RJ Wilks (they/them) is a composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, stagehand, and audio engineer based in San Francisco, CA. They play bass guitar, guitar, piano, drums, and produce music in Ableton Live. Their music tends to focus on exploring the feelings that arise from a certain place, space, or connection with self and others. The genres they work in range from ambient electronic to dream pop, but always lush and atmospheric soundscapes. Whether it’s playing in a band, co-writing songs, pairing music-making with another craft such as scoring for film, or combining music with spoken poetry, they believe that collaborative music and art making is a way to stay committed to curiosity, possibility, and open-mindedness.
They grew up playing drums and piano in the jazz band in middle school, but once they discovered Ableton in high school they switched to making electronic music. By college, where they graduated from Lewis & Clark College with a degree in Rhetoric & Media Studies, they realized they wanted to implement real instruments into their electronic compositions and picked up bass and guitar. When RJ isn’t teaching, they can be found backstage at various concert venues around the Bay Area working with San Francisco’s Local Stagehand Union or doing one of their hobbies such as making jewelry, welding, sewing, photography, or watching movies. Their goals as a teacher are to help develop life-long learners and foster confidence, creativity, and community through music!
They grew up playing drums and piano in the jazz band in middle school, but once they discovered Ableton in high school they switched to making electronic music. By college, where they graduated from Lewis & Clark College with a degree in Rhetoric & Media Studies, they realized they wanted to implement real instruments into their electronic compositions and picked up bass and guitar. When RJ isn’t teaching, they can be found backstage at various concert venues around the Bay Area working with San Francisco’s Local Stagehand Union or doing one of their hobbies such as making jewelry, welding, sewing, photography, or watching movies. Their goals as a teacher are to help develop life-long learners and foster confidence, creativity, and community through music!