By Deja Brownlee

It’s 8:30pm on a Monday night, 23 year old Christopher Oliver pulls up to his Condominium, music blaring through the windows of his 2007 midnight blue ChryslerAs he steps out of his vehicle standing at about 6’0 wearing a white tee shirt, black Nike basketball shorts, black socks (almost certainly Nike) and black Nike sandals. Oliver places his headphones over his ears in continuance to the tunes that were just blazing from his car. He walks into his condo, the dark wood floors trail pass the brown leather and suede sectional that sits in the living room. Next to the antique wooden coffee table, the entrance to Oliver’s room. He enters, takes a seat at his monitor which is a 50 inch Sharp plasma television he has connected to his MAC mini so it can be used a computer. Next to the T.V. is a mic stand with a 4 year old dual capsule microphone attached as well as two 140 watt Rokit brand speakers. This is Oliver’s set up, where the magic happens so to speak. Where Christopher Oliver creates his music.

Oliver is a native of Tampa, Florida he attended Hillsborough senior high school. His first love was football he had dedicated 12 years of his life to the sport. This was also his ticket into college, although his high school coach felt that he was not a good fit to finish college stating that “his grades were too bad”. He managed to obtain a partial athletic scholarship to attend Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa where he graduated with his B.A. in Mass Communications in December of 2014. Oliver started dabbling in music his senior year of high school. He expressed “music takes me out of my comfort zone, It is second nature to me”. Football was easy for Oliver for a long time because it was fun, but he lost interest for the sport while in college. Whereas music is something he feels no one can take from him. Although he has to make a living and provide for himself by working two jobs Oliver states “ there is no other option of being happy other than music”. He describes music as his way out, emotionally. He has stated that he is not really a vocal person and has never really been able to express himself, music allows that outlet for him to do so.

Oliver may not get off from his second job until about 12 or 1 o’clock in the morning, in which he has a 25-30 minute drive home. Even then when most people would be focused on sleep and the fact that they have to be up around 6am to go to their next job. Christopher Oliver is listening to instrumentals getting the feel of different types of sound, and 9 times out of 10 when he reaches home instead of he is not going to bed. Instead he going to his studio in his room he is closing the door and laying down a track, which may spend an hour to an hour and a half making a song and then find other ways to perfect it once it’s done.

When asked, what is music to you? Oliver responds “music is me being me” he has spent a lot of time to find his sound and is still a work in progress. He does not categorize his music to a particular genre as he states “ I make MY music” he feels his music is different from what other up and coming artists in the Tampa bay area have been putting out. Oliver emphasizes that he does not make “dance music” his songs are more lyrically based and express meaning. He believes that the worst music made is when the artist tries to be something they are not. Oliver is very dedicated to his craft and believes that one day his music will be heard by the masses and bring him to the place he wants to be in life, where he can continue to create his happiness. He states “all I need is one great song and I’m in there”. Oliver has a story to tell he says “It’s a small one but it’s a good one and it’s MY story.”

Header photo by Miguel Mendez (flickr creative commons)