Christopher Maloney
Encyclopedia
Christopher Maloney is an American bass guitarist, singer-songwriter
, and music educator. He is widely known for his work with instrumental hard rock band Cosmosquad, his stints in Hardline
and with Dweezil Zappa
, as an independent solo artist, an instructor at the Musicians Institute
, and the owner of Absolute Music Studios in Palm Beach County, Florida.
on March 22, 1969. Both his father and mother were from families of Irish descent, the former from Limerick
and the latter from Kilkenny
. After failed attempts at the recorder and drums, Christopher discovered the bass guitar at age 13 and began performing in local bars and clubs. While attending East Syracuse-Minoa High School, he won a citation from the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE), the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award, and performed for then-Vice President George H.W. Bush. He attended Oswego State University from 1987 until 1991 graduating with a double major in Music and Broadcasting. It was here that he was mentored by jazz composer Stan Gosek, who helped shape Maloney's skills in composition, odd meter, reading, performing and music business.
Maloney relocated to Los Angeles in 1993 to attend the Musicians Institute
. He studied with many notable musicians, including Jeff Berlin
, Steve Bailey
, Scott Henderson
and Joe Diorio
. He graduated with Vocational Honors in 1994 as the bass program's Outstanding Student of the Year.
/Warner Bros.
label. In 1996, after a lengthy audition process, he was asked to join brothers Dweezil Zappa
and Ahmet Zappa
in their band "Z" to promote the album Music For Pets
. Maloney spent much of 1997 recording dozens of songs for a Dweezil solo album. From those sessions, only "Automatic" (featuring Blues Saraceno
) and "Dick Cinnamon's Office" (featuring Lisa Loeb
) were included on the Favored Nations
release, Automatic
. He concluded the 90's by doing recording and performing with Jon Stevens
(INXS), Donnie Vie (Enuff Z'Nuff
), and jazz keyboardist Lao Tizer.
Maloney's recording and performing career continued to rise in the 2000s. He performed or recorded with Hardline
, Gilli Moon
, Chieli Minucci
, Phil Mogg
(in the band $ign of 4), Lao Tizer, Jack Avalon, and Cosmosquad among others. Maloney's work with Lao Tizer netted two albums (to which he is credited as co-writer) and numerous US festival tours. His work with Cosmosquad, and its guitarist Jeff Kollman, brought him to Europe and Japan and produced three albums. Cosmosquad released their first live DVD Light...Camera...Squad! in 2008, with Maloney also handling all the video editing duties. During this time, he continued to record and perform as a sideman to independent artists in Los Angeles. Over the years, Maloney has been endorsed by Linc Luthier, Carvin and Fender Basses, Trace Elliot and SWR amplifiers, and Dean Markley and D'Addario Strings.
, Maloney played most of the instruments himself. The result was the CD Control, released in 2002 on Sunset Records. Spending much of 2002 on the road with Lao Tizer, Cosmosquad and $ign of Four, Maloney had to wait until 2003 to promote the album. He did so mostly by performing solo acoustic shows in coffeehouses throughout Southern California.
In 2004, Maloney continued to promote Control while writing songs for a new album, entitled The Terrors of Intimacy. The album was released in March 2005 on Sunset Records, and Maloney promoted it by doing a solo acoustic tour of the southwest US and full band shows in Southern California. In addition to writing songs for his solo albums, Maloney has made three production music CDs for De Wolfe Music
in England: Rock Styles (2003), Rock Styles 2 (2005) and Indie Rock Chart (2008). He is also a three-time ASCAP award-winner songwriter. Maloney's writing of his third CD, tentatively titled Lost And Found, has been interrupted by his work with De Wolfe Music, tours and recording with Cosmosquad, producing a television pilot and starting a music school in south Florida.
, he was immediately invited to join the faculty at the school. Maloney's long affiliation with MI has included him teaching bass, songwriting, music theory and vocal classes as well as being the head of the school's Encore Program. He has also traveled internationally to promote the school through concerts and clinics. Maloney's outgoing personality and music education experience helped him to develop a strong interviewing style, which he took advantage of at MI. His Q&A session with Duran Duran
bassist John Taylor during an MI event was so engaging that Taylor included it as part of his solo album MetaFour
in 2002. Maloney also interviewed his friend Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple
) as part of an interview-style television pilot called Backstage Pass in 2007.
Maloney has toured as a clinician for many of his endorsing companies, including Fender and Linc Luthier basses. He created the Interactive Band Workshop in 2004, which was an interactive educational experience he conducted at music stores throughout south Florida. Maloney has recently written an instructional book for Hal Leonard Publishing entitled Progressive Rock Bass, which was released in January 2010.
