Meet Chris Wirsig | Composer, Songwriter and Producer

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

Hi Chris, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I can’t say exactly why, but I always had this urge to create. Early in my life I was interested in music and arts, and started with piano lessons when I was about 6 or 7 years old. And I soon discovered the fun in playing around, experimenting with the sounds the piano gave me. Later I also learned to play saxophone, went to music school and then studied audio engineering. This all came from me wanting to be able to do everything in the music creation process – from writing to producing. I always saw the studio as an additional instrument that can be used very artistically.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The nice thing for me is that I can work in very different genres and media – from music for TV shows to writing score for a movie, then writing and producing Pop and Rock songs. I love the little challenges that sometimes come with this diverse tasks.

I started out doing only darker music – Dark Pop, Crime and Mystery shows – but after several directors challenged me for some projects to write more whimsical, lovely, even romantic music, I realized that I can widen my creative output and actually can write non-dark music too. So thank to that I now have music in very different projects like the upcoming relationship comedy series “The F*Boy Diaries,” the alcoholism drama feature “Five Things To Love,” but also several horror features like “Aware Of The Wolf.”

I also like to write more mysterious music, and am happy that I can regularly contribute to TV shows like “Ancient Aliens,” “The Secret Of Oak Island,” and “The UnXplained with William Shatner.” The latter is probably the closest I will ever get to writing music for a project with “Captain Kirk” himself 😉

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
When friends are visiting I try to avoid the usual tourist spots (they can do that easily without my help). But I love to take them to the Hollywood sign – not to the usual parking lot where everyone goes, but approach it from the side of Lake Hollywood. You can’t walk completely up to the sign from there, but it’s a great spot for photos, and it’s much less crowded.

Also, Melrose Ave on a quieter day is great to bring guests, especially with the smaller punk and second hand boutiques. The old LA Zoo in Griffith Park is great too, and we have several unusual museums, like the Museum of Death, and of course the newly built George Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are two non-profit organizations that greatly helped me on my way: One is West Coast Songwriters, the other is the Society of Composers and Lyricists, that I joined after moving to Los Angeles in 2015. Both offer a lot of educational events and resources, and the SCL especially does a lot of advocacy and work behind the scenes in Washington to make creators lives better and fight for their rights and their livelihood.

And on a personal level I’d like to shoutout all my co-writers and the awesome artists I’ve worked with so far.

Website: https://www.chriswirsig.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswirsig/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChrisWirsigMusic

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@chriswirsig