Christopher James Cester (born 16 September 1981) is an Australian musician, songwriter, producer and founding mainstay drummer and backing vocalist of rock band Jet. As a member of Jet, Cester has won awards as a songwriter from the

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwr ...

(APRA), including in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

as Songwriter of the Year, and

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

for "

Seventeen Seventeen or 17 may refer to: *17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18 * one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017 Literature Magazines * ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine * ''Seventeen'' (Japanese m ...

", which won "Most Played Australian Work" and "Rock Work of the Year".

Early life

Christopher James Cester was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia, 16 September 1981.WilsonSpencer et al, (2007) 'Sester, Chris' entry. He has one older brother, Nicholas John "Nic" Cester (born 6 July 1979), and two younger brothers. Their parents were both children of

immigrants to Australia Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

. Their mother, Helen Isobel née McIvor (born 1957), has Scottish descent; and their father, Giovanni "John" Cester (1957–August 2004), had

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

descent. During their childhood, Chris and Nic listened to music their parents liked, including The Beatles' ''

Abbey Road ''Abbey Road'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It is the last album the group started recording, although ''Let It Be'' was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly re ...

'', Stevie Wonder's ''Hotter Than July'',

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

, and

The Kinks The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhythm ...

. As kids, the Cester brothers would play pretend gigs in their living room; Chris was the singer, but he eventually took up drums, pretending to play while Nic sang. The boys attended St Bede's College Mentone, where Chris took one year of drum lessons before teaching himself on a drum kit at home independently. An uncle, Eugene Cester (born 1961), known as Eugene de la Hot-Croix Bun, was a member of the Australian alternative/satire rock band

TISM TISM (an acronym of This Is Serious Mum) are a seven-piece anonymous alternative rock band, formed in Melbourne, Australia on 30 December 1982 by vocalist/drummer Humphrey B. Flaubert, bassist/vocalist Jock Cheese and keyboardist/vocalist Eu ...

, which initially inspired Chris and Nic to pursue careers in music.

Music career

1996–2012 : Jet

In 1996, Chris and Nic Cester formed Jet with Nic's schoolmate

Cameron Muncey Cameron Thane Muncey (born 8 February 1980) is an Australian guitarist and vocalist. He is the mainstay lead guitarist and one of the songwriters of Melbourne-based rock band Jet which formed in 2001.MacKenzieSpencer et al., (2007JETentry. Retri ...

on guitar and vocals; Mark Wilson joined at a later time on

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

. The band used a variety of names before settling on Jet in 2002, named after the 1973 song " Jet" by former Beatle

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

and his band

Wings A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expresse ...

. Chris primarily played the drums, sang, and wrote songs. After finishing secondary school, the band began playing pub gigs around Melbourne; Chris and the band worked out songs they were writing, and they played rock covers. These songs would go on to be the tracks that turned into Jet's 2002 extended play, ''

Dirty Sweet ''Dirty Sweet'' is the debut four-track extended play released by Australian rock band Jet in November 2002 on Rubber Records. It was re-recorded and re-issued on 6 May 2003 by Elektra Records. All tracks on the EP are also on the band's debu ...

''. Jet released the studio albums between 2003 and 2009 before disbanding in March 2012.

2011: DamnDogs

By mid-2011, Cester had formed his own electro-rock band, DamnDogs, in Los Angeles with a cousin: Mitch McIvor on guitar; Jet's Mark Wilson on bass guitar; and that group's touring keyboardist, Louis Macklin. DamnDogs released a debut five-track EP, ''Strange Behaviour'', on 9 August 2011. DamnDogs played several shows around Los Angeles and in Australia before changing the lineup and turning into a new band iteration.

2016: Mystic Knights of Amnesia

In 2016, Cester formed Mystic Knights of Amnesia with Jet bandmate Louis Macklin to write more experimental rock music. The band was named by friend and former

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

guitarist and songwriter

Noel Gallagher Noel Thomas David Gallagher (born 29 May 1967) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. He was the chief songwriter, lead guitarist, and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Oasis until their split in 2009. After leaving Oasis, he formed ...

. The band is based out of Los Angeles, and the lineup consists of guitarist and singer Emmanuel Castro, guitarist Aaron Eisenberg, bassist John Pancost, and Louis Macklin on keys.

