A Conversation With Wes Chiller.
When a person truly loves a song at first listen, we unknowingly (due to the intense feeling of deep affection) attach to it the environment that we were in during that specific moment. The first time I listened to Wes Chiller’s ‘Mo Nothing’ I was driving home after work just as the sunset’s majesty filled the cool spring sky with golden rays. The moment Chiller’s voice came out of the speakers, it softly pierced the space around me and made me reminisce of my summers spent taking a dip in the salty waters surrounding the California coast. Paired with its catchy melody, the drive home couldn’t have been any more magical.
I’m excited to be able to share with you my conversation with Wes Chiller. He’s a beautiful human (inside and out) who is currently hosting a Kickstarter to raise funds to help further his EP. Enjoy my conversation with this quality musician!
For those who don’t know you please introduce yourself.
In a nutshell, I’m a surfer, a musician and I’m from a little town in San Clemente named Capistrano Beach.
When did you first pick up an instrument?
When I was five, my family and I were traveling down Mexico and my uncle had a ukulele in the front with him that he was strumming on. I was super young and as a kid, music had always intrigued me. When I heard what he was playing I remember thinking how sweet it was. He handed it back to me and taught me a C chord. I literally played that cord for like five hours and from there I was hooked.
The ukulele is my main instrument and I studied with a man named Bill Tapia. He was incredibly influential to me. At the time he was 95 years old and I was eight. He was originally from Hawaii and played with legends like Count Basie and Duke Ellington as a Jazz guitarist. He was a wealth of knowledge!
I learned a lot from him and from what he taught me I was able to develop my own style. I took what he taught me and took it to UCLA where I auditioned for their Ethnomusicology program. After studying there for 4 years, I graduated and continued to work in the industry. I genuinely got over the hustle of the industry and ended up changing my course. I became a firefighter like my dad and decided to come back to music on my own terms. That’s where I am now and it feels great!
Having been formally trained, have you ever wondered if your love for music would’ve been any different if you weren’t?
As far as training goes and becoming a proficient player, my style would’ve been drastically different because when you have that Jazz foundation, you just know all these things that otherwise you wouldn’t really pay much attention to.
How would you say firefighting has influenced your music?
Being a firefighter is an intense job and I’m very competitive so it definitely caters to that side of me. On the flip side, we run some really heavy calls and it’s that adrenaline rush that manifests in my writing and music. For example, ‘Mo Nothing’ is mainly about me taking two years to get where I am today and how there is so much information coming your way, always, that you feel inundated. Which leads to the fact that the lyrics don’t really make much sense and they don’t have to, you know? It’s just more of nothing.
On the subject of ‘Mo Nothing’ talk about the cover art. Who created it?
My buddy Quentin created the cover for ‘Mo Nothing’. He’s up in LA and I’ve always been a huge fan of his work. I sent him the song and told him to run with it and that’s what he came up with. He does great work with watercolors. ‘Mo Nothing’ needed something really dreamy and he captured it.
Talk about the gear you used to record the song.
I recorded with a strat, a mexiTelecaster, my ukulele made of skateboards, midi keyboard, a squire bass, and that’s about it.
So you lived in LA for a while, how did you like living out there as a musician?
It’s the place to be as far music is concerned. Every night there’s a show to go to, and you can be playing with someone or recording at any given time. However, because it’s so congested, it was harder to make music in a purely selfish fashion, at least it was for me. I was always worried about what people would say. For me, getting out of there was the best thing I could’ve done.
Leaving allowed me to really make the music I like. Selling out shows would be a dream, however, if that does not happen by the time I’m long gone, I’m going to at least have a nice catalog of music that I’m proud of and I’m okay with that. Whatever happens outside of that is just a little cherry on top.
How would you describe your music?
So as far the genre goes, I’d say I fall under alt-Indie. But the gist to my music is that you really don’t have to be cool to listen to my music. I think that a lot of acts nowadays are going towards that vibe but I’m personally more concerned with the kid in his room listening to my music and being able to play along to it. That Tom Petty vibe where why are you doing so much to it — that’s my vibe.
You’ve recently put out a Kickstarter. Talk a little about it.
Just like anything else, this project requires money. With the release of ‘Mo Nothing’ I realized that we really want to get the EP to do the right thing and in order to do that we’re going to need money. There are people out there who want to help and if they want to they will have the option to do so. A little bit of money in the PR department will take us a long way.
Words of wisdom?
Don’t get complacent because you have the time. There is always time! Prioritize! You have to put in the time if you want it to happen.
Socials?
Instagram: @weschiller
Kickstarter: Debut EP “Chiller Instinct” by Wes Chiller
