Christopher James Ross is an Australian musician. He was the founding bass guitarist and keyboardist of

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

band,

Wolfmother Wolfmother is an Australian hard rock band from Sydney. Formed in 2004, the group is centred around vocalist and guitarist Andrew Stockdale, who is the only constant member of the line-up. The band has been through many personnel changes since t ...

, from 2000 to August 2008. His trademark stage antic is playing the keyboard at a slant or vertically. At the APRA Awards of 2007 Ross and bandmates, Myles Heskett and

Andrew Stockdale Andrew James Stockdale (born 20 July 1976) is an Australian singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and only continuous member of the rock band Wolfmother. Early life Andrew J ...

, won the Songwriters of the Year category. After leaving Wolfmother with Heskett, the pair worked as Doom Buggy, then they formed Palace of Fire (with Matt Blackman) in 2009. In 2011 Ross and Heskett formed

Good Heavens ''Good Heavens'' is an American Broadcasting Company, ABC comedy anthology series produced by Columbia Pictures Television that aired between February 29 and June 26, 1976. It ranked #17 in the Nielsen ratings during the 1975–76 United States n ...

with Sarah Kelly (ex- theredsunband). Ross was formerly a digital designer and has three children.

Career

Wolfmother (2000–2008)

Ross grew up in Erskineville,

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. In 2000 on bass guitar and keyboards, he formed a hard rock group with Myles Heskett on drums and

on vocals and lead guitar. After "years of jamming in anonymity", the trio released a self-titled extended play in 2004 under the name "

". Aside from performing on the EP Ross also provided

audio mixing Audio mixing is the process by which multiple sounds are combined into one or more audio channels. In the process, a source's volume level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated or enhanced. This practical, aest ...

and co-wrote the four tracks. Note: User may have to select 'Search again' and 'Enter a title' or use 'Performer' as Wolfmother. The EP was a commercial success, reaching number thirty-five in the

ARIA Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

, and led to the band securing a record deal with

Modular Recordings Modular Recordings (known simply as Modular) was an Australian record label founded in 1998 by Steve Pavlovic that by 2015 was owned by Universal Music Australia. It has released music from local artists such as Eskimo Joe, Ben Lee, The Ava ...

The band's full-length debut self-titled album was released in Australia in 2005, where it reached number three in the ARIA Albums Chart. Subsequently, released internationally in 2006, the album reached number twenty-two in the American ''Billboard'' 200 albums chart and number twenty-five in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

. At the APRA Awards of 2007 Ross and bandmates, Heskett and Stockdale, won the Songwriters of the Year category. In August 2008, after a period of "longstanding frictions within the group", Ross left Wolfmother due to "irreconcilable personal and musical differences" with Stockdale. Heskett followed Ross out of the band, while Stockdale continued with a new line up.

Post-Wolfmother (2008–present)

Immediately after leaving Wolfmother, Ross and Heskett continued with their one-year-old

side project In popular music, a side project is a project undertaken by one or more people already known for their involvement in another band. It can also be an artist or a band temporarily switching to a different style. Usually these projects emphasize ...

, Doom Buggy. Doom Buggy had debuted a year earlier at the

Hopetoun Hotel The Hopetoun Hotel, colloquially referred to as The Hoey, is a historic Sydney hotel and live music venue in Surry Hills. It was built somewhere between 1836 and 1839, originally under the name of the Cookatoo Inn and then in 1901 revamped and n ...

, Sydney, with "electronic instrumentals closer to a Kraftwerk sound" compared to Wolfmother's style. FasterLouder's Adam Lewis reviewed their August 2007 gig, "a handful of well developed and fully formed songs forming their roughly half-hour set ... The music is largely electronic instrumental, with clear krautrock and IDM influences". In April 2009 the duo joined vocalist and guitarist, Matt Blackman (of Charge Group), to form a new band, Palace of Fire, described by The Vine's Marcus as "combin ngthe toughness and versatility of Wolfmother with the more refined, cinematic approach of Charge Group and Blackman's former band Purplene". Their debut performance was at the Boogie Rock Festival in

Tallarook Tallarook is a town the Shire of Mitchell local government area in central Victoria, Australia. The town is in on the Hume Highway, north of the state capital, Melbourne. At the , Tallarook had a population of 789. Tallarook Post Office ope ...

. In May Palace of Fire supported Battles for their Opera House performances as part of

Brian Eno Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de la Salle Eno (, born 15 May 1948), also mononymously known as Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, and activist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambien ...

's curated Luminous Festival. Also in 2009 Ross guested on synthesiser for Tucker B's album, ''Nightmares in the Key of (((((Wow)))))''. Ross and Heskett played as members of The Slew (a Kid Koala project) on their world tour. In 2011 Ross and Heskett formed Good Heavens with theredsunband's Sarah Kelly on lead vocals and lead guitar. Good Heavens debut album, ''Strange Dream'', appeared in August 2012 on Rice Is Nice Records. Barnaby Smith of Mess+Noise described the album as "an attractive blend of elly'scultivated, patient and confident songwriting and oss and Heskett'sadvanced understanding of exactly where to place noise and distortion". Ross and Heskett presented a Songwriter Speaks session in May 2013 for aspiring songwriters who "not only cross boundaries but hemispheres too". Chris has worked alongside Jed Kurzel in a live adaptation award -winning score for the controversial Australian film 'Snowtown'. The adaptation was performed live with a full band to a backdrop of previously unreleased footage from the film at MONA's Dark Mofo 2014 in Hobart, Adelaide Festival 2014 and UNSOUND Music Festival in Poland in 2015.

Personal life

Prior to forming Wolfmother in 2000, Ross was an IT specialist. Ross and his partner, Lisa, had their second child in September 2006. They also have a third kid.

Awards and nominations

APRA Awards

The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwri ...

(APRA). , - , rowspan="2",

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, ,

Myles Heskett Wolfmother is an Australian hard rock band from Sydney. Formed in 2004, the group is centred around vocalist and guitarist Andrew Stockdale, who is the only constant member of the line-up. The band has been through many personnel changes since t ...

, Chris Ross , , Songwriters of the Year , , , - , " Joker & the Thief" – Stockdale, Heskett, Ross , , Song of the Year , ,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Chris Living people APRA Award winners Australian multi-instrumentalists Australian rock keyboardists Australian rock bass guitarists Grammy Award winners Australian male bass guitarists Musicians from Sydney Wolfmother members Year of birth missing (living people)