Christian Olde Wolbers

Christian Olde Wolbers
Born 5 August 1973
Antwerp, Belgium
Genres Industrial metal, groove metal, alternative metal, rap metal, nu metal, crossover thrash
Occupation(s) Songwriter, musician, producer, engineer, instructor
Instruments Guitar, bass, upright bass, backing vocals
Years active 1987–present
Labels Koch
Associated acts Arkaea, Fear Factory, Kush, Cypress Hill, Beowülf

Christian Olde Wolbers (born 5 August 1973) is the guitarist of the metal band Arkaea. He's the former bassist, guitarist and background vocalist of the heavy metal band Fear Factory, and is now in Beowülf.[1]

Biography

Olde Wolbers was born in Antwerp, Belgium (though he has Dutch citizenship), and moved to the United States in 1993. He was asked to join Fear Factory in December 1993 as a bass player. He recorded five albums with them. The group disbanded in 2002 and when it reformed in 2003, Olde Wolbers had switched to guitar, replacing Dino Cazares.

In 2003 he was offered a position of bassist in Ozzy Osbourne's solo band after he jammed with Ozzy, guitarist Zakk Wylde and drummer Mike Bordin few weeks.[2] He eventually turned down this offer in order to fully concentrate on Fear Factory. [3]

In 2006 he played three shows with Korn on their European tour.[4]

In 2008 he formed a new band "BURN IT ALL" which also feature Raymond Herrera (drums) and former Damageplan singer\HALFORD guitarist Patrick Lachman. They has posted a demo sampler on its MySpace page. [5]

In 2009, Olde Wolbers and drummer Raymond Herrera parted ways with Fear Factory when vocalist Burton C. Bell chose to reform Fear Factory with Dino Cazares, bassist Byron Stroud, and drummer Gene Hoglan.[6]

Olde Wolbers has a project Arkaea with fellow ex-Fear Factory drummer Raymond Herrera[7] and Jon Howard and Pat Kavanagh of the band Threat Signal. On 14 July 2009, Arkaea's debut album, Years in the Darkness was released. Also in Beowülf, where he co-produced their 2011 album Jesus Freak.

In early 2014 Christian was in a serious motorcycle accident in which he sustained severe injuries, including broken arms, legs and ribs. He is still in recovery as his leg is still healing since his Achilles tendon was severed. He set up a donation page and started doing skype lessons to help cover his medical bills. In his Skype sessions, he's doing guitar/bass lessons, consulting on the bands/business/production/writing in the Los Angeles Area, entire country or world as well as via Skype.[8]

Contributions

He contributed upright bass to Devin Townsend's second album Infinity in 1998. In 2006, he helped produce and mix Mnemic's third album, Passenger, and also produced Bleed the Sky's Murder the Dance and Threat Signal's debut album, Under Reprisal. In 2008, he produced End of the Rope's new album, Till It Bleeds and in 2009, Wolbers produced Years in the Darkness for Arkaea. He filled in as live guitarist for Korn for the first three shows of their European tour. He appears as a guest guitar player on the EP This World by breakbeat production group The Autobots.[9] He produced the vocals for God Forbid's Earthsblood, co-wrote and played bass on Snoop Dogg's album Paid tha Cost to Be da Boss. He helped Cypress Hill with their rock outfit and wrote songs for their Stoned Raiders and Skull & Bones albums. He also played on two songs on Soulfly's debut in 1998.

Equipment

Olde Wolbers was endorsed by Jackson, and has a number of custom guitars made for, including seven-string guitars, his first two seven string guitars were built by Jackson's master builder Mike Shannon in 2003. Besides his production Signature 7 and 6 string models (colors: Black, Desert Camo, Red Blue Pearl, Silver Burst), Jackson built at least 12 Custom shop 7 string guitars for Christian, most of which he received, that includes: Soloist: Natural finish - Mahogany (used in the "Bite The Hand That Bleeds" video); Black - (used in the "Cyberwaste" video); Red (now with a sticker next to the bridge); Silverburst with Floyd Rose bridge (used in the "Archetype" video); Silverburst with Floyd Rose bridge and blue led inlays (used in the "Gone Tomorrow" video);

