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

Hi Steve, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

While music has always been an important part of my life, I’m not what you would call a natural talent. What I discovered later in life was that the way in which I best express my creativity – my art, if you will, is not so much to make music myself, but to make instruments that others use to make the music that I love.

I’ve basically always had the opportunity to pick up an instrument and make music of my own. It’s one of the many privileges that have been available to me throughout my life, but I know that isn’t true for a lot of people. So since I started building instruments for other people to make music with, I have always looked for ways to put my art to work for others who don’t have access to the kinds of privilege and resources that I have. Along side this, I’ve always believed strongly that I have a responsibility to give back locally to the communities where I live, work, and play.

This desire to give back in a way that honors my community, and taps into my passion has led me to build a special instrument each year for the Switchfoot BroAm charity auction in Encinitas. The money raised at this event each year supports a number of local charities in the San Diego area, including Save The Music Foundation, Challenged Athletes Foundation, and others. Each year I build a unique guitar or ukulele for the event, and these have been some of my favorite projects over the years.

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

Music is so important to who we are as individuals and as communities. Preferences and styles help us define ourselves as individuals, help us connect as communities, and help us communicate across cultures. Music can encourage and soothe, it can motivate and energize, it can help us express our joy, sorrow, rage, and love. And I’ve always been keenly aware of the importance of music in my own life. However, I’ve always been a bit frustrated by the fact that I’m really not very musical myself.

The best way I can think to articulate this is that I have played the guitar since I was about 13 years old, but I haven’t gotten any better at it since about age 16. But that has never diminished my love of music, and for years I continued to look for a musical outlet that fit my skills as well as it fit my desire. In time, I discovered that connection through building instruments that I could put in the hands of musicians that could make the music that I love.

I started restoring and modifying instruments about 15 years ago, and quickly moved on to building guitars, basses and ukuleles from scratch. After several years of practice, learning and experimentation, I founded CalStyle Studio, and began building instruments for sale in my small shop in Southern California.

My love of music now finds an outlet through the artistry required to design and build unique instruments that not only sound incredible, but also look amazing in the hands of the musicians that make them sing. I am inspired by the natural beauty of my home state of California, and strive to bring that beauty to life in the instruments I build. As often as possible, CalStyle instruments are built from sustainable, local woods, and with hardware and electronics sourced from local small businesses and bespoke shops. Each of our production models is named for a special place in California, including our Balboa and Santa Cruz ukuleles, and our Cardiff and Whitney guitars. We also work directly with musicians on custom builds that reflect their individual preferences and styles.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

In the early years of my journey as an artist and builder, I was very wrapped up in the effort to do things “right”. This wasn’t entirely unwarranted, because there certainly are some techniques that I had to master, and some rules that govern the way an instrument produces sound. But over time, as I learned from my mistakes and began to develop my own style, I realized that I was limiting myself as I strove to build instruments that other people would judge to have been built “the right way”.

Having realized that, I went through a period of transition during which I had to learn to trust my instincts, and to allow my sense of artistry and beauty find its way into the instruments I was building. I had to give myself space to experiment, and try things I hadn’t seen other people do, knowing that some of those things would end up as firewood. Adopting this attitude is difficult when I know that the instrument that I build ultimately has to live up to someone else’s expectations. A musician is going to use that instrument to express their own artistry, and I have to consider that as I express mine. Finding that balance that combines creative artistry and quality that a buyer can trust is the sweet spot that I shoot for most of the time. But every so often I give myself a little creative space, and I take the time to build something a little crazy, just for myself as a reminder of the lesson that “the right way” isn’t always the right way.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

We all leave our mark on the world in various ways. Some of us effect the people we meet through inspiration or service. Some of us invent things, or write code, or raise kids, or paint canvases – there are infinite ways that it happens, but I am convinced that we all leave our mark in one way or many.

I build instruments because of the way in which I want to leave a mark on my world. I’ve done a number of things that I think will last in different ways, but there has always been a part of me that wanted to make music. As I’ve mentioned before, I am unfortunately not very musical. I can’t carry a tune, my guitar skills aren’t performance level, and I’m not coordinated enough to be the rock band drummer I imagined I’d be when I was little. But what I can do is build. I’ve found an outlet for my artistry that fits both my passion for music, and my talent for working with wood, and that has opened a doorway for me to make my mark in a very tangible way.

My goal, and my hope as a guitar builder, is to put beautiful, unique instruments into the hands of musicians who will use them to make music that inspires, entertains, encourages, soothes, and enrages the world in ways that I can’t even imagine. I don’t need to be famous. I just hope that years from now, when I’m no longer around, something I made will still be making music. That will be one way I leave a mark on my world.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://calstylestudio.com
• Instagram: @calstyle_studio
• Youtube: http://youtube.com/calstyle
• Other: Online store: https://calstyle-studio.square.site/