C-Gak

CGak Remixes - Lisa Papineau's "Out For A Swim"

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:20:00 -0800

Cgak at it again, check out the Remix / video of Lisa Papineau’s Out for a Swim. - plagarized the video made by Sven van der Hart. This track is also on the Don’t Sleep Remix album HERE

CGak Remix - Adebisi Shank "Genki Shank"

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 12:00:00 -0800

Adebisi Shank as remixed by Cgak - Check out the Don’t Sleep Remix album here

October 26th at The Glasshouse w/ Man Man & Grandchildren

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:22:50 -0700

C-Gak will be playing on October 26th at The Glass House in Pomona with Man Man and Grandchildren. Doors at 7pm - All Ages.

Los Angeles Times Interview with C-Gak - Show Tonight with Battles

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 10:58:00 -0700

Those familiar with the multitalented pack of musicians that comprised Long Beach’s RX Bandits know the swarm of side projects each member has entertained over the years. Among them happens to be drummer Chris Tsagakis’ solo drum venture that melds both man and machine in a hail of creative, atmospheric beats.

For a few years, he performed under the moniker Technology. This year, he wised up and realized that the billions of Google references to that name made him a little hard to find on the Internet. In the end, “C-Gak” — his longtime nickname — seemed more appropriate, and searchable.

Since the breakup of RX Bandits last July, C-Gak has turned his aural hobby into his main creative outlet, finding a well of new energy and creative techniques to bring to the table. On Sunday, the Sargent House artist be performing with Brooklyn’s highly touted instrumental experimentalists Battles at the Glasshouse in Pomona, the stage where RX Bandits played one of their last show just months earlier.

Pop & Hiss sat down with C-Gak for a brief conversation about his inspirations as a drummer, life after RXB and the excitement of bringing his beats to a whole new fan base.

P&H: In the past, most of your solo work has centered around utilizing your drum kit and programmed samples to make instrumental jams. Is that still your main objective as a solo artist these days?

C-G: There are still some programmed electronic stuff that I’ll be playing along to, but I’m also using a loop station to build the songs live. To some extent people can get kinda bored just watching someone play drums to these songs. So I’m pulling out some keyboards, a couple mikes and a few different instruments on stage and build songs through the loop station and play drums to them while I incorporate some preprogrammed beats here and there to make it a little more improvised.

P&H: You’re approaching your instrument in a different way than most drummers. Are there any influences as far as drummers or electronic artists that really inspired the route you’ve taken with the solo stuff?

C-G: I’ve always been influenced by John McEntire, the drummer for Tortoise. He’s a very creative drummer. And of course Mars Volta drummers like Jon Theodore and Deantoni Parks that utilize a lot of drum-and-bass influence. I’ve found that a lot of times my brain can figure out a lot of drum parts faster than my hands can so I’ll dig into these electronic drum libraries I’ve made and kind of chop stuff around and make a beat that I wouldn’t normally think about if I was sitting at a drum set. But once I’ve made it, I can actually hop on a drum set and figure it out for real.

P&H: You’ve also been known to use a lot of found sounds, like recording the sound of skateboard wheels spinning on cement. Do you find that a lot of those everyday sounds show up in your beat-making process these days?

C-G: There’s sounds everywhere I go, so if I hear something that sounds cool, instantly it makes me think of how I could use it. I probably won’t be using too much skateboard stuff in my live show since I don’t have enough room, but I’ll definitely be bringing lots of random things on stage to hit and make sounds with for the loop station I use.

P&H: What has life been like for you since RX Bandits decided to stop performing and move on to other things?

C-G: It’s been really cool. RX was more or less a full-time job even when we weren’t on tour. We were always planning our next thing, rehearsing or recording. It’s great that everyone’s working on different stuff now and we still maintain this kind of open forum to create other kinds of music for people to check out. Matt [Embree] and I have this other side project called Biceratops that we’re getting new material for and we’re also finishing up a new record for a jam band side project called Apotheke. That will be coming out soon too.

P&H: In addition to being a drummer, you’ve also been a visual artist for a long time. Does that background also have an effect on your music?

C-G: I’ve been a visual artist since I was like 5 years old and that’s just something I’ve always done. I work mostly with oil paints. I’ve also been doing some work with stencils and various other mediums. It’s something that I plan on doing a lot more of now that I have some time on my hands. Eventually I’d like to incorporate the art into my live show somehow and maybe get a projector to create visuals that go along with all the songs.

