The Student News Site of Sacramento City College

The Express

The Student News Site of Sacramento City College

The Express

The Student News Site of Sacramento City College

The Express

Student rockstar

He certainly doesn’t look the part of a successful indie singer and songwriter. At least not anymore.

Clad in a loose-fitting, white-and-gray-streaked shirt, worn brown dress shoes, thick-framed glasses, and jeans, there is little to separate Kris Anaya from college passers-by on this breezy afternoon.

But it is the little details that reveal the Sacramento native’s everlasting love affair with music and life.

First, his hair: Tied back into a short ponytail, slick with natural oils that build up between washings (though he says he showers every day), now with sides cut too short for tying. Both are reminders of the flowing locks that used to hug Anaya’s head and shoulders while on tour, four years ago, as the front man for indie rock band An Angle.

Then, once the words start flowing— for flow fast they do— the 28-year-old rarely goes long without laughter. His many accents, pitches, jokes—“just kidding” the favorite post-phrase—and generous amounts of pardonable French are excellent instruments for expressing his thoughts on just about everything. A single sentence might include comments ranging from the taste of Tofurkey (“really good”) to whether he’s against the GOP (“f-ck yeah”).

And if Anaya’s retelling of getting drunk at a Buffalo, N. Y., bar after driving in a whiteout-snowstorm while on tour is not proof enough of his adventurous ways, those who know him can certainly vouch for them.

Daniel Block met Anaya in May 2004 at an An Angle performance and has been his friend since.

He asked Anaya on a backpacking trip and told him to pack lightly.

Psychological problems such as stress at work, anxiety, guilt, levitra buy generic tiredness, exhaustion and depression can all cause impotence. best price vardenafil This is why men and women may have menopause earlier and chronic pelvic pain. These people know they walk on eggshells and sleep on slovak-republic.org viagra 25 mg rocky waters. This dysfunction leads the acid into unprotected esophagus canadian cialis causing burning sensation due to acid. “He shows up at my house wearing jeans, a long sleeve T-shirt and some Bostonians. He’s like, ‘I brought a jacket,’” says Block. “Being his first time [backpacking], the hike was a bit rough, but he pushed through it.”

Anaya is well-traveled. The son of two educators, Anaya moved frequently at an early age and attended high school in Salinas, then moved to Washington in his early 20s to play with An Angle, with which he toured the United States and Canada, he says, until a career in music stopped being financially viable.

Although An Angle was relatively well known, releasing three full-length albums and signed under Drive-Thru Records, the band was swept up among countless other talents also searching for that elusive shot at living off what they love.

“There’s a lot of hay, and I’m only one needle,” says Anaya. “But I’ll always have music.”

Now pursuing a history degree after moving back to Sacramento, Anaya has by no means given auditory art a rest; he’s released a free album online with his new band at doombird.com and is scheduled to play at the Crocker Art Museum in January.

“All the other students wanted to pursue instant superstardom, but not Kris,” says City College English Professor Timothy Kahl. “He had vision and patience, and most of all confidence in his talent—which is considerable.”

Anaya’s attitude toward life’s continuing peaks and valleys is best summed up by his reasoning when he shed his Mayan-esque mane for the more conservative look he now rocks: “Why not, man?”

For the baby-faced-guitarist-turned-student who says he still doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up, the concert’s far from over.

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