CHRIS VRENNA
Instrument(s): Keyboards/Drums/Programming/Production
Birthday: February 23, 1967
Birth Place: Erie, Pennsylvania
Chris Vrenna has been a long term contributor to Marilyn Manson since they were first signed to Interscope, both behind the scenes and in his current role as album songwriter and onstage keyboardist/programmer. He was credited most evidently as part of the recording team for Antichrist Superstar, on which he contributed to several tracks. His musical career started in Chicago, during the 1980s, where he played with numerous already established bands such as Stabbing Westward.
Despite Marilyn Manson’s dalliance with Industrial Metal being fused with a variety of other genres, Vrenna’s teeth were always cut in the genre, as many of the acts he has been associated with find their basis in electronica, programmed beats and digital soundscapes, mixed with crushing, Industrial guitars. That said, Vrenna has equally proven himself as a live/studio drummer, even replacing Ginger Fish on the tour for Lest We Forget when Fish was absent due to injuries.
Vrenna was previously most well known for his time playing with Nine Inch Nails, having known frontman Trent Reznor since the two attended the same High School. Association with familiar faces has helped secure general perception of Vrenna’s as a competent, inventive figure, his talents having been employed with, or alongside artists cited as contemporaries of Marilyn Manson, such as KMFDM, the aforementioned Nine Inch Nails, and Skinny Puppy.
Initially, in terms of official membership, Vrenna was a replacement for long term keyboardist Madonna Wayne Gacy, who left Marilyn Manson following a legal dispute. Becoming a recognised fixture throughout the band’s 2007/2008 world tour, The Rape of the World, Vrenna has since become a fully established member, and is generally regarded as equal in contribution to the band's seventh studio album The High End Of Low.
Though still a touring and writing member of Marilyn Manson, Vrenna also conducts his personal project, Tweaker, an electronic based partnership between he and Clint Walsh, who have produced critically acclaimed soundtrack work for various computer games and television shows.
