CHX COLLECTIVE
How music, gaming and art all combined into one all encompassing site.
The Beginning
My name is Rob Sulzmann, but most people know me by the name CHX42. I’ve always been an artist at heart, but my first real passion was making music. I started my music career by starting a punk rock band in high school call SHE LIKES TODD. We played all over the US, made tons of fans and a decent name for ourselves. Over the early 2000’s, I joined other groups, recorded a bunch of albums, and toured the US trying to make it as a musician. Eventually, the projects I had dedicated myself to fell apart and I needed a new project to be my outlet to the world.
THE BAND
In 2016, I decided to take some songs I had written for a solo acoustic project, and adapt them into a full band format. With the help of Pat Holland and Dave Klod, the band CHX COLLECTIVE was born. We made one of the best albums I’ve ever been a part of, as I poured my heart and soul into this project. But life has it’s own plans, and I was unable to devote the time needed to take this to the next level. Again, the project was put to the side, but out of this a new idea emerged that became the start of this site.
MERCH
STORE
Around the time the band was revving up, I decided CHX COLLECTIVE had the potential to be a music label and merch store for not just my band, but others as well. With all my connections, I went all in and started this website as a way to help other bands and stay involved in the music scene. Things were looking up and a bunch of bands came aboard. And while I was doing my best to make all of these ideas into realities, yet again life decided to throw a curveball and take me down an entirely new direction.
HOW I STARTED SPEEDRUNNING
In January of 2018, I took a pretty gnarly fall at work, and fractured my collarbone. After getting a giant plate and 12 screws put inside me, I was pretty much out of commission for 4 months. And while I was pretty much unable to do anything, playing video games was really the only thing I could do to pass time. While delving into the retro gaming world, I found out about speedrunning games, and became hooked instantly. I had always been an NES junky, but once I started digging into the speedrunning world, my competitive side knew I could put up top times. While I started playing more and more, I also started doing merchandising for gamers and streamers that I met along the way.
FROM BROKEN TO BREAKING RECORDS
What started as a way to pass the time while injured, became one of the biggest parts of my life. I was speedrunning NES games, and as 2018 went by, I got better and better. I got so good, that it became clear to me that I had the skills to actually get World Record times in some of these games. It took me over a year, but by the end of 2019 I finally started breaking records in original Metroid for the NES, and this propelled me into the world of notable gamers. While pushing Metroid to this highest level of gameplay, I realized that I could build better controllers than most people used. With my site already up and running, I simply started selling NES controllers here too.
PAINTING MY LIFE TOGETHER
Making custom controllers was cool, but I wanted to make more custom style controllers with painted shells and colored cables. In mid 2020, I started learning how to paint the abstract styles that I wanted to see on them, but this only made me want to paint more and more. Without a real musical outlet at this point in my life, painting became an obsession I had to follow. I started painting canvases, and it became almost therapeutic to make paintings. With my walls filling up, I started selling my artwork on the site as well.
THE END OF THE MERCH STORE
Gaming, controller making and art became the central focus of what I was doing between 2020 and 2022. Covid had made my merch store and record label operation unsustainable. With the website doing more business in my own artwork and controllers, I had no other choice but to stop doing merch for other bands and gamers so I could focus on my own endeavors. With that, the site became focused around my art and controller building, and I kept up my own music since the site was really revolving around only me at this point.
MAKING VIDEOS
If you haven’t noticed by now, I can’t focus on just one thing. I have way too many ideas constantly flying around in my head, and making videos about speedrunning became the next thing I had to do. In 2023 I started making videos more and trying to use youtube as a way to spread the word about what I do.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Honestly, your guess is as good as mine. All I know is that I have to keep creating things or else I’ll go insane, and having a place to share what I do with you helps me be the person I want to be. I’m grateful for anyone that has supported me and the people that continue to. All I can tell you for sure, is that I promise to keep trying to make the world more interesting by sharing how I see things through my artistic lens, doing my best, and continuing to create. Thanks for taking the time to come on this journey with me.