In September 2008, Maloney wanted to expand his knowledge of music and education, and he once again enrolled full-time at the Musicians Institute. He spent nine months studying his fellow instructors' teaching methods in voice, keyboards, drums and guitar. In doing so, Maloney has the unique distinction in being the only person in MI history to be a full-time student and full-time instructor simultaneously.
In August 2009, Maloney and his fiancee, Kristina Balobeck, opened Absolute Music Studios, a state-of-the-art music lesson facility in Jupiter, Florida. The studio focuses on modern teaching techniques with an emphasis on contemporary music. The studio has several instructors and teaches guitar, piano, voice, bass guitar, drums, songwriting, band workshops, saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, tuba, dobro and ukulele.
Strings. For his solo acoustic shows, Maloney has exclusively used his Martin JC16-GTE acoustic guitar.
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
, and music educator. He is widely known for his work with instrumental hard rock band Cosmosquad, his stints in Hardline
Hardline (band)
Hardline is an American hard rock band. Originally formed in 1991 by brothers Johnny Gioeli and Joey Gioeli, the band consisted of 5 members, Johnny Gioeli, Joey Gioeli, Neal Schon, Todd Jensen and Deen Castronovo. The bands' most recent album release is the 2009 Leaving the End Open which featured...
and with Dweezil Zappa
Dweezil Zappa
Dweezil Zappa is an American rock guitarist and occasional actor.-Early life:Zappa was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of musician Frank Zappa and Adelaide Gail Sloatman, who worked in business. He is the second of four siblings: his older sister, Moon, younger sister Diva and younger...
, as an independent solo artist, an instructor at the Musicians Institute
Musicians Institute
Musicians Institute is a privately owned for-profit music vocational school located in Hollywood, California. Although not a regionally accredited school, the school offers a variety of unaccredited Bachelor Degree, Associate Degree and Certificate programs in fields including contemporary music...
, and the owner of Absolute Music Studios in Palm Beach County, Florida.
Early life and education
Christopher Maloney was born in Syracuse, New YorkSyracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
on March 22, 1969. Both his father and mother were from families of Irish descent, the former from Limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
and the latter from Kilkenny
Kilkenny
Kilkenny is a city and is the county town of the eponymous County Kilkenny in Ireland. It is situated on both banks of the River Nore in the province of Leinster, in the south-east of Ireland...
. After failed attempts at the recorder and drums, Christopher discovered the bass guitar at age 13 and began performing in local bars and clubs. While attending East Syracuse-Minoa High School, he won a citation from the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE), the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award, and performed for then-Vice President George H.W. Bush. He attended Oswego State University from 1987 until 1991 graduating with a double major in Music and Broadcasting. It was here that he was mentored by jazz composer Stan Gosek, who helped shape Maloney's skills in composition, odd meter, reading, performing and music business.
Maloney relocated to Los Angeles in 1993 to attend the Musicians Institute
Musicians Institute
Musicians Institute is a privately owned for-profit music vocational school located in Hollywood, California. Although not a regionally accredited school, the school offers a variety of unaccredited Bachelor Degree, Associate Degree and Certificate programs in fields including contemporary music...
. He studied with many notable musicians, including Jeff Berlin
Jeff Berlin
Jeff Berlin is an American jazz, jazz fusion and progressive rock electric bass player.Jeff Berlin's bass playing is somewhat similar to that of Jaco Pastorius, though Berlin plays a fretted bass and has stated his distaste for Jaco imitators.-Early life:Jeff Berlin was born to parents who were...
, Steve Bailey
Steve Bailey
Steve Bailey is an American bassist who is famous for his pioneering work with the six string fretless bass. He was voted runner up for "Bass Player Of The Year" in 1994 and 1996....
, Scott Henderson
Scott Henderson
Scott Henderson is a fusion and blues guitarist best known for his work with the band Tribal Tech.-Early days:Born in West Palm Beach, Florida, Henderson began playing guitar at an early age...
and Joe Diorio
Joe Diorio
Joseph Louis Diorio is an American jazz guitarist. He has performed with legends of jazz like Sonny Stitt, Eddie Harris, Ira Sullivan, Stan Getz, Pat Metheny, Horace Silver, and Freddie Hubbard...
. He graduated with Vocational Honors in 1994 as the bass program's Outstanding Student of the Year.
