Instruments: Voice and piano

Genres: Soul, Urban and Pop

Flo and I met back in December 2014 when we were both performing at a Holiday Party. It was one of the first times I ever performed solo and was really nervous. Flo did an excellent job calming me down and encouraging me. (Her performance was also absolutely stunning, by the way.) I knew she would be a great choice to ask to interview because she would have great advice and feedback about the music industry. Her bright and energetic personality was amazing to watch and listen to as she passionately talked about her musical experiences. You can tell this girl absolutely adores music. 

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Ashley: What made you decide to do music?

Flo: For me, it was the one thing that felt right. I felt this fullness, this connection. It not only felt right, it felt good. Everything else I tried and looked into, when I was looking into different careers and fields, nothing felt like really and truly me. [Music] felt like a great fit for me because it was effortless. I loved it.

A: How long have you been professionally singing?

F: This sounds hilarious but I always joke around when I “came out of the closet” with music; because I was definitely more of a closet singer. Growing up, myself and my sisters and my cousins all loved to sing. I always believed because of the way I grew up that the arts like dance, drawing, writing stories anything artistic was a hobby. It’s not something viable.

Now that I look back on it, I was naturally always artistically driven. My sisters and I sang since when were like who knows. I have a memory of the three of us being buckled up in the back of my dad’s car and the radio would be on and we would be singing and I remember him turning around and being like “How?! Who taught you guys that?” We just sang, we just imitated what we heard on the radio and we still sing all the time.

I used to love dancing. I watched those shows like ‘So you think you can dance?’, I love it. Singing, dancing and I still have my old sketchbook. I love writing stories. All the stuff came so naturally to me. Nonetheless, it was something I tried to repress or throw in the closet or under the bed and not open it up. I thought if I would sing it would be in a choir or in the shower or in the car. But it wasn’t until 2003 or 2004 where I got to the point where I said “enough!” Be you. Be real. You cannot live the life other people want you to lead because at the end of the day if you’re miserable it’s you that you have to account for. So in 2003 or 2004 I promised myself that I was going to take steps and cross paths with people, figuring out what I can do to actually take it seriously and pursue it. Since then it’s been a journey.

A: Whom do you listen to? Who inspires you musically?

F: Okay, if I have to narrow it down my favorite are the American R&B songstresses or soul divas. Everybody from Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, Adele, Amy Winehouse, Mary J. Blige, Whitney Houston, Brandy, Monica and who am I missing? There are so many. John Legend, I was just setting off all these females but also Stevie wonder. My favorite are definitely the rhythm and blues and soul. That’s my language. That’s what makes my heart beat. There are many more, but those are the main ones.

A: What accomplishments are you most proud of?

F: If I’m going to be real and sum it all up. I’m happy that I decided to take that leap and pursue music. It was a scary thing for me. But it’s changed my life and I’m happy I did it.

At one point I’ve wrote a list of venues that I’ve dreamt of performing on. Stages that I dreamed of gracing, and would you believe it, about a year ago I looked at that list again, and I got goose bumps. I’ve done it! Things like that, it’s just crazy. I don’t want to sound like I’m tooting my own horn or bragging. I view myself as a regular girl-next-door, a regular person. But some crazy things have happened to me on this journey that wouldn’t have happened if I had not pursued this. I love Lauryn Hill, and getting the opportunity to open for her at the concert hall or getting the opportunity to perform at the Burton Cummings theatre. There was a benefit concert at the MTS Centre and singing on that stage was insane.

If I told Flo from the past that these things will happen I would have laughed at Flo from the future and said “Come on, let’s be real.”

Those things have given me the faith and the boldness to be like “okay if these things can happen, the sky’s the limit. All things are possible.” Sometimes when I have those down days or down moments. I think to myself, “don’t forget what has happened before. Hold on to your faith, keep on looking forward because the best is yet to come.”

Don’t get into those pity party moments because we all go through those up and downs when we have our vision in mind and we know [it’s] going to be our Mount Everest or our large goal. Sometimes when we look that big goal and it’s so much greater than you, so larger than life and you wonder how you’re going to get there. Baby steps. Which is why when I look at myself and where I’m at, I think “Oh my gosh, this is going to take forever” I need to remind myself that it’s step by step and bit by bit. From where I started to where I am now, things have happened and more is to come.

A: How do you deal with nerves before a performance?

F: Well, I actually heard something that I will never forget that I tell other performers too. I think I as watching an interview on E talk or something. They were saying the greatest performers like Cher, Adele, Madonna get nervous before shows.

