Christopher M Brown Rocks

The journey began long ago in the early 1970s. Chris's love of music and lyrics led him to build a folder of work containing over 100 of his own song lyrics. In 1975 aged 15 Chris met a fellow school pupil Neil Faulkner during a Home Economics class at de Stafford School, Caterham and

It emerged they shared a deep passion for music. Neil played guitar and drums and had started writing his own music. Neil asked to borrow Chris's lyrics and some months later Chris visited Neil’s home where he and a friend played him four songs. Chris hadn’t anticipated he was required to sing vocals but thankfully the result was fairly painless resulting in the union of Chris’s story-telling folky lyrics and Neil’s talent for melody and arrangement. They also followed different American artists - Dylan, John Denver, Elvis, Eagles and a host of others.

 

However, those influences had to take a back-seat as "punk rock" dominated the UK music scene. With Neil on drums and contributing music and Chris on vocals and writing the lyrics they joined two school friends to form 4-piece punk band ‘Nuffin’. Still in their mid-teens amongst their live performances came the thrill of a show at London’s legendary Roxy Club filmed as part of a documentary ‘The Year of Punk’. The programme was televised by London Weekend Television at Midnight on New Years Eve 1977 narrated by Janet Street-Porter.

 

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As the punk era came to a close almost inevitably for a teenage band the members would go their different ways. 1978 saw Chris and Neil explore other genres of music continuing to write and record songs despite the challenge of Chris studying US Politics at Lancaster University from 1978-1981.  From 1981 to 1984 They played in a number of bands together and seperately. Chris wrote and recorded demos with Neil and other artists. Chris and Neil’s last gig together was in April 84 at the famous ‘Rock Garden’ in London’s Covent Garden as part of Chris’s new wave project ‘Two from Seven’. Neil went on to form further bands also becoming involved in music production while Chris continued as a solo artist working with different musicians until becoming involved in making music videos and independent film-making.

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Fast forward ​to 2010 and thanks to social media Chris and Neil reaquainted. Neil floated the idea of revisiting old material and creating new music. Sadly, family illnesses caused these plans to be postponed until 2015 when they met up with their old school-friends and reformed their 1977 punk band.  Their reformation was prompted by an Indie  record label who wanted to  include their early 1970s 4 song demo on a Punk Compilation. The album 'Bored Teenagers Vol 9 was released on Detour records in Dec 2016 on vinyl/CD and online. After playing a set at the album launch night the band would perform another 37 gigs including famous London venues the 100 Club, Dublin Castle and Hope & Anchor. They also released a 12 track album recorded and produced by Neil Faulkner of their original songs from the 1970s for which Chris penned lyrics for 11 of the 12 tracks and designed the front cover artwork. They continued to play live until the pandemic of 2020. 'Crowd Control' was released for online streaming in 2025)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During Chris and Neil's time in the reformed band the seeds were sown for what would become the musical duo ‘Sun-Pinned Leaves’.  From 2018 Chris and Neil recorded the tracks for first SPL album ‘Theories of Destiny’ comprising new versions of seven of their 1980s songs and three new songs which were released on CD and online. In 2019 they played their first gig at ‘The Lighthouse’ in Deal and began to receive a healthy amount of radio play from independent radio shows domestically and internationally. In late March they peformed tracks from their upcoming second album live on Ashford Radio, Kent. However, live performences of any kind for Sun-Pinned Leaves and Nuffin' came to a halt early in 2020 due to the global pandemic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second Sun-Pinned Leaves album ‘Trans Genre Express’ was released in April 2020 coinciding with the UK's first covid lock-down. As some consolation the album attracted increased radio play and following its release Chris and Neil elected to revisit their early love of Americana music telling meodic stories factual and fictional of the US and beyond. A third album ‘Eclipse’ released Oct 2020 became their most popular including the John Denver tribute ‘Monterey Bay’ their most streamed track (and thankfully well received on John Denver fan-sites). It’s impossible to over state the role independent radio shows and stations have played in the SPL journey. To date SPL have been played on over 650 different stations including  tracks broadcast by BBC Upload on 6 seperate occasions. The stations, shows and presenters cannot be thanked enough.

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The period from 2021 onwards feel like a whirlwind of hard work, good fortune and the unexpected. Fourth album ‘Rock ‘n’ Road’ set largely in the US South West and West built on the audience for ‘Eclipse’. SPL were able to play live again including  several times at a favourite venue ‘The Dublin Castle’, Camden which featured in the ‘Back to Black’ Amy Winehouse biopic. They also began to record and play live and pre-recorded selections of songs from the first 4 albums on a number of Radio Shows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2022 and 2023 saw the release of 5th album ‘Altered States’ covering events that shaped American and World history and 6th album ‘Tales from The Great Lakes’ where the title reveals all. The former saw Sun-Pinned Leaves win ‘International Duo of The Year’ Gold in 2023 at the International Singer Songwriting Awards with Chris picking up the award in Atlanta, Georgia. They also received a WSA (World Songwriting Award) for Best Collaboration for track 'Brilliant Jewel'. ‘Tales From the Great Lakes’ was nominated for ‘Best Folk/Americana Album’ at the 10th Josie Music Awards in 2024 with Chris attending the awards at the Grand Ole Opry,

Nashville in 2024.

 

2024 would also see  the release of ‘Seven Sins Aren’t Enough’ (a UK Country Radio Album of the week). Chris and Neil attended the ISSA Awards in Atlanta as judges, presenters and performers. In June 2025 eighth album ‘No One Gets Out Alive’ was released which explores the South East States of the US and was SPL's third UK Country Radio album of the week.

Sun-Pinned Leaves were nominated for ‘Americana Duo of The Year’ at the eleventh JMAs with Chris once again attending in Nashville. 

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Ninth album 'Lost in America'  is due for release on 1st October 2026 plus 4 stand-alone singles either side of the album. The album deals with loss in its many forms. There are six tracks rooted in historic events - (the LA fires of 2025, a lost photographer in Crater Lake 1975, the loss of the Pendleton ship in 1954, the loss of Cash and Carter, Elvis, Ali and Martin Luther King and finally The Nashville Flood of 2010. These tracks are augmented by 4 stories of everyday folk experiencing the loss of a favourite bar, becoming lost in the past, lost in a bottle and lost in The Land of Enchantment (NM)).

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