My Secret Career 2: Fecund Youth 2023, or "Hey Chris!"

Fecund Youth is no more. Founding member Chris Christner passed away in 2019 and it just wouldn't be the same without him. 

Christner was the definition of a gentle giant. He was the last one to join the band and the first of us to shuffle off this mortal coil. Which, by the way, was the name of a band I am sure he knew the entire discography of and had opinions about.

And that's what this post is about. Before he joined the band, I barely knew Christner. By the time we left high school he was one of my best friends. He made me mix tapes of some of the weirdest out there music you will ever hear. We often disagreed vehemently with each other about this or that musically but that was the whole point. It was always a BLAST to talk music with him.

He loved all the punk music that we were into and emulating as a band, but he also put Blue Oyster Cult, Frank Zappa and Emerson, Lake and Palmer on tapes for me. He defended Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, a stance I still can't quite believe he was willing to argue. And every time I hear “Night Moves”, I think, you know what? Maybe Christner was right?

He loved prog rock, crazy shit that I'd never heard of. Often our conversations would start with "Hey Brendan" or "Hey Chris" and a lengthy deep dive into some song or band usually followed. I always called him Christner, EXCEPT when saying "Hey Chris".

I was deeply impressed that he simply decided to become a bass player in order to play our songs. Tom and Justin showed him how to play the songs, note by note, fret change by fret change, (even though he somehow started playing on a fret-less bass) and within a couple of months, he didn't need their help anymore. 

In 2018 we knew Christner was ill. By some strange convergence, it was clear that Tom, Justin and I might be on the East Coast at the same time that spring/early summer. I floated the idea that we might try to get together to play. Maybe Christner would be able to make the trip?

Probably against medical advice, he decided to do it. Fecund Youth would ride again. Justin's old friend was a drummer (we never had a steady one) and we decided to meet in Connecticut and rent a rehearsal space and play.

I am very glad that we did, even though it was clear that it was a lot for Christner to undertake. Even still, the guys ran through a ton of material, some old that I took the mic for, some new that Justin sang.

That night, Tom, Christner and I slept in sleeping bags in Justin's basement like it was a sleepover back in the day, laughing in the dark, full grown men on a teenage mission.

I was unable to attend Christner’s funeral. A death in my family occurred and the funerals were on the same day, across the country from one another. It upsets me that I couldn’t have been in two places at once. 

Cut to 2023. Again, Justin is stateside, visiting family. I now live in Rhode Island. We met up. And for the first time ever, I wrote something that seemed to me to be a Fecund Youth song. You have to understand, in this band, I was the singer and occasional lyricist. I had never actually PLAYED a Fecund Youth song on the guitar. I had never written the music, I had just sung along.

Here is Fecund Youth, improbably, again, with… 

Hey Chris! (FY '23)

It is just about hanging out with my three best friends. Who happen to be in a legendary band called Fecund Youth.

Tom and Justin actually both contributed to "Hey Chris! (FY '23)", Justin with the music of a section of the song which he played and recorded in five minutes in his brother-in-law's garage, and both of them yelling "Hey Chris!" along with me throughout the song. Each of them recorded those vocal parts across the pond and sent them via phone to me and I threw them into my computer and mixed them into the song. We'd come a long way from pressing record on a boombox.

I just wish Christner had been there to sing along with us. I really miss him.

for Shannon Louser Christner, Cameron Christner and Owen Christner and Christner