Bass career
Maloney spent much of the mid to late 1990s working as a freelance bass player in Los Angeles. His first major label recording was with drum prodigy Jacob Armen on his Drum Fever CD, which was released on Prince's NPG RecordsNPG Records
NPG Records is the current active record label owned by Prince, founded in 1993 to release his music after Paisley Park Records. Paisley Park was shut down by Warner Bros. Records in 1993. Warner Bros. distributed one NPG release in 1995, The Gold Experience. "NPG" is short for "New Power...
/Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
label. In 1996, after a lengthy audition process, he was asked to join brothers Dweezil Zappa
Dweezil Zappa
Dweezil Zappa is an American rock guitarist and occasional actor.-Early life:Zappa was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of musician Frank Zappa and Adelaide Gail Sloatman, who worked in business. He is the second of four siblings: his older sister, Moon, younger sister Diva and younger...
and Ahmet Zappa
Ahmet Zappa
Ahmet Emuukha Rodan Zappa is an American musician, actor and novelist.-Early life:Ahmet was born in Los Angeles, California, the third of four children born to businesswoman Adelaide Gail Sloatman and musician Frank Zappa. Ahmet's father was of Sicilian, Greek-Arab and French descent and his...
in their band "Z" to promote the album Music For Pets
Music for Pets
Music for Pets is an album by the band "Z", led by Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa, released in 1996.The creation of the album was a troubled one, with multiple recording sessions interrupted by the death of Frank Zappa, the creation and recording of new material based on what was popular at the time, and...
. Maloney spent much of 1997 recording dozens of songs for a Dweezil solo album. From those sessions, only "Automatic" (featuring Blues Saraceno
Blues Saraceno
Blues Saraceno is an American rock guitarist, composer, and music producer who currently resides in Los Angeles California. Saraceno was discovered by Guitar for the Practicing Musician magazine, at the age of 16, which assisted him in releasing instrumental recordings on an independent basis...
) and "Dick Cinnamon's Office" (featuring Lisa Loeb
Lisa Loeb
Lisa Anne Loeb is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She launched her career in 1994 with the song, "Stay ". She was the first artist to have a number one single in the United States while not signed to a recording contract.Loeb's efforts now include music, film, television, voice-over...
) were included on the Favored Nations
Favored Nations
Favored Nations is a record label started by guitarist Steve Vai and former Guitar Center owner Ray Scherr in 1999. The first album ever released by Favored Nations was Frank Gambale's Coming to Your Senses in 2000...
release, Automatic
Automatic (Dweezil Zappa album)
Automatic is an album by Dweezil Zappa, released in 2000.-Track listing:All songs written by Dweezil Zappa except as noted.# "Fwakstension" performed by Zappa / Terry Bozzio / Scott Thunes – 4:13...
. He concluded the 90's by doing recording and performing with Jon Stevens
Jon Stevens
Jon Stevens is a New Zealand-born singer of Maori descent, now an Australian citizen. Stevens is the brother of New Zealand Idol judge Frankie Stevens....
(INXS), Donnie Vie (Enuff Z'Nuff
Enuff Z'nuff
Enuff Z'Nuff, pronounced "enough's enough," is an American glam rock band from Blue Island, Illinois. Founded by singer Donnie Vie and bassist Chip Z'Nuff, this Chicago area band is best known for their charting singles "Fly High Michelle" and "New Thing." Enuff Z'Nuff has continually recorded and...
), and jazz keyboardist Lao Tizer.
Maloney's recording and performing career continued to rise in the 2000s. He performed or recorded with Hardline
Hardline (band)
Hardline is an American hard rock band. Originally formed in 1991 by brothers Johnny Gioeli and Joey Gioeli, the band consisted of 5 members, Johnny Gioeli, Joey Gioeli, Neal Schon, Todd Jensen and Deen Castronovo. The bands' most recent album release is the 2009 Leaving the End Open which featured...
, Gilli Moon
Gilli Moon
Gilli Moon is a Los Angeles based Australian singer-songwriter, artist, writer, producer and entrepreneur.-Overview:Gilli Moon is an Australian, Los Angeles based, singer, songwriter, recording artist, actor, author, music producer, and motivational speaker....
, Chieli Minucci
Chieli Minucci
Chieli Minucci is an American contemporary jazz guitarist, composer, music producer, and arranger of Italian descent.Minucci was born in New York City and is primarily known as the leader of the Grammy-nominated contemporary jazz group Special EFX...
