Chris Cheney

The Runaway Boys had a succession of drummers, "The first two guys, Shane and Grant, were at high school with us and they were never really into 1950s rock'n'roll. We were probably a bit pushy at that point. Grant was happy to play along, but then when high school finished he was ready to move on and go to university".

Cheney also gigged on guitar in another band, Goodbye Sideburns Forever, though he was not recorded with them.

Cheney and Owen, on piano and bass, were in The Runaway Boys.

Christopher John Cheney (born 2 January 1975) is an Australian rock musician, record producer, and studio owner.

Cheney was born on 2 January 1975 and grew up in Wheelers Hill, an outer-eastern suburb of Melbourne.

His father is Noel Cheney.

At the age of five years, he saw his first rock performance at VFL Park, which was close to his home, it was a gig by the American rock band, Kiss.

He attended Jells Park Primary School in between 1981 and 1987 and then Wheelers Hill Secondary College.

It became the highest-selling Australian-made single for the 1990s.

Cheney met Scott Owen at Jells Park Primary School and they began their career together in 1992, in a Melbourne band, The Runaway Boys, who took their name from a Stray Cats album, Runaway Boys – which Cheney cites as one of his favourites.

The group was a covers band playing Stray Cats and The Clash material.

In 1992, the group's first paying gig was at the Richmond Club Hotel and they soon followed with a residency at the nearby Corner Hotel.

He is the founding mainstay guitarist, songwriter, and lead vocalist of the rockabilly band The Living End, which was formed in 1994 with schoolmate Scott Owen.

He later studied Jazz at Box Hill Institute of TAFE between 1994 and 1995.

Cheney started playing the guitar at the age of six he taught himself how to play by listening to AC/DC cassette tapes over and over and practising what he heard.

His major influence was Brian Setzer (Stray Cats), a guitarist and singer-songwriter.

In 1994, the pair started to write their own material and were joined by Joe Piripitzi on drums to form The Living End.

They released two successive extended plays, Hellbound (1995) and It's for Your Own Good (November 1996), which contained their first radio single, "From Here on In".

The track is co-written by Cheney and Owen.

In 1996 while Green Day were touring Australia, The Living End sent their second EP to the band, and supported them on their tour, which then led to radio station, Triple J, playing their first single.

Late that year Piripitzi was replaced on drums by Travis Demsey.

Cheney wrote the group's top 20 hits on the ARIA Singles Chart: "Second Solution" / "Prisoner of Society" (1997), "All Torn Down" (1999), "Pictures in the Mirror" (2000), "Roll On" (2001), "One Said to the Other" (2003), "What's on Your Radio" (2005), "Wake Up" (2006), and "White Noise" (2008).

In September 1997 The Living End issued a third EP, Second Solution / Prisoner of Society, with four of its five tracks written by Cheney.

The EP peaked at No. 4 on the ARIA Singles Chart.

On 12 October 1998, they released their debut self-titled album, which reached No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart.

It included the singles "Save the Day" (September 1998), "Prisoner of Society" (September 1999), and "All Torn Down".

On 22 September 2001, Cheney was injured in a car crash where his right leg was crushed, which required surgery with a rod and three pins being inserted to stabilize the fracture.

He was initially confined to bed and later used a walking stick for the next six months.

He was unable to play the guitar until he was rehabilitated.

His future wife, Emma, was also inside the vehicle, but escaped with only minor injuries.

In 2004, Cheney joined the supergroup The Wrights which put out a cover version of Stevie Wright's epic 11-minute track, "Evie" as a single.

In 2005, he married his girlfriend Emma; the couple has two daughters and are co-owners of a recording facility, Red Door Sounds.

Cheney eventually married Emma in 2005, they have two daughters: Charlie Bella (born 2006) and Scarlett Lyric (born 2008).

At the 2009 APRA Music Awards, Cheney won Song of the Year for writing The Living End's track, "White Noise".

In October 2010, Chris and Emma, along with his manager Rae Harvey and her partner Woody Annison, opened their own recording studio, Red Door Sounds.

In 2011, the Cheney family relocated to Los Angeles.

On 25 April 2011, his father, Noel, died having been diagnosed with cancer the previous year.

Late that year, the Cheneys moved to live in Los Angeles, California.

On their new life in L.A., Cheney remarked: "Both our littlies are in school here ... It's everyday life. You get up, mad rush in the morning, school drop-off, I come home, write a few songs, bum around and it's school pick-up again. It's life as we knew it, just in a different country".

In 2020, Cheney and his family relocated back to Melbourne due to the COVID-19 pandemic.