Biography
CJ Hazard
CJ Hazard is born in Long Beach, CA in 1987 and moves to Orange County, CA in 1994. When he is in 6th grade, his father buys him his first guitar, a Yamaha F325 from Costco. After attempting to learn the F chord shape, a particularly difficult chord to fret on the large style dreadnaught, CJ puts the guitar down and nearly abandons the idea of going any further with it. Video gaming becomes young CJ’s hobby of choice, like so many of his contemporaries. One day his father mentions that he should spend some time to learn the guitar so that he can have a skill that he can take with him into adulthood. While CJ does not immediately act upon it, this comment becomes a memorable piece of advice.
A year later he is in seventh grade, and is again inspired to learn how to play guitar after hearing a local punk rock band’s live version of Earth Angel. His brother lends him $80 so that he can buy an Epiphone electric guitar, and shortly thereafter CJ is finally able to master the F chord on the smaller guitar. At the end of his freshman year of high school, he convinces his parents that the private school he is attending is not a good fit – mainly because the school enforces a dress code which does not allow him to grow his hair past his shoulders. He starts attending public high school the following year, and meets ex-Whereabout member, Joshua Ahrens.
During their sophomore year of high school, CJ and Ahrens start their first band together. CJ grows his hair out and starts wearing a leather biker jacket. He teases his hair and maybe even puts on eyeliner once or twice. Perhaps because of their “fashion before function” mentality, or maybe due to the fact that all of the members’ parents have to drive them to band practice, their early attempt at rock and roll does not last longer than a few months, and the band breaks up before their first show; a friend’s birthday party in the back yard. The invigorating experience of just being in a band, however, provides CJ with enough motivation to surpass any future obstacles keeping him from his life’s ultimate dream: to play music with a good rock band.
Throughout high rocky high school years, CJ continues to play music, but can not keep a band together longer than a few months. His hair grows longer. He records his first solo album during his senior year with a Hackintosh computer that he builds from scraps. After high school, he spends a brief stint living in Oxford, England before he moves back into his childhood home and attempts to embed himself into the drudgery of contemporary adult life as he works as a graphic designer and crawls through general education courses at the local junior college for 6 years.
His work/school routine is broken one cold winter night by a call from Andy “The Andimal” Gardikas, who is seeking a guitarist for his hard rock band Alpha Prevail. CJ jumps at the opportunity to play with the established band and attends the audition. After playing several-hundred “jazz” notes, and jostling a VCR from its perch on a shelf to its death on the warehouse floor, CJ is accepted into the band, and his silent world once again begins to fill with music.
Over the course of the next several years, CJ’s focus shifts from earning a bachelors degree in computer science to playing the best music he can muster from his heart, soul, hands, and mind. He performs over 150 rock concerts with various original and cover bands and gains priceless experience with the entertainment industry of rock and roll. His nickname “CJ Hazard” is concocted during one particular night of debauchery with mates from his cover band appropriately dubbed “GLAMel Töe”. By the time The Whereabouts becomes a brainchild, CJ is already screaming falsetto notes reminiscent of 80s hair metal, shredding face-melting solos on the electric guitar, and self-producing full length rock albums.
In the summer of 2011, CJ is reunited with high school bandmate, Joshua Ahrens, and with Andy “The Andimal” Gardikas, and Timothy von Gremp (with whom CJ won 2nd place in “Odyssey of the Mind” during 3th grade) he starts a new band. Although it remains listed under a different name until November 2012, this combination of friends and talents forms the basis of what is now the band called The Whereabouts.
Gear
• Heil FIN Deco Series Microphone
• Blue Woodpecker Ribbon Microphone
• Blue Spark Condenser Microphone
• ElectroVoice N/D767a Dynamic Microphone
• Boss VE-1 Vocal Echo Pedal
• Boulder Creek KOA ECRM6-N Acoustic Guitar
• Taylor GS-Mini Acoustic Guitar
• Yamaha APX-500 Acoustic Guitar
• Yamaha NCX-700 Classical Guitar
• Gibson ES-335 Custom Electric Guitar
• Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar
• Marshall JCM 900 Amplifier
• MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay Pedal
• Fulltone OCD Distortion Pedal
• Yamaha YPG235 Keyboard
• Kentucky KM-800 Mandolin
• Giuseppi Fiorini Stradivarius Violin
• Toca Djembe (unknown maker)
• Tamborine (unknown maker, found in the middle of the desert)
Musical Influences
• Led Zeppelin
• Incubus
• The Doors
• Creedence Clearwater Revival
• Black Sabbath
• Aerosmith
• The Growlers
• The Originalites
• The Sly Digs
• Ludwig van Beethoven
• Arvo Pärt
• Bon Jovi
• The Dire Straits
• The Dirty Heads
• The Expendables
• Frank Sinatra
• Guns N’ Roses
• Henry Mancini
• Jimi Hendrix
• Johnny Cash
• Lindsey Stirling
• Mötley Crüe
• Nirvana
• Nujabes
• Rod Stewart
• Rodrigo y Gabriela
• The Rolling Stones
• Sade
• Santana
• The Smashing Pumpkins
• Social Distortion
• The Steve Miller Band
• Sublime
• Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
• Van Halen
• Zero 7
A Few of His Favorite Things
• His Wife
• Wine
• Other countries
• Stretching
• Tea
• Vinyl
• Fiddle
• Bicycles
• Computers
• Staying up late
• Sleeping in late
• Punctuality
• Rain
• Sun
• The moon
• Body surfing
• Calculus
• Physics
• Brainstorming solutions