King V: Black Black with a floyd Rose (used in the "Locust" video);

Kelly: Burst with a Floyd Rose;

The guitars that Christian did not get: Soloist Black with black hardware; Soloist Desert Camo with Chrome Hardware and TOM bridge; Soloist Silverburst with a TOM bridge; Red King V;

He also had 2 seven-string guitars made by ESP That belonged to Stephen Carpenter and one custom made by Hufschmid Guitars.[10] He uses Randall amplifiers, including a V2 Guitar Amp Head and an XL Series RS125XL 260W, 2x12. Randall released an Olde Wolbers signature amp, the V2 Archetype. Before the Randall endorsement, he used a Marshall JMP-1 preamp with a Marshall power amp, which was also suggested and given to him by Carpenter. This was used for Archetype, but was later abandoned in 2005 when he received a Krank Amplification endorsee, using their Krankenstein amps. His main amp was a prototype head that belonged to Dimebag Darrel. The Kranks were used for Transgression, and later sold in 2009, a few year after receiving his Randall endorsement.

In his bassist days, Wolbers first used ESP Guitars like bandmate Dino Cazares, specifically Japanese ESP Horizon 5-string basses used from 1994-95. In 1996, both Wolbers and Cazares switched to an endorsement with Ibanez Guitars, which initially for Christian was the Ibanez Soundgear SR1305PM followed by sometime in 1997 - the Ibanez Ergodyne EDB 605. Both the Ibanez 1997 and 1998 catalogue printed his photo with the aforementioned Ibanez models individually. In 1998 he began using custom-made Fender 5-string Jazz Basses and primarily customized Fender Roscoe Beck 5-string basses with only 1 pickup, but later on with a dual setup. This Fender endorsement later led to them making him his Jackson custom shop 7 Strings.

Discography

With Fear Factory

With Arkaea

Guest appearances

Production credits

Sport

As a teenager Olde Wolbers was a goalkeeper at the youth academy of Belgian professional football soccer club Germinal Ekeren, and was the team's reserve goalkeeper for several games in the Belgian Second Division. He was suspended for having long hair and tattoos at the age of 17 due to the conservativeness of the club, and chose instead to concentrate on his music career. Since moving to the United States, Olde Wolbers has played regularly for the Los Angeles-based amateur team Hollywood United, and currently plays for Angel City FC in the semi-professional Los Angeles Premier League.[11]

Olde Wolbers is also the founder and owner of Aviata Sports,[12] an international sportswear company which specializes in manufacturing goalkeeper gloves. Aviata gloves are worn in Major League Soccer by Josh Saunders of Los Angeles Galaxy, the Belgian Jupiler Pro League, La Liga, Eredivisie in the Netherlands, the Premier League, and many more leagues all over the world.

References

  1. ↑ "Beowulf - Home". Beowulfbwf.com. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  2. ↑ http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/jason-newsted-leaves-ozzy-osbourne-is-replaced-by-rob-zombie-bassist/#mRxbZICpLbtCqUXy.99
  3. ↑ http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/fear-factory-s-christian-olde-wolbers-says-he-turned-down-ozzy-osbourne-gig/
  4. ↑ http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/guitarist-patterson-back-with-korn-after-stint-by-fear-factory-s-olde-wolbers/#1mAGFCUwv4p6tJwb.99
  5. ↑ http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/burn-it-all-featuring-fear-factory-ex-damageplan-members-audio-samples-available/#9evlGP0O4JzSk6ig.99
  6. ↑ "BLABBERMOUTH.NET - ARKAEA Featuring Ex-FEAR FACTORY Members: New Audio Samples Available".
  7. ↑ "Blog Archive » Fear Factory Interview Part 2!". Metal Hammer. 27 April 2008. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  8. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Christian-Olde-Wolbers/281907298680?fref=ts
  9. ↑ "Autobots, The* - This World (Vinyl) at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  10. ↑ "Vulgar Display of Power." Guitar World November 2005.
  11. ↑ "LA Premier League". LA Premier League. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  12. ↑ "Aviata Sports". Aviata Sports. Retrieved 10 December 2011.

External links