Alice Dehghanzadeh
Senior Staff Writer
Very few artists can command a whole room to perform a well-structured song without saying a single word, but Jacob Collier did just that. The Grammy Award winner recently held a performance and Q&A session at Campbell Hall at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB). He opened with a harmonic call-and-response song with the audience without talking, proving that music transcends language, especially when everyone in the room is connected through sound. When he did speak, his answers to audience questions were rich and profound, discussing the philosophy of music, the creative process, and the importance of human connection.
Collier continued his performance by singing “BLACKBIIRD” from Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter”, the album that recently won Album of the Year at the Grammys. His rendition of the song was far from ordinary, as he deconstructed it and used jazz-infused chords that made it sound like a brand new piece. His vocal ability was impressive, moving between octaves and expanding the boundaries of the original melody. Collier’s purposeful choices made for an intimate performance: silence filled the room to capture every inch of his vocals as well as his piano playing. Having played three moving songs, Collier moved on to host a discussion space, showcasing his ability to closely connect with the audience.
Following his performance, the conversation was just as captivating as the music. Dozens of hands raised, eager to learn more about Collier’s craft. He initially spoke about the power of music as a fundamental method of understanding the world. “Within each and every one of us, there’s a spirit of music and the language of it,” he told the audience. To him, learning music is not simple, because when we learn music, we learn a host of other things — from mathematics to geography to syntax. He also asserted that “we learn to listen to each other, and that is the whole of life, right there.” This idea was present throughout the evening, as Collier seamlessly connected topics of music, creativity, and human connection.
Collier commented that for him, creating music is like world-building, one skill that, he argues, we all universally share. Making music “gives us that chance to take the world and sort of transform it into something that soothes us and helps us, and shows us a way,” he told audience members. According to Collier, there are two “currencies” in order to build a world: time and attention. He especially highlighted the importance of attention as something so “intensely important that you’ve got massive corporations paying trillions of dollars just for a tiny bit of it because they know how crucial your attention is. If your attention moves to a certain place, it changes the world.” Artists can harness that power to shape meaning in their own lives.
Despite his acclaim, Collier stays true to the belief that creating art isn’t about chasing fame. “I never thought about being famous, I never thought about touring, I just thought ‘I want to be a maker of beautiful things,’” he shared. His journey in creating music started from his bedroom in London to becoming a seven-Grammy-Award winner, but his pursuit of feeling has been maintained consistently. “If you’re imagining listening to your music, what’s the feeling you want someone to have?” he posed to the musician in the audience who asked him for advice. It is clear that his authenticity shines through his music, as it pursues the same purpose of crafting a particular feeling.
As a testament to his focus on moving people, Collier shared the fact that he’s the first artist in history to be nominated for a Grammy with none of his albums ever hitting the Billboard Top 200. For him, this represents a “tectonic shift of how we measure value and art in this world.” He went on to add that there’s “something so thrilling about the idea that you can just focus on making things that matter so deeply to you.” In a music industry often steered by numbers, Collier’s success serves as a reminder of the power of authenticity.
When asked about creative blocks, here was Collier’s response: “I try to make the worst song in the world … As you do it, you kind of give yourself permission to be really weird and don’t hold yourself accountable to be amazing … Some of the best songs have an aspect of weirdness.” He also stated that “there’s not a huge rush,” and that “a lot of the most important things in life to be learned happen really slowly.”
Collier’s stance on community rang clear in Campbell Hall. When asked about what advice he had for young musicians and artists, Collier responded with a critique of networking with the prestigious and well-celebrated: “the truth is that those people already have their friends and circles,” and that “all the people you need are around you.” As young people/students are going to be the future CEOs, artists, and change-makers of the world, there is significance in fostering connection with their immediate community. He further advised to “look after the people in your life that make you feel like the best version of yourself.”
As for what’s next for Jacob Collier, the answer is he’s not sure and “delighted” in not knowing. “One of the privileges of being an artist is that you get to revel in what you don’t know,” he shared. “You get to investigate yourself and learn what lights you up.” This being his second visit to UCSB, fans hope that he’ll make a return in the future.