Biography
B.C. Kochmit (pronounced "Coach - Mitt"), born Bradley Chester Kochmit on June 22, 1978 in Cleveland Ohio, is a professional guitar player, songwriter, composer, graphic designer, and budding artist.
His father was a very musical person and exposed B.C. to bands like Queen, Van Halen, & Pink Floyd at a very early age. His father also had an old gibson archtop acoustic in the house that B.C. would mess around with on occasion. B.C. began playing guitar seriously at age 13 after seeing Van Halen's "Jump" video on MTV and quickly fell in love with the instrument. "something clicked in my brain when i saw that video. I just remember thinking THIS is what i want to do with my life".
At 15, while still in junior high school, he was recruited by a 16 year old Mark Hunter (who would later form and front the heavy metal band Chimaira) who was forming a band in which Hunter would play drums. The only available space to practice was at then 16 year old Ben Schigel's (Switched) house. "We had one practice, and jammed a bit. After practice, Ben wound up on the drums somehow and we just played Megadeth tunes all night." said B.C. in a 2002 interview. This was the beginning of a very long friendship that would take them through several bands together and eventually wind up as Switched in 1999.
Kochmit is probably best known for being a founding member and principal songwriter of the band Switched which formed in 1999 and signed with Immortal/Virgin records in 2000. Switched rose to prominence playing at popular festivals such as Ozzfest, and the Vans Warped Tour. They also toured constantly and made many friends with bands such as Sevendust, Fear Factory, Chimaira, Ill Niño, Nonpoint, Seether, Tommy Lee and many more. Their debut album titled, Subject to Change was released via Immortal/Virgin Records in 2001, and went on to sell over 100,000+ records worldwide.
In 2004 he joined the metal band Rikets due to the uncertain hiatus of Switched at the time. He wrote and recorded one EP with the group - 2005's "Anything For The Devil". He gave the band some much needed musical and artistic direction as well as landing the group a recording contract with Corporate Punishment Records. He wound up leaving Rikets in 2006 due to "extreme musical, moral and ideological differences" with the singer. After leaving Rikets he recruited the remaining members and formed his own industrial tech-metal band called Tinjen..
On Feburary 29th, 2008 Kochmit welcomed his first child, a daughter named Halen Elizabeth (who he named after his childhood hero Eddie Van Halen.) into the world. "She is my guiding light" says Kochmit, "and the only thing on planet earth that keeps me out of the lunatic asylum". In mid-2008 Kochmit was asked and accepted the offer to take over lead guitar duties in the band Dark New Day (Warner Bros.), which includes his longtime friends Corey Lowery and Will Hunt in the lineup. 2008 also saw the birth of his blues trio called Shambela. "I've always loved the blues" says Kochmit "and I love it more and more as I get older and have more things to play the blues about. It's a band we can do until we're 80 years old like B.B. King"
In 2009 Kochmit began working on his first instrumental solo album which is also currently in the works as well as signing on with Paul Reed Smith guitars as an endorsee. When asked about all his projects B.C. had this to say "I know it looks a little like I have serious identity crisis issues with all these bands and such, but the truth is I know exactly who I am and what I what to do. The answer is EVERYTHING! I'm just so musical inside that I don't want to limit myself to any one genere of music. I love metal, I love rock, I love to shred, I love drum n bass, I love jazz, I love blues, I just fucking love all music. There is so much music inside of me that I need all these projects to get it out of my head for my own sanitys purpose. I've always been an extreme multi-tasker I guess … it's just who I am, what I love to do, and what I will do until the day I die. I won't be alive forever, but my music will never die."
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