Chris Cary, By Day

cary004
Originally uploaded by Charrmer.

Chris Cary leads a very complicated life as he winds his way through the many jobs he holds. To some he's known as "Chris, the mechanic". To others he's known as lead singer and songwriter for his band Call Box. Next is his work connection to Tesla where he is alternately known as bassist Brian Wheat's personal assistant, roadie and bass tech. And soon he'll be known as the studio manager at J Street Recorders, a job he just recently took over. It's a helluva schedule and he's a popular guy. Hang around Chris for awhile and it's easy to see why. He's talented, professional, hard-working, articulate, gracious, good looking and well liked by everyone.

Catch Cary by day and you'll find him at Nor Cal Transmission where he rents a bay and works on cars for his steady and dedicated clientele. Though this may not be his favorite of the many jobs he has he happens to be good at it and it serves him well in his double life. He got into auto mechanics as a teenager after he blew out the motor of the very first car he ever owned within a week. His dad's response was if he wanted to continue driving that car he'd have to learn how to fix it himself. Cary's first job was to rebuild that motor, which he did with the help of a neighborhood friend. Next thing you know his friends started asking him to fix their cars too. It even got him into car racing including a stint as a pit mechanic on the modified midget race cars where he worked with World Outlaws racing and toured with the 410 and 360 sprint cars. "It was a lot of fun" says Cary, We got to travel all over California, race, get into fights in the pit area. People would cut you off in the race track, or do something another race driver may feel was offensive, and it just full on breaks out and you've got eight people on eight people. Not that often but it happened." he says with a Cheshire Cat grin.
The racing days are over but his mechanical skills now serve him in an entirely different arena-- Music, his first love, his true passion. Asked if they cross over he says yes. "I did (mechanic) trade for all my head shots for the band. When we recorded Mixed Friction at Pus Cavern I did work on their vehicles and did trade for recording time. As far as the studio goes myself and Brian (Wheat) and some others built that studio from the ground up, from the dirt to where it is now-- a 5000 sq ft state-of-the art studio and since I did that the whole album is paid for."
The mechanical skills also come in handy if anything breaks down while traveling on the road with Tesla.
He became involved with Tesla four years ago when a former Mixed Friction band mate introduced Cary to bassist Brian Wheat when they were looking for a producer. It was a turning point. "I knew he was building this studio so I said well, if you ever need help I can do other things and he said 'then get your butt out here. If you want you can work off your album' and we just got to be really really good friends through that process. One of the dearest friends I have.
It was with some hesitation that Cary began touring with Tesla because he was in mid-production of his CD but in June when Brian's bass tech got sick Cary came to the rescue and "just never went back home." "Yeah it's a blast, just this last leg alone we had three days off in Chicago and I got to see the Chicago Art Museum. Cary says that seeing a Monet and a Salvador Dali was one of the highlights of his trip. They even took a jaunt to Little Big Horn along the way. Cary says Tesla is unlike touring with a lot of bands. "A lot of bands are all about partying. Tesla is done with all that so on our days off we sight see. It's cool, you don't feel like you wasted a day because you just drank it all away. You went out and experienced a piece of life. Life is good right now."

Chris Cary, By Night

cary001
Originally uploaded by Charrmer.

There is a certain reality in the record business to be faced and Cary is looking at it squarely in the eye admitting his chances may be slimmer than he'd like. "First off, it's a lottery ticket to just get a record deal... when you think about how many good bands are out there and how many actually get the chance... I've got lottery ticket times 10, those are my chances." Cary says.
At 32 Cary finally decided to go for it after being inspired by people like his mother who got her BA in Anthropology at 40. "I''m a late bird in the game." Cary says. Despite seeing his age as a drawback Cary has some important people rooting for him. I've got (friend and record producer) Michael Rosen who won a grammy for working with Michelle Branch and Carlos Santana. I've got Brian Wheat who sold 20 million albums with Tesla and all these people are very supportive of what I'm doing but even Brian Wheat came to me and said you need to look at the realization that if I've got a record label I'm not going to sign you. I would do it as a friend but I wouldn't do it as a buisness project. I take that and I go 'I understand why your'e doing that.' He's working with a band called Gooser and they're all like 16 years old. These guys have a great chance, they're a phenomenal band and they will probably make it, but because they're 16 he's got two years to develop them and they're still only 18 and still very sellable to the record lables."
"I don't have a lot of time to do artist development. I've gotta get in there and get my stuff done. So were looking at other avenues now, not necessarily just record deals but movie soundtracks, any kind of publishing that we can get."
But if he does make it big then one thing is clear in his mind. Large venues or arenas hold no appeal for him when he imagines himself on stage. "I would rather do ten shows at the Crest than one show at Arco. Even when I'm working with Tesla and you're on the road you're seeing 20,000-30,000 people out in front of you but you don't tend to notice any of them. They become this sort of this blanket... But when we do the smaller theaters you tend to notice a lot, you start noticing the characters and the individuals and the people, seeing how they react. I like to watch people... it's all about the connection. If that person doesn't walk away feeling what you felt in that song then I don't feel like you connected with them. That's the most incredible power in the world knowing that you moved someone by something you wrote... You can't do that as a mechanic. You can't do that as a recording engineer or a bass tech. "
Music is everything to him and it's what he is striving to do full time as he phases out the car mechanic part of his work life. Taking a look back he can't remember a time when he didn't sing. He tells a charming story about being on the school swing set with friends in second grade singing the Three Dog Night hit Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog at the top of his young lungs. He loved singing so much that he always made it a facet of his life to some degree including singing in the high school choir, and school theater musicals. "I was always the lead character." When Cary determined to pursue rock and roll as a career his parents were not enthusiastic. "Then when they came out and saw what I could do with music and I blew their minds, then the tables turned and they became more than 100% supportive. I just remember being relieved and this overwhelming feeling of joy... They saw how I captured the audience and how I interracted with people and they were pretty blown away. It was a huge moment for me, to be able to cross that boundary because for years I had this anger towards them for not wanting to support the one thing that I loved. So when it did change it was a pretty monumental moment."
Cary continues to express his passion for singing with his band Call Box. He describes it as "a hard rock melodic band. Sometimes I like to think of us a mellow Godsmack or a hard Nickelback because all of our tunes are really melodic and we don't do a bunch of screaming... I just like having that edge in the music... it's what brings me alive as a frontman you know. For me it's how I express my passion. " Although the music is a collaborative effort he's the bands lyricist. He writes by drawing from life experience and the inspiration he finds in people and the stories they tell. For Cary inspiration is everywhere, even in a riff. "Suddenly I'll get a mental picture of what I want a story line to be, how that particular piece of music moves me and makes me feel. I think it's the only way I can really get all the emotions that I have out."