We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chris Perkins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Chris, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

My new EP, “Meant To Be” is my most meaningful project. It’s been a fun journey building something that would serve as a follow up to my previous EP, “A One Night Only Event” and the perfect answer was this EP. “Meant To Be” began last year and was finished earlier this year. I went through different iterations of this project which included tracks that ultimately didn’t make the final cut. Typically, I prefer to just release a bunch of different sounding tracks packaged together, but decided to take a more organized approach this time around and selected the songs that followed a narrative. These four songs are my most cohesive tracks and came together because they all explored what I’ve been through, where I’m going, and where I’m at in life. After I found myself questioning lots of things happening within the last year, I realized I needed to accept that everything that happens is meant to be and will play out as it’s always supposed to. I’d like to believe that these songs take you on a journey and within this story you experience a relationship from beginning to end. But, the story plays out in a self contained manner where the ending leads you to the beginning of the EP. Depending on your interpretation, it may take you in a different direction that would be cool to potentially explore in future projects. With the help of many special people I’ve met in my life such as my current girlfriend (who shot the cover of the EP) and some really close people, they inevitably helped shape this story and narrative that I built. For example, Pineapple was started as a school assignment where I was challenged to create something with certain instruments and that’s where it came from. My longtime friend Josh helped me see through the vision and we created a beautiful music video that comes out May 6th. Champagne Kisses was created after I heard a fellow intern from a previous music internship say “May you champagne wishes come true”. Memories was a song my girlfriend built. I asked her to choose what instruments were on the song and what the lyrics were about and I just created the song around her rules. With the final song. I lucked out and met Adrian (who streams on Twitch under the name Koooyaa) who one day happened to play his unfinished beats on stream. When I stumbled upon his stream that day, I heard one beat that I fell in love with. I immediately had him send it to me and within the next day I sent him the demo for Thinkin Bout You. He loved it so much that he played it on stream and was excited for the song to come out ever since.

Chris, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started out this journey in 2018 with my debut acoustic pop single, “Free” and it led me to my current EP, “Meant To Be” which blends together elements of pop, rap, and funk. I’m an independent producer/musician who takes part in every step of the creation process beginning with writing to mixing to releasing. One of my goals as an artist and producer is to offer a new experience with every track I release and traverse through many genres by blending them together so that fans can at least find one song that they enjoy and connect to. I’ve met so many people who’ve made an impact on my journey since this whole music thing is one big collaborative venture. My main goal as an artist is to influence someone in the same way that I was influenced to pursue this path from my idols. I’ve been granted many opportunities to perform live around the world even getting the opportunity to play on stage with my idols Ross Lynch in his band, The Driver Era at the Fonda Theatre in front of thousands of people. Offstage, I’ve learned music on a deeper level as I’m enrolled in Berklee Music college. In my free time, I enjoy streaming on Twitch to connect with my community and help build songs with them in a live setting. I also do commissions where I create non-copyrighted music for streamers to exclusively play on their streams.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The state of flow has driven my entire creative journey and purpose. The feeling of getting a song right when performing or creating something exciting evokes a heightened feeling of euphoria and pride that proves to me that I can accomplish whatever I put my mind to. It’s insane to think that I’m essentially creating something from nothing. It goes to show there are LIMITLESS opportunities with this path and with the songs I choose to make and release. Exploring this path has brought out my inner student as I’m always finding new ways to learn and get more involved in the process starting from initial songwriting leading all the way to mastering the recording song and distributing it. In the end, I’m doing like 20 jobs at once but all for the love of music. I originally only wanted to perform music but I got such a kick out of producing and creating the atmosphere for my songs that I just decided to chase that feeling wherever in the process I got it from.

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

The main lesson I had to unlearn was the whole concept behind “be original”. I originally thought that in order to be original I had to create “something new and 100% original that was uninfluenced by something already made” but all that did was lock myself in a box as I put all these rules and limitations on myself. It wasn’t until I read the book, “Steal Like An Artist” that I learned that there’s nothing “100% original” because we can’t be free from influences, so why don’t we just embrace them and do it in our own way? With the combination of influences I currently have, I pick my favorite parts and implement that in myself and my music which ultimately create my “original” identity. I feel like a Frankenstein project because you take all these mismatched parts and bring something to life that’s never been done before and it works or it doesn’t. I’ve been lucky that it’s been working so far which means I’m doing something right. My idols helped influence my music because through my wide array of inspirations, it allowed me to create songs that present ideas in a new way from my own words, sounds, and perspective. I’ve felt like I really found myself within these last few years and it made music much more enjoyable. It’s the same mindset that other artists have where they pay homage to their idols and express how they pulled their favorite traits and just tried to replicate it but with their own twist. It’s the true way to find out who you are and who you want to be as a creative person.

Contact Info:

• Website: linktr.ee/chrisperkins
• Instagram: instagram.com/thechrisperkins
• Facebook: Facebook.com/itschrisperkins
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisperkinsmusic/
• Twitter: twitter.com/itschrisperkins
• Youtube: YouTube.com/@itschrisperkins

Image Credits
Katelynn Robinson