| Chris Colepaugh and the Cosmic Crew | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada |
| Genres | Rock |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Labels | Malkin Music |
| Website | colepaugh.com |
| Members | |
| Chris Colepaugh Lynn Daigle Shawn Sasyniuk Danny Bourgeois |
|
Chris Colepaugh and the Cosmic Crew is a rock band formed in 1996 from Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
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Chris Colepaugh and the Cosmic Crew first started in 1996 with Chris Colepaugh on lead guitars and vocals, Lynn Daigle on bass and Craig Watson on drums. Craig Watson, Chris’s long-time friend from high school, was the major lyric writer for Chris at the time. Chris and Lynn recorded “Galaxy” in 10 hours at “Alta Studio” in Dieppe, New Brunswick and launched the album.
After a year of touring the Maritimes, Chris Colepaugh and the Cosmic Crew won an east coast talent search and went to Halifax, Nova Scotia to record their next album Mazes and Mirrors live off the floor with producer Kevin Scott McMichael. Prior to this, Craig Watson had left the band to attend Bishop's University and had joined the band “Clay” with Nick Hamilton, Chris Frost and Eric Finkle. Sitting on drums for Mazes would be Cameron Murphy who had toured extensively with the band. The album earned them rave reviews and allowed them to expand their touring base to Quebec and Ontario.
In 1998, Cameron Murphy left the band to pursue his own music, and so started the influx of drummers that would make up the Cosmic Crew. Kevin Macintyre and Danny Bourgeois were the regular drummers during that year, and a fourth member was briefly added: Andre Leblanc on keys.
While Chris Colepaugh and the Cosmic Crew continued to make headway in to the Canadian Music scene, lyricist Craig Watson moved back to Moncton and took up the drummer’s throne with CCCC once again. In the spring of 1999, Chris Colepaugh, Lynn Daigle and Craig Watson recorded 16 Second Solace at Staccato Studios with producer John Maher and embarked on a five month tour from New Brunswick to British Columbia and down to California and all the way back for their final stop at the 2000 East Coast Music Awards for a performance and album nomination in Sydney, Cape Breton / Nova Scotia, Canada. Reviews and accolades for the group’s prowess and incredible energy were accumulating, and so was their skill from constantly performing.
In 2001, the band made a bold move and had Chris Colepaugh record all the instruments himself. They returned to Staccato and work with John Maher again to create Trip with fifteen songs plus a bonus track. In addition, Chris Colepaugh expanded his writing and wrote a third of the lyrics on the album. With the release of Trip, the band enlisted Danny Bourgeois and Remi Bourque as drummers and toured countless times across Canada. The band played dates with the North Mississippi Allstars, played the House of Blues, were finalists in CBC’s Great Canadian Music Dream and played for over half a million people on the East Coast Music Awards.[1] They were nominated for an ECMA that year, and the song “Bookmark” was breaking ice on radio stations across the country.
At the end of 2002, Remi left the band and Chris returned to the studio to record “In Time” in early 2003. Considered a slightly darker album than the rest, Chris Colepaugh again worked with friend John Maher at Staccato Studios and also wrote just under half of the lyrics. CCCC continued to tour the album nationally, received airplay and were nominated for and ECMA award. It was also in July 2003 that CCCC played the Northern Lights Festival Boréal in Sudbury, Ontario with Craig Watson and met future drummer Shawn Sasyniuk.
In late 2004, Chris accepted an offer from a friend to stay with him in San Francisco. For the month of October, Chris played the clubs in San Francisco. It was in this beautiful environment that he wrote the music and lyrics for all but three of the songs of what would be “In Your Backyard”.
Early 2005, plans were underway to record the next album and demos were in the process of being made. In March, Chris suffered a severe gallbladder attack and was rushed to hospital. He had immediate surgery for its removal and had an extensive stay due to complications. It was very tough on him, his family and his band and recovery was lengthy. That fall, with Shawn Sasyniuk comfortably filling the drummers position, the band returned back on the scene to tour the Eastern United States and Canada.
With plans already behind for the new album, 2006 was a year of change. Colepaugh decided that it was time for him to produce the new album himself at his own studio. Having never produced a full length album, Chris had a large learning curve. During the summer, Chris Colepaugh wrote all the music, performed all the parts, produced, recorded and engineered the entire album. On the last day of his recording, he left for Austin, Texas to work under the mentorship of Gordie Johnson at Willie Nelson's Perdanales Studio for two weeks on the new Grady album. He returned in September to get the final masters on the album, and “In Your Backyard” was released in the fall of 2006.
“In Your Backyard” drips with thick electric guitars, Bonham-esque style drums, massive bass, and soulful songwriting and lyrics. From the heavy guitar-soaked-rocker-single "Caught Up To You" , to the acoustic guitar/mandolin picking of "Don't Want You 'Round No More", "In Your Backyard "is a guitar-intense, southern jam rock album. Fans loved it, critics admired it and the album secured Chris Colepaugh as a formidable talent in the Canadian Music scene. The album accrued more praise and credentials on its own than his entire previous discography combined.[2] Chris signed an endorsement deal with Gibson Guitars, Sennheiser Microphones and Traynor Amplifiers, and signed a deal with his Management Company and Fontana North Distribution. Also, Chris won the 2007 Contact East Touring Award, was a finalist in the 2008 International Acoustic Music Awards, won four Toronto Exclusive Music Magazine awards[3] and was nominated for two ECMA awards.
Though he lives in Ontario, Shawn Sasyniuk continues to play drums with Chris Colepaugh. He shares his duties with Maritime based Danny Bourgeois and the two of them keep CCCC constantly on the move.
In early 2009, Chris Colepaugh received a call from legendary Canadian icon Roch Voisine's camp and was asked to join them on tour of France, Belgium and Sweden for several months over the year. Chris accepted, and was joined by CCCC drummer Shawn Sasyniuk.
In September 2009, Chris Colepaugh and the Cosmic Crew released their first live album, "Burning". This live album consisted of songs recorded over their annual series of Boxing Day shows in Moncton, New Brunswick, and was released to excellent reviews. After touring, Chris Colepaugh returned to tour France with Roch Voisine for three months.
In 2010, Chris Colepaugh and the Cosmic Crew released "Missed a Page", their 7th studio album. As with the last few studio releases, Chris wrote the music, played all the instruments, recorded and produced the album himself and shared lyric-writing duties with Craig Watson. The record was released to excellent reviews.
The group was twice honoured during the 2011 East Coast Music Awards, winning Rock Album of the Year for "Missed a Page", as well as the Fan Choice Entertainer of the Year Award.[4]