Years active 1988 - present Record label Meldac | Website www.sluka.com Genres Rock music, Pop rock | |
Occupation(s) Musician, Artist, Actor, Pilot Instruments Guitar, vocals, keyboards Labels Steel Flower Music, Meldac | ||
Christopher Sluka is an American musician, best known for his band SLUKA. He has released ten studio records. Vancouver Weekly referred to him as a "Modern day renaissance man."
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Career
Christopher Sluka first rose to prominence in New York City in the 1980's playing alongside bands like Tears For Fears and Simple Minds. In 1989 he put out his first full length album, the Meldac released Emotional Battlefield. Despite hailing from the United States (But being raised an army brat) he saw the most success in Japan and Italy. This led to a variety of television and radio appearances. Among these most notable was a performance and interview on the Japanese network Television Kanagawa on March 12, 1990. Also notable was his Corragio Di Vivere performance on Italy's Rai 2 and a San Diego KUSI-TV broadcast of two songs and an interview. In the following years he released another record, 1990's Fear Of Ordinary Life, also on Meldac and then 1993's self titled record on Time Warner's Italian subsidiary CDG Wave.
In 1994 Sluka returned to the USA to base himself in San Diego and launch his own label, Steel Flower Music. He also bought a pair of coffee houses where he performed acoustic versions of his songs. It was through Steel Flower Music that he released his subsequent albums, up through his most recent offering, his 10th record, 2016's Introversions. On November 1, 2016 Introversions was released as a visual album on Blu-ray. Sluka reportedly plans on building on the success of Introversions with the release of his next studio album due out in the spring of 2017 and a subsequent festival tour.
Sluka has also appeared in several independent films as both an actor and stunt pilot. These include the independent films 2011's Beach Bar: The Movie, 2014's La Migra and 1988's Nicolas Cage starring film Vampire's Kiss.
Sluka also owns and operates a flight school as the chief instructor in his adopted hometown of San Diego, California.
Critical acclaim
Sluka has received critical acclaim throughout his career - though early on much of it was in languages other than English. In recent years though, in the USA and the United Kingdom, he has been called "Ambitious", "Prophetic", and his album Introversions declared a "Masterpiece" by The Huffington Post. Not all praise was universal though - The Scene Magazine claimed, "When Sluka gets a sound right, it works amazingly and the faults usually come more from a lack of edge rather than bad song writing." Meanwhile, Short And Sweet NYC referred to the record as "trying too hard to be commercial." And yet, Scott Alexander of Abort Magazine states "Sluka is what Sluka is. And those who appreciate genius will appreciate his."