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An
interview with Lisa Baker |
An interview with Billy Astro |
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1. Describe the early years of your musical roots and how your talent was nurtured. My mother was a Jazz pianist in L.A., so I grew up singing the standards and playing piano and violin. One evening when I was still in Elementary school I saw my Mom sing the theme from "Hello Dolly" in the Long Beach Coliseum (looking beautiful in a long blue sequined dress). In that moment, that shinning moment of my mothers I decided I wanted to be like her, on stage playing music. I played piano a lot as a child because I was by myself most of the time because of a health condition. Music was a way to express how I felt about life. In fact, there came a day when the family piano was moved into my room - guess I was in their face with it too much. It must have been a lot for my mother to give up access to her favorite instrument. 2. Where there any events, people or catalyst(s) that were musically influential? After her initial influence there was church and school music programs. In college I continued with choir and developed a deep friendship with a classmate who had an album giving concerts in churches. This is when I started playing guitar, writing and had some heavy influences from folk artists as well as a Jazz Guitar and a Philosophy of Aesthetics class in college. After college I started playing coffee houses in Amsterdam, then returned to the states to play in restaurants and bars in Seattle and the greater West Coast. Since moving to Nashville around 20 years ago my biggest influence has been from the Wooten family. Regi was my teacher for many years, Joseph has played in numerous bands with me, and Vic is a great buddy who just helps me out a lot (which is greatly appreciated). Now I have many teachers and a best friend who shows me stuff regularly. 3. What does your live set up consist of? It's so simple: A Mesa Boogie DC3 amp and a pedal board w/compression, extra distortions, chorus, digital delay and flange. These days I mostly play my favorite Strat w/rosemulding, seymour duncans, floyd rose and fiber optics and a Godin Montreal model semi-hollow body w/ pyzos. 4. How has your debut CD entitled, “Song for a New Day “ been received by the current market? People really like it! It just needs a business mechanism to promote it. 5. How would you describe the feel of “Song for a New Day“? It's a contemporary Jazz CD - more specifically Fusion, w/an R & B rhythm section - great players like Victor, Regi and Joseph Wooten, Oteil Burbridge, Rock Williams, and Jeffrey Scott Wills. There's a variety of different songs on the CD and it's not just for players. 6. Which radio stations are you receiving airplay with? Actually quite a few satellite stations around the globe are playing it - one off the top of my head is Radio Free Birmingham. Here in Nashville our local traditional Jazz station WMOT 89.5 and Fisk University's College radio station 88.1 are programing it. 7. How involved are you in the recording process of the projects you have worked on? On this first CD I was the producer and engineered all the overdubs in the LAB. 8. What studio equipment did you use to record “Song for a New Day “? I have a Pro Tools setup - Digi 001 w/PreSonus 8 extra channels of inputs with preamps, hand wired speakers and monitors and some effects boxes and an AKG 414 with various other mics. 9. Where did you master & mix your debut CD? John Billings mixed the CD at Funky Tymes Productions and Brian Foraker mastered it, both reside in Nashville . 10. What where the highs & lows of touring Europe? I haven't been to Europe for so long, hopefully I'll be able to answer this better in the near future - in fact I welcome advise. 11. Do you play other instruments? Sure, I play and teach Piano during the week and have grown up playing Violin, Upright Bass and Oboe. 12. Have you had the chance to open for any large acts? A long time ago I opened for Tina Turner, Rodney Dangerfield, Poco and Alabama as a solo act. Now, I sit in and play with the Wootens a lot and will be sitting in @ the upcoming Winter NAMM Show in LA w/Bill Dickens. 13. Have you had any of your music in film or T.V. shows? Not yet. 14. What are your musical career ambitions? I want to write and record music that will inspire people. If along the way I can help other women to know that they can play guitar as well as men can, and that as instrumentalists we have a particularly unique expression because the music is flowing through our feminine natures. I would also like folks, who aren't in their youth anymore, who still dream of playing an instrument to be encouraged and know that it's never to late to begin the journey - I didn't start my first scale on guitar until I was 38. I'm just going to keep creating, putting records out and having some fun performing. 15. What music organizations are you affiliated with? BMI and Godin Guitars. 16. Do you have your own record label and publishing company? I put out my own records right now and have a publishing company. 