Christopher John Joannou (born 10 November 1979) is a Macedonian-Australian musician best known as the bassist for the Newcastle-based

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band

Silverchair Silverchair was an Australian Rock music, rock band, which formed in 1992 as Innocent Criminals in Newcastle, New South Wales, with Daniel Johns on vocals and guitars, Ben Gillies on drums, and Chris Joannou on bass guitar. The group got thei ...

. He is a twin to sister Louise Kipa. He was the first of the three band members to cut his long hair short. Joannou was nicknamed 'Lumberjack' by Silverchair fans for his love of trees and plaid shirts. As well as being a well-known

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

, Joannou was the assistant producer for The Mess Hall albums '' Feeling Sideways'' and the

ARIA In music, an aria (, ; : , ; ''arias'' in common usage; diminutive form: arietta, ; : ariette; in English simply air (music), air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrument (music), instrumental or orchestral accompan ...

award–winning '' Notes From A Ceiling''. He has used mainly G&L and

Fender Precision Bass The Fender Precision Bass (or "P-Bass") is a model of bass guitar, electric bass guitar manufactured by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. In its standard, post-1957 configuration, the Precision Bass is a solid body, four-stringed instrument ...

es, and he almost exclusively uses Ampeg B-15 Portaflex combos. As reported to gearwire.com, Joannou uses an Ampeg SVT-2 into an Ampeg 810 cabinet and a new Ampeg B-15 combo in his live setup. In 2006, Joannou spoke at the launch of a mental health scholarship set up to honour his cousin Nathan Trepezanov, who died by suicide at the age of 21 in January of that year. Joannou is of Macedonian heritage.

Business ventures

Joannou is a co-founder and co-owner of the Lovells Lager beer company. He is also one of four businessmen who opened a bar and small entertainment venue on Parry Street in the West End of Newcastle, NSW, Australia, which opened in December 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joannou, Chris 1979 births Living people Musicians from Newcastle, New South Wales Silverchair members 21st-century Australian memoirists Australian twins Australian people of Macedonian descent Child rock musicians Slavic speakers of Greek Macedonia Australian rock bass guitarists Australian male bass guitarists Alternative rock bass guitarists 21st-century Australian bass guitarists