Chris Louvieris- Tell Me Why
Bio: Chris is a musician, singer, song-writer born in London but now living in Cyprus. He is the lead guitarist of Lost White Brother, but this is
his solo page featuring his own songs. He plays and records everything himself in his home studio, with occasional help from pianist Mike Cherry. He first started out in local London blues bands, but after a horrific accident gave up playing the guitar until a chance meeting with an old musician friend in Cyprus persuaded him to start up writing and recording original stuff, more mellow adult contemporary music and blues & country influenced songs. He brings to bear all his old musical influences and adding his own unique input.
Jacqueline Jax Interviews Chris Louvieris
Jax: Tell me what first inspired you to create music?
Chris: I was born in London in 1952, and went to school there. I went to a magical high school, behind the school was a public park with a bandstand. When The Doors and Jefferson Airplane came to England to play at the Roundhouse, they used the bandstand for their dress rehearsals, and we snuck out and got a free she, I was hooked on music from that time onwards. Also you could also go to see what were to become major bands in small pubs (bars) that held no more than 150 people, amongst the bands we saw for next to nothing were, Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, Free, Cat Stevens, Jethro Tull and many more.
Jax: Who influenced your musical style?
Chris: I fell in love with the blues when I first saw BB King and Peter Green. We formed a band called Philosopher Stone and gigged around. One by one, the guys got married and had other commitments so I fell back to playing acoustic guitar and writing my own songs. My influences were Cat Stevens (being a Greek Cypriot himself), Chris Rea, Bob Dylan, but especially Jackson Browne.
Jax: Tell me about the event that changed your life?
Chris: My father had a restaurant 20 miles outside London where I used to help out. One fateful winter’s night while driving home, I hit some black ice and crashed my car. The result was I broke my leg and my arm in 17 places. I was told by the doctor I would have limited use of it and would not be able to play the guitar again. I gave up guitar, and concentrated on other things, but yearning would never go away.
Jax: How did you find your music again?
Chris: In 1986 I moved to Cyprus. Years later, and quite by chance, I took my wife to the Pizza Express in Limassol, and a guy came up to me and asked if I was Chris Louvieris. I replied I was. It transpired, that my band had played at his school dance in London in the 70’s and he remembered me from then. It turned out he had a small studio and invited me there, he had a Martins acoustic with a very thin neck and asked me to try it, I did, and found that I could play without any pain. To cut a long story short, I bought the guitar from him and he taught me to use Cubase and gave me an old Mackie mixer and a microphone. That’s how I started recording and playing again. Through him, I met Mike Cherry (pianist), and we have been friends since. We formed a band named Lost White Brother and wrote a and recorded an instrumental chill out album which you can find at http://www.myspace.com/lostwhitebrother . We also formed a blues band and occasionally gig in Cyprus for the fun of it. I spent most of my time writing, recording my own songs with the help of Mike Cherry.
Jax: You’ve had several unfortunate set back in your music career that would have extinguished most artists, but you kept going. Can you tell me about that?
Chris: By this time I’d accumulated lots of instruments, mainly guitars and a 24 track Mackie mixer, 2 music computers fully loaded, in fact quite a good little home studio. Fate was about to deal me a blow which is hard to believe but can easily be checked out on the internet. On Sept 10th 2005, 8.45 am on a Saturday morning, I got a phone call from a friend to go and have coffee on the beach. I was in the middle of mixing a song, but needed a break so I set off in my car. No sooner had I arrived and ordered my coffee, I got a phone call from a neighbor telling me a plane had crashed into my house. From the shaking in her voice I could tell she wasn’t joking. I drove back to find a scene out of Apocalypse Now. An army training aircraft had lost control and smashed straight into my house. It was on fire, but the fire brigade came quickly and put the fire out. When I entered my house and went up to my studio, I found it completely destroyed along with all my instruments, and the propeller shaft was wedged into the wall where half an hour ago I had been sitting. Luckily my wife had gone out and my mother who was 94 had been sitting in the garden with the girl who looked after her. Unfortunately, both pilots died. It took me 3 years to finally get compensation from the government, so for those three years again I virtually gave up music. Finally, I got paid and rebuilt my studio and got back to writing and recording. A blissful couple of years passed and I wrote and recorded scores of songs, it was as if I knew what was about to happen next. Then it would seem that fate was against me. Just as I was where I wanted to be in my life, I contracted Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I had to give up guitar again as the chemotherapy makes your fingertips extremely sensitive. Thank God, I got over that a couple of years ago and I’m now back to writing and playing.
Jax: How did you find me?
Chris: Someone who heard my music on Reverb Nation suggested I should submit a song to you, and here we are. I don’t really hold out much hope of becoming famous in my own right, but my ambition is to have one of my songs recorded by a named artist, but you never now, look at the Stones and Clapton, they’re still going strong.
Read about Mike Cherry
American Vocal Academy 