Chris Murray is a Canadian-born singer-songwriter and guitarist working primarily in the genre of ska. In Canada, he was a member of the now-defunct ska band King Apparatus. He now lives in the Los Angeles, California area, where he performs regularly, both solo as well as with the Chris Murray Combo. The term singer-songwriter refers to performers who both write and sing their own material. ... Ska is a form of Jamaican music combining elements of traditional mento and calypso with an American jazz and rhythm and blues sound. ... Nickname: City of Angels Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates: State California County Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Area - City 1,290. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area Ranked 3rd - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²) - Width 250 miles (400 km) - Length 770 miles (1,240 km) - % water 4. ...
Murray has performed throughout North America, Europe, Japan, and South America, and released several CDs on the Asian Man Records label. His CDs are often recorded with a four-track tape recorder, giving a distinctly lo-fi sound. Asian Man Records is a small record label that has released music by artists such as The Broadways, Alkaline Trio, MU330, USA. It is an impressive, though small indie label, because the quality of its bands, and the fact that it has been able to become successful while never changing... Lo-fi — from Low Fidelity — describes a sound recording which contains unwanted artifacts, like distortion, or noise, or a recording which has a limited frequency response. ...
As ChrisMurray has now signed to Moon Ska Europe, they have decided to release this latter day Ska classic before releasing any of his new releases in Europe.
Chris settled in Venice, California (Los Angeles), and thus chose Venice Shoreline Chris as his new stage name.
Life has led Chris down a musical path to the very roots of reggae music, from trading songs on an acoustic guitar with the Godfather of Ska Laurel Aitken, to singing with Caribbean bandleader Carlos Malcolm and His Afro-Jamaican Rhythms, to jamming with The Specials in a basement club.
ChrisMurray has been writing songs about Keeping It Real and suburban, gangland killings since the 1990s.
Describing the music as mean, dark and moody, DJ Alan Corcoran predicted that Chris would go far, likening his sense of the youths promise to that of the early Cranberries when they were a new band of nobodies.
ChrisMurray has also appeared on the Bristol radio stations BURST and Commonwealth FM.