Growing up in a military family can be tough on a
kid. One parent’s postings can often mean saying
good bye to good friends and familiar places as you
pack up and relocate to a new town, a new city or
in some cases, a new country. For Chris Stephenson,
who spent his childhood living in Germany and the
United States before returning home to Canada to
finish high school, playing music proved to be a
great way to cope with the changes and challenges
he faced growing up. What started off as a hobby
quickly became his passion and direction.
“I started playing when I was twelve,” said Stephenson. “My Dad bought me my first drum set. I started out playing classic rock and alternative music. I was always really into drums. They’ve been my favorite instrument ever since I was little.”
While living in Germany, Chris got his first real taste of live music at one of Europe’s largest outdoor metal festivals. After seeing Manowar and a cast of other acts tear it up on stage, he knew where he wanted his drumming to take him.
“I started playing when I was twelve,” said Stephenson. “My Dad bought me my first drum set. I started out playing classic rock and alternative music. I was always really into drums. They’ve been my favorite instrument ever since I was little.”
While living in Germany, Chris got his first real taste of live music at one of Europe’s largest outdoor metal festivals. After seeing Manowar and a cast of other acts tear it up on stage, he knew where he wanted his drumming to take him.
Germany is known the world over as a hotbed for
metal and aggressive music, hosting dozens of
festivals and events throughout the annual touring
season.
"I don’t know why metal is so popular in Germany,” said Stephenson. “Maybe it’s because they’re closer to the Vikings up north. Different styles of metal are really huge there. In North America there is the classic American metal that we had in the 80’s and now we have that new style of metal with bands like Lamb of God, but in Germany everybody is really into power metal and progressive metal and North American metal is almost secondary. They’ve always seemed to have an ingrained sense of metal over there.”
It was around this point in Chris’s life where he and his brother Brian started to take their interests in music more seriously.
“When I started playing drums my brother Brian, he had already been playing guitar for about two years. We started off learning black Sabbath covers. Basically when we started learning covers, that’s when Aggressor started. It was just me and my brother. We’ve been playing for a long time together and the name had always changed but we stuck with Aggressor when we moved to Canada in 2005.”
"I don’t know why metal is so popular in Germany,” said Stephenson. “Maybe it’s because they’re closer to the Vikings up north. Different styles of metal are really huge there. In North America there is the classic American metal that we had in the 80’s and now we have that new style of metal with bands like Lamb of God, but in Germany everybody is really into power metal and progressive metal and North American metal is almost secondary. They’ve always seemed to have an ingrained sense of metal over there.”
It was around this point in Chris’s life where he and his brother Brian started to take their interests in music more seriously.
“When I started playing drums my brother Brian, he had already been playing guitar for about two years. We started off learning black Sabbath covers. Basically when we started learning covers, that’s when Aggressor started. It was just me and my brother. We’ve been playing for a long time together and the name had always changed but we stuck with Aggressor when we moved to Canada in 2005.”
Once settled back on their home turf, the
Stephenson brothers took to filling the ranks of
their band and carving a place for themselves in
the Canadian metal scene.
“As soon as we moved to Canada we came up with the name Aggressor and started jamming with a bunch of our schoolmates,” said Stephenson. “In the past six years we’ve had a bunch of different musicians in the band but primarily it’s always been Brian and I writing the music. It’s kind of like our baby in a way.”
It wasn’t long before Chris had caught the attention of several bands with his impressive double bass work and exciting stage performances. His ability of effortlessly switch grooves on the fly and colour-up any pattern with strength and finesse has made him one of Canada’s most promising young musicians. Add to that his laid back, easy-going attitude and it’s no wonder the offers started coming in before he was even finished high school.
Today he balances his time between Aggressor and Earache Records recording artists, Cauldron. Both groups are dedicated to their craft and working extremely hard to make gains in the metal scene at home and abroad. Cauldron first approached Chris to join them back when he was in grade eleven, an opportunity that he had to initially pass on at the time.
