We recently connected with Charlie Xavier and have shared our conversation below.
Charlie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
From the moment I stepped foot into Mr. Falla’s grade 10 guitar class at C.W Jeffrey’s it was game over for me. There were no other paths in life that I wanted to pursue after I walked into that class room. It was a mixed class so there were older students and Liam Stanley, older kid, was playing an F blues. I was 16 years of age, a minority, and being a poor kid from South America living in Jane and Finch Toronto, I knew nothing about Jazz or Blues or playing the guitar, but when I saw and heard Liam play for the first time in my life I knew “I have to do that”.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Unfortunately at a young age I started collecting an unusual amount of emotional and psychological pain and trauma through a series of unfortunate events. The emotional distress is what lead me to fall in love with music because I found it internally soothing like a massage but for my soul. By trying to mitigate my emotions through developing my skills and craft as a musician is how I got the attention of my peers and teachers. As I grew stronger on my instrument I gained even more support and I got accepted to York University where I earned the Oscar Peterson Scholarship of $20,000 so my 3rd and 4th year were paid. After graduating with honours I went back to school here in Toronto at the Trebas Institute of Technology where I graduated with honours cum laude. Through my scholarly pursuits I have done countless performances across North America.
After leaving bands like the Toronto All Star Big Band and gigging as a jazz guitarist I started doing studio session work. The client would bring me to a studio like Orange Lounge and the artist would have some songs that already have guitar parts on them and I would have to listen to those parts and get it down quickly. Then once I have it down I can start to change up the voicings or lead notes etc. Then slowly people started asking “Well what else can you do?” That is how I started leaning more towards music production because I have roughly $80,000 of professional recording gear at home including snyths, amplifiers, keyboards, u87 microphones, pre amps, VCA compressors and many other things that i’ve been aggressively collecting for the past decade. Now I don’t do as much session work because I have a professional set up at home. What ever the clients needs I track at home and send over the files cello, guitar, bass, sound design etc.
I finished producing the music score for my first indie feature film last year and this year I am finishing an indie album with an artist named Snodaze which means I will be arranging, recording, mixing, producing, and song writing.
I have live performances lined up for this summer from now until July with a variety of different artists and musical genres because I don’t like to feel boxed in and I find getting to work with different people and songs keeps things fresh and exciting. I will also be conducting sessions and working at the Number Nine Audio Group studio as an audio engineer starting next week.
I am a private person but I do love people and trying to help them express their human experiences through art is something I am very passionate about it is a spiritual endeavour. A good story is my absolute favourite thing and if I can help breathe some life into a project that has a good story i’ll die a happy man.
The thing i’m most proud of today is being alive which might sound lame but the journey thus far from where I came from could have gone wrong in so many different ways, but I’m still here.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
I think everyone is creative. I don’t think there are non creatives and then creatives. If they don’t understand my journey it’s not because they’re not a creative it is because they’ve never hurt like I do. I could cut two people with the same blade but would both people say they feel the same way? People’s perception is there reality so if you do not understand my journey it’s because you can’t perceive it. The thing that drives me is not having family. The resentment of always feeling alone because you don’t have any parents, cousins, siblings, aunts or uncles at the student event or function, but every other student does these were the little moments that drove me. How you choose to deal with your pain and how much pain you have to deal with can be a powerful catalyst for ambition and I prescribed myself with music.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
This one time when I was working full time for Cineplex media in liberty village 8am-4pm and then part time at LCBO 5:15-9:15pm 7 days a week I signed up for experimental drug trials because I really wanted to buy a prophet rev 2 synthesizer for roughly $2799. I completed my first experimental drug trial where they were testing a generic version of a pill for organ transplants, but I didn’t get sick or anything. I went back for a second trial. This time they were testing a generic version of penicillin and everything seemed okay, but then I went to my ex’s and got very sick and no matter what I refused to go to the hospital because if I did I would get kicked out of the trial.
It’s Sunday night and i’m at Heather’s place trying to sleep, but I couldn’t because I thought I was going to die. I laid there sweating tossing and turning feeling like there was lightning ripping through my stomach and the whole time i’m refusing to do anything about it because if I go to the hospital i’ll get kicked out of the trial. Finally it’s the next morning and I can’t take it anymore so I go back to the experimental drug trial clinic and they have a doctor.
Within 10 minutes he tells me I have appendicitis and I need to go to the hospital right now. I went to the hospital and they told me I actually have acute appendicitis and by 2 pm I was in surgery. I purchased the Prophet Rev 2 with my experimental drug trial money later that week and then I never did it again.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bycharliexavier.ca
- Instagram: bycharliexavier
- Facebook: Charles Xavier Campbell
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-xavier-289490223/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8kakpdqtniC4t8eVsflJsQ
Image Credits
maxwell shots
mohtohsoh
kelvillain