Paul Huppler (drums), Drew Nobel(bass) and I were in jazz band together at Bothell High and used to practice in Paul’s mom’s basement. We played alt. rock and went by Sub-Real. Then we graduated, added Jason Lang on guitar and started diving in to reggae. We played some frat parties. We changed the band name to Cedar Roots vibration. Eventually we practiced at my families fruitmarket in a giant produce refrigerator in the off season and considered changing the band name to Cooler 5. Eventually Jason moved to Hawaii and TJ Berry joined on guitar. We played one gig as Catch 23 at Toast(RIP) Somewhere around 2003 we played our first official shows as The Panda Conspiracy at places like Sea Monster in Seattle and the Jet Deck in Everett.

Our first official album Lunar Migration came out in 2004, we played a ton of shows from Bellingham to Portland and started networking with local bands in the jam scene and played festivals like Summer Meltdown and NW Folklife, eventually we did big main stage shows and had a ton of fun doing it!

Drew the bassist moved to Boise, Steve Steel stepped in on bass for a year or two, we continued touring east playing Montana, Idaho but especially Twisp and Tonasket Wa. Eventually we threw our own music festival in Twisp called the Medicine Wheel Music Fest. Lots of people came and camped, It was fun and a lot of hard work. We did this in July of 2007 & 2008.

I considered moving to Twisp but I moved to Seattle instead. Paul wanted to play reggae i wanted to play it all so Ryan Lago (rock drummer from Ohio) joined and Sandy Dickerson (bassist from hip-hop band sub-dwellers) joined and we changed the name to Pandacon. We started recording and throwing big Halloween parties called Zombie Prom downtown Seattle at places like the King Cat Theater, and the Little Red Studio. We released Road Soda at our second Zombie prom and became a “High energy party band” according the the Everett Sausage fest.

More touring, van repairs and partying now extending as far south as San Francisco where Jerry Garcia’s ghost spoke to me at a students for a sensible drug policy event. He simply said: “Chris, you’re on the right path”. We were doing really well, selling out local shows, In 2010 we recorded a 7 minute epic rock song at Robert Lang’s studio called Cherry Tree thanks to some free studio time from engineer pal Spencer Dahl! Things were good for the band, but not for guitarist / engineer and my best friend TJ. He was starting to come down with a rare debilitating neurological disorder similar to Parkinson’s. He told me to find a replacement and go on. But as far as I was concerned, Pandacon had become a partnership. So, I chose to leave the band frozen in time as a “high energy party band” and move on to other things. I began touring Europe and Africa with Publish the Quest as well as writing and recording material for a band that would become Mts. & Tunnels.