The Everafter: A Chat with Chris Reardon (Red Henry, Earth to Andy)

Red Henry Discography:

Noise Boys (Self-Released, 1987)

hard road down (Self-Released, 1992)

Gravity (Blackheart Records, 1995)

Earth to Andy Discography:

Earth to Andy (Voluptuous Records, 1997)

Simple Machine (Voluptuous Records, 1998)

Chronicle Kings (Giant, 1999)

Sticks the Landing (Voluptuous Records, 2003)

Chris Reardon has done a lot and seen a lot. As a member of Red Henry, an earnest northern Virginia based rock band. After a few years and some notable records, they split and Reardon and guitarist Tony Lopachinski started Earth to Andy with Andy and Kevin from the band Egypt. The band were exceptionally good and even though their album Chronicle Kings is vastly underrated, it didn't sell for shit and the band ended up dissolving in the early 2000's. Chris took time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions about his lengthy career, what keeps him going and why Virginia music is so important.

Pete Crigler: How did you get interested in music?

Chris Reardon: There was always good music being played in our house growing up: Beatles, Motown, Johnny Cash etc… From my earliest memories I was always encouraged to sing along and pick up an instrument. It turned out my Dad had an old acoustic guitar that just sat in the corner of the living room for parties and gatherings and I inevitably picked that guitar up and starting lessons at the age of 4. Got serious about being in a band and making my own music in high school and started playing at parties and competing in the Robinson Ram Jam at Robinson HS in Fairfax, which was an extremely influential event for all aspiring musicians in our area.

Pete: Tell me about how Noise Boys came together.

Chris: I was already great friends with Eddie Anzueto, Tony Lopacinski and Tommy Tijerina from Robinson HS and had played in bands with them there. Then, it turned out that Tony and I both went to VA Tech and we put the band together there. We immediately recruited Eddie and Tommy to fill out the roster. The Noise Boys were up and running. That was my first professional band and we began playing the East Coast circuit, clubs and college fraternity parties. I knew then that I would make music my full time vocation for life.

Pete: What was songwriting like within the band?

Chris: It was pretty typical of the way most bands operate. Myself or Tony would come to the band with an idea: usually a riff or pattern that we all dug, and we would flesh it out with the band. As the lead singer, it was mostly my job to write the lyrics and melody, which was always my strong suit. We were lucky because Tony had an Akai 12 track machine from the early days, so we could make high quality demos for free. A big advantage in the pre-Pro Tools days when recording a real demo was super expensive.  

Pete: When did the band transition to Red Henry and sign with Blackheart Records?

Chris: We had become more serious about our music and lyrical content by the early-90’s and decided we needed a more suitable band name. The Noise Boys name had always been kind of a joke to begin with and it seemed to get us lumped in with the 80’s hair-metal crowd, which we never wanted anything to do with. So we wanted a name that of course, sounded cool, but wouldn’t immediately land us in any particular genre before anyone had even heard the songs. We came to the attention of Blackheart (Joan Jett’s indie label) when we landed a spot on national tv on Dick Clark’s Battle of the Bands ’93, as the Noise Boys. We signed with New York legend Kenny Laguna, who ran Blackheart in ’94 and released Gravity in ’95. We actually had a regional hit with the song “Atlas” in the Midwest and toured to sold out clubs all over the Midwest, which was totally mind blowing at the time. An east coast band who suddenly had a hit song in Kansas City!  It was bananas.

Red Henry

Pete: What was it like recording Gravity?

Chris: We recorded with Billy Brady from Omega Studios in Rockville, MD. Billy was a genius engineer and a good friend to the band. He got us set up in a home studio in a crazy circular house overlooking the Chesapeake Bay which was amazing. Back then, ADAT’s were the latest technology. We used 3, 8 track ADAT machines synched together to make that record. It was ideal on an artistic level. Zero input or interference from the label and we knocked it out in about a month. Nothing but fond memories of that whole experience.

Pete: What caused the band to break up?

Chris: After a few months, “Atlas” fizzled out in the Midwest and our attempts to follow it up were unsuccessful. Meanwhile, we continued to tour the Mid-Atlantic and all the way up through New England, but with diminishing returns. I decided in early ’96 that I needed a fresh start, a reset of my whole career. That’s when Andy Waldeck and I first started working together.

Pete: How did Earth to Andy get started?