17. What are your plans for 2006? I plan to tour the East Coast with my band very soon, record an Adult Contemporary and a Smooth Jazz Gospel CD here in the LAB (which is under renovation) and get deeper into my guitar and become a better composer. 18. Are there any people who have helped you with your music career that you would like to mention here? Thank you Shane Roberts and Victor for all the musical support and thank you Donna Tisdale and Neal Speilberg for helping me with the business side of things. I also want to say thanks to all the great musicians who have bled from their hearts to give us great art. Thank you Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny, Alan Holdsworth and everyone else sitting all alone, recognized or not, working hard at their craft. For more info on Lisa Baker visit www.lisabakermusic.com or see the female jazz category of the database. |
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1. Describe the early years of your musical roots and how your talent was nurtured. The music that I was initially exposed to was various forms of Greek music such as rembetiko (urban folk) music and dimotiko which is music from the mountainous regions of mainland Greece and has Turkish roots. That as well as the pop/modern songs of the day. Once my family moved to South Africa, I heard rock music on the radio as well as the African styles. I was madly in love with sounds, wanted to play the drums but a family friend gave me an acoustic guitar and that was it. Next door to our house was a piano teacher with whom I studied classical piano theory and counterpoint for 5 years or so. I got obsessed with playing the guitar. I had no other interests other than comic books, UFO's and partying . I played that guitar for about 2 years with some tuning that I believed was correct so by the time I learned the correct way I had to relearn chords and stuff because I had made up my own. Primarily, my interest was to create songs or pieces so I did not learn others' songs. I figured that was what you were supposed to do. Just make up stuff like all the other people that were on the records, so I would make new little pieces everyday and record them on a little tape deck, plug the guitar into the stereo and have fun. All of this was done on an incorrectly tuned guitar. Nobody came to play in South Africa at that time, all I saw were cover bands. The person I saw play originals was Trevor Rabin and later other bands once punk rock got popular. That was inspirational as I interpreted it as I can really make up my own songs with any subject matter as opposed to love songs. Then I took classical lessons for about 3 years and the teacher stopped charging me after a few months due to my enthusiasm. I would catch a bus for an hour the walk another half hour to his house and arrive early. I also took jazz guitar classes with Alan Kwela, a well respected South African jazz guitarist. Not many kids wanted to play in a band with me though, they said I played strange and they were interested in just playing covers and that was alien. Later, I came over to the United States, I played and gigged non stop with my own bands throughout Boston. 2. Where there any events, people or catalyst(s) that were musically influential? It was mainly certain albums whose vibe, atmosphere I was inspired by. Those were Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Queen records as well as the Ted Nugent “Double Live Gonzo” which I wore out, but once I heard Frank Zappa’s “Overnight Sensation” album that was it. I got as many of his albums as were available. His music and satirical subject matter I totally related to. I also got very into Golden Earring, whose guitarist George Kooymans is one of my favorites next to Zappa, Hendrix and Jimmy Page. The Kiss live albums, Van Halen, Tommy Bolin, Neil Schon, the Police, the AC/DC live album, Peter Frampton, Santana (Moonflower album) , Funkadelic (Hardcore Jollies), Terje Rypdal and a lot of disco. I took some lessons from Roger Miller (Mission of Burma), a very unique guitarist when I lived in Boston and he exposed me to some cool avante garde techniques. I was very into the Sonic Youth “Daydream Nation” album at the time and was starting to experiment with different tunings which I use quite a bit in Vasoline Tuner. At the same time I was really into all the hair metal and flashy guitar playing alongside the art/punk noise and players like Sonny Sharrock, Adrian Belew and Helios Creed 3. What does your live set up consist of? That will depend mainly on which musical situation I am in. Mainly, it is my Marshall 50 watt jubillee series or my Marshall JCM 800 and my Les Paul, a Boss DD-3 digital delay, Boss super phaser and flanger . I also use a 20 watt Crate vintage club amp. 4. What was it like to record your debut and be signed with TON records? That was all very cool. It was an unexpected situation. R.J.Vasquez, the owner, lived in the same building as I, he heard some 4 track demos and one day just said okay lets record an album this week. I had no band, was not even thinking about a band for that material , so I gave a cassette to my friend Chris Roy (bass), R.J. got a hold of a drummer Pat Vasquez from another TON band Shoegazer and we entered the studio never having played before. The guys interpreted the casio built demos and we got 6 pieces down that night in 1 or 2 takes no overdubs and that's the way I generally like to record. Get it down straight away and capture the moment whatever it may be. The engineer was tripping on something, others were slightly drunk as it was a Xmas party as well going on in the other room. The evening was an experience. Over the next few weeks I had another 2 drummers play on the cd as well. 5. You have your own indie label, named, H 22 Music. Are there other artists on your label? Other than the Vasoline Tuner cd's, I have Uncle Max's Cosmic Band , which consisted of myself and Alex Mitchell, ex-Circus of Power vocalist and that is/was a psychedelic lo-fi punk hard blues type of music and you can find that at www.cdbaby.com/unclemax. I also have an EP by a band called Strobebath which I played on and that consists of a very talented writer/showman named Devin Lafayette who is like a modern day T.Rex. We will do a full length cd in the near future and you can hear some of those pieces at www.strobebath or at www.myspace.com/strobebath. 6. Do you have your own publishing company? Yes, it is Hallucinatti 22 music (BMI) 7. In all your years of experience have you made any TV appearances or had any of your songs in films? 8. What was it like to have your music placed on MTV’s road rules/extreme challenge show? It was great . I had sent some cd's to the production company, they did pick some songs but it was “Mr. Ugly”, that they played. I never saw the episode of course. 9. Who are the members of your band, “Vasoline Tuner”? There is Steve Carrillo on bass who has played in Vasoline Tuner for the past 7 years and now we have Raul Gerrerro on drums. We have had like 10 drummers or so . I have also played gigs with just a cd player that has the cheesy electro versions of the drums and bass on it when nobody is around to play or wants to. Vasoline Tuner can freak some people out but all it is is psychedelic punk rock with satire which can in itself be a twisting of the truth and the truth is just that, the truth and a lot of people don't want to hear that or that they are been made fun of . All I do is channel a happy little stoned ghost or two that roams around me and in Hollywood and transmits the vibrations of characters. Once I tune into such a frequency I ride it to a good jam and into songs expressing specific situations. See, there are so many types of people, artists, opportunities, scammers , gurus, name it, tabloid champs, they may have died happy, confused, horny or a combination and subsequently refused to move on to a different plane or reality or anythingness so their vibration/frequency lingers on looking for temporary hosts to vicariously enjoy or carry on from where they left so I just tune into that and spark song ideas.Thats what I do. A form of other world karaoke I guess. 10. How involved are you in the recording process of CD’s released on your label? I am very involved. There for every step of the process. 11. What recording equipment do you currently use? I have used and still use a Tascam 4-track, I also have an Akai MG1212 12 track digital recorder where I do most of The Vasoline Tuner on and for other situations I just go into a studio with either analog equipment or that to pro-tools. 12. Have you had the opportunity to play with some of the guitar players who you admire? Not yet but I have met a few of them . 13. What has been the highs & lows of your career so far? I cannot say that there have been any lows. I am thankful to wake up each day and to be able to play and create music. I thank the universe for that. From there, anything is possible. As far as highs go, I appreciate the opportunity I had to record the Vasoline Tuner debut and have that released, I have had a publishing deal with Virgin Music, opened for national acts and now for my band Fat Nancy to be released internationally. Other than that I am looking forward to many other highs. Still, to have a guitar and be able to play at whatever level is great in itself. 14. What projects are you presently working on? Currently I have my hard rock band FAT NANCY, that cd just got released worldwide, I am preparing a new VASOLINE TUNER album, I have been co-writing and playing on the next Tribe after Tribe cd which will be out in 2006, then also writing songs with my friend Tigre for a band called Engine Animal People that we have been working together on for about 3 years now and are going to release a full length cd. She has an amazing voice and writes great melodies. You can here some samples at www.myspace.com/engineanimalpeople and I am also playing with Strobebath. For more info on Billy Astro visit www.billyastro.com or see the male rock category of the database. © 2005 Yonge Music
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