Kristi Bride's music career began with a unique twist of fate. After posting her poetry in a chat room, one of her online friends asked if she would record her poetry for an album he was doing to benefit a homeless teen charity in Portland, Oregon.
For the price of a six-pack of beer, she went into her neighbor's studio and recorded her impassioned musings in an afternoon. Three years later she received a thank you note and a CD of the project, "Live From Nowhere Near You" with (unbeknownst to her) many artists from her favorite bands like Pearl Jam, Third Eye Blind, Squirrel Nut Zippers, and director Gus Van Sant! Her friend had beautifully mixed her spoken word with music on the song, "TrainJumping". She was ecstatic and began getting requests to write and sing on other projects.
A strong and vitally independent spirit, Kristi soon grew tired of relying on others to provide the music for her lyrics and voice so she purchased a guitar and began writing immediately. Her first song, "Sister Sister" was finished within a mere four months of purchasing her guitar and recorded at a friend's studio in Huntington Beach. It wasn't released publicly until years later despite a small cult following from radio play in the San Fransisco Bay area.
Absolutely enamored with this new form of expression Kristi quickly began gaining attention playing the music circuit in Los Angeles often booking two to three shows a week at infamous venues in her first year of performing live.
"Los Angeles is a pretty tough city to get your feet wet in," recalls Kristi. "I took the stage right after a Grammy nominee that belt out notes like Aretha Franklin and was a model. I was obviously intimidated given I'd only been playing live for a bit over a year. I took a deep breath and hit the stage with my all-original acoustic songs. When I returned to the green room the guard gently stopped me and said, 'That woman has nothing on you. I'm here every night and she sounds like everyone else. You are different. I loved it. You're a breath of fresh air!' I wonder if he has any idea how much that comment meant to a young burgeoning musician like myself. His words continue to encourage me as they did on my first day in the studio recording "Blossoms in Sweet Air", the weekend after I almost died in a rollover car accident! I was bruised and battered but nothing was going to delay my debut album!"
From the sitar-infused meditative, "Just Me and You" about religious wars and food monopoly to the love-soaked micro notes of "The Deep Blue" to the fiery punk-jazz defiance of "Unsolicited Advice" and the mesmerizingly spiritual "Profound Peace", this is a woman who has been places that you want to go. Kristi takes you there in her stunningly unique way!
Kristi is currently in the studio recording her 2nd album. She spends the rest of her time writing, cooking farmers market dinners, painting, surfing, trail running, and doing yoga in her little gem of an apartment hidden amongst the trees in Santa Monica, CA.
You can catch Kristi performing in the eclectic venues of Venice Beach and Santa Monica, Silverlake and Echo Park, and The Art District of downtown Los Angeles. In addition to touring the West Coast and New Zealand, she has performed at Grammy Night Ladies of Rock filmed by E Entertainment, The "In Transit Radio Show" with host Ray Alvarez, The Topanga Canyon Earth Day Festival, Solvang's Faerie Fest, and The Rock the Future Off the Grid Festival in Eugene, Oregon. However, you really never know where Kristi might show up... Doe Bay Inn on Orcas Island, a shoreline amphitheater in New Zealand, or you might just hear her mystical music waking you from a bad dream amidst urban sprawl...