Chris: I was friends with Andy from the DC/NOVA scene and was a big fan of his band Egypt. Andy came to see Red Henry play at Trax in Charlottesville and told me, strictly off the record that Egypt was about to break up, and he was looking to start something completely new. He handed me a demo with about 20 killer tunes on it that sounded nothing like Egypt and basically said “start woodshedding, we need a bass player.” It was perfect timing because like I said earlier, I was all about making a fresh start and was ready to dive in headlong. I auditioned for Andy and Kevin Murphy on a Sunday afternoon at Trax, which was owned by Kevin’s sister, Dana Murphy. We had the run of the place with draft beers from the tap and full concert PA for this first little get together. It went great and I got the gig. I immediately suggested my Red Henry partner Tony for lead guitar and he was there at the next rehearsal. We now had a brand new band.

Pete: What was the local scene like at the time?

Chris: If memory serves, Everything were the kings of the scene at that time. They had a major label deal and a big hit with “Hooch”. They were and still are great friends and gave ETA our very first show opening for them at the legendary DC club, The Bayou. Sold out of course. Another big band on the scene was Emmet Swimming, also our good buddies from the TT Reynolds bar in Fairfax. (Which should be the subject of its own documentary. Amazing micro-scene there.) Also, our pals Jimmie’s Chicken Shack were blowing up on a national level and Pat McGee was getting ready to sign with Giant Records, which ETA would also sign with in a year or so. I ended up playing bass for the Pat McGee Band from ’04-’08 and Kevin played drums for JCS around that same time. It goes to show that regardless of style or genre, all the bands in our scene were interconnected on some basic level.

Pete: What was it like making those first few indie records?

Chris: It was a magical couple of years. Crazy productive. We wrote and recorded about a hundred songs. Made 2 indie records culled from the best of those hundred or so songs. Our first record was made in ’96 at Locust King, ie., my basement on ADAT machines. I specifically remember the first day of recording when Kevin tracked ALL the drums for the record in one marathon sesh. I’m talking 15 songs in one day. That’s how we rolled in those days, just knocking out huge chunks of creativity in tiny amounts of time. The second one was much more civilized. We had signed with Red Light, Dave Mathews management company out of C-Ville, and were able to enlist super producers John Alagia and Doug Derryberry who had done the early Dave stuff, among many other stellar artists. Recorded in ’98 at Bias in Arlington, which was John and Doug’s home base. It was a huge step up in production value and that record eventually got us a deal with Giant, under the Warner Bros imprint.

Pete: How did the band come to sign with Giant and how do you feel about now?

Chris: We first signed a management deal with Red Light in Charlottesville and they were able to attract the attention of quite a few major labels. We played a bunch of show case shows in New York and after about a year Giant offered us a deal after flying to a North Carolina club show. Of our time with Giant, I guess the word that best describes it is bittersweet. On the one hand, we got to tour the country and share stages with so many amazing acts and make lifelong friendships. Both our contemporaries, like the Shack and Vertical Horizon, but also our heroes like STP and Cheap Trick. On the flip side, we never felt like the label knew how to market the band and we got lumped into the Nu Metal rat race, where we most definitely did not fit in. We were told all of this was done to lay the foundation for our 3rd single and our most marketable song, “Sometimes”, which never saw the light of day. We were then lied to and strung along for the better part of a year on that score. So when the record didn’t sell, we got dropped due to no fault of our own, but professional incompetence at the label. That’s where the bitter part of bittersweet comes into play. We are extremely proud of Chronicle Kings to this day and feel it deserved a better shake from the label. It took a few years, but you move on and take on new challenges.

Pete: What was it like making Chronicle Kings?

Chris: I’ve never had a negative experience making records and this was no exception. It was recorded in LA with Nick Launay (David Bowie, INXS, Semisonic, Silverchair to name a few) producing and Chris Lord Alge (pretty much every hit record you’ve heard in the past 30 years) mixing. It was humbling to work with professionals of this caliber. During the recording of Chronicle Kings we first met Robert DeLeo as well. He’d heard a few of our songs through the folks at Giant and insisted on coming down to the studio to meet us and hang out. Of course we were gobsmacked. Robert ended up writing and recording some guitar on the big intro to “Still After You” which was the lead track on the record. Nick was great and had total faith in our artistic choices. He even had us set up a makeshift studio B in the pool table room for background vocals. Tony, Kevin and I would be over in “Studio B” tracking BGV’s while Andy was with Nick in the A room tracking lead vocals. We were over the moon about the final product of those sessions and CLA made the whole thing jump out of the speakers with his stellar mixes. 

                                                                       Earth to Andy

Pete: What was 'success' like?

