Zzaj INTERVIEW with Al Conti
I’ve been reviewing Al’s splendid and adventurous music for a long time now, and felt it was time to get a bit more insight into “who he really is” for all of our readers. While he doesn’t play “straight-ahead jazz”, his compositions are full of high-energy talent that just doesn’t stop. Thanks, Al, for taking the time to do this interview for IMPROVIJAZZATION NATION readers.
Zzaj:
The bio I read on your site shows that you’re originally from Argentina and have traveled ‘round the world quite a bit… please give us a brief “rewrite” that tells us how you grew into the fantastic music you’ve been able to create… feel free to go all the way from your first musical experience all the way to today; in fact, “cap it” by telling us where you live right now, & what made you settle there, if the muse strikes you so… our readers WILL be interested, I have NO DOUBT!
AC:
Hello Zzaj, good to be with you! Growing up with artistic parents helped quite a bit, particularly having a ballerina for a mother. Music was always part of my life as a child. I was always – and still am – quite a loner, so I spent countless hours alone, listening to music. I devoured books as I devoured music, which may be why I seem to intermingle both now in my work. However, I knew from the start that I was going to be an actor. So much so that at age 3, I stated to my parents this was what I was going to be. While I did end up working as an actor, music never left me. To this day I wake up in the morning with music in my head, either mine or someone else’s. Because of the harrowing times Argentina was going through during the 70’s, I left with my family in 1980, first to the United States and then to Europe, where I also have family. It almost feels like the von Trapp family! (Ironically, they reside in Vermont as I do and the children record in the same studio as I do). While I lived in different places of the United States, Vermont felt like home from my very first visit here. The energy of this place is very creative and peaceful, which explains why so many artists live here.
Zzaj:
The CD’s I’ve reviewed from you seem to embrace a kind of “theme” each time, making them truly epic… do the themes usually come from something you’ve read, or something you’ve experienced in real life?
AC:
I am never quite sure. I think probably both. I read quite a bit as a child and was always fascinated by stories from lands I found mysterious and magical. Growing up traveling probably cemented this in me even further, because the world truly became very small to me. Living amidst various cultures throughout my life has clearly had an effect on what I now create.
Zzaj:
What inspired you to be an actor, as well as a musician? Are you ever able to “merge” those two talents in your ventures? If so, give us an example… if not, tell us why they’ve stayed separate?
AC:
I do not think anything inspired me to become an actor, because I wanted to be one since I was born. There was absolutely nothing else I wanted to be, even remotely. Everyone that has known me since I was a child knew I’d be an actor. Because music was also in every fiber of my being that eventually both would merge was inevitable. So, while business-wise they both remain very separate (I no longer act, at least for now), they are still tied together in the work I compose. The music becomes a story that is acted not by people, but by instruments. I never really planned on this, but I seem to approach my work with the music from an actor’s perspective.
Zzaj:
What is your primary instrument, or do you play (& prefer) to play many?
AC:
Piano and guitar are my main instruments, but I feel I need to know how other instruments ‘behave’ in order to know how they will fit into whichever song I am working on. I also like to work with other artists and let them bring into my music their own energies.
Zzaj:
What is your feeling about the ability of music to heal the world’s ills? Is that only “wishful thinking” on my part, or can it be/become a reality in our everyday lives?
AC:
I think it already has, for as long as music has existed. You can see humanity always turning to the arts for healing in times of tragedy, joy and celebration. I am a firm believer in sound toning, and truly feel that sound can heal, as light has been found to do. There is much turmoil in the world right now and people are hit by it from every direction. I think music now plays a bigger part than it ever has in ‘taming the beast,’ so to speak.
Zzaj:
If you had the chance to play with one player (that you haven’t played with already), alive or gone – who would it be (& why)?
AC:
That is a hard question to answer, because I admire many musicians from just about every genre. If you think that my iPOD has over 18,000 songs, this alone gives you an idea! Another well-known New Age artist and I have entertained the idea of collaborating on a project together, but because of our schedules, it has not yet panned out.
Zzaj:
What kind of gear do you use for your recordings, or do you let others take care of the technical aspects? Are the INSTRUMENTS more important to a successful recording, or the talents of the players?
AC:
Hmmm…does a chef ever really reveal the secrets of his or her recipes? Gear has become more and more computerized these days, but I can say one of my favorites is a Yamaha SY-77 keyboard that I have had for almost 20 years. The poor thing, I am afraid, is now relegated to be more a controller keyboard rather than lending me its beautiful sounds like it used to.
I do a lot of the recording in my home studio and additional recording is later done at West Street Digital, in Vermont. Even when tracks have been recorded in other studios or countries, as it happened with my second album POETA, which had tracks recorded in a studio in Germany, I still return to West Street to finalize a project. I trust my engineer implicitly and he is well attuned to my work by now. I become like a family with those I work with and once that level of comfort is created for me, this is where I feel safe.
As far as software, we use many between my studio engineer and I, the staples being WaveLab, Nuendo and REASON. The final mixing and mastering of my work I trust to my studio engineer André Maquera. While I work sitting next to him for the arduous process that can easily take weeks, Andre is much better at figuring out the maze that different software can create. Having someone else to work on this part of the process is what I consider mandatory for anyone wishing to release a professional album. A great recording can be easily be destroyed by bad mixing and mastering.