P&H: What’s it like to present your solo stuff as an opener for Battles, another mostly instrumental band that’s gotten so much acclaim in the last year?

C-G: I’m really excited to play for a different crowd. Most of the stuff that I’ve done on my own I’ve done with bands that are still affiliated with RX Bandits through the Mash Down Babylon record label or other bands on the Sargent House label. So people that come to the shows automatically just know who I am. So it’s cool to get my stuff in front of other people. I’ve definitely liked Battles for a while and really respect their musical style.

P&H: What kinds of themes or ideas tend to inspire you’re instrumentals?

C-G: I got into electronic music about 15 years ago. And for me it wasn’t anything specific about that genre that I liked other than it really had this otherworldly type of feel to it. So my goal with this kind of music is to make music that feels like I can close my eyes and disappear to some other universe.

C-Gak “Watch the Sky” (live)

C-Gak performs Sunday with Battles at the Glass House, Pomona. 200 West 2nd Street. (909) 865-3802, www.theglasshouse.us. Doors at 7 p.m. $15. All ages

Watch The Sky : video

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 09:34:00 -0700

New unreleased song. Audio and video recorded live using a looper pedal and sampler

C-Gak Show w/ Battles at Glasshouse 10/16/11

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:29:00 -0700

I’m rockin’ a show with BATTLES October 16th at The Glass House in Pomona, CA. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased here.

I Actually Don't Even Like Remixes

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:14:00 -0700

Hello everyone,

I would like to fill everyone in on current and future projects, first off I have the remixes. Over the years I have met many talented people and have had the pleasure of making remixes with their work, however, I use the word “remix” lightly. In fact, most of the time I hate remixes or even the term “remix”. Most of these were done with nothing but vocals to start, which I think makes them more like “re-writes”. I basically took vocals soloed and wrote a new song from the ground up, not that there was anything wrong with the original songs…I simply wanted to write a song in my own style, and compliment the song with the vocals.

DON’T SLEEP REMIXES : I had a lot of fun making these songs, and hope you enjoy listening to them. Please also visit all of the bands websites because they all rock.

I would also like to share my first webcast, this is the first of what will hopefully be a series of webisodes explaining a bit of how I make music. I personally find it interesting when I learn about the techniques people use in the studio, and the various creative processes used to make a song or project. This is why I am starting these webcasts, I do put a lot of thought into my music and if anyone would like to explore my brain when it steps outside of my head here’s where to find it-

The song from the webcast is on my bandcamp page along with the remixes. Both are up on a donation basis, if you like the webisodes or the remixes, please donate anything you want, its much appreciated. I plan to release two more projects this year and a few more webisodes, so keep an eye out!

C-gak

Interview with Rock Edition

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:45:00 -0700

Over the course of 16 years and 6 studio albums, RX Bandits have crafted an instantly recognizable sound. Their blend of ska, punk, and progressive rock has won over an incredibly loyal fanbase, and their dynamic live show is one of the few places you can catch audiences moshing one second and dancing the next. The band’s last album, 2009’s ‘Mandala,’ saw them at the height of their instrumental prowess, showcasing Matt Embree and Steve Choi’s speedy, skittering guitar lines and drummer Chris Tsagakis’ fluid grooves.

Now, RX Bandits are nearing the end of their farewell tour and the beginning of an indefinite hiatus. Before one of the band’s shows in Boston, Chris was kind enough to speak with Rock Edition over the phone about the tour, the hiatus, and his future plans.

How’s it going?

It’s going well.

Considering that this tour is going to be RX Bandits’ last, have there been any particularly memorable moments?

Yeah. We just went through Philly and New York. Those were pretty memorable because they were really, really good crowds. There were a lot of people, a lot of people dancing and having a really good time.

How have you guys been structuring the setlists for these shows?

We’ve been trying to get good songs off of all the last four albums, including ‘Progress.’ The nights like in New York and tonight in Boston, where we’re doing two nights in a row, we’re trying to do one setlist that way and then another setlist that’s a lot of different songs for anyone who’s coming out to both shows. We want to give them a lot of different stuff.

Yeah. That’s pretty cool, considering that there are a lot of bands out there who use the same, static setlist every night. Do you guys try to keep it changing pretty much every night you play?

Yeah. We try to put some thought into what we did the last time we were in the area and things like that.

What’s it like touring with Maps & Atlases and Zechs Marquise?

They’re both old friends of ours. We’ve done a few tours with each of them. They’re all really good guys and awesome bands, so it’s cool to hang out with them and it’s fun to watch them play music, too.

