An Introduction to Christopher Leacock

Better known by his stage name, Jillionaire, Christopher Leacock (born April 3, 1978) is a Trinidadian DJ and music producer. Chris’s work has been performed at the largest venues and most successful EDM festivals in the world. He is better known for being a past member of the American electronic music group Major Lazer, along with Diplo and Walshy Fire. In 2014 he released then EP Fresh along with Salvadore Ganacci on the Universal Music label. Jillionaire is recognized for developing a unique mix of indie dance and big room house together the Caribbean rhythms and harmonies. I asked Chris if I could interview him for this work and his perspective as a working musician/songwriter/DJ.

Chris and I met on several occasions and discussed the two central questions of this chapter via Zoom in January 2021. After completing the chapter, I asked Chris to review the work as a member checking technique to ensure his words were not taken out of context and his intentions were best expressed. Additionally, before our call I asked Chris about the research topics I was exploring in an attempt to provide him ample time to reflect meaningfully on the topics.

Confronting Bias. One of the primary questions guiding this paper is, what exactly do current music producers and songwriters say they require to be successful? Although most of my interactions with Chris were informal, I asked this question in a way, and tone, that allowed him to be a bit more clinical about his answer. This is the first of many occasions during the interview where the answer I anticipated was far from correct. I prepared to hear stories of early musical training, although that did occur later, followed by the other markers of the typical trajectory of music majors.

It was then I began to realize the preconceived notions that were guiding my thought process and the interview. It was clear that Chris thought of the creative musician in ways that were outside of the canon of typical composition in the academy, or even singer/songwriter tropes of education and professional development. My bias also extended to the ways Chris delivered his thoughts on the musical process. While his dance music is extremely successful due to the high energy and fast-paced chords, lyrics, and tonal shifts, his approach to our discussion was measured, low key, and slow-paced.

It is not just what Chris said that startled me, it was the levels of metaphor and consistent presentation of intersections of all forms of arts modalities to describe his work that I found inspiring and mesmerizing. It was clear from the beginning that nothing about his work was happenstance. His approach was liberating, brilliantly thoughtful, and examined with a lens of self-critique that was profound and illuminating.

How to Be a Successful Songwriter/DJ. When asked this question, Chris’s response was unequivocal and assured: “The most important skills required are critical thinking and ability to collaborate with others" Chris emphasized the need to critically examine one’s work, to not simply follow typical archetypes of those you view as successful, but meaningfully question all aspects of both the process and the product you are creating.

I have a curatorial overview of what I want to people to feel, whether it’s walking into my house . . . eating a meal . . . what it should taste like. I take the time to consider the art as experience. Imagery and metaphors are everything. It is paramount to be a jack of all trades, master of none. You can make a parallel between any of the arts.

You may not have an understanding of the technique but you can capture emotion in food or pictures, or film study. I am not a painter, but I know what I like. I have a strong sense of what I am after and work aggressively to make sure that approach is received by others in ways that inspire the emotion I have in mind.

On numerous occasions Chris mentioned the need for musicians to be more critical of their decisions and decision-making process. He states that this is important due to the ineffable nature of the musical craft and the ethereal ways music is received. Chris believes that musical creation is one of the most difficult art forms to express because the technical elements can be difficult to learn and exact effectively. He further states that visual artists and filmmakers are able to rely on strong emotional response from pictures and other stimuli that help them more easily convey something quickly with little background or context. For this reason, critical thinking is a paramount skill for musicians of any genre to adequately express their ideas in emotion through a logical detailed form.

The use of form and its importance in constructing music was also overriding in Chris’s approach to critical thinking and music-making. The architecture of a song should be clear and concise, with deliberate delineations between the intro, verse, chorus, break/bridge, riser, and outro. Chris states that a musician needs to have a clear view of what they are constructing and what forms and structures are required to articulate their work to an audience. In sum, Chris states that critical thinking as it relates to self-awareness, openness for revision, and mindful and deliberate approaches to structure are important parts of the creative process.

It is sometimes difficult to walk into a room, even a room of familiar and trusted people, and present your ideas only to have them critique your work. At the same time, I do not want to be surrounded by yes-men either, in my professional or personal life. That said, sometimes changing or revising something, removing the idea that took you hours, can be extremely frustrating and a downer that’s tough to rebound from. I just keep asking myself: Am I remaining true to my vision? Does this revision make the song better or just more line with what people expect? I do find myself falling into the typical artist’s trap of believing my current work is far better than anything I’ve done before, then at the end realizing it wasn’t so great after all. So much of music is not the notes, but the way the beat or hook is introduced, the organization of it all.

Just as Chris reiterates the value of revision and structure, he also addresses the role of his emotions while creating, something in my experience, rarely discussed in music education settings. Chris repeatedly stated that his emotional being or mindset was important to his ability to provide good music.

Collaboration. Although Chris mentioned critical thinking as important, the larger emphasis was placed on collaboration. The collaborative process is important to Chris for two reasons. First, a good collaborator brings energy and passion to a project, a quest to find a sound or communicate a message. Second, collaborating means addressing areas of the songwriting process you need help with or just finding people to help make the work stronger due to their technical knowledge or musical skill. I asked Chris to elaborate on what he describes as a good collaborator:

They need to be passionate. If you are passionate, you are driven to have a strong work ethic. I look for those with passion to work with and alongside, because I know the drive will follow. Sometimes someone can approach you with an idea, but they do not have the technical knowledge to make it happen. That is where I believe I can assist. Technical knowledge and knowhow are easy, passion is not. I can teach people; if they are excited, they will learn what I need for them to learn. I always tell people that technical people or knowledge is great, but give me passion all day, every day. The passion translates to good music.

Chris described a recent song and his collaborative process:

[For] the process of songwriting, first, I say, “Send song references, what you want it to sound like.” Align expectations. If they say, “I want to make a record that sounds like this,” I can reach out to the people I need to help the aesthetics happen. I ask: “Do you have a writer? Do we need to find a writer? Are you performing it? Who is the intended audience?”

The last project in Trinidad [was] two collaborations, actually, one a singer- songwriter, one a producer. I said, “This is a great song; we should get a female voice on this.” We brought it to a woman who does music in Trinidad, a legend in the Caribbean music community. She said, “I love this; I want to perform it.” She came into the studio, she recorded it—it was tear-jerking. I then I went to other friends who play flute and sax, and said, “I need additional instrumentation.” Then we went to a female poet on the island and she recorded a little piece. So, we took this idea as a sketch, and we were able to pull people in to help pull the vision off and tighten us in the mix and the production. Alignment of expectations is first and always important. You say, “Hey, this is my vision; we are working together.”

Chris was adamant in expressing that the myth of creating alone and in isolation is indeed a myth. All of the major producers and teams of writers that they know all work in teams. Further, Chris identified some of the major singer-songwriters of our time and how their work is the direct result of working with someone, volleying ideas back and forth to create a piece of music. We both lamented the ways musical credit is still largely assigned to one artist, with little emphasis or knowledge of the multiple people it requires to realize a song or album.

I began the chapter describing my bias in the ways I approach composition and how that impacted the ways I thought Chris would describe his musical journey. I found it fascinating to note what he did not describe. In our discussions there was never a mention of talent, or innate music skills. Everything, in his perspective, has to be worked on as a craft. Also, there was no discussion of formal training. From Chris’s perspective the pedigree of one’s education was not important. What mattered was the passion and specific skills brought to the creative process. Finally, when Chris read this chapter before it was sent to press, he stated that his belief that passion supersedes education was a thought he never made note of before this interview. However, when seeing it on paper he felt the need to stress the importance of personal drive to any formative musician and their development.

Culture. One theme that arose time and again throughout our discussions was Chris’s attachment to Caribbean culture and his ties to his family and culture of Trinidad. Chris grew up in a home surrounded by music. It was his father’s interest in music equipment and music technology that informed his musical language. Chris was taught early on that the aural experience—the technical components of sound engineering—were crucial to the quality of experience for the listener. Chris describes venturing into his father’s record collection, hearing Prince, Santana, Trinidadian music from the 1970s and 1980s, and how it informed his perspectives on music, cuisine, and fine art. These experiences formed his basic aesthetic underpinnings.

For Chris, his music-making is about creating context for Caribbean culture and bridging the gap between Western music and Caribbean music. Formal musical training was not provided to Chris as a child, but by the music and cultural environment of the musical experience. His mother was in the church choir that sang the seminal hymns he can easily recollect. His grandfather played the organ and keyboard and encouraged everyone in the family to engage with music. Without question the role of family informed Chris’s perspective toward music production and the ways he would eventually craft his own musical vernacular. Chris reflects:

It is important to speak to the intersection of social mores and music. It’s very important because of representation; it is important to represent. It’s important [that] I represent my culture in its most authentic form. It is important to make sure an outsider looking in can get it right, that they understand a Trinidadian visual artist, or tech or I.T. guru. For future generations this is important, that they can see themselves in these different roles.

For Chris, there is an emphasis on bringing an authentic representation to Trinidadian culture in an effort to both express the culture in an appropriate outward-facing way, but also provide an inward-facing effort to serve as a role model for younger generations from the islands.