|
|
By Sean McDevitt
Guitar World Magazine
August 2000
It's not as if Christopher Thorn doesn't know a good singer when he hears one. As the guitarist for Blind Melon, Thorn played alongside the late Shannon Hoon, whose dry, Axl Rose style vocals graced the band's 1993 hit, "No Rain."
But Thorn struck out when it came to finding a singer for his new band, Unified Theory. After fruitless auditions in his hometown of Seattle, he turned his ears toward California, only to come up empty again.
Enter singer/guitarist Chris Shinn, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, who almost instantly captured Thorns' attention with an EP he'd recorded with his band, Celia Green.
"Within the first five seconds of hearing it, I said, 'This is exactly who I'm looking for,'" recalls Thorn. "You hear Chris' voice and it makes you melt. He could sing names out of the phone book and i would sound like the most important thing you've ever heard."
In a matter of days, Thorn and Shinn were en route to Seattle to "vibe" with former Blind Melon bassist Brad Smith and drummer Dave Krusen, one of Pearl Jam's founding members. In short order, the quartet wrote and recorded "Passive" and "Cessna," two multi-layered songs that embody Unified Theory's ethereal, dreamy sound.
Flying back to Charlotte a few weeks later, Shinn gave the tapes a fresh listen. "I thought, Holy shit! this is real." Even his band mates in Celia Green approved. "They said, 'Man, you need to do this.'"
And so they have. Unified Theory's self-titled debut makes its bow on 3:33 Music this August. For Thorn, the results were definitely worth the wait.
"It's amazing. Blind Melon had a wonderful career, and it was a blast. We all miss Shannon, and I'm thankful for the time I had with him and in Blind Melon. But I'm moving on. This is a whole new world for me. This feels new again. This feels like the first time."
AXOLOGY
Guitars - Thorn: Seventies custom Fender Telecaster;
Shinn: Rickenbacker 360
Amps - Thorn: Gibson Skylark, Sixties-era Princeton;
Shinn: Fender Bassman reissue, 1959 Vox AC30
Currently Listening To - Thorn: Fiona Apple -
When
the Pawn...; Shinn: Jeff Buckley -Grace
All Time Favorite Album - Thorn: The Beatles
- The Beatles; Shinn: Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking