Becoming Beland is a feature length film in development that tells the touching and intriguing true story of hard-working singer/songwriter, Chris Chabot. For far too long Chris balanced a life of art and anguish. He struggled with drug addiction, homelessness, physical and mental abuse leading to doubts about his own self worth and finally a loss of hope. Until after 32 years of searching, Chris unearthed a shocking family secret and discovered the identity of his real father; career musician John Beland, surviving member of Ricky Nelson’s Band, member of the Flying Burrito Brothers and guitarist for country icons Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Garth Brooks and several other musical greats. The two unite, a beautiful chord is played and Chris finally finds harmony in his life and his music.
Chris Beland was born and raised in Santa Maria, California, a small town located between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. Music has been a part of Chris’ life since the age of four when his Grandfather gave him a guitar. It was further ingrained when his older brother Jason taught him Stairway to Heaven, and Chris decided to take it from there. In and out of bands in Santa Maria that varied in style from punk to Christian praise, it wasn’t until Chris moved to Oregon that he found his own unique musical voice and sound. He was inspired to begin writing, performing and recording. Chris released two albums, Outer Space and The Weather Man while living in Oregon.
In the fall of 2012, Chris decided to follow his dream to pursue music full time. He quit his job and relocated with his family back to the Central Coast. Chris released his breakthrough third album, Danger of Love, featuring his newly found biological father, veteran rock and country guitarist/producer, John Beland. Chris' musical style, which stands on it's own, is a blend of Paul Simon, Bob Dylan and Bon Iver, entwined with rich, haunting melodies and a little hometown feel. Chris is hard at work spreading his name throughout the Central California, playing four nights a week at local venues all along the coast. Chris was recently awarded Best Local Musician (runner up) in Santa Barbara County’s Best of 2014 and is currently set to begin recording his fourth album.
Check out Chris' album, Danger of Love
For over four decades, John Beland has recorded, toured and written for some of the biggest legends in contemporary pop, rock and country music. Born and raised on the south side of Chicago, he first picked up a guitar at the age of 10 and hasn’t put it down since. At 15, his family moved to Los Angeles. John was soon discovered at the Troubadour and signed his first record contract with Ranwood Records in 1967. While on his musical journey, John has performed at the Hollywood Bowl, Wembley Stadium, The Greek Theater, The Grand Ole Opry and Carnegie Hall.
Over the years, while performing, John has done studio work that includes movie soundtracks, national commercials and television shows. John has toured the country with a vast list of recording artists. In 1977, John met and immediately started working with the world famous Dolly Parton. Soon after that, he met pop legend Ricky Nelson and became the lead guitarist in his band. After many successful years of touring, in 1981, John left Nelson’s band and became a member and a producer for the group The Flying Burrito Brothers. John was actually scheduled to rejoin Ricky Nelson in January of 1986, when a tragic plane crash took the lives of Nelson and his band. News of this utterly devastated John. He then returned to Nashville and began working alongside talented newcomer, Garth Brooks.
John remains in constant demand as a producer, session player and solo performer worldwide. Forty years of music history is the legacy John has achieved and continues to build upon to this day. His accomplishments have earned him worldwide respect and admiration from fans and fellow musicians alike.
John is “over the moon” about the addition of Chris to the Beland family and has welcomed him with open arms. They are excited as to what the future holds and plan on recording more albums and playing many more concerts together.
Kristen Epland grew up in California’s beautiful Central Coast. She studied Political Science at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and Austin Peay University in Tennessee. However, it was a violent tornado that rekindled Kristen’s passion for the arts, especially film, theatre and dance; and compelled, if not propelled her relocation to Los Angeles.
In 2005, Kristen founded The Passion for Dance Project, a non-profit organization awarding grants and scholarships to struggling dancers in the Los Angeles area. The experience made Kristen realize that she had natural gifts for organization, fund-raising and time-management. She harnessed these talents taking the logical next step: Producing. She had the opportunity to produce two film festival favorites, Jawbone and Scavenger. She rediscovered her love of acting in 2011, starring in the television pilot A Little Bit of Laughter, opposite veteran actor Barry Bostwick.
Kristen is part of a writing team painstakingly developing the memoir of an Angola death row inmate into an episodic based around the notorious prison. She co-created animated series, Bite Me, with writing partner Gregory Locklear, and they are producing the project with Joe Dante (Gremlins, The ‘Burbs, The Hole).
Kristen is honored to have the chance to tell the world about Chris Beland. She fell in love with his story upon first hearing it and hasn’t lost focus on spreading the word and his music since.
Brandon Epland, a native New Yorker, appeared in a number of Off Broadway plays throughout his childhood, while attending the famed High School for the Performing Arts. He graduated with honors from The University of Michigan, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre. Brandon then returned to NYC to explore the Off-Off-Broadway and fringe theatre circuit.
After moving to Los Angeles, Brandon became a writer and voice-talent for Sirius Radio’s The Pacific Coast Hellway, with award-winning author and screenwriter Mark Nemcoff. Brandon then co-founded the Internet sketch comedy group The Monkey Box. He served as a writer, producer, director and actor for 99 audio podcast episodes and 51 short films garnering over 19 million hits on YouTube, Yahoo and Funny or Die.
Brandon created the half hour procedural comedy, Fairy Tale Lawyers, currently being shopped to networks. He has also created movie-based game show, Cinema Showdown, Target Audience, a movie review show for the 21st century, as well as America’s Next Top Reality Show, a competition based show that develops, vets and then produces fledgling reality shows. Brandon is currently developing a death row inmate’s unpublished manuscript into a thought provoking prison drama; and is in development for Becoming Beland, a beautifully, touching feature length drama based on the true story of singer-songwriter, Chris Chabot and his search for his father and himself.
Brandon has a long-standing commitment to get the voices out of his head and on to the page. He doesn’t sleep.
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