Chris Coyle

CHRIS COYLE

AMERICAN SINGER-SONGWRITER FROM PORLTLAND MAINE

Chris Coyle is an American singer, songwriter from Portland Maine. “Word Cloud”, used these visual words to reveal what key emotions and themes to describe Chris’s music; “Love”, “Melody”, “Sweet”, “Catchy”, and “Beatles”.

Chris got his musical education as a second-generation Beatles fan studying, and living and breathing music by The Beatles, The Monkees, The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Jellyfish and Elvis Costello. An “Old Soul”, Chris is drawn to strong melodies, harmonies and layered sounds, provoking human emotions of love and positivity.

Chris started writing songs at the age of 12. His first recordings, being crude consumer home cassettes using 2 portable cassette recorders to over dub, back and forth; would prove to be the early blueprints for songs to come. In 1987, Chris purchased his first portable 4-track cassette recorder and began to record with a new technique he learned from The Beatles, bouncing mixes between tracks to create more open tracks to record. The skill here was to imagine what the song would sound like ahead of time, because once a track was locked into a bounce, there was no fixing it.

Chris’s first professional music endeavors starts back in 1989.  Louis Philippe, president of Reindeer Records, a record label based in Portland Maine, discovered Chris, along with his then collaborator and best friend David Mercer during Portland’s annual Rock Off competition. An annual event showcasing the best High School rock bands in Southern Maine.  Louis commissioned Chris and David to write and record a song for an AIDS benefit album on Reindeer Records. The result was a song Chris and Dave wrote titled, “Fool’s Paradise”. Chris put together a trio named Small Fortune, also featuring Chip Ramsey on drums to record the song. Louis chose Barry Arvin Young, a longtime Portland musician, performer and sound engineer to produce the session for “Fool’s Paradise”.  Chris and Dave performed shows to promote the release.

Chris continued to write and record songs, upgrading to a Tascam 464 and effects rack. Here Chris started to layer sounds and recorded a release on his own label Elsewhere Music. The result was a cassette titled “Blue Sky on Wednesday” featuring 7 songs. “Face” magazine, a popular Portland Maine music scene weekly newspaper, reviewed “Blue Sky on Wednesday”, and wrote this.

“There are good songs. “That Someone” offers a clever explanation for bad behavior (That someone pretending to be me”). “Plant a Seed” is a straight pop song that sounds as if it grew from a flower power spore which somehow survived 30 years in suspended animation. “It’s All Over the World” is a reggae theme song from an imaginary Ed Wood film. “

In 1994, Chris founded a hard rock band with drummer Chip Ramsey called ECC, East Coast Crunch. Chris and Chip played their demo tape of originals for Joe Brien, lead singer and guitarist for The Kopterz, Portland’s premier power pop band and owner of Big Sounds Studio. Joe chose 2 songs to produce for a single, “Like the Wind” and “Snatch” the latter a hard rock instrumental. “Like The Wind” featured Chris’s layered guitar work, and melodic lead guitar solo, along with vocals by Marcello Merlin, Latin boy band star from the band Ciclone, who had a hit in Brazil with the song and album “Delicia” in the mid-80s. ECC continued and performed with several lines up before disbanding in 1996.

In the late 90’s Chris continued to write and record songs. Chris met his next collaborators while hanging out in the alt.music.audities and alt.music.monkees user groups in the early internet dial up days.  Here Chris would meet Alan Abrams, currently fronting the power pop band Quiet Sunday, Mike Kropp of the Kroppdusters and the Monkeephiles, Bill Shinn (some time member of the Monkeephiles, and Seth Romano fronting current bands The Trip and 90’s Rock Show. It was during this time that Chris started recording the album “Pop Chronicles”. A power pop album that would eventually take 15 years to see release. More collaborations continued. Working with Justin Reinstein on a song I wrote as a tribute to Brian Wilson called “ Dear Brian”, and “ Had Enough”. Justin Reinstein currently is a K-pop producer songwriter, and is very successful in the Korean market.

In 2002, Chris recorded 6 Monkees covers for a fun project with Seth Romano with the code name “My Favorite Monkee sings”. Calling themselves Just2, five covers were Michael Nesmith penned songs and a cover of “Last Train to Clarksville”. In 2017 “Last Train to Clarksville”, was officially released on the deluxe digital version of “Listen to the Bands” A Monkees Tribute on 7A records, alongside buddy Mike Kropp and the Monkeephiles own cover of “Tapioca Tundra”.

During the 2000’s Chris Coyle concentrated on his family and career in Health Care in Leadership, got married and had his only child Makenzie. 

In 2018, Chris Coyle returned to his first love Music. By going through his archives of recordings and wanting to revive his “Pop Chronicles” album from 2004, Chris has slowly re-worked “Pop Chronicles” by including 2 Monkees covers “Sunny Girlfriend” and “Circle Sky”, from his Just2 project with Seth Romano. Seth just recently played a gig with Christopher Allis, current drummer for Nesmith’s First National Band Redux.  

Chris released his first single “Anne Marie” from “Pop Chronicles” on October 1, 2019, available on all digital platforms, including a CD available through Amazon.

Early reviews for “Anne Marie”, a pure power pop song featuring a shimmering 12 string guitar riff, organ, hypnotic bass line, and Davy Jones tambourine provided by SOUNDOUT,

“I like the lyrics of this song as well as the pace and rhythm it could change up a bit though

to add a bit more excitement but it is relaxing and has a good old school vibe to it. I like the

part halfway through when it is just the drums and guitar playing.”

“I really like this song. The instrumental part at the beginning is a nice touch. The

lyrics start of soft and sweet. They are singing clearly and have a nice flow. The beat

is a simple guitar and drum piece which is also structured very well. “

Chris’s 2nd single “Sunny Girlfriend”  will be released on October 18, 2019, available on all digital platforms, including a CD available through Amazon. A promo video, featuring Chris’s daughter Makenzie, will also premiere.

“Pop Chronicles” is the solo album by Chris Coyle celebrating the sound and love for Power Pop, The Beatles, The Monkees, and The Beach Boys. The album will feature original songs, co-writes, and 2 Monkees covers, “Sunny Girlfriend” and “Circle Sky” from the movie HEAD. Both Monkees covers were produced by Seth Romano.

Chris continued recording and releasing music in 2020. "Persephone' a new single released on April 7, 2020. was followed by "Like the Wind" in July 2020.

"Plastic Soul" a compilation filling in gaps between "Blue Sky on Wednesday", and "Pop Chronicles" was released on September 22, 2020.

Over the Summer 2020, during lockdown Chris recorded a new album to be titled, "The Record Button".  "She Goes Wild", the first single was released in August 2020. “The Record Button” was released in March 2021. 

In June 2021, Chris’s cover of “Last Train To Clarksville” was added to rotation on Monkeemania Radio.

Contact:

https://elasticstage.com/chris-coyle

jccoyle@live.com