Cool. At your live shows, you guys extend many of your songs with these really cool jam sessions. Are those sections usually planned out, or do you improvise them a fair amount of the time?

For the most part, they’re improvised. We don’t ever sit around and write stuff. Sometimes there will be something that we end of doing multiple nights just because it’s something that we hit on and liked, so it ends up becoming a staple jam. Like in “Only for the Night,” there’s a little jam that we do; we’ve been doing it for a while just because it kind of happened one day, and as we played it at different shows it took a little more structure. It ended up being something that we jam fairly the same every night, but a lot of it is improvised, except for some little key parts. But most of the jams are improvised. If we like something, we usually end up hitting around it on other nights too.

Awesome. I was reading the Modern Drummer interview with you from back in April, and you said that you like to leave certain parts of the songs open for improvisation based on what artists are influencing you at the time. What other drummers have been shaping the way you play this summer?

Actually, Chris Hainey, the drummer of Maps & Atlases, is a very creative drummer. I actually watch a lot of the stuff he does, a lot of different stuff that I normally wouldn’t do. He’s a cool drummer to watch. Deantoni Parks is another good drummer right now who’s doing a lot of creative stuff.

Yeah, definitely. Are you constantly looking for new people to help you evolve your style of playing?

Yeah. I’m always keeping my eyes wide open for anything new to check out. Sometimes, I’ll even just listen to some electronic music or something and get beats out of that, stuff that maybe wasn’t meant to be played on drums. I’m trying to interpret it into something new.

That’s pretty cool. How would you say your drumming has grown over your time in RX Bandits?

It’s always evolved because the rest of the band has always been very open to me doing drum stuff. They’ve never tried to limit the stuff that I do or tell me what to play. We all give each other all this creative freedom to do our thing, so we all grow throughout the years. They’re good musicians to make rhythmic music. It’s a good band to be with, to grow with.

Yeah, definitely. You guys are all crazy musicians. Let’s talk a little bit more about the tour. When did you guys decide that this tour was going to be your last one?

It’s just something that’s been thrown around here and there for some months now. We all have a lot of stuff we work on and a lot of things going on in our lives, and we just want to take some time to concentrate on other stuff. Originally, it was never meant to be breaking up or anything. It’s just kind of like we’ve toured so consistently every year for over a decade now, and we’re just not looking to be as consistent anymore. We’re just not sure over the next year or two, with everyone working on different projects and different things, when or if the next RX thing is going to happen. We just wanted to let people know that if you don’t come out to all the shows or if you were planning on skipping this one or something, this might be the last, so come out and hang out with us.

So are you saying that there might be a chance of you guys coming out with another album some time in the future?

Yeah, anything’s possible. We don’t hate each other or anything. We still like playing music with each other, so we’re just going to see what happens if we end up writing music together as RX or as something else. We’re keeping our options open for possible future shows, too. But it’s hard because people usually want a more definite answer about these things. We just don’t really know what’s going to happen.

Do you think you guys will still get together every now and then and just jam for fun?

Yeah. We’re like brothers, so we’re always going to be making music together probably for the rest of our lives. We’re just not sure if it will be under the name RX.

Awesome. Well, it’s good to hear that you guys are still going to be working on stuff together.

Me and Matt are working on a project right now, and then I’m going to work on some stuff with Steve Choi also in the future. There will be lots of stuff coming up.

Cool. Do you have anything planned for The Sound of Animals Fighting or Technology?

For The Sound of Animals Fighting, I’m not sure because the other members have their own lives, so I’m not sure if that’s going to do anything. Technology I’m going to do more of, and like I said, me and Matt have a project called Biceratops that is kind of our own version of The Sound of Animals Fighting-type stuff where we’re just making rock music together. I’m going to do my own thing, and like I said, work on some stuff with Steve Choi, too.

Nice. What RX Bandits album was your favorite to write and record?

It’s hard to say because they were all good for different reasons. We tried to do things a little bit different with every album — different studios and maybe write the songs in a different area or work with different people. They’re all awesome for great reasons. ‘Mandala’ was really fun to record because we were back with our old friend Chris Fudurich. We recorded in a house up in Pasadena that was turned into a studio, so it was pretty cool.

What else are you looking forward to doing with all the time you won’t be spending on touring?

I’m looking forward to spending time with my family and just writing music. I think the creative process of writing and recording music is one of my favorite things, so I look forward to doing a lot of that.

Pick up RX Bandits’ last album, Mandala.

