Giles goes by his stage name, Stevie Walrus. He said this name came about from his favorite Motown artist, Stevie Wonder and this came about during a spring break trip with the Ultimate Frisbee club. This trip became the very beginning of his career.

“We were in a shop and I saw this kind of ridiculous design that said Bob Marlin on it and I just really thought that was funny and stupid, but I like stuff like that and absurd things like that, that are just really dumb," he said. “That was a pretty pivotal point in my journey toward becoming more of a formal DJ, musician and artist because that week I had been basically starting with an iPod app to actually DJ with the team.” 

He said he liked "Bob Marlin" as a concept, but it didn’t really resonate with him and at that point in time he was trying to find the perfect stage name.

“I don’t really connect with Bob Marley’s music as much,” he said. “But Stevie Wonder obviously, based on living in Detroit and growing up with Motown, it made a lot more sense because I like that music more and I sort of just thought as Stevie Walrus as a thing, so I decided to keep it.”

Walrus is an electronic music artist who combines different genres of music like modern dance, jazz, soul and funk while using a trombone. He displays his talent in live performances by playing his trombone over a mix of different songs. During his Open Mic night on Nov. 29, he performed five different times over a different mix of songs. The most popular set was when he performed the trombone over the song “Broccoli” by D.R.A.M. dressed as a walrus.

He said he sees his project as something more than a talent. He doesn’t credit his talent as a talent, rather as a vocation and something he works extremely hard to do.

“I think talent is really overrated, I think talent is anyone’s baseline,” Walrus said. “But if they work hard enough, you can get to where you want to be if you work hard enough.”

Walrus said he first started to play the trombone in the fifth grade and has continued ever since, off and on.

“I don't really know why I did, I just knew I wanted to,” he said. “I was actually a singer at first, I sang in the choir, but there was something about having my own instrument and I looked up to the fifth graders who could always play in bands, which no one else in the elementary school could, so I thought that was really sweet that you can have ownership of your own instrument.”

When Walrus got to college, he stopped playing the trombone and gave up on it because he thought there was no way he could make a career out of it. However, throughout his years at MSU, he realized there might be a future and picked up playing again.

“Throughout college I started building up more feelings toward it, and basically it took me five years to decide that I wanted to try it,” he said.

Walrus said his inspiration to pick up his trombone and start living out his dream was from a fellow electronic artist, DJ, producer and saxophonist, Grant Kwiecinski, better known by his stage name, GRiZ.

“Last year when I saw GRiZ, it just made sense,” he said. “I always kind of made excuses about it, because I thought about picking the trombone up and applying it, but then I saw him and saw how he kind of could make it cool and I was like, 'I definitely should just do that' for a lot of reasons.”

Even though GRiZ and Walrus have never met, he said his inspiration from GRiZ has a lot to do with commonalities that they both share. He looks at GRiZ as an inspiration and someone who helped guide him in picking up his trombone after five years.

“I have never met him, I want to, but he’s just a big inspiration in general just because we have so much in common from what I’ve learned about him through his social media and interviews that I’ve read about him,” Walrus said. “I think we'd get along based off his temperament.”

Because picking songs to play live with the trombone is difficult, Walrus said he goes through a certain process to ensure he is making the correct song decision and usually sticks to sub-genres that revolve around electronic music or get people moving in some way.

“Each song that I play now live are songs that I like just because it's more up-tempo, so that’s like the first thing. … Do I want to get excited about it, and if I find a song I really like i'll just play it over and over on repeat until I get my feel of it,” he said. “Those are indications that I should probably do a song.”

Walrus said he tries to pinpoint melodies he likes to learn and essentially connect with. He said he picks songs to play along with the trombone that will have an emotional connection not only on him, but on the audience as well.

“The goal is to play it enough and memorize it enough to where I know it," he said. “Then after that, you can really focus on how can I use my instrument to invoke the emotion I felt when I first heard it.”

Open Mic Nights are not the only place Walrus has showcased his talent. He first got his project started with the Ultimate Frisbee club and performing at their parties. He has also performed at co-op parties.

“It was refreshing to be able to go a place where you’re really open to doing what you want, but the only caveat is that you've got to be good because a lot of people have interest in doing those gigs,” he said.

His live performances and open mic are different experiences, he said. Picking the right songs at open mic are important because of only the limited amount of time he is allotted on stage.

“Open mic is a little different because I try to get songs that people know and I like, so for the small amount of time I’m up there, I make an impact,” he said. “The live shows are a little different because I can pick and choose smaller parts to play within songs.”

Live performances are the best way to see Walrus perform because it's longer, there are a mix of songs and he is playing over selective songs he personally likes, he said. 

Lately during the majority of his co-op shows, he has been accompanied by Joey Dwyer, MSU alumna and drummer who Walrus said has helped his live performances and to further expand his project.

“He was a psychology major … he has just been in the area and he just wants to do music, but it took him a little bit to actually figure out that’s what he wants to do,” he said “He’s a better drummer than I am a trombone player.”

Before expanding his project to official events and ticket selling performances, Walrus said he is trying to become better at unofficial events and small local parties by gaining confidence and momentum.

Walrus is graduating in a few weeks, but with his extraordinary unique vocation, he said he plans to continue to play the trombone, DJ and perform at different gigs.

“I see my business, or project, as kind of a car ... right now my car is a business,” he said. “If you are in a car, you have a sweet stereo system, a nice interior and everything, but you also have an engine under the hood that really makes the car run. Right now I see the live portion as all that fancy stuff ... but the engine is like sputtering, it's not even going yet, and that's what the music is.”

Walrus said he plans to work on the engine, essentially his music, for the indefinite future to gain more opportunities nationwide to expand.

“The plan is to get the engine running with the music and so then I can get more opportunities nationwide,” he said. “I’m going to just be working in my home studio for the foreseeable future until that can happen.”

Those who would like to listen to Walrus’s music can check out his Soundcloud or Bandcamp profiles.