Directory:Christopher Gutierrez

Christopher Gutierrez (born November 17, 1974) is an American writer and author of On the Upswing of Life, Love and Regret, his spoken word cd The Dirt of an Electric Boy and his most recent book, A Life Deliberate.

Early Life

Christopher Gutierrez was born in the suburbs of Chicago, IL on November 17, 1974.

When he was 9 years old, his grandfather and younger brother were killed behind his family's home. His father was an alcoholic who eventually left the family to fend for itself, leaving Gutierrez to be the man of the house with his mother and sister.

Early on, Gutierrez decided to live with a Straight Edge lifestyle, basically meaning to be substance free. He carries on with this lifestyle to this day.

Bands and Beauty School

By the time he was 13, he had been introduced to the world of rock n roll. A friend had introduced him to the British punk band, Sex Pistols, and it was at that moment that Gutierrez was hooked. His style and ideals morphed along with his musical tastes, and after causing trouble for eighteen years, he graduated high school in 1992 and attended community college.

After years of odd jobs, Gutierrez started attending Pivot Point Beauty School in an attempt to start a living, during this time he struggled with having enough money to eat as he was at school 48 hours a week and didn't have much time for other jobs. From there, he worked at Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa and Salon for (number) years, before dropping everything to become to a full time author.

Career

Bassist

In 1999, Gutierrez replaced Tim McIlrath (Rise Against) as the bassist of Chicago based metalcore band Arma Angelus when the latter left to form the band Rise Against. The band broke up when Pete Wentz, the vocalist, left to form Fall Out Boy, but Chris played in the band from joining, to it's last ever concert in 2002.

Author

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Second Edition of 'A Life Deliberate'

After realizing he had a talent for telling stories, Gutierrez periodically released his stories in the DeadxStop zine, which he put together himself, and his work also became more frequent on AskHeyChris. The response on Gutierrez' LiveJournal was soon becoming greater and greater, and at the prompting (and petitioning) of readers, his vision of The DeadxStop Publishing Company expanded two years later with the release of his first book, a collection of memoirs and journal entries entitled On the Upswing of Life, Love and Regret. On the strength of a small, but loyal fanbase, the first pressing of 1100 sold out within six months. Word of mouth spread and landed Gutierrez a speaking engagement at Adams State College in Colorado, a sponsorship as in-house spoken word artist by Myspace.com on the Van's Warped Tour and a feature piece in the Chicago Reader. In the summer of 2007, he also achieved a three day report on Bamboozle as a representitive of the networking site, Buzznet, in which he interview numerous artists and rated the festival on his Buzznet blog including pictures and videos. He also later interviewed Kerry King from Slayer, also for Buzznet.

November 2006 saw the release of his first spoken word CD, The Dirt of an Electric Boy. It is a 21-track collection of old journal entries and new statements on life in a decaying world. In the first week over one-third of the press was sold. In early 2007, Gutierrez released Bulletproof Hearts: A Guide To A Deliberate Life, a minibook of self-penned words of wisdom, a precursor to the June 2007, release of his second book, A Life Deliberate, which has recently been re-released in a second pressing. With the release of this book, he was able to quit his job at the salon, and begin touring on the book almost immediately. His speakings have been described as 'empowering' with the stories being easy to relate to 'because even if you've had a different experience than Gutierrez's, everyone has felt the same feelings growing up.' He was finally able to realize his dream of having nothing to do but write and be an author, tour the country on his work, and meet with every last "lurker" all over the world. In addition to releasing his second book, Chistopher repackaged, reprinted, and re-released On The Upswing Of Life, Love, and Regret in a hard cover version which included additional stories and a Making Of CD.

In November 2007, DeadxStop Publishing Company launched an official site for Christopher, featuring News, tour and contact information, a biography and webstore, and a messageboard for discussion on the author. With three books and a spoken word CD already published, in a recent interview filmed during his October UK tour, Chris revealed that he currently has two more books being written.

The DeadxStop Publishing Company

The DeadxStop Publishing Company was started by Gutierrez, initially to have a name to release the DeadxStop fanzine under. He soon began releasing his own books and CDs under the company before going on to release merchandise such as t-shirts, hoodies, belts, bags and badges. DeadxStop now comprises of two head honchos: Gutierrez, and Heather Ferrari, along with 17 interns, countless street team members and fans keeping things alive. Together, they are all working on booking dates for his worldwide tours as well as aiming to get him to Australia by 2009.