Modern Drummer Feature - April 2011

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 09:46:37 -0800

More with RX Bandits’ remarkable sticksman—profiled in April’s Gearing Up column—who smoothly covers the broad ground between So-Cal ska and blazing prog rock. - by Corrado Rizzi

It’s safe to say that you will never see RX Bandits drummer Chris Tsagakis play a song live the same way twice. Some of his parts certainly remain constant—his integral grooves, his cues to shift into a different section of a song. But, as Tsagakis tells MD, “I could be in the middle of the tour and hear a drummer or record that I’ve never heard before, and it will influence me to try something new. I kind of leave it open, so that as I grow as a drummer I just change up the fills. Whatever feels good at the moment, you know?”

In the mid-’90s, Southern California was a breeding ground for ska and the bands that pushed the genre into the mainstream. Tsagakis and his band have moved far from their Orange County beginnings over the course of half a dozen full-length albums, including their latest masterwork,Mandala. “We were pretty ska at first,” Chris says, “and we played with a lot of ska bands when the ska scene was pretty big. As we grew we tried to get out of that; we wanted to move on and be something different—but at the same time we didn’t want to just leave all of our fans behind.”

Tsagakis admits RX Bandits struggled with climbing out of the scene that birthed them, while trying to keep their fans happy. “It was a slow struggle to satisfy our inner musicians but also give our fans what they wanted to hear,” he says. “It was kind of unconscious in that we didn’t necessarily plan for it to grow in the way that it did. But we definitely had a feeling inside of us that we wanted to be something different—you know, change it up.”

RX Bandits are, in essence, a band full of drummers. This is perhaps the main reason why so many of their songs are rhythmically centered and incorporate a tribal feel in the drum parts. Tsagakis admits that he is fortunate to be in a band where the drums are placed on just as high a pedestal as the guitars and other instruments. “I’ve been pretty lucky to be in band that really wants the drums to be treated as importantly as the other instruments, and not just be a rhythm keeper,” he says. “I’m constantly coming up with new ideas, and everybody is always really open to anything that I come up with.”

Tsagakis and his guitar-playing brother learned the drums by playing along to Metallica and Megadeth tunes. Formal training didn’t stick with Tsagakis, even if his teacher happened to be a legend whose sons went on to be future drum stars. “I very much dropped the ball in high school,” Chris says. “Chuck Wackerman was our band teacher at La Salle High School, and he’s the father of Chad, Brooks, and John Wackerman, who’ve played with Suicidal Tendencies and Zappa and all that. He was a pretty amazing band teacher, but at the time I didn’t want to go for anything structured. Later I wished I’d taken some free lessons from a drumming master, like I could have.”

When Tsagakis first met up with RX Bandits around 1996, he auditioned to play trumpet. But the absence of the group’s original drummer at a practice led to his filling the throne—for good. (Proof that it helps to know more than one instrument!) Tsagakis has since developed an inimitable style. His warm, organic-sounding drum parts are always at the center of the action in RX Bandits songs, whether he’s playing a thunderous tribal rhythm on the toms or keeping a tight hi-hat/snare pattern during the band’s more ambient moments. “You can tweak a lot of other instruments,” Chris says, “but drums need to have that organic sound.”

So where do the continually progressing Tsagakis and his band go from here? “The same direction we’ve been going,” the drummer says. “We just want to keep experimenting, doing different stuff, and coming up with different things.”

Glassroom Session with Lisa Papineau

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 22:21:11 -0700

REPOSTED From Sargent House

Lisa Papineau performs “Rainmaker” a new song with Chris Tsagakis aka Technology on drums and Michael Morgan also on drums. We truly only got one take of this one and then we got shut down because it was loud. Lisa wanted to shoot at night and after the Fang Island glassroom well let’s just say my neighbors hate me.

FREE Sargent House Compilation

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 21:27:19 -0700

From now until October 15th, Tastemakers Magazine has curated a free download of their hand picked tracks from the wonderful label Sargent House. Check out the tracklist below and make sure you download the compilation while you can!

