Coast-to-Coast Man of Music: Kris Bowers

Kris Bowers isn’t like every other kid you meet who comes from Los Angeles to New York. He sits across from me, in a dimly lit Millesime, (located at 29^th street and Madison Avenue.) Enter through the spinning doors and you’ll find yourself in a chic, beautifully decorated restaurant bar. In the center of the high ceiling, 2 story-lofted restaurant, stands a grand Steinway piano in the middle of a small stage. The waitresses are dressed in little black silky dresses; the clientele for the most part is dressed to impress, with clean shirts and pants, and beautiful eveningwear.

Needless to say, not the usual hang for just any college student, but if you’re Kris Bowers, it’s an entirely different story. A jazz piano musician since the age of four, a grad student at Julliard, and the CEO and founder of Campusounds.com, Kris has already done much more than the average 21 year old. And after having the opportunity to speak with him, I’ve got the impression that this is only the beginning of his journey.

So why do I find myself at this classy mid-town restaurant? Well tonight, Kris has been given the opportunity to play piano for the beautiful people of Millesime, at approximately 8pm, for one hour with his band. Through a friend connection within the restaurant, Kris tells me that him and his band have secured a Thursday nightspot at this restaurant from here on out.

But who is Kris Bowers anyway? The story goes something like this: at four years old, he started in music school, and at nine years old, he began private classical piano lessons. At some point, he was able to switch to jazz piano, which he found to be far more entertaining than classical.

“I hated that I was inside practicing piano all the time while my friends were outside playing; my parents decided for me basically before I was even born that I would be a musician. My mother used to put headphones on her stomach while she was pregnant with me,” Kris said.

Kris remained loyal to the piano, for he’d developed a love for jazz. Drawing influence from the greatest, like Herbie Hancock, and Brad Mehldau, he put his heart and soul into the piano and eventually found himself at the Julliard School.

“Julliard wasn’t even my first choice…I really wanted to go to the Berklee School of Music in Boston. It was all set to happen, but my parents told me that Julliard might be a better direction to take,” Kris said. “I’ve already completed my undergraduate studies there. I’m in my fifth year at Julliard now, studying for my Masters degree.”

When Kris completes his masters’ degree, his ideal job would be to work with film scoring. “It’s cool because I have a lot of teachers that are able to offer me connections with the type of career I want to pursue. Jazz music is amazing, and it’s fun to play, but I want to score the music for films,” Kris said. “That’s a much more grounded lifestyle, as opposed to traveling and gigging all the time.”

Kris’s love for music definitely takes up a lot of his life. He says that there are other things he likes doing, but it ultimately comes down to the fact that everyday has a pretty strong focus on music. 

“Sometimes I score the music for my entire day…I get a little anal about it.”

Kris is also the CEO and founder of a music blog called Campusounds.com. The blog’s mission is to make people aware about college musicians. That can be anyone from a young underground musician in college, or successful musicians/bands that originally got their start in college. The purpose, according to Kris, is to give some recognition, and share new music with viewers.

The writers for Campusounds all have some sort of musical background, and from what it seems, really have a passion for writing about music.

Sammy Miller, a writer for Campusounds and a friend of Kris’s, said that working for Campusounds has really just given him an excuse to check out cool new music and write about it. “I’m always excited to check out music, and it basically gives me an excuse to spend more time doing that,” Sammy said. Sammy, 19, studies drums at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, and the two play in a band together. Sammy says that the dynamic is excellent between them all, and especially with Kris because both just want to make good music with good friends.

So far, the website has gotten a fair amount of traffic, with about 10,000 hits in its first couple months of existence. There’s an average of 200-500 hits everyday, and the number continues to grow as Campusounds becomes even more publicized by word of mouth. Kris says that his cousin, Murs, will be joining forces with Campusounds as a new partner, and hopefully help make the name even bigger. Murs, a rapper, just left the Warner Bros record label, and wants to go back to the underground hip-hop scene.

The life of a Julliard college student, jazz musician and CEO/founder of a music blog can be somewhat hectic, but Kris seems to have it figured out to a science. All that’s left is his career with film scoring…but for now he’ll just have to settle for putting together the soundtrack for his day-to-day activities.