Chris Wollard

Chris Wollard
Chris Wollard playing guitar.
Chris Wollard playing with Hot Water Music at The Observatory in Santa Ana.
Background information
OriginGainesville, Florida

Chris Wollard (born 1975) is an American singer and musician.[1] He is best known as the vocalist and guitarist of the post-hardcore band Hot Water Music, which he co-founded with co-vocalist and co-guitarist Chuck Ragan, drummer George Rebelo and bass guitarist Jason Black in October 1994.[2][3] He is also the lead vocalist and guitarist in the punk rock band The Draft, and the acoustic guitarist of the acoustic-folk band Rumbleseat.[1]

In 2000, Wollard formed a new punk rock band, The Sheryl Cro(w) Mags (later renamed Cro(w)s), with ex-As Friends Rust and Bridgeburne R bass guitarist and close friend Kaleb Stewart.[4][5] The band released the single The Sheryl Cro(w) Mags' #1 Hit / Watch For Repetition in 2000 on American record labels No Idea Records and Cro(w)s and Pawns Records,[6] and embarked on a three-week tour of the East Coast and Midwest United States in May 2001, accompanied by another Hot Water Music side-project, Unitas.[7][8] The band followed up with the album Durty Bunny, which was released after the band changed its name to Cro(w)s, in 2002 on German record label Sounds of Subterrania.[9][10]

Other Gainesville-based projects in which Wollard has participated include Baroque (featuring Samantha Jones) and The Blacktop Cadence. He is also given two co-writing credits on the Bad Religion album The Empire Strikes First for the songs "The Quickening" and "Beyond Electric Dreams". In 1998, he and two other members of Hot Water Music provided backup vocals on the As Friends Rust song "Home Is Where the Heart Aches", released on the band's debut EP The Fists of Time.[11]

Wollard released a split 7-inch w/Mike Hale (formerly of Gunmoll) on Asian Man Records. His first solo record, the self-titled Chris Wollard & The Ship Thieves, was released on No Idea Records in 2009, followed by "Canyons" in 2012 and an EP "How Much Sh** Can you Take?" in 2013. The Ship Thieves are named after the book titled "The Ship Thieves" by historian Sian Rees.[12]

During the early Hot Water Music years, Wollard played Gibson guitars but in more recent years he's switched to a Fender telecaster.

  1. ^ a b Ankeny, Jason. "Biography: Hot Water Music". Allmusic. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  2. ^ Gumbhir, Anjali (30 March 1995). "The Force is with Gainesville's hardest and heaviest: Tired From Now On and Hot Water Music". The Independent Florida Alligator. Vol. 88, no. 136. p. 7. ISSN 0889-2423. OCLC 13827512. Retrieved 2 July 2022 – via University of Florida Digital Collections.
  3. ^ Black, Jason (February 1999). "Hot Water Music Bio". Some Records. Archived from the original on 27 April 1999. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
  4. ^ Decker, Dave (29 April 2021). "Tampa musicians will remember their friend Kaleb Stewart, and raise money for his family in May". Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. Archived from the original on 19 April 2022. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  5. ^ "Chris Wollard (Hot Water Music, The Draft)". AMP 30. AMP. December 2007. p. 69.
  6. ^ Malcolm, Andy (12 June 2007). "The Sheryl Cro(w) Mags - #1 Hit - 7" (2001)". Collective Zine. Archived from the original on 19 April 2022. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  7. ^ Black, Jason (April 2001). "News". Hot Water Music. Archived from the original on 16 June 2001. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
  8. ^ Black, Jason (11 April 2001). "Touring". Hot Water Music. Archived from the original on 11 April 2001. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
  9. ^ Hiller, Joachim (September 2003). "Cro(w)s Durty Bunny LP Review". Ox-Fanzine (in German). Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  10. ^ Ramo (22 July 2003). "Cro(w)s - Durty Bunny". Punk News. Archived from the original on 18 September 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  11. ^ Boarts, Christine (October 1998). "As Friends Rust - The Fists of Time CD (Good Life Recordings)". Slug & Lettuce 56. Slug and Lettuce.
  12. ^ Terra, David (July 2009)."Shorts: Chris Wollard & The Ship Thieves." Archived 15 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine Beyond Race Magazine (BRM). Archived 7 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine