C-Gak

(Source: youtube.com)

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

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

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.”

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.

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.

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.