NYC
Our friend Chris Feinstein passed away this week. It is a difficult fact to accept. As anyone who knew him would attest Chris was a rare and beautiful soul.
As members of this band, we all had individual relationships with him which we will share in our own time and in our own ways. Here we want to say something about what it meant, as a band, to work with him.
At a time when we were unpolished and unfocused Chris had enough faith in what we were doing to bring us into the studio. He was working with Michael Tudor (our other anchor) and together produced our two records . Both were collaborative projects with Chris, Michael and the band; whomever had an idea for parts could pick up an instrument of choice and put it on tape. You can hear Chris's influence and playing all over those records. This band progressed from being young hacks to becoming competent musicians in great measure simply by watching him, and listening to him play, and seeing how he related to his world musically. We were certainly in awe of his talent. He is known for his incredible feel as a bass player, but his skills at guitar, drums, harmony singing and beautiful noise making would put most to shame. He created music as easily and freely as one speaks words and he was extremely generous and un-possessive with that gift. He would no doubt object to (or even apologize for) us using the word "gift" to describe what, to him, just was.
It would confound us how someone of such innate ability could be so excited, moved and enthusiastic about what we had to offer. That was his other gift - he was always much more interested in your idea, more interested in what you had to bring to the table. Working with Chris and Michael was an experience without equal, our best times as a band. While we hoped tohave the opportunity to work with both of them again we are now just thankful for the opportunity and thankful for our continued friendships.
It is not possible to capture the essence of a person in a few paragraphs especially one as deep and multi-faceted as Chris Feinstein. But hopefully this, along with the growing tributes popping up around the internet, will help those that did not know him, or did not know him in the same way, understand what he was; one damn fine person, musician and friend.
Thank you Chris. We love you. We miss you. You will continue to be part of everything we create.
Send word when you can and we will try to remain open enough to receive it.
Crider, Bick & Tommy
Clara Venus
