CHRIS
VON SNEIDERN WALKS into the Western Addition cafe with a fur hat on his head.
In case anyone wants to hassle him about it, he keeps two stickers taped
inside, which he dutifully shows me. One says "Real people wear fake
furs," the other has a picture of a bear with a gun on it, with the slogan
"Support your right to arm bears." That one is strategically placed
over the tag which reads "Real rabbit fur."
"Somebody
said to me the other day, 'Is that a dead animal on your head?,"' he
recounts. 'My reply was something like, 'Is that a dead humanist campaign on
your mind?...'"
Not
only is the fashion accessory a good conversation piece, it is also highly
functional in this foul weather. "It's kept my head real warm," von
Sneidern says, before launching into an admittedly half-baked theory as to why
we are currently in the year 2000 despite what most calendars would have us
believe. 'Things are so ahead of themselves that it's the year 2000 now, he
explains. 'Wasn't there a calendar problem a few years ago? All the millennial
changes happened last year for a lot of people. Now that we're a couple of
months into the new year, it doesn't feel as 2000. I might he wrong. It might
not be 2000 now. It might 3000."
Ask
Chris von Sneidern when the last time he had a day job was and he'll tell you
the following story: "I was working in this law firm downtown," he
says. 'One day I took three days off and they changed supervisors. A friend of
mine in human resources calls up and says, 'You're so fucking fired I can't
even begin to tell you. 'That was the end of that. I started doing little jobs
like recording demos."
Four
solo albums into his career, the latest being Wood and Wire on Berkeley-based
Mod Lang Records, and the former Flying Color member has found a promising, if
modest alternative to the nine to-rive grind. 'I've got kind of a grassroots
thing happening, which I really shouldn't," he says. "I'm
overqualified for the grassroots thing. I'm a good looking guy, I get along
with anybody, I can sing and play. I'm not folk. I'm mainstream more than
anything else. But that's what I'm dealing with right now.'
von
Sneidern recently played guitar on Jewel's version of the national anthem for
Super Bowl XXXII; co-produced John Wesley Harding's new record Awake at his
studio, Ordophon-upon-Avon; and, when he has the time, sits in with local
surf-rock band Saturn V.
"It
feels good when I go to a show and there's 300 people singing and screaming
along,' the impressionable singer-songwriter says. 'Obviously, I would rather
play the 5000 seaters. But then I'd have to hang out with the manager and
A& R and record company guys. I've met them all, and I just need to meet
one guy, who goes, 'CVS, you just do your thing.' It's all to protect what I
love, to a fault. The one thing that isn't fucked up in my career is my
music."
-Aidin
Vaziri