DOWNLOAD :: Tastemakers Magazine’s Sargent House Picks – [LINK]

TRACKLISTING:
Gypsyblood – “Take Your Picture”
Technology feat. Aaron Chapman from Nurses – “New Weird Pop”
Tera Melos – “Aped”
Zach Hill – “Memo To The Man”
Fang Island – “Sideswiper”
Native – “Backseat Crew”
RX Bandits – “Breakfast Cat”
Maps & Atlases – “Witch”
Good Old War – “Get Some”
This Town Needs Guns – “Zebra”
Lisa Papineau – “Annette Tessier”
Cast Spells – “Letters”
Omar Rodriguez Lopez – “Ojo Al Cristo De Plata”

Shooting Stars Feat. Lisa Papineau

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:23:49 -0700

Chris Tsagakis‘ solo project goes by the moniker Technology. This song is a cut from his upcoming full length album and features Lisa Papineau on vocals. 1 Take 2 Cameras filmed in the Sargent House Glass Room. And if you missed it, make sure to go and check out another track from Technology featuring Aaron Chapman from Nurses in Sargent House’s “What’s Next” archives HERE.

Biceratops : The Only Evidence

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 15:28:23 -0700

2 live videos from the only show ever played as Biceratops…at Alex’s Bar in Long Beach, but get ready Biceratops is going to be playing with Le Butcherettes on July 20th at Spaceland in Los Angeles, CA.

sargenthouse: This Heat In Dub (Technology Remix) Technology +...

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 15:13:03 -0700

sargenthouse:

This Heat In Dub (Technology Remix) Technology + The Sound Of Animals Fighting + Keith Goodwin of Good Old War = Sweet Sunday Dub Remix. We’d give you the track but we don’t control the rights to do that, so if you want it, you can get it over here. and yes we know Keith is spelled wrong that is the way C-Gak rolls

sargenthouse: WHAT’S NEXT? Technology feat/ Aaron Chapman of...

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 11:07:35 -0700

sargenthouse:

WHAT’S NEXT? Technology feat/ Aaron Chapman of Nurses from the upcoming album from our own Technology… just wait until you hear who else is on this album….

June 17th At The Echo - Los Angeles

Mon, 24 May 2010 12:40:58 -0700

SICK - don’t miss out.

Desert Session paintings

Thu, 20 May 2010 23:34:50 -0700

Desert Session paintings

This version of the Joanna Newsom song came about when one day...

Tue, 18 May 2010 18:26:39 -0700

This version of the Joanna Newsom song came about when one day while hanging out with cathy at sargent house we were listening the beautiful miss newsom and cathy said, “I wonder what this song would be like if you were drumming on it” so I decided to find out - a gift to cathy, here is what it would sound like if i was drumming on Sprout and Bean

Technology : House Of Blues Video

Mon, 17 May 2010 18:35:00 -0700

Technology live at House Of Blues Anaheim, before playing in The Sound Of Animals Fighting

OC WEEKLY Feature: Technology

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Chris Tsagakis on his solo act: TechnologyBy Nate Jackson
The last place you would expect to find members of an OC band that managed to claw its way out of the depths of obscurity and into some money is underneath the dim lights of a cramped stage at a neighborhood sports bar and family restaurant.

Yet that’s where we ran into Chris Tsagakis, drummer for the SoCal progressive ska powerhouse Rx Banditslast Thursday. The man performed his solo electro/drum side project Technology at Haskell’s Prospector in Long Beach in front of a crowded bar packed with friends and fans alike.

Following him that night were fellow Rx Bandits band mates Joe Troy and Matt Embree, who thrashed in the bass and drum punk duo Coke vs. Bills.

Tsagakis, though a man of few words, took a few moments before the show to bless the crowd with some insight into the creation of Technology.

“Originally [Technology] was just an outlet for me since I like electronic music, but once I got more and more songs, I decided to play some shows and so far it’s turned out well,” he said.

As far as plans to take Technology on the road, Tsagakis, like his other band mates, has a strong desire to do so when the time is right.

“I would like to take it on tour, [but] right now I think it’s kind of unheard of. When I get a little more exposure I definitely want to do something with it, nothing huge…probably mostly West Coast shows like Northern California and Arizona. Of course if it ever got big, which I don’t necessarily think it will, I might think about taking it other places as well.”

Tsagakis thundered through a strong set with his trusty programmable electronic beat pad by his side. He managed to make it through the bulk of his new self-titled album which includes songs like “Split Shift” and “Holiday in Galapagos.” The song not only showed his prowess as a heavy-handed drummer, but also as an interesting electronic beat-maker with a creative ear and an affinity for obscure sounds like looped clips of skateboards rumbling over concrete.

Whether or not Technology blows up like his main squeeze, Rx Bandits, is yet to be seen. But fortunately for fans, if there’s an empty stage to filled at a sports bar, Tasagkis will not hesitate to rock the house.