About Chris Behre

I was born in New Rochelle, NY to a skinny guy in a suit from Queens and a secretary from Fitchburg, MA. I was raised in Belgium until I was 10, but at eight I had already gotten my first guitar. We then moved to Northern Indiana where again I now live. Though I guess I was kind of a misfit and learned to take it out on my guitar. I think I wrote my first song at ten, “Heartbreaks,” about a tough world and loneliness. These emotions drove me to music, not to mention the simple fact that I love it. My parents split up when I was 14 and I was sent away to school where a friend let me listen to a Neil Young record, and oh was I hooked. After high school I moved to Athens, Atlanta to drink and sell flowers in the street. All of the Athens bands were big, punk and new wave was in full swing. I lost a job as a waiter, vowed to be an artist and bought my self a four track and went nuts. A friend told me about this school in Boston, so I applied and off I went to Berklee. That gave me a bleeding ulcer but I stayed for four years anyway. I toured many cafes throughout Europe one summer with music school pals Riccardo Perotti, Steve Dawson, and Ronny Donkers from Basel,CH. After College I did what any respectful young man does—I went to Chicago to play in the subway. I had met Nicholas Barron the spring of graduation and he talked me into it. I played other venues, too, anywhere I could; bars, weddings, parties, poetry readings, rock fights. I went to Ecuador for the better part of a year in 1990 and had a band called Chris Y Las Iguanas. Our guitar player, Richard Maranon, talked me into moving to L.A. so I went there. L.A. is better if you’re already rich and famous, lived in Venice, Malibu, or Topanga. I signed some contracts that weren’t working out, went crazy, and headed to the Arizona desert to live in my van.

I heard a voice in my head that said, "Go to Tacoma." I said, "What?" and moved to Oregon and then to Seattle (during late grunge). I played my guitar at Pike Place Market, mostly, then drifted around the country: Austin, Connecticut, New York, and Chicago. I met Jesus in Toronto in 1994, and it was there that things would change. I ended up back in Seattle in the U district at the amazing Seattle Vineyard Church and began to learn about mercy, humility, true love, and it came to me: that’s what I ALWAYS needed. So I began to sing for God, oh yeah. I began recording “In You” in ’98 and finished it in 2001. When September 11th hit I knew it was time to come back to Indiana and be around my family, and I don’t know, see if I could help. I toured some festivals under my name, then The Chris Behre trio. I lead worship at my church, the VCC in Mishawaka, but not as much this year. It’s time to get out again and get crazy, and sing about some love. I hope that I see you there, wherever there will be.