Adele, actually, when she had just released her album 21 she was saying how she got so nervous that before a few shows she would projectile vomit. She had a story where she was in Germany on her balcony and she was so nervous that she ended up puking on a fan. From her perspective she’s thinking, “What if I’m not good enough? What if I disappoint all these people who have come to see me?” I was shocked, I couldn’t believe Adele felt the same way.

What really got me was that other than these legends still feeling nervous; I think it was either Cher or Madonna, one of them said that it’s good to feel nervous, like an Olympic athlete before their big feat because that nervousness gets converted into adrenaline. A lot of times, when you have the best killer performance, it’s that adrenaline surging through your veins and arteries.

On top of that, what I got from the show that I’ll never forget, when you stop getting nervous get worried. It means you don’t care anymore, right? And sometimes maybe for smaller performances, where my heart might not be in it, I do okay. From my perspective and from what I know I can do, if I lack lustre and feel that’s it’s a mediocre performance I know I can do better. I find the performances where I’m nervous, and I HATE that nervous feeling, I HATE that feeling where, forget butterflies, BATS are in your stomach and you feel like you are going to puke and you are overthinking. I find those performances that I care so much that I want to do well. That nervousness, as soon as you hit the stage becomes adrenaline and you just kill it.

I don’t like those pre-jitters. But from what I hear everyone; actors, comedians, dancers, professional athletes, they all go through it. It probably won’t go away but that’s okay because it’s normal.

A: How do you balance music with any other obligations you might have?

F: I think it’s a constant juggle. I think there are few people who have mastered the art of balance. They need to teach the rest of us. Some months or some days I’m better than others. It’s definitely a struggle. I’ve heard so many stories and I know there are artists where their careers are so successful but their family lives are just brutal; that really get’s my heart because I want to learn from their mistakes. There are some people who have won Grammies, American music awards, Junos and are constantly touring but they’ve had two or three divorces. Or they will feel like crap because they look in their sons or daughters eyes and they are never there for their soccer games or tucking them in at night. Or even their friends who only get to see them on TV but never in person.

Garth Brooks took a hiatus from his career because he wanted to raise his daughters and wanted to be a dad. He ‘s not just a recording artist; he’s a dad too. I really respect that because I feel that’s important. At the end of the day when you are celebrating your accomplishments with your music, you don’t want to be celebrating them alone.

Success in life isn’t about having a successful career but having a successful family and friends. One thing that I have been hearing lately that really resounds in my spirit is that family and relationships are the most important thing in life. Again, I’ve heard so many stories of successful people who are rich but they are so miserable and so lonely. At the end of the day let’s say, not to be morbid but at your funeral you don’t want one or five people there, not that it’s a popularity contest but you want to know that you’ve impacted and touched the lives of many people through relationships.

For me, I want to try my best to balance. Sometimes, if that means that certain aspects of my music career are going to be sacrificed, at the end of the day I want to sleep well at night knowing that I didn’t mess up when the time comes [something like] marriage or kids because I was so 100% focused on my music career. So to be honest, it’s something I want to master. Balance is so healthy and important. But it’s something that I’m continuing to learn more of and try to be very conscious about. 

A: What is your songwriting process?

F:  I learned that there are so many different types of artists but I find that artists fall into different pools. There are some people who are constantly multi-tasking. When they are on touring a specific album, they are writing their next album. They are finding bits and pieces of time while they are performing to record.

Some artists do things specifically in seasons. That’s me, I’m one of those people. I’m all or nothing. I have a season where I just focus on songwriting and after that, it’s the season of taking the songs and start recording them. After that I focus on marketing and pushing that album, then touring and so on and so forth.

For me, I have learned that I’m a melodically driven person by far. Melodies come to me like out of the blue. I can be in the shower, where it predominantly happens which is the most annoying thing in the world because you’re sopping wet.

I’ve tested it where I’ll finish my shower before getting out and recording the idea as soon and I’ve either forgotten it or it’s changed. I can be driving or at the mall and ideas will just come to me. Thank goodness for our cell phones with voice memos.

It’s great for me to collaborate. Knowing my strengths and weaknesses, it’s great to collaborate with people who are lyrically driven. I’ve met people; it’s funny how things connect naturally, who are opposite of me where lyrics come naturally to them but not melodies. I find that it works best to work people [who are like that.]

Not to say that lyrics don’t come to be, because they do, but I find melodies come to me so much easier. I used to start with chords, melodies and then a couple words will come to my minds or a concept or idea then plug it in and then morph the chords around the melody.

Yeah, melodies are out of my wazoo. It’s at the point where I’ve got tons of melodic ideas and I need to start putting some words to some of them.

