John Chivers

Bio:

My Current Band

• Ministry of Beaver
• Ministry of Beaver MySpace

Bands with whom I used to play

• BAiT
• Kill Clouseau

Bands with whom I used to play session drums

• Malc Evans Band
• Beneva
• Bukechi

Other Websites

• My website
• My Facebook page
• My blog

Hello. I am the drummer and backing vocalist with Coventry, England based rock covers band, Ministry of Beaver. I was drummer with Coventry originals band, BAiT between its birth in 1996 and its demise in 2007, and pop covers band, Kill Clouseau (2006 - 2007).

Additionally, I play session drums for the Malc Evans Band, Beneva, and Bukechi from time to time.

I also play classical guitar, mandolin and piano to varying degrees of proficiency to get away from playing solely drums and percussion.

I was with BAiT throughout its entire existence between 1996 and 2007 and appeared on all of the band's albums: Not In My Back Yard (2000), Shut Up And Take A Seat (2002), South Of The Delta (2004), The Full English (2005), and BAiT Lite (2006). See www.baitband.com for more information on BAiT.

Originally a pianist, I moved over to drums pretty quickly when I was offered a way out of piano lessons, so long as I filled the role of drummer with the school band, and so I began drum lessons in 1981 at the age of 10. I played with school bands of one kind or another whilst at school.

In 1990, during my first year at Coventry University, I formed Citizen Kane (later Scapegoat and later still Kid Gloves) with fellow students Daniel Hall and Neil Crump. I continued to work with Dan until Dan's departure from BAiT in 2002.

My main love and influence is the music of the artists the music press hates - Progressive Rock. Despite missing the Prog decade, I fell under its spell in the late 1980s, whilst still at school. Favourite bands/artists in the genre are Yes, Genesis, Rush, Jethro Tull, and Mike Oldfield. At the same time, I love a wide range of styles of music, from pop to classical to downright silly, so long as the musicianship or the song are strong.

Regarding the songs above, two of these are demo pieces of music for my long-term album project, which will combine an eclectic range of music and will probably emerge something like an old Mike Oldfield album, with one twenty minute piece of music and then several songs.

Following the demise of BAiT, I am now enjoying playing covers in a band which loves doing what it does. I fully expect to become involved in an originals band at some point in the future again, but I will be looking to join a band in which the music matters more than the hunger for public acceptance. I have no desire to be in with the in-crowd or to concern myself with pleasing the general public. That said, I am interested in strong, melodic songs, ideally with a 'proggy' twist.

The Phoenix was recorded shortly after the purchase of my electric guitar and V-Amp and was my first attempt at playing electric guitar on a recording. The drums are combination of live played samples, triggered from my electric kit and sequenced percussion parts.

My Massive Swelling Organ was my attempt to create an authentic sounding church organ and choral work using Cubase plugins (in this case a custom-made Halion sample set I created based on the excellent Jeux d'orgues soundfont and the marvellous M-Tron Mellotron VST).

Way To The Flame is the last of three tracks recorded by BAiT over a very disjointed recording session between June 2006 and May 2007 and is the last track recorded before the band's demise. It is, in my opinion, the best song we recorded as a whole.

Games was a song I originally wrote for BAiT's 2000 album, Not In My Back Yard. The version here is not the full band version that appeared on NIMBY, but the acoustic version from our unplugged album, Lite (2006). This song was one of the very rare occasions that I sang lead vox in BAiT and I also got the opportunity to play mandolin. Guitar magazine really liked the NIMBY version of this song and put it on their cover CD. To hear that version, visit the BAiT website.

Happy listening!

My website is at www.johnchivers.com.

Member Since:

September 21, 2005

Members:

All noises made by John Chivers

Influences:

Yes, Genesis, Rush, Jethro Tull, Mike Oldfield, Spock's Beard, Queen, The Cult, The Police, Dead Can Dance, a-ha, Laibach, City, Stern Combo Meissen

Sounds Like:

Yes, Genesis, Rush, Jethro Tull, Mike Oldfield, Spock's Beard, Queen, The Cult, The Police, Dead Can Dance, a-ha, Laibach, City, Stern Combo Meissen and lots of other things, depending on my mood.