We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cris Zalles a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Cris thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?
One of the things that has become more apparent to me over the years is that the educational system does not address the importance of understanding creativity and the “creative process” as a key component in all areas of life. I may be in the arts, specifically in music but this is something that transcends the arts. Yes, artists are known for expressing their creativity through their art but in general, every person is confronted with the need to solve problems in all areas of life. Without creativity, or better said, without understanding how the creative process works, this becomes a more challenging experience.
Over 10 years ago, I started to organize songwriting workshops. I had had some success working as a staff writer for a major publisher by then (writing for other artists in the music industry), so the idea of sharing how to write more effective songs had some merit. The first challenge was the realization that in order to share my ways of getting better results I needed to understand my own process better. I needed to take it apart and that can be a scary proposition. It made me realize that it wasn’t about how much I knew about music or lyric writing but more importantly, how I developed my ideas. Then, during my workshops, I saw how younger students were less restrictive at developing ideas than those who had been writing for a while. They “played” better and had more fun. The youngest student I had was 14 years old and totally inexperienced in the art of songwriting. It turned out that because of that, she was much more open to try new techniques, make new connections in her mind and express them in an interesting way. Those with more experience easily gravitated back to their old, and perhaps more ineffective ways, finding themselves stuck more often. In the end, through those experiences and a lot of related research, sharing what I came to learn about the creative process and what the brain is doing while “creating”, has made a huge difference in the effectiveness of those who have tried my methods. This is why the first module of my course had to be about “creativity”.
Cris , 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’m originally from Chile and I came to the US back in the early eighties. I studied music at the University of Houston for a while with the aspiration of becoming a singer-songwriter. Back then, nobody that I knew was teaching songwriting so, as many others, I developed my own way of doing it. Initially I didn’t have good guidelines, a teacher or a mentor, so it took a while. Analyzing the music I liked was my school. Back then, Houston had a great local music scene that inspired me enough to begin to show my music and try to create some opportunities. I had the incredible fortune of meeting a local band manager that saw some potential in me and decided to invest in my development. I was adamant about finding my way into the Latin music industry, which at the time, late 80s and early 90s, it was beginning to grow. Through becoming a member of ASCAP, a showcase opportunity came along at The Troubadour in L.A. This drew the interest of a major label and things started to move. Although that particular contact didn’t work out it put a spotlight on me. I started to work with more professionals and moved to Miami in 93. The Latin Industry was “exploding” and I started to work with a well respected producer called Pablo Manavello, who not only mentored me but gave me the opportunity to place songs with some major artists. Eventually, he also helped me get a record deal with Sony Music/Columbia and we released an album called “Desde El Mundo Que Inventé”. I feel that my real break came when we changed my publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music Latin in Miami into a staff writer instead of a singer-songwriter type. The company had been formed by the late Ellen Moraskie, an amazing publishing executive in the industry that believed in me and through tough love guided me to having a career in music. 28 years later I’m still signed to them. Although the singer-songwriter “thing” didn’t pan out, I got to write for and placed songs with some major artists like Ricky Martin, Luis Fonsi, Chayanne, Santana, Nito Mestre, Ednita Nazario, David Bisbal and many, many more. I feel very fortunate to have been a part of the latin Industry at an exciting time when there was a clear path and sales still existed. I often say that back then, a “Like” (as in social media) meant $16 for a CD. ; ) There was no faking it.
Now a days, I live in Knoxville TN and my business consists mostly of helping singer-songwriters develop their craft. I produce a couple of albums a year (for others), write Spanish adaptations for Warner/Chappell and help a European boutique type label called MoonJune Records with their product and artists. In 2023 I finally released another album as a singer-songwriter. It’s called Escenas Pendientes, a personal collection of songs that didn’t find a home earlier in my career or simply, I kept for myself. I also included 3 songs of mine that had been previously released by some major artists.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I believe that we are a product of our creative sources plus our choices regarding integrity and dedication. While growing up I listened to progressive or symphonic rock like Genesis, Yes and Kansas, ELP and others. That helped me develop a taste for more harmonically rich songs, structural freedom and more adventurous music. I like music where “stuff is happening”. At the same time, I was a fan of early latin rock from Argentina, like Sui Generis, Juan Carlos Baglietto, Fito Paez, Seru Giran and others. Their influence for me had stronger effect on the lyrical side and the combination of those two influences gave me an approach to songwriting that when applied to pop, later on in my career, made it sound different. As a songwriter I had a feeling that my songs perhaps offered something else, more dynamic or even sophisticated at times. Unfortunately, at the time I didn’t understand the use of the hook, patterns and structure well enough to be more effective, so I missed many opportunities of having more singles released. On the lyrics side, I gravitated more towards telling stories, a great way to connect to either the emotional side or the imagination of the audience. Finally, what also made a difference for me, was that in developing my ideas, I was never content with the “just enough” approach that I see so often in others. Lyrically or musically, I go after an idea like a pit bull. I don’t give up until it’s all there and I feel the song has reached its full potential.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Sure. One of my specialties is lyric adaptations, especially English to Spanish. It’s a difficult craft since, not only you have to translate the ideas but it is critically important to conserve and respects the songwriting style, flow, rhyme scheme, patterns, syllable count, lyrical metaphors and many other factors in order to give it justice and get the approval of the original writers and publishers.
Years ago, I got hired to work on an adaptation with short notice, so they told me that I would have only a couple of hours in the studio with the producer to work on it before the artist (Ricardo Montaner) would arrive to record the song. As time approached the start of the recording session we weren’t ready yet and the producer became impatient and rather perhaps justifiably negative about our ability to finish it in time. The artist arrived in a great mood and with a great disposition to wait a little longer for us to finish. At a critical point, the producer said to me “NO, THIS IS NOT GOING TO WORK!!”. Honestly, I got pissed and answered back rather forcefully, “BE PATIENT”. This is a process and we will get there eventually. Your comments are not helping out”. I had done this type of work long enough to feel confident and I understood the process was about connecting ideas and finding a path, Needless to say, within ten minutes, we had found our way through it and the artists was happy. He recorded it and everyone else, including the label, was super satisfied with the quality of the work.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.criszalles.com
- Instagram: criszallesoficial
- Facebook: Cris Zalles
- Linkedin: Cris Zalles
- Twitter: @criszalles
- Youtube: Cris Zalles