Burnin' With Blaze 1 and PYRX

Chico, California is home to Chris Smith, also known as Blaze 1. He runs Blaze 1 Glass, Blaze 1 Clothes, Blaze 1 Records, the band PYRX, and a shop called Blaze’n’J’s – all of this by the age of 29.

Blaze 1 and his crew were busy working on their third album, the first two being “Infinite Medicine” and “Like the Rhythm”, and preparing for the upcoming Vans Warped Tour this summer. PYRX consists of six guys: Blaze 1, 29, performs vocals and guitar; D Rail, 25, is on drums; Jeff Thomas, 29, plays saxophone; DJ Rudedawg, 28, is deejay and plays turntables; David Gladwill, 23, is on bass; and Chazz, 28, is lead guitar. When the band isn’t playing, they are busy blowing glass or shamelessly self-promoting. There are two smokin’ hot females who dance on stage and do endorsements: Ieisha, 23, and Niki, 18. Rounding off the crew are general manager Dustin, booking agent Jamie, 33, and videographer Bigg Ben, 27. This glass blowing, cannabis-growing band really loves their weed. They smoke all day, every day, virtually non-stop; bongs and the hookah are out all day and night. The girls tend plants at a local co-0p garden. In these parts of northern California everyone seems to have a medicinal card and there isn’t much fear of legal repercussions.

We headed down to the Blaze’n’J’s retail store, where I got a look at the huge amount of Blaze 1 apparel and glass. Blaze 1 has 12 glass blowers working for him at any time and another six apprentices; he supports local youth who find a genuine interest in glass blowing. Here they have someone who will take the time to show them the skills and motivation for something constructive. As such, glass blowing has helped refocus troubled

youth.

“I started Blaze 1 Glass in 1996,” Blaze 1 told me. “I was making t-shirts in my screen print shop in high school, where I made my first Blaze 1 t-shirt in 1993. Before that I was bombing (doing graffiti). My product is fully worked tube on lathe; I would say that is my niche in the glass industry. I had been doing hand pipes, bubblers, and $500-$700 heady pieces, but I wanted to do something no one else was doing. In 2000 I brought my first glass blowing lathe from Lytton lathes, custom built for $20,000 and shipped straight from the factory. I then spent my time developing the Blaze 1 fully-worked heady tubes. I have spent a lot of time and money developing that product, which I have been doing for the last four to five years.

We have about 13 students that I’ve taught at the glass shop. Jeff, my first student, is also the sax player in PYRX. I also taught Ieisha, and now she’s been blowing for about a year – just killing it! She is the fastest student that I have ever had.

“I’m the producer for our band, which I’ve been doing since our first album came out in 2002. Our music is an energetic, charging mix of hardcore, reggae and hip-hop. We took the E out of the word Pyrex™ (because it’s trademarked) so we could have our own name, PYRX. At various times I’ve been the drummer, guitar player, emcee and songwriter, but now we’ve got solid band members. We are preparing to go on our first national trip with the Vans Warped Tour in summer 2007, and will hit every major city in the US and some in Canada. We have been touring since 2002 but only on the west coast, so this will be our first major national tour. We’re pretty stoked, because it’s been a dream of ours to get onto that circuit.”