Chris Riffle

Born in a one room cabin in the woods of Bothell, Washington, Chris Riffle has lived in and around the Northwest most of his life. Chris spent a good portion of his childhood learning to live simply, with no electricity or running water in the mountains of Washington State. He even spent some summers in a teepee. This gave his dad ample time to write and sing his own folk songs around the fire at night, and planted the musician seed early in Chris.

Throughout high school and into college, he was a founding member of Chrysler-Stewart and the Stewartesses-- a lounge pop ensemble influenced by Sergio Mendez and the Brasil 66, the B-52s, Jan & Dean, and Combustible Edison. Chris played guitar, bass, keyboards and sang for the group.

In college, in Bellingham ("The city of subdued excitement"), he started branching out on his own, singing and recording his own songs. One of these singles "Wonderboy" (a catchy pop song from one boy to another) made its way to KUGS-FM and became a local favorite... "Evidently, I wasn’t the only one enamored of Chris. Through my incessant phone calls to KUGS to demand they play one or the other of the two songs they had in their rotation, I found out that his songs were among the most requested.” Carey Ross – What’s Up Magazine.

He quickly began opening for acts like Death Cab for Cutie, Mary Lou Lord and Dub Narcotic Sound System and made a substantial splash on the Bellingham, WA music scene. Lately Chris has been performing with renowned musicians such as Blake Fleming (Mars Volta) backing him on drums, Jimi Zhivago (Olabelle) on guitar, bass & organ, and Julia Kent (Antony and the Johnson’s) on cello.

Chris’ new EP Another Dream marks Riffle’s third release in the last couple years with veteran producer Jimi Zhivago. Not only does it represent Chris’s most determined move yet into a pop realm, but it’s the artist’s richest, most lush production to date. On tracks like the shimmering, tender "All That We Hold", the hopeless late-night romanticism of "While You Run" and the sensual closer "Kiss On the Cheek", layers of piano, bass and, notably, organ conspire with Riffle’s guitar and gossamer vocals, for tracks that envelop-intimate meditations on place and our own inherent creativity. And lest we forget: "And I Love Him", a jazzy, chilled-out reworking of a McCartney chestnut that Riffle makes most decidedly his own.