As far as instruments being more or less important to the talents of the player, I believe that both are equally so. What instruments I choose to use in each song is of course key to the final sound the audience hears. And while I love using new instruments with unique sounds, if only one instrument is out of place, the whole song can go down in flames. Another important factor is the guest artists I work with. Many musicians express their innermost soul through their instrument. The artist’s energy and emotion comes through their instrument and adds an incredible amount to the song.
Zzaj:
One thing I’ve especially loved about the music you create is that (though in a “sort of” New Age zone) it avoids genre labeling… usually because you infuse each and every section with a wide variety of musical influences and heavy energies… that’s not just flattery, either, because I’ve reviewed a LOT OF MUSIC, and yours comes across with much broader scope than many who are playing similar music… how do you do that? What inspires you to pick a particular instrument for a particular section or passage? And how do you accomplish what you’ve set out to do? (I know this seems, in some ways at least, like a very hard-to-answer question, but please take a stab at it anyway)…
AC:
You know, as a person, I have always felt that I could be challenging to others. Years ago, I was tested using the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator, it turned out that I am an INFJ (less than 2% of the American population falls into this personality type). This describes me as an individual who is very private, highly sensitive, very complex, introverted, and abstract in the way I communicate. That was an ‘aha!’ moment for me. I also have a learning disability, which made things more complicated for me. Being understood was always an enormous task for me as a child. I always fear the same will happen with my work, and that others will not be able to understand what my music is trying to say. I put myself through a very hard time to maintain a balance between what is commercial within the genres I compose and what will keep me true to myself as an artist without losing my audience. And I am never quite sure if I have succeeded until people start writing in, telling me how they feel about my work. I encourage people to let me know, because I never know myself how well I did in their ears and hearts until they tell me. And then in a moment all my work can be validated when I hear from someone, like the therapist who wrote to me letting me know that she devised a whole program using my music to work with military personnel returning from Iraq with post-traumatic stress. She wanted me to know what I have done for our troops. I was in tears reading her e-mail. I will never forget that email.
I think all of this comes through in my work because it is the way I am wired. In fact, my manager reminds me often to that a different way to look at my learning disability is to think of it as a gift that allows me to see the world differently and compose beautiful music. So, in a way, my so-called challenges are a blessing. But because of this I am also never able to actually pinpoint a formula or the ‘how’ behind what I compose. Somehow, in my mind, I know what a song needs to sound like. I hear it before it is composed and then go through the harrowing process of bringing that into reality. My ears will then let me know what is right for the song and what is not. I do not read or write music, so I rely entirely on what is in my head and what my ears tell me. If something just does not sound right, it is not. The same with the instruments, they have to fit the sound that was originally in my head.
Zzaj:
I’ve read (again, in your bio) that you are able to speak many different languages… again, a strange question, but do you think (perhaps) those language abilities have influenced your music to the point where IT also speaks in many different dialects?
AC:
Absolutely. I learned languages as I did music: by ear. I was forced to learn languages because I moved to different countries during my childhood. I was a disaster in grammar, but I could speak the languages flawlessly. And because of being so different (2%, remember?), I worked very hard to understand how the rest of the world functions and how I should function to live in it, all without losing myself in the process. Rather than demand others conform to me, I chose to figure out a way to ‘catch up,’ yet take time to be alone to regroup. If I could not have been an artist, I was going to be a Psychologist because I was always interested in why I do the things I do and why others function the way they do. I think that this has made me extremely sensitive to what is going on with people around me. Because of this I think that I compose music in a way that it can speak to everyone.
Zzaj:
What is the most important thing you would tell a musician? In other words, if you felt they HAD some talent, how would you tell them to pursue a career in music? Or WOULD you tell them that? Is music as a career really worth the study and hard work it takes to achieve success?
AC:
Far be it for me to advise anyone! However, since you asked, I guess I would approach it the same way I did when people asked me about acting. I will say this: if music (or any form of art) is everything to you, what you breathe, eat, smell and hear, then do it. Like many people, I believe I was born an artist and, frankly, am a bit useless doing anything else. Still, I do feel I should warn anyone entertaining this kind of life. It is a difficult path and even more so in this day and age of digital piracy and illegal downloads. There are not set formulas either. You could study all your life and get nowhere, or be like some extremely successful musicians who had no professional training and make it quite nicely in the business. I think that there are many factors involved in this line of work, fate being also a big part of it. In any case, perseverance is imperative. You have to keep going forward no matter what. It can be a discouraging career and if you are not driven, you get stuck in the first snow bank you bump into and never come out. I am an extremely driven individual, and perhaps this is why I am still in the business. I do recognize that not everyone has that kind of drive. I created my own record label and the publishing company that holds the rights to my work, I am in charge of both these entities and everyone that works with them. It takes a lot of unwavering dedication – you have to believe. That said, no one who wants to create should be deterred. I encourage people to be creative in their lives, no matter how they choose to express it. If, as a musician, you choose to get into this crazy business, my advice is to get informed. Know what you are doing and, above all, realize that the music business is indeed a business. ~