Band Lineup for ChromaFEST 2017

We are excited to announce we have 10 bands participating in ChromaFEST on April 8th! There will be rock, metal, and folk rock. In between each of these great groups we will have singer/songwriters, poets and maybe a comedian or two from Albuquerque sharing their craft.  This is going to be a great show featuring several of our Chroma Studios resident bands. Tickets are only $10 for the whole day! More ticket information will be available soon! We weren’t anticipating this kind of participation so unfortunately for this year’s show we will not have any of our past bands perform. We’re thinking next year’s ChromaFEST will need to be a two day event!

The schedule of bands is as follows;

11am: Old Devils/the shine

11:45am: TBA

12:10pm: Humble Waves

12:55pm: TBA

1:20pm: Psykick Monkey

2:05pm: TBA

2:30pm: The Haptics

3:15pm: TBA

3:40pm: The MLC

4:25pm: TBA

4:45pm: Sunlight

5:30pm: Aaron Lewis

5:55pm: Critterz

6:40pm: TBA

7:05pm: Modus

7:50pm: TBA

8:15pm: Electoral College Dropouts

8:55pm: Doug Hoelbinger

9:15pm: Decapitation of a New Day

The Haptics and Psykick Monkey are performing in their second ChromaFEST show.

IF you are a fan and supporter of live independent music, these bands all take themselves serious enough to rent space so they can rehearse and put on shows in their community. Come help us celebrate their talent and dedication to Albuquerque’s indie music scene.

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February at Chroma Studios

First off, I’m happy to announce that we are at 100% capacity. We have started a new waiting list, so if you are looking for a band or art studio, please contact us to be put on the list. Work continues on our plans for purchasing a building for Chroma Studios to expand into and if all keeps going as planned, we should have a new space and more studios to fill by May/June!

ChromaFEST is coming up soon! If you are an artist who would like to participate, remember, our submission deadline is February 15th. For more info, see THIS POST. It’s looking like there will be room for everyone so far! Get those submissions in as soon as you can, we have to start promoting the show in March, so I can’t take late submissions.

Our crowdfunding campaign is getting close to launching. We hope you will be able and willing to help us spread the word! There will be lots of great rewards for your donations, including tickets to our ChromaFEST show on April 8th.

Saturday, February 18th is this month’s Open Studio event at our Central Art Studios location. We have changed the times to 4-7pm to make it easier for everyone to make it. We look forward to showing you around the space and the art. Please stop in and say hi!

 

Chroma Studios, the Music Perspective

We here at Chroma Studios are fans of music ourselves, owning a record collection with well over 8,000 records (if you want to count them come on over). It is through this that we have developed the philosophy that all music has something to offer. Instead of not listening to it and saying it sucks we decided to open ourselves up to the opportunity to listen to a different perspective. Which is all music is really. A different perspective due to a different upbringing. It seems to me that we all could use the reminder that this is one of our strengths. It does not matter what style it is there are only 12 notes, there is melody, there is harmony and form. There is rhythm syncopated and straight. The beauty of all of that is it’s an individual’s voice that makes those 12 notes, melody, harmony, form, and rhythm all come together.

Whenever I rent spaces to bands, they ask what the rules are and this is my response. My number one rule for the band studios is be supportive of your fellow musicians no matter what you do or what they do.  We currently rent 19 band studios and these bands will provide the majority of the music at ChromaFEST. We rent space to all different types of bands. There are some cover bands, original bands, trained musicians, untrained hip hop, rock and roll, metal, and bands I have never heard. Chroma used to house a performance space where Chroma developed a relationship with many Singer Songwriters and poets who will be a part of ChromaFEST in what we call Tweener acts. The Chroma community will provide a diverse set of music that is Albuquerque.

If you are up to listening to a bunch of different styles of music all in one place as part of your day, mark down April 8th and come to ChromaFEST in Albuquerque, NM. I can make you this promise, you won’t be disappointed. More info on ChromaFEST will be shared as we get closer to April, stay tuned…

 

Call for Artists!

