| Kai (Chen) Stephens | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Kai(Chen) Stephens |
| Origin | Staines, Surrey, England |
| Genres | Alternative rock, indie rock, punk rock |
| Occupations | Musician |
| Instruments | Bass guitar |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Associated acts | Hard-Fi |
| Website | Hard-Fi |
Kai Stephens (born 1976, Staines, Surrey as Kaichen Stephens [1]) is an English musician. He is the bass guitarist of indie rock band Hard-Fi. He attended Licensed Victuallers School in Slough and then Ascot, Berkshire.
His first band was called Twist, which was named after Indio, a character in a Spaghetti western film. The band was made up of him and one of his friends. "I grew up in a band, so there were always friends floating around. I’d just got given a guitar, so then my brother decided he wanted to get a drum kit, and a mate over the road could play bass a little bit and we just rushed into forming a band."
One day, when Stephens was in a pawn shop, he decided to pick up a bass and learn to play it, to get the band moving as they could not find a bassist, " The first time I played it, I thought, “Yeah, I can get my hand round this.” It was a Fender Precision, an old beaten-up one. I bought it and haven’t looked back." Twist played a couple of gigs locally where a lot of friends came down to see them. They played to some busy audiences, "but we were rubbish" says Stephens.
When he used to play guitar, he liked to copy chords from bands such as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd who are two of his favourite artists along with The Clash and hip-hop acts such as Run DMC and N.W.A.[2]
His brother Ciaran is the lead guitarist of the band called Satellite State.[3]
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