William Tran (’19), better known as Billium Beats or Chill Bill, is a music creator and innovator at Fountain Valley High School, who produces music for pure enjoyment, emotional expression and the bi-weekly Baron Broadcast News.
Growing up to his dad’s jazz tunes on the radio, Chill Bill’s inkling interest in music has been there since the very beginning. Chill Bill’s first experience with music was Kendrick Lamar’s 2012 rap reality “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City” back in 6th grade.
“From there, it just clicked for me. I started viewing music as a legitimate, whimsical art form. I started to research it and really get into it. Then I thought ‘You know what would be dope? If I started producing this stuff myself.’ At this point I was already learning piano and drums, so I had a good foundation,” said Chill Bill.
Chill Bill is a master of piano, drums, the bass guitar and the electric guitar. He’s also able to play the ukulele, harmonica and accordian. For the most part, the music on his Soundcloud is made using beat software on his computer.
“I realized that I should be sharing my music to an audience, so I got on that Soundcloud hype, and all of the sudden I got random people all over the world on Reddit and Soundcloud liking my stuff. It kept me motivated to contribute to the music community,” said Chill Bill.
Beyond just creating music for the sake of sounds and rhythm, music serves as a practical outlet for creativity and stress relief. Sometimes instead of studying for six straight hours, Chill Bill likes to take musical improvisational beats.
“Music is a way to express my current feelings and comment the way my life is going . If I’m feeling chill, I’ll produce chill beats. Some people call me Chill Bill. I feel I’m not able to express my sentiments well enough through writing or anything like that. Music is the easiest way for me,” said Chill Bill.
With something as beautiful and fluid like music, it’s never just black and white. At the end of the day, creating music isn’t just about getting fans or sounding cool. Music is an infallible mode of transportation for heart and soul to travel 200 miles per hour on the road to nirvana.
“I’d like to go to school for music technology, looking into the technical aspects of the instruments musicians make their art with. I don’t see myself stopping music anytime soon. For any aspiring artists, you don’t need the most expensive gear. You just need to know how to torrent expensive programs,” said Chill Bill.
