Chris Traynor was born on June 22, 1973 and hails from Long Island in New York City.
Chris Traynor started out as a founding member of Orange9mm. Energy. Pure and simple. That’s been the Orange9mm credo since guitarist Chris Traynor crossed paths with Chaka Malik during a show at Connecticut’s Tune Inn club. New York Hardcore survivors out for something more, it was only natural the two would hook up. “When Chaka and I first got together, we actually had the worst chemistry,” laughs Traynor, who first treaded the boards with Fountainhead and Malik’s first band, Burn. “We started jamming and I’d be like, ‘Check this out,’ and play something. He’d look at me like I was nuts. But what we had in common was we both loved music, and we could see that in each other – so we kept giving in until we reached a middle ground, and then, we expanded on that.” The resultant 1993 Don Fury-produced EP documented the then-nascent band’s earliest, intensely physical live work.
Orange9mm’s first album was released 1994 and called simply Orange9mm. They’ve tour with such bands as Deftones, Clutch, Less than Jake and the Voodoo Glowskulls.Chris only recorded two other albums (Driver Not Included & Tragic(considered their best album)) with the band before departing to become part of Helmet in 1996. Traynor actually left Orange9mm before Tragic was released. Aftertaste was the only record Traynor played on with Helmet before they broke up in 1999.
How did Tranyor get to hookup with Bush you ask? Well, no exact answer here, but we’ve got a pretty good guess. Dave Sardy had been the producer for Orange9mm back in the days & Helmet’s last album. Now a days, he has gone on to produce Bush’s new album Golden State. Somewhere in the middle, Dave must have suggested Traynor as a fill in for when Nigel could tour with the band for the US tour in 2002. Unfortunelty Nigel exited stage left and gave way for Chris to become a permanent member. It was the obvious choice to keep him in the band. After the first few shows along the tour Traynor warmed up nicely and fit right in.
After Bush’s breakup Traynor was still seen making appearances with Rossale at gigs such as the 2003 Camp Freddy show. As of mid-October 2004, it was official that Traynor made his departure with Bush (what was left of Bush) to return working with the reunited Helmet. In February 2005, it was announced that Traynor had become part of the line up for Gavin’s new band ‘Insitute’, but he had not fully departed from Helmet. As of now, Chris is once again no longer in Helmet and has gotten together with Gavin on Gavin’s solo album ‘Wanderlust’. Chris is currently touring with Gavin Rossdale.
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