NEDERLAND — In the five years since the release of his most recent album, Electric Caribou, instrumental and electronic musician Christopher Caligaris has primarily focused on his career as a water treatment operator. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, though, he’s continued writing, building a catalog of tracks.
“I’m sitting on about 22 tracks, 14 of which, I think, are almost ready to release,” says the DJ, who performs under the moniker Godlazer. “A lot of the process of making music, for me, is therapeutic.”
Most recently, that therapeutic process has helped Caligaris work through personal grief, as doctors recently diagnosed his father with terminal lung cancer. Doctors successfully treated him in 2015 for a previous diagnosis, which inspired the 2018 Godlazer album Every Breath Precious.
“It’s through a lot of my own pain and suffering that I start to come to songs that I feel like have meaning and have a lot of purpose in my life,” says Caligaris. “I don’t write it into my lyrics, but I put it into the sound and how I’m feeling.”
Caligaris has consistently been inspired by styles including glitch-hop, dubstep, drum and bass, and future house in his work, combining acoustic drums, bass, and pianos into his electronic sound. More recently, though, he’s worked to deviate more from those original influences.
“One of the reasons I moved up here to the mountains from Boulder was to get away from a lot of the influences around me,” says Caligaris. “For a while, I stopped listening to anyone, and I started to just listen to myself and listen to what’s coming through me.”
Infusing his pain and anger into his personal sound, his most recent tracks have once again allowed him to move through and come to terms with his father’s second cancer diagnosis. He considers this collection, to be called Flappin' ain't Flyin', after a saying of his fathers', a spiritual successor to Every Breath Precious, and was almost tempted to name it the direct sequel.
For Caligaris, the most important aspect of his music is his emotional expression, creating music with the hope of finding melodies and musical choices that feel human. He allows his music to come naturally, working with melodies in the moment and trusting his instincts.
“The Godlazer, in my opinion, is the energy that comes through you from this place of unknown origin, so you get this inspiration that flows through you,” says Caligaris. “I think that’s what connects us to music, is that it touches on deeper feelings that maybe you can’t put into words, but you can put it into sound.”
Godlazer, along with Craig Beeman and B-Random, will be performing in Silent Disco Downtown at The Vault, located at 26 Peak to Peak Highway in Nederland, on Friday, May 15 from 5 to 9 p.m. The free-entry event is sponsored by the Nederland Downtown Development Authority, coordinated by Stephanie Andelman, and benefits the Peak to Peak Endurance Foundation.
To keep up with Godlazer’s music and shows, find him on Facebook, Instagram, and wherever you get your music.
