Meet Chris Edgar | Composer, Songwriter and Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chris Edgar and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chris, why did you pursue a creative career?
Music was the first thing I ever really got interested in as a kid. I was only about two years old when I started banging on my parents’ pots and pans when they were listening to classical music. Seeing this, my parents got me a miniature bass drum with Goofy on the drumhead, and then I gradually accumulated more drums until I had a full kit. It was all downhill from there, I suppose. I took drum lessons and then piano lessons, started a band with my brother in which I played drums and wrote the lyrics (like my idol, the late great Neil Peart), and organically progressed from there into doing music professionally. Thinking back on it, I’m not sure I ever really had a choice.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I think what makes me most unique as an artist is my desire to combine multiple media and genres. For instance, I (and Beethoven, to be fair) wrote the music for Playing with Beethoven, a feature film that will be in theaters in November 2021. The film gave me the opportunity to create jazz, gospel and other arrangements of Beethoven’s work, and to conduct live players on set, and thus stretched my creative capabilities in a number of ways. Another current project is “Astragundia,” which is an animated musical set in a classic 16-bit console role playing game, and that project blends 16-bit animation and musical theatre in a way I don’t think we’ve seen before. As far as the lessons I’ve learned, I think the most important one has been to take on projects that seem like challenging, uncharted territory, because those keep me engaged and level up my abilities the most.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
For starters, I would definitely go to Gangadin Restaurant in Studio City, which is the best Indian restaurant I’ve eaten at in LA, and I’ve certainly tried a lot of them. As far as concerts, I think it’s important to experience a show at the Hollywood Bowl at least once, even though it’s a touristy thing. For outdoorsy types, I would recommend hiking near the beach in Malibu, although there are so many hiking options offering stunning views in LA that it’s hard to even ponder which one is best. Finally, for people who love theatre such as myself, I would go to the Hollywood Fringe festival while it’s running.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Like I said in my backstory section, I think it would be Neil Peart, who was the drummer and lyricist for Canadian progressive rock legends Rush. Before I heard Rush, the pop music I’d listened to was fairly conventional, and it hadn’t even occurred to me that pop artists could experiment with the music and lyrics to the extent Rush did. Listening to Neil’s playing changed the trajectory of my work as a musician, but also of my life. He was a role model for me in the sense that he, in his own words, really stayed true to the ideals and the essence of the kid he had been, and didn’t compromise them no matter what challenges he faced. It’s still hard for me to process sometimes that he is gone, but I hope I can carry on his influence in the world to some small degree.

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