We were lucky to catch up with Christian Tapper recently and have shared our conversation below.
Christian, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
The most meaningful experience I’ve had so far has been scoring a documentary film about the Grenadian Revolution of the 1980s and its legacy to this day. The film is entitled “My Mother Mary” and was directed by my fellow Caribbean-American friend, Kayko Donald. Kayko is from Brooklyn, New York and is daughter to the film’s centerpiece, Mary, who was born and raised in Grenada and witnessed the Socialist Revolution first hand. The film, narrated by Kayko, is a collection of interviews with her mother and other family members who lived through the rise and tumultuous fall of the popular revolution led by Maurice Bishop in 1979.
Working on this film was meaningful to me because I feel that this story is relatively unknown to the public, but extremely important and very timely. The social and infrastructural advances of the Revolution in Grenada are rarely talked about. There was a spirit within Grenada at that time that embraced socialist ideals of education and voluntary work and was experimenting towards becoming a thriving independent black socialist nation. Their nation could have been a model for socialism and black nationalism not only in the Caribbean but across the Americas. This irked western governments like the United States, who became heavily involved in their affairs and helped internally destabilize and overthrow the Revolution by 1984. While I recorded the interviews, wrote the music, and edited the audio for this film I came to realize that the revolutionary spirit still persists; I see it in Mary, in Kayko, and in so many others including myself. People need awareness that they are not alone in this idea of freedom and change, and that it indeed has happened in real life, in Grenada. What could have happened if the Revolution in Grenada had been allowed to continue thriving?
What if a black socialist nation lasted longer than 5 years?
As a musician, I strive to translate the complex emotions of life into music, and it was a blessing to be able to do so in this film. I met Kayko Donald at a house party in New York in early 2021 and we became friends quickly after bonding over our common interests in music and our Caribbean ancestry. She asked me to be on her team to see this idea through in August 2021 and by May 2022 we finished the 20 min film. Since then it has won Best Thesis 2022 Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. It is set to premiere in 2023 and will hopefully be one of a series of films that continue the story.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Christian Tapper, professionally known as Johnny Champagne, and I am a musician: more specifically a producer, singer, rapper, keyboardist, composer, DJ, and audio engineer among other things. Working as a producer for others, I am a problem identifier and solver. If your chords need extra sauce, I got you. If the drums need to hit a bit harder, I’m your guy. If you need to record your vocals on a good mic with an engineer that will bring the best out of you, that’s my job. I’m from Tampa, FL but I have spent most of my career as a musician so far in New York City where I went to Recorded Music school at NYU. While in school I made a lot of connections with other artists and I collaborated with them in many different ways. Some of the songs I made with my classmates are still popular among my fans. Most of my professional connections, however, came after I graduated from school and began moving around the various music scenes in New York. All of the jobs I’ve gotten as a musician, whether for solo shows, music production/mixing, DJ sets, or supporting artists on keyboard or bass, were all through word of mouth and/or being at the right place at the right time. Oftentimes people will see me play a DJ set and ask me to DJ their party, or they’ll see me play keyboard for someone’s band and recommend me to play piano at a coworker’s housewarming event. Sometimes they will hear songs of mine that I’ve produced and ask me to help produce their album. Currently, I’m very excited to be producing my friend ANCIRA’s album of experimental dance music and my friend Carlos’ album of atmospheric indie music. I love all types of music as long as it’s good music. I pride myself on my discerning, yet inclusive taste. Most of my own music as Johnny Champagne is Hip-Hop/R&B based, but my personal taste at the moment leans toward jazz and reggae and that will be very evident in releases soon to come.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
For one, I strive to positively influence popular culture with messages of love, freedom, and community. I strive to be a major part of a shift in music culture from clout and fame to community mobilization and change. Words, especially in music, are powerful. In all seriousness, I plan to sew seeds of revolution that undermine our broken capitalist regime where those in power stay in power and those at the “bottom” of society have little means of growth. I want to inspire people to pursue true freedom: self sufficiency free from the reliance on mass production, education at the highest level for all who seek it, community organizations that make a mission out of empowering their constituents. I want to end this new age of slavery where the chains have been replaced with debt. I’m very interested in intellectual revolution, and as a student of revolutionary history I know that it is not only possible but desired by many here and now. All of my other goals are stepping stones toward this larger goal. For now, my main goal is to earn a living as a performing/recording artist outside of the standard formula provided by the music industry. I plan to become a successful artist with a grassroots fanbase without signing the rights to my music away to a company that does not work toward my best interest. I work so that my messages reach the right ears, so that different factions of society can realize the common problems they share and work toward collective solutions.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I do not believe in “non-creatives”. All of life as we know it, much less the human experience is built upon creation. I believe that people who call themselves “non-creatives” are selling themselves short and I would want them to understand that being a “creative” simply takes a will to create. Anyone can learn anything if they want to. I think “non-creatives” often don’t realize how much blind faith is needed in the process of creation. All of the things I currently know how to do, I knew nothing about at one point. I am constantly learning new skills every day. A novice might look at a skilled expert and assume that “natural talent” is the major force at play. The novice did not see the expert toil away at their craft when nobody was watching. The novice doesn’t realize that the expert had to learn many different skills that they didn’t even know they had to learn at first. The only difference between the novice and expert is the expert’s will to create something that they like, and the time put in to achieve what they set out to achieve. We are all constantly creating: every word we write, every sentence we speak, every meal we cook, every idea we have. Some people, however, have a drive and the means to bring their creations to the physical world. In an ideal world everyone would have this drive, but the societies in which we live often discourage this kind of thinking. Oftentimes we are stuck perpetuating someone else’s creation, working at their businesses, following their rules. This mindset of the masses needs to change if we are going to make any steps toward real freedom. I want “non-creatives” to know of their true power, their power of creation, a power that can’t be taken from them.
Contact Info:
- Website: zez.am/thejohnnychampagne
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejohnnychampagne/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thejohnnychampagne
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-tapper-911043157
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/cheffchampagne
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpqv6voGPaoWUzgAC4kXd8A
Image Credits
Ashandy Aurelius Tiger Tao Jonathan George