A Top Celeb Interview From 2008

Below is one of my favorite celeb interviews, with Mr. Chris Mann. He was amazing to work with and so much fun. We are looking forward to covering his career, with his CD getting ready to drop in just a couple months. Below is our interview with him, happy reading:

Okay my amazing Gossipers are you ready to take a Mannventure with me? All right, but grab your comfy sexy shoes because this is going to be an exciting ride. Also powder those noses now because we are not pulling over this Mannventure for anyone. With that said may I introduce to you, Chris Mann, yes it is appropriate to clap your hands and jump up and down. I won’t tell anyone.

Chris Mann’s roots are planted firmly in the Midwest, coming from Wichita, KS. His passion for music started at a young age where he hungered for all areas of vocal music. May of 2004, Chris graduated magna cum laude from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University with a degree in Classical Vocal Performance. He was strongly urged by many around him to pursue a career in opera, but the pull to the pop side of the musical spectrum was to strong. Chris moved to New York to follow those dreams taking with him the talent of a voice that dips into many genres of music.

Once in New York Chris started pounding the pavement, building up a local following. He paid the bills by working as a bank teller, which oddly enough is where his worst date horror story originates from. While working as a teller Chris was approached by one of the bank patrons, who asked him out to dinner. Chris accepted and a nice little dinner date was planned, little did he know what he had in store for him that night. It ended up being one of those awful dates where you are tempted to stab yourself in the hand with a fork so you would have an excuse to leave, but being a gentlemen and sane Chris stuck it out. When the bill for dinner came Miss. Crazy Date, flips, insisting that they leave at that moment without paying for the bill. She then does the hundred yard dash out of the restaurant. Chris was stunned and then realized that he did not have enough money for the bill. He left all the cash he had, and left the restaurant embarrassed and frustrated with Miss. Crazy Date. Needless to say ladies this a way to guarantee you don’t get the next day phone call.

Not all the events in New York were so frustrating for Chris, in fact Chris was able to experience many great things in New York. It was in New York that his great group of friends threw a surprise party to celebrate him getting signed to Sony. It was this party that the infamous Blueberry Manncake’s shirt was born. Those closest to Chris call him Mann, so those friends put their heads together and came up with quirky funny sayings to plaster the celebration shirts with.

Once Chris was signed the taxing job of splitting his time between the East Coast and the West Coast began. After about a half a year bouncing from New York to LA, Chris is sticking about the West Coast, at least for awhile. He feels that his artistic niche is in LA, and feels at least at this point, that a more permanent LA zip code may be in his future. Though a little bit of his heart will always be in New York. Hard to forget the amazing energy in NY and his leading lady currently resides in New York. Yes ladies, Mr. Mann is off the market, sad I know.

While starting to plant roots in LA Chris has been logging many hours in the studio laying tracks for his upcoming CD. He has a great group of producers currently working with him that he just raves about. His executive producer Walter Afanasieff has a pretty impressive list of artist. He’s worked with Mariah Carey, Babyface, and Destiny’s Child just to name a couple Another producer Mike Elizondo, has worked with Maroon 5, Alanis Moressette, and even American Idol runner up Blake Lewis. All and all Chris is surrounded by a vastly talented and experienced team. So there is no doubt in my mind that his CD will be amazing.

So when can we expect to see this CD on our store shelves, well we will have a little wait. The CD should be wrapped up by the end of this year, but will be held until probably March of 2009. Why? There is a fine science to release dates of new artists. New artist don’t really release CD’s during the 4^th quarter due to all the chaos that happens during that time. There is the hustle and bustle of Christmas and the Grammies are also during that time. So does that mean we have to wait 6 months to get our Chris Mann fix? Lucky for his fans the answer is no.

Chris will be joining Idina Menzel on tour Oct 30- Nov 13 that is sticking mostly to the East Coast. There are also whisperings about him being considered for some major campaigns, as well as some of his songs being considered for major placement. Vague, yes, but don’t we all love a mystery man? So with so much on his plate it would be easy for Chris to get overwhelmed. So how does he relax, well by jamming along to “I Kissed A Girl” on his iPod of course. He admits that “I Kissed A Girl”, is a song that he rocks out to when no one is around, aw cute! He also says he’s always had a calm understanding that recording and sharing his music would happen, which must make dealing with the stress a little easier. Now that his dreams are starting to take form he is loving each moment and excited for what tomorrow will bring.

Well Gossipers our Mannventure for today is coming to an end. Please watch your step while you exit the ride. Don’t be to sad Gossipers, I will keep you posted on all major Chris Mann developments. You can also sign up for the Chris Mann mailing list to keep posted on Manntastic happenings. Take a couple seconds to sign up at http://www.myspace.com/chrismannmusic. Until next time, may you jam happily to Chris Mann and have gossip dreams.