idnet.com/about_groups.htm

My gear list got much too large to put here, so it now lives on the page linked below, which also has more about my musical history.
http://headfirst.www.idnet.com/about_music.htm

"Leonard-Cohen-meets-prog." - PROG Magazine issue 98
"The Bob Ross of prog metal." - @ductapeguy, FAWMStock online