Chris Clavin

For other people named Christopher Johnston, see Christopher Johnston (disambiguation).
Chris Clavin
Birth name Christopher Johnston
Origin Indiana, USA
Genres punk
Labels Plan-It-X Records

Chris Clavin (born Christopher Johnston; August 23, 1979) is a musician, anarchist and record label owner from Indiana, USA, with a strict DIY (do-it-yourself) punk ethic. He has been involved in numerous punk bands and runs Plan-It-X Records, a label founded in 1994.

Bands involved in

Clavin has been a part of many (primarily pop punk and folk punk) bands that have toured all over the world, some of them very influential in the DIY punk scene. Below is a partial list of the bands Clavin has played a part in.

Solo musical projects

Clavin started working on solo recordings in the fall of 2004 when he wrote a song and recorded it in the same day to give to someone as a gift. He tried to write and record one song a day. He only made it 8 days. Those 8 songs along with 7 others are on the first album, "May All Liars Burn in Hell". The idea behind his solo projects is to write songs without thinking about them, to be pure in writing and hold nothing back. Occasionally Clavin utilized his friends "Colorblind" Joe, McKayla or others for help. Primarily playing with acoustic guitar or ukulele, he has toured the US West Coast, Midwest, and Europe multiple times.

As Captain Chaos

Captain Chaos
Origin Bloomington, IN, USA
Genres Folk-punk
Years active 20042008
Labels Plan-It-X Records, Anti-Creative Records, Fall of the West Records, The Scientist and The Duke Records, Sweet Now Records, Big Magic Records, Crafty Records, Valiant Death Records
Members Chris Johnston ("Chris Clavin") - acoustic guitar, vocals
and sometimes
Colorblind Joe - ukulele, backing vocals
McKayla - backing vocals
Matty pop chart - piano
Symbol of chaos, found on Captain Chaos CD's

When Clavin first started releasing solo songs, he did not want his typical moniker attached to them. Spoonboy (of The Max Levine Ensemble) gave him the name Captain Chaos. Though Clavin did not like the name, it stuck. He released six full-length albums, one split, and appeared on a handful of compilations and other small projects as Captain Chaos before using his real name on his solo work (see further below).

Captain Chaos discography

Early works
Year Title Label Format
2004 Captain Chaos Spoonboy's Tape Label Cassette
2004 Tour CD-R Self-Released/Chaos Records CD-R
Full-length albums
Year Title Label Format
2006 May All Liars Burn In Hell (a.k.a. Self-Titled) The Scientist and the Duke Records CD, Digital
2006 This is Cake Crafty Records CD
2006 Bloomington, Vol. 1 Big Magic Records CD
2006 Ireland Valiant Death Records CD-R
2007 The Fool Anti-Creative Records CD
2007 For The Devil Fall of the West Records CD
2007 Your Bright Eyes Are Gonna Kill Me For Sure Crafty Records CD-R
2008 Nice and Friendly/Captain Chaos Split - Have Fun/Die Hard Sweet No Records CD
Box set

All six of the full-length albums (and a bonus CDR of cover songs) were available in a hand-crafted wooden box set with hand-made art. These boxes were made by Dan Treiber of Crafty Records. Fifty-one of them were made. The first 25 were made out of recycled 99 year old barn wood. The second 26 were made out of recycled 1960 Canadian crate wood. The box set became officially available as of April 5, 2007. It is now out of print.

Compilations
Year Title Label Format
2005 Bella's Birthday CD(free!) Plan-It-X Records CD, Digital
2006 Live At Bandit H.Q. DIY Bandits CD-R
2006 Night of the Living Devilock: A DIY Tribute to the Misfits Playground's Greatest Records/Pop Monster! Records CD-R
2006 The Three Dollar Gallon Crafty Records CD
2007 Ponies in a Stable Don't Stop Believin' Records CD
2008 Thanks For The Floor Crafty Records CD

As Chris Clavin

In 2008, Clavin decided to stop releasing songs as Captain Chaos, and instead use his traditional moniker. He began to tour solo again on a small scale, and has released one album so far.

Chris Clavin discography

Full-length albums
Year Title Label Format
2008 The Roads Don't Lead Home. The Roads Lead Everywhere Crafty Records 12" vinyl LP
2009 Secrets (Chris Clavin / Sara Cilantro Split) Plan-It-X Records Cassette
2009 Chris Clavin / Madeline Ava Split Plan-It-X Records Cassette
2010 Chris Clavin / Andrew Lips Split Plan-It-X Records Cassette
2011 Waxahachee / Chris Clavin Split Plan-It-X Records Cassette, Digital
2011 Chris Clavin / Kyle Hall Split Plan-It-X Records Cassette, Digital

Record labels

Clavin's solo projects have appeared on the following record labels (this list excludes compilations and smaller projects)

See also

References