Lance and Kristian appeared in a show called "New Wave Vaudeville," where they met Klaus Nomi, the eccentric German faux-operatic glam rocker. Kristian's collaboration with Klaus included writing several songs for him, including "Total Eclipse," which was featured in the rock and roll movie Urgh! A Music War. Meanwhile Kristian was making his mark as keyboard player, producer, and songwriter for musicians in the avant garde "No Wave" of the New York music scene, including Lydia Lunch, James Chance, and Ann Magnuson.

In 1981, Kristian's band The Swinging Madisons put out a 5 song EP featuring "My Mediocre Dream," a song about the power of advertising, and "Guilty White Liberal," which he was known to dedicate to his mother. Kristian's mother had raised him in an atmosphere of liberal activism and folk music. The Swinging Madisons combined a lounge-band look with hard rock music, and gave Kristian the chance to take over the role of flamboyant singer. The band that followed, Bleaker Street Incident (also featuring Ann Magnuson and Robert Mache), parodied the folk music that had provided the soundtrack of Kristian's childhood.

By the early '90s joke band fatigue set in. After Bleaker Street Incident, Kristian was thinking folk, had written a lot of sad songs, and set out to make an album out of them. But in the meantime he was recruited to record songs for tribute albums to the Hollies and to the Bee Gees (pre-disco era). The producer for the songs he recorded for these two compilations was Earle Mankey, with whom Kristian had been associated since Mumps days, and both songs (Hollies' "I'm Alive" and Bee Gees' "Lemons Never Forget") featured a modern psychedelic production, which steered Kristian's musical thinking back toward other music he knew how to create. As a result, Kristian's solo debut, 1993's I Don't Love My Guru Anymore featured a broad array of musical styles, although folk/acoustic was the strongest influence heard on the album.

The '90s and '00s have brought more collaboration opportunities to Kristian Hoffman. He's made his mark on rock and roll history as a member of chamber pop singer Rufus Wainwright's touring band, has played keyboards and written songs for the atmospheric torch band Congo Norvell, has produced, toured with, and written songs for punk/cabaret singer Abby Travis, and has toured with Kinks founder and lead guitarist Dave Davies. Meanwhile Kristian found time to record and release his second solo album, 1996's Earthquake Weather, the electric follow-up to the softer-sounding Guru, and to add his sometimes humorous illustrations to books by long-time musical accomplice Lydia Lunch and by Los Angeles poet Iris Berry.

Kristian, who is still contentedly computer-free in Los Angeles, finally entered the cyber age with the debut of this fan-designed website in February of 2002.

Kristian's third solo album, called & because it consists mainly of duets with other musicians (including Russell Mael of Sparks, Rufus Wainwright, Maria McKee, and El Vez, "the Mexican Elvis"), was released in July of 2002 to critical acclaim. As for where this multifaceted singer/songwriter, musician, poet and artist will be headed next, it's a safe prediction that he has a surprise or two in store.

- August, 2002