, Phil Mogg
Phil Mogg
Phillip John 'Phil' Mogg is a vocalist for the band UFO, which he formed with longtime friends Pete Way and Andy Parker. Mogg wrote the majority of the band's lyrics, with the music being written by Way, Schenker, and later, Raymond, but Schenker left to launch his solo career in 1979...
(in the band $ign of 4), Lao Tizer, Jack Avalon, and Cosmosquad among others. Maloney's work with Lao Tizer netted two albums (to which he is credited as co-writer) and numerous US festival tours. His work with Cosmosquad, and its guitarist Jeff Kollman, brought him to Europe and Japan and produced three albums. Cosmosquad released their first live DVD Light...Camera...Squad! in 2008, with Maloney also handling all the video editing duties. During this time, he continued to record and perform as a sideman to independent artists in Los Angeles. Over the years, Maloney has been endorsed by Linc Luthier, Carvin and Fender Basses, Trace Elliot and SWR amplifiers, and Dean Markley and D'Addario Strings.
Solo career
In 2000, Maloney decided to begin to make a solo album that would not feature his bass playing, but his voice and song writing skills. Although joined by his friends, drummer Shane Gaalaas and guitarist Brett GarsedBrett Garsed
Brett Garsed is an Australian guitar player. He plays with, among others, John Farnham and T. J. Helmerich and is a former member of the band Nelson...
, Maloney played most of the instruments himself. The result was the CD Control, released in 2002 on Sunset Records. Spending much of 2002 on the road with Lao Tizer, Cosmosquad and $ign of Four, Maloney had to wait until 2003 to promote the album. He did so mostly by performing solo acoustic shows in coffeehouses throughout Southern California.
In 2004, Maloney continued to promote Control while writing songs for a new album, entitled The Terrors of Intimacy. The album was released in March 2005 on Sunset Records, and Maloney promoted it by doing a solo acoustic tour of the southwest US and full band shows in Southern California. In addition to writing songs for his solo albums, Maloney has made three production music CDs for De Wolfe Music
De Wolfe Music
De Wolfe Music is the originator of what has become known as production music as it was established in 1909 and began its recorded library in 1927 with the advent of 'Talkies'. The library consists of over 80,000 tracks, all pre-cleared for licensing and synchronisation...
in England: Rock Styles (2003), Rock Styles 2 (2005) and Indie Rock Chart (2008). He is also a three-time ASCAP award-winner songwriter. Maloney's writing of his third CD, tentatively titled Lost And Found, has been interrupted by his work with De Wolfe Music, tours and recording with Cosmosquad, producing a television pilot and starting a music school in south Florida.
Education career
In addition to his work as a bassist and singer/songwriter, Maloney has been very passionate about music education. Upon his graduation from Musicians InstituteMusicians Institute
Musicians Institute is a privately owned for-profit music vocational school located in Hollywood, California. Although not a regionally accredited school, the school offers a variety of unaccredited Bachelor Degree, Associate Degree and Certificate programs in fields including contemporary music...
, he was immediately invited to join the faculty at the school. Maloney's long affiliation with MI has included him teaching bass, songwriting, music theory and vocal classes as well as being the head of the school's Encore Program. He has also traveled internationally to promote the school through concerts and clinics. Maloney's outgoing personality and music education experience helped him to develop a strong interviewing style, which he took advantage of at MI. His Q&A session with Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
bassist John Taylor during an MI event was so engaging that Taylor included it as part of his solo album MetaFour
MetaFour
MetaFour is a rock album released by John Taylor in 2002.-Track listing:# "Mi Vida Loca"# "Mi Vida Loca" # "Mi Vida Loca" # "Mi Vida Loca" # "Mi Vida Loca" # "Mi Vida Loca" # "Mi Vida Loca"...
in 2002. Maloney also interviewed his friend Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...
) as part of an interview-style television pilot called Backstage Pass in 2007.
Maloney has toured as a clinician for many of his endorsing companies, including Fender and Linc Luthier basses. He created the Interactive Band Workshop in 2004, which was an interactive educational experience he conducted at music stores throughout south Florida. Maloney has recently written an instructional book for Hal Leonard Publishing entitled Progressive Rock Bass, which was released in January 2010.
In September 2008, Maloney wanted to expand his knowledge of music and education, and he once again enrolled full-time at the Musicians Institute. He spent nine months studying his fellow instructors' teaching methods in voice, keyboards, drums and guitar. In doing so, Maloney has the unique distinction in being the only person in MI history to be a full-time student and full-time instructor simultaneously.
