We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chris Borelli. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chris below.

Chris , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

My involvement in music started, largely, by chance. At the age of 11, my siblings and I were put into the custody of child services as a result of a series of unfortunate happenings with my parents at home in Boston, MA. After several years of being in foster care, I was then adopted alongside my younger sister at the age of 14. It was within the years leading up to this where I fell in love with music as a young child seeking an emotional outlet. Piano became that outlet.

What evolved from playing the piano was my singing ability. From there, I learned to combine the two. Then came songwriting. Then came my experience with audio production as I began cultivating everything I knew into recorded songs. This entire process was self-driven. I was absolutely addicted to music at this point as it became the one and only mode for me to truly express myself both creatively and emotionally.

It wasn’t until I reached my college years when I began to realize that I could do this professionally. I promptly started producing and recording songs regularly in tandem with my studies. I then began developing my stage presence as a performing artist. It was also in this time when I was hired for my first paid performances. I stayed within the college circuit but began to understand the true meaning of being a professional at what I do. It became clear that the cascade effect of my trajectory was something I’m truly grateful for.

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.

My name is Chris Borelli and I’m a hip hop artist, producer, audio engineer, composer, sound designer, voice over artist, and DJ based in NYC.

I offer all of the above services to other music artists as well as for brands, small businesses, agencies, etc. I’ve done plenty of creative work for my own catalogue but have also begun to make a name for myself commercially within this craft.

There are many ways to achieve music and sound goals in the creative industry. Both via actual artists / engineers as well as AI. But what I believe sets me apart in the work that I do is that everything I create is rooted from a deeply emotional place. Music became my passion out of necessity. Since it began as an outlet and was purely an emotional escape, at first, there’s a deeper level of emotional intelligence I bring to the table when it comes to crafting sonic stories and landscapes. When you apply this in context, it ultimately allows me to create the most accurate sonic narrative based on the goals at hand. Whether it’s a song, sonic logo, composition, voice over script, audio mix / master – everything I do is rooted from an emotional place. This allows me to mend and mold frequencies exactly how I need to in order to convey the right story based on the brief.

I’m most proud of this ability because I know it can make a major difference in the projects I’m involved with. Emotional intelligence in creativity is mandatory, to me.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My primary goal in my creative journey used to be very artist-focused. For a long time I told myself I was going to be a big famous rapper and tour the world performing my music. Really leaning into that dream was normal to me – but I was also disconnected from it emotionally. Which is something I didn’t really admit to myself until a few years ago. After releasing countless projects and singles and performances across various states far and wide, it became more clear that my heart was more in the engineering side of things than it was being a well-known performing artist.

My mission has since evolved with this realization in mind. In my opinion, there’s simply more longevity in establishing myself as a producer / audio engineer in this industry. The range of projects I’m able to work on, the return on investment with said projects is much greater, and I can still express myself in all the ways. Ultimately, my mission is to go as far as I can possibly go helping bolster projects and initiatives from a music and sound standpoint – as an engineer / sound designer / producer, first. I believe this is where my life’s work will be for the rest of my time here.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson I had to unlearn was that there was a “right” and “wrong” way to do things when it comes to audio production and creative expression in general. No one explicitly told me this was the case. But as a budding producer / engineer, you’re doing endless amounts of research and digging to understand everything you possibly can about what you love to do. In that process, it’s easy to watch a tutorial and assume that the way this 1 person does something is the “right” way to do it – while forgetting it’s simply just what works for them. I can wasily attach myself to the first thing that pops up and provides insight on something I’ve experienced gaps with. But I’ve had to unlearn the idea that there’s only 1 way to do things correctly. It’s this idea of ‘correctness’ that I’ve been working on shedding as of late. In music, all that matters to the average person is the end product. People aren’t wondering ‘how’ something was done as much when what it makes them ‘feel’ is more important and impactful. Being led by feeling in this way has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made creatively .

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chrisborelliofficial.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisborelliofficial/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-borelli-889131a1/

Image Credits

An Duong –> @wongcarwayne
Audrey Tappan –> @hued.thecolorfulagency