We are in full planning mode for our upcoming ChromaFEST on Saturday, April 8th. What is ChromaFEST, you may ask? It’s a music/art festival and a fundraiser for Chroma Studios. We plan to make it an annual event, but this year is extra special. You may have seen our Big Announcement a couple of months ago. Now that 2017 is here, we are in full swing fundraising/planning mode. This year’s event will be at The Cell Theater in downtown Albuquerque. We will know more about times once we get the band/music lined up. There will be live music, food truck/s, a silent auction and of course, an art market!

We are looking for artists who would like to set up a booth to show/sell their work. The term artists is used in a broad sense here as we are open to any kind of creative handmade items. Fine Art, jewelry, photography, fiber arts, really ANYTHING handmade by YOU. This will be an outside show, so you may need a canopy for shade. You will need to bring your own set up; tables, chairs, easels, canopy, etc. Since this is a fundraiser show, we are asking each artist to donate a piece for the silent auction. In return, we will be eternally grateful to you!

What we need you to submit is 4-10 photos of your work, a bio/artist statement, and a $10 application fee. If you rent a studio from us, the fees are included in your rent. If you are not a Chroma Studios artist, the booth fee will be $25 in addition to the $10 application fee. This is a one day, Saturday show that may go as late as 10:00pm. Booth fees will be collected after you are accepted to the show. There is limited space, so unfortunately we can’t accept everyone. 😦 The deadline is February 15th and we will notify artists by March 1st.

Please send your submissions to chromastudios@comcast.net and pay your $10 application fee by paypal to plewis11@comcast.net or by check/money order mailed to Chroma Studios, 1606 Central Ave SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106.

Please email if you have any questions. We look forward to hearing from YOU!

Our BIG Announcement!

Good afternoon! If you follow Chroma Studios on facebook, you may have seen some recent posts about a big announcement coming soon. Without further ado, here it is!

First of all, we are planning ChromaFest for next year. April 8th is the date, the Cell Theater (on 1st street between Roma and Lomas) is the place. We will know the hours once we know how many bands will perform. This is going to be a music and art festival that we hope to hold annually. The first Chroma Fest happened several years ago and was a lot of fun. This is going to be a MUCH better and bigger festival. The space at the Cell will hold up to 1,800 people. We will showcase live music from the bands who currently reside in our studios as well as bands who have previously called Chroma Studios home. We will have artist tables for our current and past artists to set up and show/sell their work. Depending on how much participation we have from Chroma artists/musicians, we may also bring in other bands and artists to fill in. We will have food trucks set up. ChromaFest will be a fundraiser for Chroma Studios.

Why a fundraiser you may ask? April 2017 marks our 9th anniversary in business. It is also the end of our long term leases in both locations of Chroma Studios. Aaron and I have made the decision to take the leap in making Chroma Studios a more permanent part of the Albuquerque scene. We are going to purchase a building! Currently, we lease both our spaces which gives us little to no control over what happens in and around our space. We plan to move into a space where both artist studios and music studios will be in the same location. We are currently split between two locations, art and music. We plan to soundproof all the music studios and have ventilation and natural light in all the art studios. In the future, we plan to add a performance space, art gallery, classroom and recording studio. We are hoping to have enough parking for everyone! Our biggest hope is that we will be able to lower our rents too! The reason we need to do fundraising is simple. Aaron and I are not independently wealthy. We work as full time artist and musicians in addition to running Chroma. Although it is our business, the move will improve things for everyone!

In addition to ChromaFest, we are setting up a crowdfunding campaign to help raise additional funds. There will be lots of Chroma merchandise for rewards, but we hope to get donations of CDs and artwork from the artists and musicians of Chroma. Tickets for the festival, compilation CDs and ChromaFest posters will also be included as rewards. Stay tuned for more information on the Crowdfunding campaign and the ChromaFest line up!

 

Music Studios available!

It’s one of those rare months at Chroma Studios downtown! We have several band studios opening up at the end of June. We currently have one studio available NOW and 4 more opening up soon! Although there are 5 spaces available, they do and will go fast!

Studio #18: 10.5 x 11.5′ room, $225 per month, $225 deposit. This is a medium sized room, works for a 3-5 piece band. Available NOW!

Studio #1: 10 x 10′ room, $200 per month, $200 deposit. This is a small sized room, works for 2-4 piece band. Available end of June.