Chris: Even though the record didn’t blow up, it was definitely “success” for us. We had achieved our goal of taking it to a national level and made a lot of new fans all over the country. The main thing was meeting and sharing stages with all the bands we had been fans of leading up to our signing. We still work with a lot of the amazing artists we met during those years. When a band gets to that level you learn how to be a professional on the road which has served all of us well ever since.

Pete: How was it touring with STP?

Chris: That was the greatest and most influential experience we had ever had to that point. STP was hitting on all 8 on that tour after going through a rough patch with Scott, and every night we would gather in the wings to watch their entire show. To this day, they’re the best live act I’ve ever seen and we watched every night and took notes on how to better our show. Their fans are hard core, so we had to really step up our game to win them over night after night. Robert especially took us under his wing and mentored us along the way. A few years later, Andy and I wrote songs with Robert for our indie release, Sticks The Landing. (Check out “Never Be Cold Again”)

Pete: How did the band end their relationship with Giant?

Chris: As I explained earlier, Chronicle Kings didn’t sell well due to the label’s mishandling of the band and they dropped us in 2000. We were gung ho and wanted to try again with a second release, but the business has a one and done mentality. They throw it against the wall and see if it sticks. It didn’t stick and that was the end of that. The vast majority of our friends who got signed to a major have basically the same story.

Pete: What was it like within the band when making Sticks the Landing?

Chris: We were still very confident that we could make it work with a new label and we went into recording Sticks the Landing with that in mind. Unfortunately, the record business sees a band that got dropped as damaged goods and finding a new major label deal proved to be impossible. Tony and Kevin expressed their interest in moving to Nashville to reboot their careers and we all came to the conclusion at that time that Sticks would be the last ETA record. There was zero acrimony and we parted as the best of friends. It was really a collective decision to turn the page on a great chapter in all of our lives.

Pete: How did Getaway Car come to exist?

Chris: I was friends with Todd Wright and Matt Miceli from their time in The Excentrics, also an important band on the DC/NOVA scene. When ETA parted ways in ’01, they came to me and asked if I’d like to join The Excentrics on bass. I was a fan of the band and I jumped at the offer. We continued playing locally and touring the Mid-Atlantic as The Excentrics for a short time. Then we began recording for the All Your Little Pieces record with Jeff Juliano producing and Dan Garvin (SR71) on drums and decided it was time to start fresh with a new band name. It made sense because the band had taken on its own unique identity separate from The Excentrics, with myself and Dan now in the mix.

Pete: What was it like working with David Cook?

Chris: It was an absolute honor to work with David. We were already fans of his from his time on American Idol and we knew he had worked with Chris Cornell so we were sure we’d have a lot in common as far as our musical influences were concerned. David wanted to try a lot of outside the box ideas and we were totally down to go that direction as well, incorporating some electronic music influences and edgy lyrical content with David’s soaring vocals and heavy guitars. In 2014, David released “Laying Me Low” as a single and debuted the song nationally with a gang busters live performance on American Idol.

Pete: What are your memories of Tony?

Chris: For those who may not know, Tony died of cancer about 10 years ago. Nothing but wonderful memories of Tony. We go all the way back to the Robinson Ram Jam. He was one of my best friends, he was a groomsman in my wedding, we went to college together and he became my main musical partner for 20 years. We went through everything the music biz can dish out together and basically grew up as a team making music. I miss him a lot.

Pete: What are you currently up to?

Chris: Currently I’m playing and writing with Andy Waldeck in Killer DeLuxe. We also work with Sony Publishing submitting songs for all types of artists, from Top 40 stuff to Country and everything in between. That is how we ended up working with David Cook and more recently Daughtry and Constantine Maroulis. I’ve also been working with Todd Wright and Ethan Mentzer (the Click Five) on music and voice over for commercial spots for companies all over the world.

Pete: What has it meant being a musician from Virginia?

Chris: I feel blessed to have been a part of this scene. It’s really amazing how many super talented artists have come out of the scene and achieved great things. And it really is a family. When we were young hotheads it was hyper competitive as well, but over time you realize you all share a common lineage being from VA and that becomes the most important aspect.

Pete: What do you hope your musical legacy will be?

Chris: All my friends from the bands I’ve been a part of are all grown up with families now. And I know that the music is being passed on to a new generation. With most of those old records being available forever now through streaming platforms, my greatest hope is that people will still be listening for generations to come. And now, my old man “get off my lawn” moment, if you’ll indulge me. The common denominator for everything I’ve done is melody. Melody is king. That seems to get lost in a lot of modern music and I hope we can keep that sensibility in check by passing our old stuff on to the youngsters. And maybe the kids will rediscover the magic of a cranked up electric guitar too! Lmao!!