Background
Chris Haskett grew up in Washington District of Columbia.
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Chris Haskett
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He has also recorded or performed with David Bowie, Foetus, Pigface, The Cassandra Complex, Tool and others He spent 1976-1977 in the United Kingdom where he was greatly inspired by the birth of the United Kingdom punk scene. Soon after his return to the United States he was recruited into seminal District of Columbia band, The Enzymes.
Heavily inspired by such diverse influences as Sun Ra, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, The Damned and Captain Beefheart, the band existed at the fringes of what would eventually turn into District of Columbia Hardcore.
After the appearance of the Bad Brains on the scene, the band became moved to a more conventionally punk and reggae repertiore. The Enzymes recorded a number of sessions but never releases any.
In 1982 he moved to Leeds to finish an undergraduate degree in Philosophy. While there he joined Dave Coleman aka Surfin Dave"s surf/trash band.
Originally called the Beany T"s, the band was rechristened the Absent Legends.
The band played a good deal in the United Kingdom and released one LP. "In Search of a Decent Haircut" on Crammed Discs in 1985. The Absent Legends disbanded the following year. The two had been in regular contact since 1984 and often discussed musical collaboration.
The serendipitous meeting turned into an improvised plan.
District of Columbia bassist Bernie Wandel and Absent Legends drummer Mick Green were brought in as rhythm section and the result was the album Hot Animal Machine. From 1987-1997, Haskett was the guitarist in the Rollins Band.
Post-Rollins Band, Haskett has done multiple, mostly low-profile, projects. Throughout the 1990s he played his own instrumental compositions live with various bands.
Inspired by both Sonny Sharrock and the Grateful Dead, the instrumentation was usually guitar, bass, drums, drums.
In 1997 he released the Civil Defense "Nonfiction" in collaboration with former Chuck Brown go-go drummer Brandon Finley. Other projects included collaborations with Reeves Gabrels at the end of the 1990s, the Preaching to the Perverted Tour with Pigface, the Cassandra Complex, Foetus ("Blow tour 2001"). Now resident in the Netherlands, Haskett continues to record and tour.
Membership
He was a member of the Rollins Band from 1986 to 1997 and again for the band"s reunion in 2006.