Studio #9: 11 x 13.5′ room, $250 per month, $250 deposit. This is a medium sized room, works for up to 6 piece band. Available end of June.

Studio #12: 13.5 x 13.5′ room, $315 per month, $315 deposit. This is a large sized room, works for up to 7 piece band. Available end of June.

Studio #14: 11.5 x 16′ room, $315 per month, $315 deposit. This is a large sized room, works for up to 7 piece band. Available end of June.

Call Aaron at 505-908-1392 for more information or to schedule an appointment to see the spaces.

Chroma FEST 2012!

We had such a super great time at our 1st annual Chroma FEST! I have a few photos to share from both nights. If you missed it this year, no need to fret, next year will be even BETTER! 🙂 Friday night was our Art show/open studios event and Saturday was the Music festival. We are considering combining the two into one BIG event for next year. All the art and music was amazing! Albuquerque has quite an awesome scene and Chroma Studios is overflowing with talented artists and musicians! Enjoy the photos (both days mixed in together) and we hope to see you next year!

Nice spread for the art opening!

Shiva was the first band to take the stage at 2pm.

Bryan Beck and Brandon Allebach discussing art

The Haptics playing some groovy music with their young fans dancing in front!

Vikki Bryers outside her studio

Aaron Lewis, our only acoustic solo performer

I asked Jamila to stand with me for my photo with my art, hate taking photos! Paula Manning-Lewis and Jamila Coluzzi

The Famous Blues Number, 3 piece blues band.

Sylvia Montesinos with her paintings

Wormhole, 3 piece rock band from Las Cruces, guests to Chroma FEST!

Samuel Kochansky w/ his lovely wife Audra, standing in front of Sam’s studio

Psychic Monkey rocked the street!

Jen Montano standing with her paintings

Deadtown Lovers played a great set, but I forgot to get my camera out until they were done!

Jamila Coluzzi with her paintings

Throw the Temple finished off the night with a killer jam!

Brandon Allebach in his studio

 

 

Chroma Fest begins tonight! 5-9pm

Our first annual Chroma Fest begins tonight with an art show/open studios event at our Central location (1606 Central Ave SE suite 201). 5 – 9pm we open the doors at our artist studios, several of the resident artists will be there to share their studios and work. We also have a handful of artists that previously showed their work with us at Chroma Gallery. Refreshments and a good time will be had by all! 🙂

Tomorrow is the Music portion of Chroma Fest at our downtown location (corner of 1st and Roma, 600 1st str. NW). Ten bands will perform starting at 1pm and going until 10pm. Chroma studios downtown houses 18 band/musician studios. Come down and enjoy the variety of music that practices within our walls. We are setting up on the street in front of the building for a good ol’ street party! Hope to see you rockin’ out with us!

Chroma FEST! May 4th and 5th!

We are extremely happy to announce our next event! April 2012 marks our FOURTH anniversary in business and we want to celebrate with all of our friends, past and present! This is a two day event that we are calling “ChromaFest”.

May 4th, 5 – 9pm, Friday evening; is our open studio/artist reception at our Central location (1606 Central SE ste 201). Stop by and meet some of our studio artists and some of the artists who showed with Chroma gallery in the past; Cate Clark, Karl Horodowich, Karl Eschenbach, Samuel Kochansky, Jen Montano, Victoria Bryers, Robert Medina Cook, Gina Marselle, Jacqui Colozzi, te’ Zins, Katie Rooke, Paula Manning-Lewis, Bryan Beck and more.

May 5th, 1 – 10pm, Saturday; is an all day event! LIVE music from several of the bands that practice at the Roma location (600 1st street NW). We are closing down the street in front of the building (corner of 1st and Roma) and setting up a stage. Food vendor, band merchandise, and lots of local LIVE music!

The band list is currently;

Aaron Lewis
The Haptics
Jazz quartet
Psykick Monkey
Famous Blues Number
Wormhole
Shiva
Crash Habbit

AND…. MiM: Music is Medicine  will be present to raise money for Family Promise, a non-profit organization that supports homeless and low-income families.

So come one, come all! Check out the 1st annual Chroma Fest! Bring your friends and family!

Thank you for your continued interest in Chroma Studios! We hope to see you soon!