About
IN BRIEF
Christopher Hawley makes people feel good through music. For over 20 years he has performed in major metropolises, ski towns, artist communities, and beach and college towns all over the world, solo acoustic and with his band, the Rollers.
AT LENGTH
When the snow stopped flying in Colorado May 1, 2001, Hawley relocated to SoCal. There, besides jumping into the local singer songwriter scene with an acoustic duo called Christopher and Heather, he enjoyed the perspective of being a hired lead guitarist in multiple projects- Perfect Star, John Pieplow, Sarah Hudson, The Nations, Lindsey Harper, among many others. As LA musicians began to expand the sound of his original tunes, rather than using only the frontman’s name to identify what has grown to be an expansive collective, he chose The Christopher Hawley Rollers to acknowledge the group effort.
He is a musical Johnny Appleseed, sowing sonic seeds around the world, cultivating a sustainable fanbase, while on an endless tour. Those seeds have been sown in the thick jungles of Costa Rica, massive cities of Japan and Taiwan, yoga enclaves in Indonesia and LA, surf destinations in Mexico and Hawaii, and ski towns in the Alps and Rocky Mountains. “I’m constantly seeking inspiration, and I’m drawn to places that bring a sense of adventure to the music.”
Like his ancestors who were Scottish earls and English pirates, Hawley has integrated lyrics with a regal irreverence in songs such as Bank Robbing Man, Genepool Party, Wrong Guy, and Tecate on a Hot Day. His personal yogic journey of over 25 years has influenced many songs like Show Your Love, By The Water's Edge, as well as Brother's Keeper, Rise and Shine, and Meander, which were actually partially written in yoga class.
He writes from the perspective of an adventure musician. Tour dates consistently feature favorite urban metropolises, as well as wild and remote places. Tasting the local honey along the way has always been his priority, which has inspired songs like Fresh Pipas, Waiting for the Snow, Rolling Through Carolina, and Red Lights Green.
After studying classical guitar as a child, his professional career began at age 16 playing at an intimate dinner for a teacher and his soon to be fiancée as he proposed to her.
Following stints in the high school jazz band and projects with names such as Lungbutter and Leon’s Getting Larger, Hawley co-founded Mucis, a touring Colorado jamband originating at CU Boulder. In the late 90s, Mucis was most frequently found traveling between shows in their modified school bus, returning home to the Mucasa, where they lived together and rehearsed on rare nights off. Hawley couldn’t get enough of the road, and when the band broke up, Los Angeles became home base.
Hawley has been influenced by Little Feat, Duane Allman’s slide guitar playing, Bob Marley's songwriting, among many others, and Hot Dog the Movie. He is inspired by and identifies with some lesser known musicians whose careers focused more on making music than marketing, like Brian Jones, Grant Green, Syd Barrett, Lowell George, and J.J. Cale.
He’s released nine albums, made multiple music videos with the help of friends and fans, and held residencies at LA venues. Since the turn of the century, The Hawley Rollers have regularly toured the Intermountain West and performed throughout the US, everywhere from LA’s Greek Theatre to the dive in your hometown, parts of Costa Rica, Hawaii, Europe, Asia, Brazil, and Mexico, national festivals like Wanderlust, to more regional soirées like Lucidity and Hempapalooza, to weddings in backyards and on mountaintops. One year, he and his band averaged 1.5 weddings a month. “The Rollers have a 95% rate of couples staying together after having played at their wedding.”
In 2016, he created the Folk-n-Soak Music Festival which happens biannually at a natural hot springs on the Central Coast of California, and features singer songwriters and bands, as well as morning yoga.
As a solo artist and with The Rollers, he’s had music licensed by Fox, the NFL Network, and several independent films. The Rollers were featured playing two of Hawley's songs in a national commercial.
He’s jammed with the drummers of the Chili Peppers and the Police, Taylor Hawkins, John Popper and Joe Russo, opened for Jackie Greene, White Buffalo, Xavier Rudd, and Rodrigo y Gabriela, among many others.
He’s been directed by Mark Romanek, declined a job offer from Hans Zimmer, broken up a fight at McCabe’s Guitar Shop, and written songs with the words of Martin Luther King and John Muir, as well as jammed with other musicians whose names you’d recognize.
He’s a devoted yogi, and that influences the way he lives. “My yoga practice is old enough to drink at the bar. It has inspired me to be more conscious about what I consume. The idea is to put an increasingly smaller footprint on the planet.” Chris learned to surf in Hawaii, and that was part of why he moved from Colorado to California. “I wanted to be in a bigger musical pond, with waves. Surfing, like yoga, is a meditational workout,” says Hawley. “You’re trying to tune in to the waves and, ultimately, become one with Mother Nature. Both activities force you to practice being present, just like when you’re playing music.”
The first, second, and fifth albums, Naked Songs, Red Lights Green, and Meditations are out of print at the moment.
Stream the third, fourth, and sixth albums, The Roots of the Tree, Comes Around Again, and Rise and Shine on Bandcamp.
The seventh album is a live set from the legendary Stronghold in Venice Beach. It’s available on iTunes: Download Live at the Stronghold
Stream the eighth album, Stories, on the studio recording Spotify page.
Stream the ninth album, Zona Sur, recorded at a live show in Costa Rica, on the live Spotify page