In August 2009, Maloney and his fiancee, Kristina Balobeck, opened Absolute Music Studios, a state-of-the-art music lesson facility in Jupiter, Florida. The studio focuses on modern teaching techniques with an emphasis on contemporary music. The studio has several instructors and teaches guitar, piano, voice, bass guitar, drums, songwriting, band workshops, saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, tuba, dobro and ukulele.
Basses/Guitars
Maloney had a long affiliation with Linc Luthier Basses, being one of the more high profile bassists to play the unique, high-end instruments. In 2000, Maloney started working with SWR amplifiers after playing through the company's 6x10 Goliath Senior cabinet at the LA jazz club The Baked Potato. In 2007, he started endorsing a variety of Carvin products, including the B5 Bass, mixing board, PA systems and power conditioners. In 2008, Maloney started his affiliation with Fender Musical Instruments by conducting clinics around the US with Cosmosquad, playing at Fender University and performing two years in a row at the annual Bass Bash. In 2009, Maloney switched to D'AddarioD'Addario
D'Addario is a manufacturer of musical instrument strings, primarily guitar strings, currently headquartered in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York...
Strings. For his solo acoustic shows, Maloney has exclusively used his Martin JC16-GTE acoustic guitar.
- Fender - Deluxe V
- Carvin - B5
- Linc Luthier - 4 and 5 string fretted and fretless bass
- Yamaha Electric Guitar
- Martin Acoustic Guitar - JC16-GTE
Effects
- Digitech - Whammy Pedal
- Digitech - Digital Delay
- Boss - RC-20 Loop Station
- Tech 21 - Sansamp Bass Driver
Amplifiers
- SWR Goliath SR 6x10
- SWR 350 watt head
- SWR 2x10 extension cabinet
- Fender - Deluxe Reverb
Solo work
- Control - 2002
- The Terrors of Intimacy - 2005
- Indie Rock Chart (with Evan Beigel) - 2008
with Jeff Kollman/Cosmosquad
- Bleeding The Soul - 2004
- Guitar Screams Live - 2006
- Acid Test - 2007
- Lights...Camera...SQUAD!! (Live DVD) - 2008
Selected discography with other artists
- Jacob Armen - Drum Fever - 1994
- Jacob Armen - Breakthrough - 1998
- Jack Avalon - Headnoise - 1999
- Gilli MoonGilli MoonGilli Moon is a Los Angeles based Australian singer-songwriter, artist, writer, producer and entrepreneur.-Overview:Gilli Moon is an Australian, Los Angeles based, singer, songwriter, recording artist, actor, author, music producer, and motivational speaker....
- Temperamental Angel - 2000 - Dweezil ZappaDweezil ZappaDweezil Zappa is an American rock guitarist and occasional actor.-Early life:Zappa was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of musician Frank Zappa and Adelaide Gail Sloatman, who worked in business. He is the second of four siblings: his older sister, Moon, younger sister Diva and younger...
- AutomaticAutomatic (Dweezil Zappa album)Automatic is an album by Dweezil Zappa, released in 2000.-Track listing:All songs written by Dweezil Zappa except as noted.# "Fwakstension" performed by Zappa / Terry Bozzio / Scott Thunes – 4:13...
- 2000 - Lao Tizer - Golden Soul - 2000
- Jack Avalon - Strange Kind of Light - 2001
- HardlineHardline (band)Hardline is an American hard rock band. Originally formed in 1991 by brothers Johnny Gioeli and Joey Gioeli, the band consisted of 5 members, Johnny Gioeli, Joey Gioeli, Neal Schon, Todd Jensen and Deen Castronovo. The bands' most recent album release is the 2009 Leaving the End Open which featured...
- IIII (Hardline album)II is the second album by American hard rock band, Hardline. It was released in 2002.The album was originally going to be named Hyperspace, but vocalist Johnny Gioeli decided to change the name simply to II because "it's a natural prosecution of what we started with our debut album Double...
- 2002 - John Taylor - MetaFourMetaFourMetaFour is a rock album released by John Taylor in 2002.-Track listing:# "Mi Vida Loca"# "Mi Vida Loca" # "Mi Vida Loca" # "Mi Vida Loca" # "Mi Vida Loca" # "Mi Vida Loca" # "Mi Vida Loca"...
- 2002 - Lao Tizer - Diversify - 2006
- Debbie Hennessey - Good As Gone - 2006
- Jack Avalon - Six Of The Best - 2008
- Arlene Kole - One Day - 2008
- Jami Lula - There's a Healin Goin On - 2009