Chris is the lead singer and guitarist of punk band “Crazy & The Brains” (post coming soon) who I discovered after interviewing Verbal Phantom. I went to see them playing shortly after at Union Republic and took notice of Chris’s edgy punk style; Signature sailor hat, skinny jeans, torn tank, tattoos…He is definitely a stylish peep! Also, he looks like a boy I would’ve dated in my early 20’s…Parents worst nightmare! #badboyphase

What’s your name? My name is Chris.

What do you do to pay the bills?  I work at a pizza place called Gargiulio’s. It’s on Greene Street.

And what about your music job? Full time is Crazy and the Brains. That’s mainly what I spend my time doing.

Can you tell me more about Crazy and the Brains? We’re a four piece group of dudes. We play punk music. Or, what I think is punk music, at least. We put out our first record last year, it’s called “Let Me Go.” And probably in about 3 weeks we’re going to release our new record. It’s called “Good Lord.” So, yeah. I don’t know man… just trying to take over the world…at least the punk world.

Are you from Jersey City? I’m from Bayonne but I moved here a few years ago.

What is your favorite Jersey City hangout spot? I kinda like to just hang out at people’s houses more than going out. I mean, I guess we’re at Lucky 7’s if were going to go somewhere.

And what are you wearing now? I’m wearing an inside-out Joan Jet t-shirt, some Levi’s jeans that I cut, and wearing a Catholic scapular, which is a weird kind of necklace you would wear when you pray.

Does that have any significance to you? Well it says “whoever dies while wearing a scapular shall not suffer eternal fire” I don’t know what the fuck that means. I just think it kind of looks cool. But I grew up catholic, that’s why I always had these things lying around my house. So, I don’t know, I kind of think Catholic imagery is cool… I’m not a practicing catholic.

What about the Virgin Mary you have in your room? What’s the story with her? Again, yeah, it’s just shit my family had. They’re Italian-Catholics so…they’re all about praying to the saints and all of that crazy shit. So I had endless amounts of that stuff laying around my house so I kind of just picked from it and- I just kind of think it looks cool, you know? It’s weird.

And where’s the hat from? Sailor hat. I have a millions of these hats. I usually get them at thrift shops. I think I got this one in Chicago when we were on tour at some really cool Army Navy shop.

Yeah, I always see you wear one of those hats. In all of your videos. It’s like your thing? I guess it’s my trademark.

Nice. That’s cool. And what are you listening to now? Actually, not to jump on the bandwagon, but I found out about it a while ago, but his album just came out… Riff Raff.

Nice. How about punk? Any punk rock influences? Punk? I mean yeah, that’s our roots. But as far as punk goes, no. Nothing exciting right now. Or in the past few years. Nothing has really been exciting in punk besides us, I feel like. Punk kind of lost itself. There’s nothing really cool happening.

Except for you guys! I mean, thats my opinion!

Can you tell me a little about your artwork and clothes? Yeah. I mean it’s really just an extension of the music I feel. I paint, I’ve got some paintings hanging up in my room. Recently at the shows I’ve been displaying the paintings, kind of for sale but also just to show people more of what we do, what I do. Clothes- I make my owns clothes and give them away. I’m not really on the level of trying to make money off of it.

(looking at a piece of artwork)

I don’t know how to really explain WHAT it is, you know what I mean? It’s just shit that comes out of my head. It’s kind of weird. I like to leave painting , music , lyrics and all my art up for your own interpretation , and not explain them too much….

I like that. What is this devil doing? I like Catholic imagery and shit. So it’s poking fun at it. I don’t take it all too seriously. It’s just whatever I think is fun and cool is what I put out there.

In what sense do you make your own clothes? I could show you. The stupidest thing I’ve made is this shirt, because it has my face on it. It’s just so fucking stupid haha.

This is like Versace shirt, which, obviously I didn’t make this shirt, I just fucked it up.

Can you tell me about your tattoos? Did you get them locally? Most of them are locally, if you consider New York local. The anchor, the heart and the skull are from Jersey City Tattoo. This I got in the city, it’s a homage to the Clash because “Stay Free” is my favorite Clash song.

What’s a fun fact about you? I can dance pretty good.

You’re a good dancer? Can I see some moves? Like, ballroom dancer or hip hop? Haha, I don’t know I just like dancing.

We’re going to have to do a battle. I mean, if we had music…

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