Interviewed by Mike Gruenberg

If you don’t know who Al Conti is, you’re not alone. Although I pride myself on knowing a thing or two about musicians and all styles of music, past and present, until recently I had never heard of him. Had I watched As The World Turns, the soap opera program on CBS, perhaps then I would have seen Al Conti, the actor, but that program has never been on my “must see” list. Had I been conversant or even acutely aware of the many musicians whose styles can best be described in the New Age genre, then maybe I would have known about Al Conti. But quite frankly his music and knowledge of his existence had until now escaped me.

I was given Al’s latest album, Poeta by his publicist and asked to review it. I listened to it once and then again in my car as I drove to and from work. After listening to it a number of times I found myself enjoying this self composed, self played, self produced* (*Album was actually a co-production by Al Conti & Gerrit Ohm) album on the Shadowside label, also owned by the aforementioned, Al Conti. Being a believer in entrepreneurship and a fan of all kinds of music, I decided that instead of writing a review, I would speak with this multi-talented individual who not only is an accomplished actor, but also composes, skillfully plays a host of instruments, both conventional and ethnic and runs his own record company.

Al divides his time between New York City and Vermont. When we introduced ourselves to each other, I told him about jambands.com. He immediately knew about the site since one of his neighbors in Vermont is a member of Phish. He also pointed out that a number of musicians from the 60’s and 70’s are now actively involved in New Age/World Music.

Al grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His mother was a classical ballerina and his grandfather was a concert pianist. Al told me that as a youngster he would look through his parents’ record collection and play his favorites. Playing your parents’ music at a young age was something I did as well and knowing this about Al made me more comfortable as our discussion progressed.

MG: On the liner notes in the Poeta album, it says that Vermont is your true home, a place that you deeply love. Although I have never been to Buenos Aires, is your love for Vermont because it is similar to your homeland?

AC: Buenos Aires is a large city with heavy European influences so in that respect it is not at all similar to Vermont. On the other hand, the history of Vermont is French-Canadian, which is a very family oriented culture. My friends here are very family oriented and that aspect of closeness to family is similar to the way in which I grew up with in Argentina.

MG: Poeta is your second album. Shadows was your first. What lessons did you learn from the first time when you made Shadows that helped in the making of “Poeta”?

AC: It was a very enlightening experience. When I came out with Shadows it was a compilation of music I had written over a number of years. With Poeta it was a definite project that came together all in one year. I recorded Poeta here in my studio in Vermont. I did additional recording and mixing in Germany. The reason I had gone there was that I had previously worked with Omegasounds Studios a production company in Kiel, Germany and was very comfortable with them. Ironically, they are now heavily involved in hip-hop. Not only was I comfortable having worked with them in the past, but also the costs there were considerably less than here. By the way, my next album will be produced here in Vermont.

MG: On Poeta you play all the instruments?

AC: Yes, for the most part but on this album there were additional guitars performed by Tarek Krohn who is an amazing musician which was a blessing to have him join me on the album. I also had some vocals recorded in Germany and it was very pleasant to have that and would love to use them on my next project.

My next project will be slightly different. The theme of the album will be more along the lines of the song that opens Poeta which is called “Quest for Orpheus”. I feel that Poeta is like a bridge between Shadows and the next one which will be called Scheherazade. I feel that we grow as artists, so I think Poeta is like an in-between as to what is coming next.

Read Full Interview