Speaking Tours

In June 2007, Chris embarked on a 13 date speaking tour of the USA, promoting material from his second book. The Live Deliberate Tour started in the authors home city of Chicago on the 8th June, and finished in New York City on the 26th. After a months break, the Make Your Mark Tour started on the 18th August in Portland, and was another 13 date tour, aiming to visit some of the states that had been missed out on the previous tour.

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London Speaking at Poetry Cafe, 22nd October 2007

Following the sucess of these American tours, the next idea was to tour the UK. However for this tour to be funded,

the UK fans of Gutierrez's work needed to raise the money to get him over to Europe. Therefore, in order to see the author speak, a myspace page was created by UK fans to promote the tour, and to allow other fans to donate money to the tour. The myspace, heychris2uk was a success, and as a result the Two Finger Salute tour started on the 22nd October, and Chris spoke at 6 dates across England and Scotland. With the first UK tour being highly successful, a second, as yet unnamed UK tour is curently being planed for April 2008.

The Kamikaze Goose Tour was next, thus named because whilst at the start of tour it was unnamed, whilst driving from the 1st Speaking on the 3rd November in Madison to the second date in St Louis, a goose flew into Gutierrez car, smashing the windscreen, and delaying the author, preventing him from making it to the second date in time. The rest of the tour went without a hitch though, with 11 more dates, including two speakings in Canada, and ending on the 17th November.

On the 22nd December, Chicago based band 2*Sweet, headlined the 'All I Want For X-mas is Dudes' event, feauturing a variety of bands, of which Chris took part as the second opener. Following this, Gutierrez will be the openin slot on 2*Sweets winter tour, starting on the 11th January.

Personal Life

Pete Wentz

While in the band Arma Angelus, he befriended a younger Chicago musician by the name of Pete Wentz. They eventually moved on to other projects, Wentz and Gutierrez' maintaining a close friendship through the first few years of Wentz' new band: Fall Out Boy. When Gutierrez earned a song of his own from the band ("Grenade Jumper"), he became "HeyChris," a nickname taken from the song's lyrics ("Hey Chris, you were our only friend...") The band brought Gutierrez into the limelight with them, although not on purpose, and helped him gain fans when he launched his LiveJournal, AskHeyChris.

Gutierrez and Wentz starred with other friends in the Release The Bats DVD, put out through Wentz' Clandestine Industries, where they performed Jackass-like stunts in their late night boredom around Chicago.

Gutierrez and Wentz' close friendship eventually ended over personal matters, and although the two are not on a best friend basis, they have both admitted that there is no underlying tension between them (or, as Gutierrez puts it, "the beef is squashed and HAS been for some time now.").

World Most Hated Crew

In 2006, Gutierrez and a group of friends were dubbed the World's Most Hated Crew by rock fans for garnering attention the friends themselves didn't even necessarily ask for and so they created a site, to show their achievements and that they weren't just "someone who knows so and so". Gutierrez met WMHC member Alicia (Simmons) Way while she was working for Fall Out Boy. FOB bassist Pete Wentz brought Way over to Gutierrez' apartment so he could work his magic on her hair, and it spiraled from there. Gutierrez gained friendships with the rest of the Crew: Sarah Suvan, Elissa Ayadi, Eliza Siep, and Meghan Sanders, who recently left the group and was replaced by Sarah Lewitinn. This led into meeting self proclaimed Queen of the Internet, Jeffree Star, who stayed at Chris' apartment in June 07 while visting Chicago.

Chicago Buddies

Bird Boys

The Bird Boys are a crew of purely guys, mainly based in Chicago, that like to hang out, mosh and do other such things. The crew has a total of 26 members, including Christopher, the Bird Boys are close to his heart as his friends are one the most important things to him. The crew is made up of members from bands such as 2*Sweet, Fireworks, Cute Is What We Aim For, Gym Class Heroes, My Chemical Romance, Bird Boys (the band), Down Like the Rest. Their "rivals" are the Black Bunnies, a bunch of woman with the same concept who know the Bird Boys well.

External Links

Christopher Gutierrez LiveJournal
Christopher Gutierrez Official Myspace
DeadxStop Street Team
Christopher Gutierrez Personal Myspace
Worlds Most Hated Crew Website
The Offical Website of Christopher Gutierrez and the DeadxStop Publishing Company