About Waters & Chaney
The world of Christian rock has never seen anything quite like Waters & Chaney. As accomplished musicians from different generations, they are growing a new branch of the faith-based musical tree. Their dual perspectives have spawned hard-charging melodies with lyrics that broadcast the twosome’s intent: Giving listeners a different way to sing along and celebrate.
Dissimilar credentials, as it turns out, can be a strength.
LARRY WATERS
Larry Waters has been enamored with rock and roll since age 12, when he began a relationship with his father’s 1965 Silvertone electric guitar. Little did young Larry realize that one day, those first few plucked notes would lead to him joining with Roy Chaney for 2022’s most creative Christian music release, “Ready for a Change.”
“I was playing rock forever,” says Waters, who composed the album’s songs. “But once I started this great friendship with Roy and this music started coming to me, it was like I suddenly was believing what I was singing. It changed me.”
Waters’ background mirrors that of other young musicians born in 1970. He grew up listening to Metallica, Dio and Iron Maiden while also sampling older artists such as Jimi Hendrix and the Doors. With those songs as inspiration, Waters played guitar in a series of bands through high school in San Jose. After graduation, he became the lead singer first of Channel Zero, a progressive rock band, and then a louder and edgier outfit, Squash The Fly. Waters became familiar and friendly with the hard rock culture, not always for the better.
Then, in 2004 when his baby daughter arrived, he was struck by a figurative lightning bolt.
“People would go to church on Sundays, and I would stay home and watch the football games,” Waters says. “But when my daughter was born, I was driving home from the hospital and I stopped the car and was almost in tears and said, ‘Okay, God, I’m coming back.’ My life had changed.”
For the first time in nearly 20 years, Waters returned to Sunday worship in San Jose and then in Sacramento, where at the Breath of Life Church he began to grasp the unique appeal of contemporary Christian music.
“I was into secular rock music for so long that I just didn’t understand what they were playing at church,” Waters says. “I guess you could say it was too happy for me. About a month later, there I was, singing backup vocals for the “Too Happy for Me” worship team. I learned more about the structure and style of the music that we played and started writing my own songs for church services.”
In 2012 when Waters moved back to San Jose and joined the Open Bible Church community, his passion for playing and composing Christian rock interfaced with Chaney, another church member. At Chaney’s impetus, the two visited Soundtek Studios in neighboring Campbell and began laying down the powerful tracks that became “Ready for a Change.” That old 1965 Silvertone electric guitar would be proud.
ROY CHANEY
Roy Chaney’s journey through a memorable musical life has taken him from playing high school dances to the Billboard Top 10 -- and from arm-wrestling with members of the Hollies or the Beach Boys to his latest compelling project of praise rock and roll with tuneful partner Larry Waters.
There has been one constant for Chaney, however. He has never given up searching and working for the best version of his talent.
“Seven days a week, every night after dinner, I go to a room behind my house and play,” Chaney says. “It’s in an outbuilding that was going to be a storage shed but I remodeled it be a soundproof rehearsal space and filled it up with guitars and an amp.”
The room is soundproof, which is fortunate because over the years, Chaney has produced all sorts of loud and wonderful noise. Born in Indiana, he moved to California with his family at age four. They settled in San Jose. In sixth grade, Roy asked his folks to buy him a guitar. His mom picked up an acoustic special at Sears Roebuck. He never looked back. At Pioneer High School, Chaney and four buddies formed the Count Five, a garage rock band that gained national fame with “Psychotic Reaction,” a song that sent them on a package tour that led to those arm-wrestling matches with other 60’s hitmakers.
“A lot of guys played poker between shows, but I didn’t gamble or drink,” Chaney says. “One day, I walked in on an arm-wrestling match involving Alan Clarke of the Hollies and Gordon Waller of Peter and Gordon. Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys also got into it. I said, ‘Hey, I can arm wrestle.’ And I just jumped in.”
After the Count Five disbanded, Chaney didn’t jump out. He and his wife, Trish, performed in a classic rock outfit called J.J. Trag that energized the local club circuit. Next came The Count, a spinoff of Count Five. The tragic death of his son in 2006 sent Chaney in another direction as he sought comfort and guidance at his church. He found support in a singing congregation that introduced him to the Contemporary Worship genre. In 2012 at San Jose Open Bible Church, Chaney met a kindred spirit in Waters. The two men instantly bonded and began playing gigs outside the church, leading to the partnership that has produced “Ready for a Change.”
It’s the latest step on Chaney’s ongoing path to uncover and celebrate his best music yet.
