Chris Squire was still a freshman at Mission Bay High in 1983 when he began attending local shows at venues like the Wabash Hall, Adams Avenue Theater, the North Park Lions Club, and Carpenters Hall. A guitarist, bassist, and occasional drummer, Squire came up in local bands like Tit Wrench, and Tiltwheel. He has also played with Kerosene, Tar Halos, Dark Sarcasm, TVeye, Digital Leather, No Laughing Matter, Dog Boy, Royal Pains, Sloog, Unit Unit, King Wheelie, Plasticman, Cholla, and a couple dozen more, as well as a couple of shows playing bass for Heroin.
By 2002, he was playing with the Tori Cobras. Other occasional endeavors have included running a record label (Pure Noise Forever) and booking bands on stages like the Rosary Room, inside the Pokéz Mexican restaurant. One particularly failed endeavor turned out to be dealing meth, which resulted in his 2006 arrest and (temporary) departure from San Diego, as he detailed the following year in a Reader interview, He Should've Known Better: Rocker on the Run.
He has also briefly toured with Phoenix electrosynth punk band Digital Leather, and in 2007 he reformed the Tori Cobras for Autumn reunion performances at the Tower Bar and Scolari's Office. Squire also played with the reunited Battalion of Saints, and his garage-prog-punk rock group Russian Tremors included members from Extinct Animals, Guff, Altaira, and Bad People.