“They [Cauldron] had just recorded an album for Earache with their original drummer and I pretty much joined the band right when they started doing some major touring. That was August 2009. They saw me play with Aggressor a few times because we had opened for them and we eventually became friends. When I finished high school they asked me to join the band for the second time. They originally asked me when I was in grade eleven but I didn’t want to quit school to make it work.”
Immediately upon finishing school, Chris took the opportunity that was again offered to him and set off to make his hobby a career.
“As soon as we moved to Canada we came up with the name Aggressor and started jamming with a bunch of our schoolmates,” said Stephenson. “In the past six years we’ve had a bunch of different musicians in the band but primarily it’s always been Brian and I writing the music. It’s kind of like our baby in a way.”
It wasn’t long before Chris had caught the attention of several bands with his impressive double bass work and exciting stage performances. His ability of effortlessly switch grooves on the fly and colour-up any pattern with strength and finesse has made him one of Canada’s most promising young musicians. Add to that his laid back, easy-going attitude and it’s no wonder the offers started coming in before he was even finished high school.
Today he balances his time between Aggressor and Earache Records recording artists, Cauldron. Both groups are dedicated to their craft and working extremely hard to make gains in the metal scene at home and abroad. Cauldron first approached Chris to join them back when he was in grade eleven, an opportunity that he had to initially pass on at the time.
“They [Cauldron] had just recorded an album for Earache with their original drummer and I pretty much joined the band right when they started doing some major touring. That was August 2009. They saw me play with Aggressor a few times because we had opened for them and we eventually became friends. When I finished high school they asked me to join the band for the second time. They originally asked me when I was in grade eleven but I didn’t want to quit school to make it work.”
Immediately upon finishing school, Chris took the opportunity that was again offered to him and set off to make his hobby a career.
I’ve been on the road about seven months of the
year since I finished high school,” he said. “It’s
great to get away and play music. The most fun is
meeting new people on the road. I did my first
European tour with Cauldron last summer. My brother
had gone over to Europe [a few years before]
playing with Annihilator and I went along to see
some of the shows but this was my first time
playing over there and it was an incredible
experience. It was like a dream come true.”
Stylistically, his two current touring acts are very different and demand opposing styles of playing. Aggressor’s style of playing is thrash-based with a lot of busy fills and speed where Cauldron’s music is more straight forward from the drummer’s perspective.
“In terms of drumming styles, the Cauldron stuff is a lot more in-the-pocket and for me, it helps get me back to being a groove drummer and just being a solid player,” said Stephenson. “I play a lot with a click track since I’ve been with Cauldron and it’s helped be get back to the basics of playing tight after working on being a very technical player with Aggressor. Aggressor is mostly thrashy and that’s where I can really let my creativity out.”
“I write a lot of Aggressor’s music with Brain but with Cauldron, I’m there and I play the drums. It’s nice to be able to do that. I just show up and play drums and try to be as good as I can be.”
Stylistically, his two current touring acts are very different and demand opposing styles of playing. Aggressor’s style of playing is thrash-based with a lot of busy fills and speed where Cauldron’s music is more straight forward from the drummer’s perspective.
“In terms of drumming styles, the Cauldron stuff is a lot more in-the-pocket and for me, it helps get me back to being a groove drummer and just being a solid player,” said Stephenson. “I play a lot with a click track since I’ve been with Cauldron and it’s helped be get back to the basics of playing tight after working on being a very technical player with Aggressor. Aggressor is mostly thrashy and that’s where I can really let my creativity out.”
“I write a lot of Aggressor’s music with Brain but with Cauldron, I’m there and I play the drums. It’s nice to be able to do that. I just show up and play drums and try to be as good as I can be.”
"With the heavy metal band Cauldron, it's a
groovier style of metal and a more straight,
in-the-pocket style of drumming. For these gigs, I
like to use the Rock white and red hickory
drumsticks."
"For my other band Aggressor, I like to use the 5B
Intense series. They give me that extra length I
need for the thrashier style of drumming. It's a
longer stick so the weight is distributed a bit
differently than on the regular 5B series."
