Meet Chris Bottone | Hi, I’m Chris (Musician)

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

Hi Chris, what makes you happy? Why?
What makes me happy more than anything is being authentic to myself. It’s why the name of my music project is Hi, I’m Chris. I’ve been on a journey of self-discovery ever since I started making the art that I make. Before I took on the moniker, I was someone who really lived for other people. I wanted to be accepted by others and loved so badly that I ironically didn’t realize the only way to truly feel that acceptance and love, is by being the person I was and getting that acceptance from myself as much as others.

I remember the moment right down to the second when I finally caved and said, “I’m going to be myself. I’m going to be happy” It was in the CVS on Union Square under the Parsons School of Design in New York City. I wrote my first song, “Pineapple Soda” about how I wasn’t happy with who I was. About my paranoia, my lack of self love. And lo and behold, It resonated with a lot of people! (About 4-5 Million streams on Spotify worth of people, lol.)

Finding my sense of self in my music and knowing that’s also resonating with other people, maybe helping them find theirselves too, is what makes me happy. It’s changed the trajectory of my life, it’s allowed me to meet some of the best people in my life. It’s allowed me to be truly content with the state of my life, no matter the ups and downs.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
As a musician I think the thing that sets me apart the most from other musicians I’ve seen and me, not in a “Im quirky” way, just a general observation! Is authenticity.

I knew (and still know) a lot of musicians who want to sound like another artist, or wear their influences on their sleeve. No Shade! There’s nothing wrong with making the art you want to make or taking on a character! Hell, I’m obviously influenced by the music I take in, too. But my songwriting is extremely blunt. EXTREMELY, Blunt. It’s borderline just my speaking tone. A lot of curse words (I’m from New Jersey) A lot of sarcasm, and a lot of minutia.

Speaking of minutia, a lot of my writing subjects are rooted in some of the most boring interactions and experiences I’ve ever had. I’m not trying to tell you I have a Maybach and a private jet. That’s a lie. I’m not really about lying and Spotify pays like .004 cents per stream LOL.

I’m the artist that likes to talk about their nostalgia for happy times by discussing sitting on the hood of a car in a NJ strip mall. I’m sipping a dollar iced tea from McDonalds with my friends. I talk about a soda being the best thing thats happened to me all week. I talk about the house party where someone flirted with me and I was so uncomfortable I hid by the microwave while everyone else got plastered. I talk about keeping a love letter from my ex a little bit too long after the breakup just to have a shred of hope she’ll text me back (even if that’s really lame). The smell of a mall Cinnabon, the sounds of the Airport TSA, the Light of the streetlamp over a suburban road. The weight of a panic attack at work. That’s what people listen to me for.

I’m not singing about these things to romanticize them. I’m just saying it because those are the images that make me get that fire in my stomach and feel an emotion stronger than I’ve ever felt it before. Those little details make me feel like I’m there. I say it’s finding the magic in the mundane. That’s what resonates with my fans. They feel it because they’ve been there, too. They’ve seen it. I’m not showing them something new, I’m not giving them a fantasy: I’m letting them know they’re not alone.

I find a lot of people think authenticity is being “too much you” so to speak. It’s almost portrayed as being a caricature of yourself you that’s palatable for other people. That’s not true. You can never be more you, you should always try to place yourself in an environment where you can be your best you. You’re good enough as an individual to not overdo it and still be you.

I’m brutally honest with myself and in my music, but that’s why i find so much inspiration in the mundane and why i know i’m still being me by including it all. I feel like I’m a surprisingly boring person but that’s resonated with so many in my music that i’ve found the magic in the mundane and not lost my sense of self. I’m grateful that others, especially the people that enjoy my music, can feel that and can see that, they like me for me and all the magically and mystically mundane things about my life that i include in my music too – it makes me feel like i can truly be me in the art i create more than ever

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If we’re talking Los Angeles, I really love spending time in Little Tokyo. Tons of small businesses with a bunch of cool things to do, food to try, and places to shop! I’m also a huge fan of museums, and there’s TONS to check out in LA, So I’m always gonna vouch for em all, art, history, photography, you name it. One of my favorite spots in Los Angeles has to be the Korean Friendship Bell. it might be a strange choice to some, but I think it’s. a beautiful monument that overlooks the ocean and it was the first place my good friend and musical collaborator FrankJavCee took me to when I first visited the city and we had a lil ceremony to cement our friendship lol. So I have a lot of love for it!
Also, as a Mall Rat by birth, (It’s all I had in Jersey lol) Gotta go to a Round One. I wish we had those on the East Coast.
Coolest Arcades ever, man. There’s a few in LA. I always make a trip to one when Im out working on tunes or filming videos. I’m surprisingly good at claw games, and every time I’m in LA I wind up winning not one, but two Hatsune Miku Figures (I’m Not Making this up I only have had luck with Miku figures. It’s really weird.)
As for nightlife, Karaoke is always a move, or catching a DJ night here and there!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to dedicate this interview to my first fan. I haven’t heard from them since the interaction I’m gonna describe here. I don’t know if they still listen to my music, but I never got to tell them how much they impacted my life. Their name is Meghan.

One of the coolest things that has come out of the internet age of music is being able to see and interact with fans in a healthy way. My first fan interaction came directly after I started being myself through my music. It was the first response I ever got from ANYONE about my music. I printed out the response and I keep it in my desk because it motivates me. It means that much to me. It was my first song I mentioned before, Pineapple Soda. I had just released it, and I was TERRIFIED of the response from the outside world about me being myself. I was floored it got played ONCE let alone got like, 150 plays on SoundCloud (I didn’t even know how to upload music to Spotify at this point) I got an email. from a “Big Big Fan” They said it right in the body of the email- a FAN. I couldn’t wrap my head around it.

They kept it pretty simple:
“I just randomly came across your song on SoundCloud and I have yet to hear a song that perfectly describes my personal experiences with depression and the like. There’s something really cool and heartwarming about someone having similar issues and making a total bop out of it…Thank you for your sound, and I really hope you keep at it and do what you love!”

I was sitting on my dorm room floor, reading that. I got choked up. To be completely honest I got more than choked up I cried. It was an eye-opening moment. I realized that this wasn’t just helping me express myself, but making a positive difference in other people’s lives, even if it was just that one person.

That email more than ANYTHING. Is the one thing that has kept me going. It’s the thing I look back to when I get worried about taking this path of being an artist. It helps me continue moving forward, and because of Meghan I’ve found so much joy from doing what I love, and I’ve been inspired to spread that joy to other people through the music I make. That Email is why I try to shoutout every fan that makes Fan Art. It’s why I give feedback to artists that send me their first tracks. I was inspired by Meghan’s kindness. I want to not only make music to help myself be myself, but to help and champion others finding the joy in making things too.

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BOTWIZZLE

Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3tG8v81C32gJ64ba0WN0N2?si=NsJ634WFTb6MtNgC5BNnHA Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/hi-im-chris/1405730530

Image Credits
Hi-Res Concert Photos: Tucker Prescott Crowd View Concert Photo: Jason Card Rooftop Photos: Alex Travis