Much Coveted: Chris Alvarado (Part 1)

October 2nd, 2007 | Chris Alavarado, Much Coveted

This month’s “much coveted” won’t neither be your regular musician, neither your usual fresh-from-the-shower-room person who just came in front of the camera to do YouTube. He carries the honor of defending his country and, at the same time, giving us really great music.

Meet Chris Alvarado.

CoverCove: Hi Chris! Thanks for giving us the opportunity to feature you for this month’s Much Coveted Artist. Sorry for this question being my standard first and most boring question, but could you introduce yourself to us briefly, and how do you usually spend your day?

Chris: My name is Chris Alvarado. Im 25 and currently living just outside of Anchorage Alaska in a town called Wasilla. The reason that I live in such a crazy location is because I’m in the Military… the Air Force to be more exact (active duty, full time). I’ve been in for almost 6 years now and I am currently a Staff Sergeant. I’m originally from the panhandle of Florida, Wt. Walton Beach. On a typical day I wake up at 5:00am and get ready for work, I put on my BDU’s and head out the door by 5:45 for my 1hr drive into work. I do the grind and head home around 4:00pm if I don’t have class that night, but I have class three nights out of the week and on those night I’m at class till 10:00pm and don’t get home until 11:00pm. I’ll be graduating from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University With my Bachelors in Professional Aeronautics this May. I try to get to sleep by 11:00pm every week night.

CoverCove: I’ve seen from your MySpace page that you were being compared to James Taylor and John Mayer. If you were to choose to live the life of either two, who would you rather choose and why?

Chris: John Mayer for sure. I remember about 8 years ago my dad, who is also a musician gave me John Mayer’s “Inside What’s Out” album. His drummer had given it to him. He had no songs on the radio at the time and when I put it in my cd player I was floored. It changed the way I thought of acoustic music. Up until then I had been playing mostly finger style music and soft slow music. I thought, If only I could play and sing like that” I learned to copy his rhythm and vocal sounds and branched out from there. Turns out that he became more of a “chick music” guy when he fist became popular and that kinda bothered me because I knew how talented he really was, but since his “John Mayer Trio” release and the new outing of “Continuum” I have rediscovered him and have an all new respect for his guts. He was willing to release albums that were against the main stream in order to play what he loves and do what he does best. Plus he is younger and not bald. But I do love James Taylor.

CoverCove: I’ve also seen from your last YouTube video that you were working for the US military. This may not be the first time we see a singing soldier, but damn you’re the best! OK, I’m getting biased but have you ever considered shifting careers, like maybe singing in a bar or signing a record deal?

Chris: As mentioned above I am in the military. As it stands I do gig locally about 2-4 times a month. I do a solo thing with the same setup you see on youtube in songs like closing time. I have been doing this for about 2 years now and I love it. I only have 4 originals so I do a lot of covers. I try to stick to my theory of never doing a cover like the original. I like to give the audience a fresh take of the songs they have heard a million times on the radio. I currently cover roughly 50+ songs ranging from the 70’s to current radio play songs. But I like 90’s the best. I grew up in a family where my father was also a military man who played as a musician on the weekends. I feel that being a full time musician would be great but is very unstable as an income. Doing both gives me the opportunity to do what I love and to get a regular paycheck. I am considering getting out and getting a civilian job so that I can have more time to play out in about 2 years.

CoverCove: We also saw your Dixie Chicks cover of “Traveling Soldier.” It was really sad and I wasn’t even aware of it until I saw you singing the song. As I was reading the lyrics, it kinda hit me: why did you serve for the military in the first place?

Chris: Like I said I grew up in a family deeply rooted in the U.S. military. My grandfather served in every branch except the Marines and both my father and my Wife’s Father were career Air Force members. When the time came for me to graduate I had my eyes set on being a full time musician. I went to a local Community college to get my Recording Arts degree. It turns out that showing up to only my music classes wasn’t enough to make the grade. About half way through my first semester in college the planes hit and I felt the urge to do my part. Plus this was a way to provide a steady income for a family in the future. I signed up and was at my first day of basic on May 28th 2002.

More about Chris Alvarado this week. For the meantime, I mentioned in one of the questions about a song which he covered. I’ll show you first how it originally sounded.

Now, watch how beautifully Chris has rendered this song.

Please do watch out for the next installment of this email interview, for he answered a few more interesting questions. You can visit his MySpace Portal, and his YouTube Channel.