Meet Gordy Li 黎名卓 | artist musician & cuzz

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gordy Li 黎名卓 and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi GORDY, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
yoo wassup shoutout bot I practiced for this interview by chatting with my gpt(fbi agent)

i do music for the bands, to do my dead homies proud, n because ts (this shit) is my fuckin calling bruh (brother)

could u imagine spending the next 40 years of ur life in a field where u never act on a single creative impulse as ur job? i think i couldn’t, i get these intrusive thoughts filling my head all the time and if i dont let them pass through me my head will explode WOMP WOMP

could i wait until after 5 every day? other friends more tenacious than me have told me that they could, i had to watch them get slowly worn down…… now that im in the same boat too, uncreative employment is forcing me to be more conscientious as an artist so i dont lose myself and ive slowly been realizing my interests in other forms of it too

i dig taking n editing photos and staring at aesthetic paintings watching old movies from 2008 making weird beats shopping cool posters scrolling so many tiktok cores and also coding neocities type beat

but since i was a kid its always been thru music especially live because ive been on both sides of the stage and i really believe in the energy that provides and heals when the room and the people and the moment all come together

knxwledge one of my goats rn and he used to (and still does on twitch these days) produce enough to fill like 2 full albums every single day wtf!! tho this is hard to do when im used to playing acoustic stuff with groups of people that i have to gather in my room but im trying to xpfarm on my producing this year so i dont have to shell out for studio time and stuff

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
yea im like a indie artist i guess, indie like indiana jones emoji 💪🗿🥱 stepped up after doing jazz school mid covid and JABBED the local music scene under and above ground, but no one knows i’m a diasporic digital child of immigrants chatting in a world with no twin towers :’))

offline most people see me as this real killin horn (saxophone) / keys player but in my own universe im more of like a mostly music among other things artist with some album contributions and no hits i guess

recently ive been a little bored with the sort of mercenary life that being a session player sometimes asks of you, i cant help but feel different from the people i support and when i realized that i was too often keeping myself quiet to amplify someone else, i decided there was this other part of my soul that i wasnt feeding enough doing what i was doing

is it ego to be saying this? like i could be a line cook or a chef and its not that one is more prestigious than the other but i cant help but prefer one? if i could be satisfied just riding it out as like a music service provider or anything humble like that, its quiet life good money but i dont think i can do that right now like my head would explode man…… it would be so simple too just to show up at the gigs im called to play at and not have to think about what i want to say or dwell on how vulnerable it feels to share that with people, so part of me really wishes i could be satisfied with less but i think i just wouldnt be that happy even if i were so safe, so gg! XD guess ill do something different now and think about how i feel about it later

when i was touring in prince george i was talking with this other horn player who mentioned in passing like this was wisdom he’d held for years, “we both know that as horn players we can only support other people” or something like that, i didnt feel good hearing this because i still believe in musicians as artists with real voices that say their own things that resonate with people, how could i do that if i gotta b thugging it out at a top40s cocktail party night after night?

so im lucky to know a couple bookers and venues so that i can occasionally put a show together, i try not to theme it as someone else’s music or concept but sometimes i write songs and other times we cover whatever im into rn (swing vaporwave breaks rnb kpop etc) and i try to play with people who will notice something i didnt and feel a different way of vibing with it know what i mean? i noticed that all the styles of jazz ive liked share a common spirit in collaboratively finding something new from what’s immediately relevant and i think this is a challenge i want to embrace instead of playing it safe and just sounding good all the time

i practice so that all the stylisms and cultural heritage that ive lived will speak through me whether i like it or recognize it or neither, knowing that this is what really moves me when i listen
though sometimes i find when it feels delivered in a package wrapped up in that way where you can recognize whats inside before you even open it, the whole experience is different

lots of players will gladly learn to imitate whatever style the venue wants but im interested in fostering something local and organic and i think that comes from collaboration and trust, shared between players and crowds!! when i went to see kamasi washington last summer he said it’s an honour to make music for you AND WITH YOU, such a good way to say what ive always believed, that music is a shared experience

even when i am so young i keep seeing the world change so much and as an artist i want to take it all in and not be left behind, here in vancouver where entertainment is easy to pass off as art and real meaning is easy to order and consume i want to do the opposite of that and really encourage people to find themselves in all (as many as they can) things on their own terms, im not about building that golden cage

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.
dude chilling park
my room (i have a crt)
crystal mall
one of the beaches
alexandra rd
redgate
tyrant studios

i know ur just asking me to describe places i like here but phrased this way where im like advising someone else’s trip I’d rather go like lemme talk to u so I got an idea what u wanna see yk?
i would not personally go to like the npc tourist trap places let alone shout them out here but like if u’ve never been to Vancouver b4 then let’s go do it idc lol

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uIb5DHK_jBTceab7Syb4wNPe6DKZGxeEOW95nhQ6Zms/edit?usp=drivesdk

sometimes-updated local af sheet of places i like eating in Richmond all gas and all fire hmu if u wanna check anywhere out

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
idk much about my grandpa (my moms dad) because he was gone by the time i was in high school but he had his art all over his room when i visited, some of it is in my room now
all like poetry and scenes and art stuff that he carved into squashes and wood, some of it i cant read anymore but when i was a kid i was cracked at reading and reciting it my mom said XD
he was very strong minded about his aesthetic and political opinions, im told he spent some time in jail for talking shit about the govt and to this day i believe that holding that sort of conviction is what distinguishes a true artist, bringing strong and grounded ideas to life through aesthetic expression should be my goal
ill never meet him again but i think i can reach the spirit of him and his ancestors, if not thru language and physical proximity then maybe in a more self-fulfilling meta kinda way thru my own expressions

SHOUTOUTS IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER FOR THE DIGITAL FOOTPRINT
rocky li
michelle li
jackie cui
rick son
ashley kim
piyotr kao
alyssa jung
angie huang
martin jasinski
christopher knee
matthew cam
yujia huang
feven kidane
tony wilson
bella bienert
lisa cay miller
john gross
julian ferrer
francis naluz
michelle escudero
john korsrud

Website: https://gordys.neocities.org

Instagram: @gordysmurf

Youtube: gordyVEVO

Other: discord @gordysmurf

Image Credits
Angela Huang took the photo with the bionicle in it

all the posters are made by me
all other photos taken by me