Ian Christe
Ian Christe (born 1970 in Biel / Bienne, Switzerland ) is an English music journalist, author of non-fiction books on the subject of Heavy Metal and publisher.
Life
Christe was born in 1970 in Switzerland. In 1973 he moved with his family in the U.S. state of Ohio, his parents divorced soon after. Christe grew up with his mother, who worked for the government. For this reason, he moved every two to three years, including in 1980 to Germany. At the age of 13 he lived in Seneca Falls, where he spent two years at the College Radio WeOS his first own radio show. After Christe had moved to Indiana, he noted that there was in this State to any radio stations that played heavy metal, yet there were performances by bands of the genre. So Christe began in 1985 with tape trading and started a fanzine called Ian's Magazine. After graduating from college in 1992, he began to earn his living as a journalist for the technology magazine Wired. As a metal fan, he then also began to write articles for magazines such as Spin, Revolver, CMJ or Metal Maniacs. In the late 1990s he decided to write a historical outline of the Heavy Metal. He was supported by well-known musicians of the scene like Jeff Becerra (ex Possessed ). The book was published in 2003 under the original title Sound of the Beast. The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal. In 2007, Christe founded the publishing house Bazillion Points Publishing, which specializes in non-fiction and biographies from the field of Metal.
In addition to his work as an author Christe plays in several bands. With Grouse Mountain Skyride, he released a self-titled EP in 1993, with the song Smokin ' Husks his band Dark northernmost he was represented at the 1997 soundtrack to the film Gummo. The operated jointly with ambient musician Fritz Welch electronic project Wi77! N6 published in 2007 his debut album.
Works (selection)
- Sound of the Beast. The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal. Harper Collins Publishers, New York 2003.
- Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga. John Wiley & Sons, 2007.
- Grouse Mountain Skyride - Grouse Mountain Skyride (EP, 1993)
- Dark northern - The Beholder (EP, 2001)
- Wi77 N6 - Brotherhood of the Backwards Handshake (2007)