Cheshire Kat was born as Christopher VanderEssen on a infamous December morning way back in 1973. he grew up with a steady diet of classic rock, metal and big band swing. Young Chris was a visionary, fascinated with synthesizers and was drawn to synth heavy music such as Pink Floyd and the sequenced synth songs by The Who. He was also fascinated by the music and sound effects from old sci-fi movies like Forbidden Planet and PBS station id spots. These sounds were always playing behind his minds ear. The sound of the Moog resonated with him much like the way the sound of the guitar resonated with so many other people of the time. While many of his friends were getting guitar lessons as kids, he was the only one out getting organ lessons. He was looking to match the sounds playing inside of his head with the sounds playing outside of it.
When the few times that they actually matched, the soundscapes created by this wholly personal experience would literally transport him to other worlds just as real as this one. This led to what he calls 'The Moment', a syszergistic connection from his past into his future. These Moments would always start with a feeling of deja vu, as the reality of the mind conjoins with the when nexus.
These moments were so profound to him he started seeking to understand the nature of his visions. Since American culture did not teach anything about visions he turned to the counter culture of the hippie scene to try and find some answers. At places such as rainbow gatherings and Woodstock reunions he learned that he was not alone in having such visions and learned to use different aspects of his talent such as the ability to "see" as well as change the flow of energy around him. With diverse teachers from many different faiths and disciplines, it was natural for him to combine the positive aspects of the spiritual world. Reiki, acupressure, sonic energy, intention, and compassion to create a new and unique way of healing by calming the mind, closing negative feedback loops and clearing the negative energy splinters that form on the the back and neck.
During these sessions he would hear rhythmic beats and strange otherworldly sounds that he never had anything to compare to. nothing really came close to what he was experiencing. so he started a search for the sounds in his head, and one by one he found them.
Before he ever even seen a DJ, young Chris would experiment with turntables as a instrument. He would tie dental floss to the tone arm to make loops. He also made his own percussion loops by carving up the large ride area at the end of a record with scratches and cuts that would endlessly repeat held in place by the dental floss.
When he started to hear electronic dance music in the soundtracks to movies like Mortal Kombat and Trainspotting he knew was getting closer, This was more like the rhythms that he used in his healings. Then one day he found a radio show called Solid State and a mixed tape that magically appeared at his house by a dj Ralphie-C. This really blew his mind. It was even more like the sounds he would hear during his healing sessions. How was this strange music being made? He had to find out. This was the mid 90's. little information about this music and where to find it was available and a PC with internet was a long way off for him.
It wasn't until one day working on a job he delivered frozen pizza to a bowling alley where the person working there was pumping some beats. She told him that there was a local scene that played this kind of music and that I should go to this little bar in New Paltz NY on a Tuesday night. Once there he seen his first rave flier. It was for a party called funky. on this flier was the name from the mystery tape, Ralphie-C. he pointed this out to his new friend, Micki who replied "Ralphie-C? that's him right there." and pointed to the dj booth.
Needless to say he went to that party and many many more after wards. One day Micki played a song for him in her car outside of that little bar that they congregated at. She had told him that the person who produced it was inside and that she would introduce them. During that introduction they shook hands and Chris witnessed a vivid vision of a future time when the both of them performed together for a rather large crowd.
Thus began a long time friendship and musical comradeship with DR Suds.
From him he learned some of the ways to make electronic music. He learned that you can make music with computers, synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, real instruments, circuit bent toys, microphones, and effect processors. An infinite ways of doing it. Dr Suds used computers to make his music at the time. In the vision Chris had he saw a bunch of little boxes with flashing lights and a few keyboards.
Then one day he received a inheritance from a great aunt. With some of that money he went to the music store to start his journey into this potential future he witnessed. There, behind the glass counter, was indeed one of the boxes from the vision, the Roland MC-307. he bought it on the spot. After working his way through the badly translated manual he slowly began to learn how to work the machine.
Then one day at he got to see his first live pa at a small party where Trixie Reiss, the vocalist from the Crystal Method, was performing with Cyberslam. Afterwords, inspired, A talented vocalist by the name of Julie Blue, asked him if he would like to do a song together. Thus the song "Know" was Born and Chris was reborn as the Cheshire Kat. Many years later this and another song with Julie Blue were performed by students at PS 68 in the Bronx at one of their school concerts.
During the years that followed Cheshire bought more and more equipment from his vision and figured out how to combine his intention with the new sounds that he was rediscovering. For a time he collaborated with Cazzy The Alien Blues dude to add guitar to a couple of downtempo tracks. He was trying to Channel in some of that Woodstock Energy that has shaped his youth. His goal was to create music that people from all ages and social backgrounds would enjoy. He succeeded this with "JFK" and "IsReal". "JFK" was chosen as the orange county democratic campaign song for a number of elections and "IsReal" was chosen to be in a ghost hunting T.V. show called "Post Mortem".
Then one day he discovered that there was a whole scene that is much more like the hippie scene then the rave scene but played a form of mind expanding trance called psytrance. This scene helped him fuse the healing talent he has been developing over the years with music that issued from him. The primal instinct for people to trance dance and the openness that comes with it allows Cheshire the ability to heal entire crowds now along with his more personal individual healings.
So now we are approaching the present and we see that Cheshire has been spreading his special spiritual/sonic alchemy to small parties and large festivals such as the NY Harvestfest, and the Guitar Master's World Tour. That brings us to this important question, what is his style? you might ask him and get a answer like "I really don't have a style. I fuse a bunch of different forms of trance, house, trip hop and techno with a light seasoning of drum and bass and rock and roll. It evolves from one thing to another so I guess I would just call it evolutionary.". Ask him the same question a bit later and you may get a different answer, "The music just is. I don't play it at all, it plays me instead, take a listen, It just may play you also!".
Truly the best way to describe Cheshire Kat is he is a shaman, a sonic shaman for this new world. His music is composed of beautiful melodies that convey a heartfelt yearning for compassion in others, Intricate rhythms that transport you to a time when we were our ancestors, dancing around the fire, and other worldly sounds that trigger that child like wonder in all who hear. Once you share a "Moment" with Chris and listen to the music of the Cheshire Kat you will want him as a shaman and a performer for your event. He truly will put a smile on your face.
Now only one little box remains in completing that vision of his. It is a dark red bean shaped device. Keep on the lookout for one. >^,.^<