A GUITAR INADVERTENTLY CHANGED HIM: A DEEPER INTERVIEW WITH COMPOSER CHRIS GILES. By Elvis Li

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Chris. I’m a composer and musician. I’m studying music composition at SFU. My main practice is composing music in various styles. I like playing rock music, jazz, different genres to expand my practices.

What’s your favourite genre?

I would say rock and roll. That’s what I grew up with. Without my love for that, there wouldn’t be anything else.

Chris Giles

How do you work?

How do I work? At the last minute usually. I try to find inspiration and if I can’t find inspiration, then I wait until the last minute and I rely on desperation. As a composer, I usually work by myself, either on my guitar. Or I will take computer depending on what kind of music I am writing. If it’s electronic music, I try to come up with an idea, and just started on something, anything to have something to work on, because that’s most artists known, having nothing, just have a black page, empty project is terrifying.

What’s integral to the work of an artist?

It really depends on the goal of what they are doing. I think the most integral part if, I would say anything is integral in the art, is honesty because I think art is about communication, communication of your points of view and your perspectives of the world in a kind of abstract way. For that to have any value, it has to be completely honest, you have to be true of what you are feeling, what you are seeing, and what you are thinking. Otherwise, it is just imitating other people.

What has been a formative experience?

I can’t remember the first time I picked up the guitar. It was an electric guitar when I was six or seven years old. I was just making noise with it, I couldn’t play anything obviously. But I could hit the strings and the sound it made was completely addictive. I remember how I felt, what the guitar looked like, its position and what I was doing.

What work do you most enjoying doing?

Composing is very rewarding, and the process itself can be stressful. My favourite part is being finished and presenting my work, that’s what I am proud of. When it’s done, I am the only one that has heard it so far. I know it is good and I show it to people and see their reaction. That’s my favourite part of it, definitely.

What themes do you pursue?

The things I experienced. It can be love, usually, it is more complicated, like emotions, I wouldn’t say any music composition is just about love, just about anger, there is always a mixture. There is always a multitude of emotions, they are complicated. I don’t write about politics or try to convince anyone of anything. I seem to write about things I see and how it affects me. I always convey what I see.

Describe a real-life situation that inspired you?

I had people closed to me and passed away. Life is much shorter than you think sometimes. It’s unpredictable and it’s kind of tragic. It inspired me to do best with my life and also be force for positivity.

Why art?

It’s a good question. If I do anything else, it doesn’t work.

What do you dislike about the art world?

I dislike tartists that are pretentious, who make things because of what other people will think of it and to try to have style in the artistic community. I think artists can be pretentious sometimes, in everything they do, the way they dress, the way they talk and who they associate with. It can become a kind of club. They think they are special because they make art, and their art is so much more sophisticated.

Is the artistic life lonely?

It’s a complicated question. Are artists’ life happy? sometimes not. Loneliness, fear, depression, anger, they can be very inspirational. You can make great art with them.

Should art be funded? What role does art funding have?

I think that it should. Having said that. It’s a complicated issue because of who funds art. Most of the time, it is public funding that artists rely on to be able to do their work. This gives governments power to fund choose which artists are to get funding and which are not. I think it’s temping for governments to fund art and artists that promote that government’s point of view above art which is more critical.

The role of art funding is critical. Without funding artists could only make art that was commercially viable. Although I don’t think there is anything wrong with making money from your works. if the only art we had was of this sort, I feel like it would predominatly become entertainment and loose its power to ask tough questions and express different points of views.