The Foreign Exchange released their debut album Connected seven years ago in the summer of 2004. It’s hard to believe at first, but the production duo of Phonte Coleman and Nicolay Rook are still grinding and making ground through their music. It’s also surprising as to how much the duo has expanded their musical talents over the years. Originally a two-man team, Foreign Exchange has grown into an extended musical family with numerous songwriters and instrumentalists providing their talents to the group. One particular artist is the group’s guitarist, Christopher Boerner, who is coming into his own with the formation of his own group, The Hot At Nights.

Boerner, 32, was born in Durham, North Carolina and spent most of his childhood growing up in Raleigh and its laid-back surroundings. He would not want it in any other way.

“I’m from North Carolina,” he said. “I was born in Durham, but raised in Raleigh. I went to high school in Raleigh. Then I went to Durham for college. I went to Duke [University]. I didn’t go far [from home] (laughs).”

Boerner’s parents were freethinking and left the young lad to try out whatever grabbed his interest.

“My parents were pretty open,” he said. “They didn’t really push me towards anything. They didn’t make me take up an instrument or practice. Um…and I think I’m really thankful for that now because I might not be doing what I am doing today because I kind of picked it up on my own and you know, dedicated my time to myself. So, you know they were really, you know, supportive of whatever I was interested in.”

Boerner developed an interest in music thanks to the different genres he used to listen to in his youth.

“I was really into a lot of classic rock and roll. I used to listen to Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and you know…just “guitar centric” music. That’s what I gravitated towards to.”

He did not pick up the guitar until he was 12 years old. He originally learned to play the saxophone when he was eight years old. Boerner stated that the early 90’s alternative music scene provided enough influence for him to play the guitar.

“I was into that music from Seattle. You know? Nirvana and stuff like that. That’s what really got me started.”

This interest would carry over to his collegiate years when he went to Duke University. Even though at the time he was originally a physics major, Boerner still made an effort to study music and practice the guitar.

“I didn’t have plans to play the guitar for a living but I remember specifically one day my class school guitar teacher, in the middle of a lesson, said, ‘if you want you could do this for a living.” I never even thought about that. It just never seemed like a viable thing for me to play music for a living. When he said that, it just lit a fire inside me and I definitely started working really hard at it.”

Boerner would practice for nearly eight hours a day to ensure that mastered every note. Towards the end of college, he would play at several jazz gigs and would gain his big break in the Triangle music scene.

“Well, I don’t know if I can call it a big break,” he laughs.

OK, maybe not the “groundbreaking” big break, but he definitely made way to get his name out there. This would eventually get him noticed by an upcoming rapper from North Carolina.

“In 2004, Phonte called me,” he said. “He got my number through a friend. He needed some guitar on something and that’s sort of where it started.”

Boerner would assist on recording and mixing tracks for the Leave It All Behind and Authenticity albums. The experience was distinctive to say the least.

“It’s fairly unique. You know, the way they do things. It’s very interesting. Nicolay writes the music and Phonte…um…writes the melodies and lyrics. He writes all the singing parts and it comes together that way. So…um… for me to be involved, I don’t write any music but I get to play guitar so it adds a lot. It’s pretty cool."

While on tour, Chris Boerner was able to take a break from his busy schedule to talk with the Indiestry about the production process of the Nice Talk album and advice for musicians in the digital age.

The Indiestry: So let’s about your group Hot At Nights. How did you guys form?

Chris Boerner: Well, it’s kind of interesting. I started a year and a half ago. I always played a lot of jazz music. I studied that in school. And then couple years after college, I moved towards playing solo jazz guitar. I started the group with a drummer and a woodwind player. Nick Baglio, who’s a phenomenal world class drummer, and Matt Douglas, who’s a world class woodwind player. I played music with both of those guys in different contexts for many years. So, it was kind of natural for the group to gel immediately. All three of us work a lot with other bands and we’re always on the road, doing our own thing and this is sort of another creative outlook that provides a lot of different challenges for us musically because it’s very improvisational. It requires [us] to flex different muscles musically if that makes sense.

TI: Yeah that makes perfect sense.

CB: So, we started the band last summer and we’ve been working, doing gigs here and there. Finally, this spring I was able to feel comfortable enough to have enough tunes to do an album. We just did the record. We recorded in April and that’s pretty much that. It’s a fairly new project.

TI: Ok, so how would describe the musical vibe from that album? What would listeners expect from their first listen?

CB: It’s an instrumental album. It definitely has roots in jazz, but very sort of improvisational spirit of jazz music and it has some pop-leanings. We cover some pop songs and it’s more aggressive than most jazz albums someone would listen to. It’s very, highly interactive even though we basically recorded the record live in the studio. It’s very much what people would get from our live shows, which is a whole lot of vibing off with each other. Compositionally, it’s constructed that way so that, you know, when something “cool” happens we can go with it. So we definitely took some risks in that format but a lot of good things came out of it. So…um…I don’t know if that’s good description (laughs).

TI: Yeah, that’s a very good description! (laughs) Thanks a lot. You mentioned that you covered some pop songs and it’s more aggressive than most jazz albums, how would describe the music scene right now? Would you say a lot of artists are being creative or not enough is being done?

CB: In general? I think it’s a double-edged sword. Anyone can make a CD in their bedroom. There’s a lot more stuff out there. There’s a lot more opportunity for creative people who normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to make records. I think the big difference is the way music digitized and the market is flooded with so much music. I think it’s harder to sell music now and really, we compete lesser for album sales and more for getting attention.

TI: Yeah.

CB: I think maybe nowadays it’s probably less true that people sit down and listen to an entire record straight through and it’s almost like you get the ears, you succeeded. You can only hope that when they hear your music they like it and they would actually buy it. They would come to your show and hopefully tell their friends about it. I think it’s much more kind of grassroots process with most artists.

TI: Alright. Any advice for artists that are trying to get their music out there through the means of the Internet?

CB: Yeah. Uh…I think that…try to be aware of what you’re putting out there. Make sure it’s mixed well if you’re going to through stuff out there. Quality over quantity is better. You see a lot of people put out a lot of stuff and you know, some people could put out a fraction of what they put out and make it better. Does that make sense?

TI: Yeah, it makes perfect sense (laughs)

CB: Yeah, I don’t know what other advice I would give but practice. Practice your instrument. Whether it’s your voice, guitar, or piano what have you if you’re a songwriter…you know…I feel a lot of people are not good at their instrument. To instrumentalists, that’s something I’m sensitive to. And I know how hard I worked. So I think I can appreciate it when I see someone how much they’ve put into it.

TI: Any final words?

CB: Um…please listen to my record (laughs). Nice Talk is available on iTunes and other digital retailers. Hard copies are available through my website. And yeah, please listen.