Chris J (Chris Kowalski) is a Sound Designer, Producer, and Keyboardist living in the Los Angeles area. Born and raised in Chicago, Chris was exposed and inspired by the sounds of his city early on. His influences span salsa, jazz, new wave, industrial, hip-hop and of course the classic Chicago house sound.
As a child Chris reluctantly studied classical piano, realizing only later it would became one of his greatest passions, and his path to creative success personally and professionally. Throughout his teens Chris developed an affinity for the dark lush and soulful synthetic sounds of bands like Depeche Mode, Front 242, and New Order. In the mid 90s while studying improvisational jazz at the DePaul School of Music Chris first experimented with writing electronic music.
His early productions were made on the Demoscene sequencer “Screamtracker”, which soon after evolved into Impulse tracker. In 2000 Chris became an early beta tester of the revolutionary music production software Reason by Propellerheads. Nine years later Chris has had the pleasure of releasing his music on such revered labels as Good Looking Records, Covert Operations, Telluric, Svek , Statra, Grayhound, Phuturistic Bluez, Upstairs Recordings, Movim, Gamma Ray, Sensei and Spaced out. Presently Chris is working as a Freelance Sound Designer and Recordist under his company Analogmad LLC out of Buffalo NY.