Recently I was interviewed by Patrick of Greenroom136 for his ongoing video interview series called ConcreteJungle. Previous episodes included interviews with comic book artists, graphic designers and other entrepreneurs.
I felt a kinship with Patrick whose main persuit now was making high-quality handmade messenger bags. Ater our initial meeting during this interview, I've since acquired one of his awesome bags. Great man, great work. It was wonderful to talk to him and appreciate the opportunity to be on his show.
I talk about my creative process, what I feel a musician needs to do to work in the modern music climate & how I got started playing guitar. I also perform a song for my friend Alda Tan.
[Note: The video's runtime is 46 minutes & 35 seconds.]
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In today's [Creative Fridays] interview, we geek out on guitar & have an exclusive interview with Jazz Guitarist Gustavo Assis-Brasil. He's most known for his awesome series of books on Hybrid Picking - explaining and dissecting this guitar technique.
I first met Gustavo when I taught at Berklee College of Music's Summer Guitar Sessions back in 2007. We had a mutual friend in common, Jazz Guitarist John Stowell who I remember talked fondly about Gustavo's playing and teaching. Eventually, I got to sit for a song in one of their duo gigs at Cambridge, MA's LilyPad, a cool intimate performance space.
Since then, we've kept in touch and I've been following his musical adventures (which are super cool!). Gustavo has been a real inspiration to me in both his music and work in music education - so I'm really happy to have him to be a part of this series. I hope you'll be inspired too, and check out some of the cool music he's into!
And now... presenting Gustavo Assis-Brasil! =)
1. What's your latest project? My newest project is my new book about hybrid picking. The book is called ‘Hybrid Picking Lines & Licks (foreword by Guthrie Govan). This is my third book on the subject and it is a collection of 284 modern phrases exclusively written for the pick and fingers combined. Chapters include: Triads, Arpeggios, Pentatonics, Scales and Modes, Atonal, Intervallic, and Octave Displacement Lines and Licks.
2. What inspires your music? It changes from time to time. I remember writing songs inspired by some paintings at some point. Lately I’ve been inspired by exercises based on permutations of notes and fingers, and also by some new chords I learn.
3. What's your 5 Desert Island Albums? This is a hard one. I like so many different styles, so I guess I could pick 5 from each style. The ones that come to mind writing now are:
- “Epiphany” (Vince Mendoza), - "Princess Sita" (Dominique DiPiazza) - “The 6 Unaccompanied Cello Suites Complete” by Yo-Yo Ma - “Aerial Boundaries” (Michael Hedges) - “Solo Guitar” by Ted Greene.
Again, there are many many other ones, but if right now I had to pick five, I’d pick these ones.
4. Who's one artist/musician that you love but most people probably don't know of? Nelson Veras
5. What's an advice you wish someone told you when you started in the arts? My grandfather used to tell me to choose something that I would love to do for the rest of my life as a profession/major, since I was a little kid. I thought I wanted to be a dentist, but 6 months before I went to college, my mom convinced me to go for a music major.
Photo Credit: Alvin Wong http://www.alvinwong.com.au/
Welcome to the debut installment of [Creative Fridays]
For the past one month, I've been contacting fellow musicians from around the globe. They are my friends -- wonderful people that I've met over the years. Even though they might play different styles of music, live in different regions of the world & love different flavors of ice-cream (or not!) ... They all are creative individuals that constantly inspire me in my own work.
In [Creative Fridays], I'll be featuring one every week for 13 weeks, running from Feb 2012 to April 2012. They include singer-songwriters, a musician-turned-film maker, rockers, a violinist-Berklee Assistant Professor, Jazz Guitarists, a musician/festival organizer, a Cumbia-Dub bandleader and more!
For our first interview, we have Kevin Broken Scar, an amazing singer-songwriter/bandleader based in Melbourne, Australia. Kevin is a professional sound engineer, leads the 3-piece rock band Broken Scar, an amazing guitarist and loves red t-shirts.
I first met him years ago at a gig organized by website/music forum Jamtank.com. At that time, Kevin was still performing a solo acoustic act. Even solo, I could hear the sound of the band that he was hearing in his head. It was rocking!
Let's get to know more about his music and take a peek into his creative world.
Here we go! (And if you like, you can listen to a track by Kevin while reading here) =)
1. What's your latest project?
I am currently in the process of recording demo tracks for a release that is yet to be announced.
2. What inspires your music? Most of the time the amazing people around me, my wife that I adore, God, navigating this journey of life, relationships and heart matters. I am also very fortunate to have many talented and gifted musician friends who inspire me. Lately, I’ve found myself getting sparks of ideas from films in addition to all of the above. 3. What's your 5 Desert Island Albums? [ the five albums that you could listen on repeat forever] Underoath – They’re Only Chasing Safety Taking Back Sunday – Live From Orensanz Anberlin – Never Take Friendship Personal Hillsong United – Aftermath Mr. Big – Big, Bigger, Biggest.
4. Who's one artist/musician that you love but most people probably don't know of? I can’t think of a better artist to love than my own brother Darren Teh of An Honest Mistake. He has thousands of fans so this may not fit the “most people probably don’t know of” bit accurately, but I can’t help it. He is a brilliant bass player, a killer acoustic and electric guitar player, a great singer and most importantly an amazing songwriter. He is one of the people who inspire me too.
5. What's an advice you wish someone told you when you started in the arts? I wish someone told me how much administration is involved in this music business.
Sunday, April 29, 2012 at 10:30PM 