2018–2019: The Jaded Hearts Club

Cester was the lead singer of rock supergroup The Jaded Hearts Club from 2018–2019. The lineup at the time consisted of

Matt Bellamy Matthew James Bellamy (born 9 June 1978) is an English singer, musician, producer, and songwriter. He is primarily known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, pianist, and primary songwriter for English rock band Muse. He is recognised for his eccen ...

Muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

Graham Coxon Graham Leslie Coxon (born 12 March 1969) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and painter who came to prominence as a founding member of the rock band Blur. As the group's lead guitarist and secondary vocalist, Cox ...

of Blur, Sean Payne of

The Zutons The Zutons are an English indie rock band, formed in 2001 in Liverpool. The band are currently composed of singer, songwriter and guitarist Dave McCabe, drummer Sean Payne and saxophonist Abi Harding. They released their debut album, '' Who Ki ...

Ilan Rubin Ilan Rubin (born July 7, 1988) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He is known primarily for playing drums with bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Paramore, and Angels & Airwaves. In 2008 he formed The New Regime, in which he sings and ...

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN and stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor was the only permanent member of the band ...

, and Jamie Davis. Cester sang lead vocals alongside

Miles Kane Miles Peter Kane (born 17 March 1986) is an English musician, best known as a solo artist and the co-frontman of the Last Shadow Puppets. He was also the former frontman of the Rascals, before the band announced their break-up in August 2009. ...

for a year of shows, including

South By Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

in Austin, Texas, and the

Teenage Cancer Trust Teenage Cancer Trust is a cancer care and support charity in the UK that exists to improve the cancer experience of young people aged 13–24. Founded in 1990, the charity's key service is providing specialist teenage units in NHS hospitals. It ...

show in the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...

Nic Cester NIC may refer to: Banking and insurance companies * National Insurance Corporation, Uganda * NIC Bank, a commercial bank in Kenya Politics, government and economics * National Ice Center, an agency that provides worldwide navigational ice a ...

sang with the band at a secret show in Los Angeles in 2018, and he took Chris's place in the band after Chris sustained a back injury from an accident in 2019.

Personal life

Chris uses

Gretsch Gretsch is an American company that manufactures musical instruments. The company was founded in 1883 in Brooklyn, New York by Friedrich Gretsch, a 27-year-old German immigrant, shortly after his arrival to the United States. Friedrich Gretsc ...

drums, including a Brady 14- x 8-inch Jarrah Ply snare, and

Zildjian :''Zildjian leads here. For people with the surname, see Zildjian (disambiguation)'' The Avedis Zildjian Company, simply known as Zildjian (), is a musical instrument manufacturer specializing in cymbals and other percussion instruments. Founded ...

cymbals. His cymbal setup is a pair of 15-inch A Zildjian New Beat Hats, and he has a 220-inch K Zildjian Dark Ride. Chris lives with his partner and daughter in Los Angeles.

Awards and nominations

APRA Awards

The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the

(APRA). , - , rowspan="2",

, , " Cold Hard Bitch" – Nicholas Cester, Christopher Cester, Cameron Muncey , , Most Performed Australian Work Overseas , , , - , Jet – Nicholas Cester, Cameron Muncey, Chris Cester , , Songwriter of the Year , , , - ,

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, , "Cold Hard Bitch" – Nicholas Cester, Christopher Cester, Cameron Muncey , , Most Performed Australian Work Overseas , , , - , rowspan="2",

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, , " She's a Genius" – Christopher Cester , , Most Played Australian Work , , , - , "She's a Genius" – Christopher Cester , , Rock Work of the Year , , , - , rowspan="2",

, , "

" – Nicholas Cester, Christopher Cester, Cameron Muncey , , Most Played Australian Work , , , - , "Seventeen" – Nicholas Cester, Christopher Cester, Cameron Muncey , , Rock Work of the Year , , , - ,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, "Chase the Feeling" - Andrew Stockdale, Chris Cester, Jason Hill , Most Performed Rock Work ,

References

;General * Note: n-lineversion established a
White Room Electronic Publishing Pty Ltd
in 2007 and was expanded from the 2002 edition. * ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Cester, Chris 1981 births APRA Award winners Australian people of Italian descent Australian people of Scottish descent Australian rock drummers Male drummers Jet (band) members Living people Musicians from Melbourne The Wrights (Australian band) members 21st-century drummers 21st-century Australian male musicians 21st-century Australian musicians Rock musicians Rock drummers People from Dingley Village, Victoria