As the Beatles did with Paul McCartney and John Lennon, I think it was Let It Be. They started by just saying “Green Eggs and Ham” and they had the melody. Also John Legend said he does [that for] the songs he writes. For All Of Me, maybe the first thing in his mind was the word ‘roses’. He would just sing with the chords he had “roses and roses” until sentences or more concepts came to him.

I’ve found that helps sometimes, I’ll be at the piano and I’ll have a chord progression, then all of a sudden some words will come and I’ll put other words together with other stupid words. Something eventually comes out. For me always start with the melody or chord progression.

A: What advice do you have for beginner singers?

F: Follow your heart. Never sell out and be true to who you are. I love what Sam Smith said at the Grammys. He was trying to form himself to what he felt what the world’s view of the male pop artist. He was trying to lose weight, sing a certain way and he got to a certain point where he was like “screw this.” He was exhausted because he would sing a certain way, create a certain image and would go knocking on the doors of labels and people and everyone was ignoring him and not paying attention. He got to the point where he was so tired of it and just started being himself. If people like it great and if not, they don’t. He was who he was and the rest is history.

Be true to who you are. Soak in as much as you can. Learn from those who want to teach you or go to workshops. Forget just music. Some of the most brilliant minds. have all said that the foolish one is a person who feels that they know it all, but we are all still learning. Learning is so important.

Keep the vision in sight, never stop keeping it clear. Don’t let other people pop it or break it down. Be careful who you share it will because some people who want to tear it down. It’s ridiculous but some people do. Work hard and keep really good people around you. Keep your eyes on the prize and your nose to the grindstone. That’s one of my favorite sayings. Surround yourself with people who are good and people who are stronger in certain areas than you. That’s how you grow. You become more like the people you surround yourself in. There is just so much to say, but that’s the closest I can get to summarizing it all.

A: So you sing and perform, how do you approach people to join your band for performances?

F: The same way as making Facebook or twitter contacts. Initially, when I started off with putting the band together I was a little nervous because what if they didn’t want to join. When I see a musician that inspires me or who is freaking amazing, I’m like “What the heck do I have to lose?” I’ll go up to them and give them my email or maybe if they are into social media I’ll Facebook or tweet them. Telling them “I would love to work with you, let me know if you are interested. Give me a call.”

Of course, it happens where people are busy with a ton of other bands. Or some people, and I’ve told them “Much respect, thank you for your honesty” they will be like “Look Flo, we aren’t really into the R&B soul thing, I’m definitely more country or folk or rock musician.”

I’d rather someone tell me they aren’t feeling it because I’ve worked with musicians who are so good for certain genres or styles of music but it doesn’t blend well with the genres I’m doing. Or someone is playing with me but there heart is not in it. You can totally tell the difference between someone who is passionate and who loves what they are doing with you and someone who doesn’t. I love working with musicians who have their heart in it and will be like “heck yeah, let’s do this.”  Just test it out and just don’t take it personally if it doesn’t work out.

A: What is the most stressful part of being a professional musician?

F: I’d have to say unlike people we know who have the 9-5 or 8-4 job; it’s instability. As people say, it is one in a million who get to that real spot of success. But then again, success is what we define as success. [For] Some people success is being able book coffee shops across the country or continent. [For] Some people success is being able to book venues the like the West End Cultural Centre. Other people, success is selling out arenas or stadium or concert galls and getting nominated for Junos or Grammys.

I guess there are some dry spells. There are periods where it’s quieter with gigs and you have bills and stuff. I’d have to say for me, the instability and for somebody who is a little Type A who likes to have things planned out. The spontaneity can be cool but other times it can be like “crap” how do you plan your life when there are surprises that pop out.

For myself and my goals, as I mentioned, my definition of success is big and out there and so keeping my eyes on the prize is sometimes hard. Meaning I do know what I want but perseverance and persistence and staying on this road [can be challenging] because I know some people who are so talented but got tired and exhausted and sick of [it]. Continuing to have faith in what I believe and to make it and get to the end of the road is the end goal.

The instability with the little surprises that come along and holding onto that dream and knowing it may seem invisible to a lot of other people but understanding it will come. Those two things are the most stressful.

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Jul 2, 2015 at 10:02am PDT

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Name: Lucas Roger

Instruments: Acoustic and Electric guitar, voice, a little bit of everything

Favorite genres/Music to play: Rock and roll, singer-songwriter, story-lead music, folk roots

Name: Madeleine Roger

Instruments: Guitar, piano, Mandolin, voice

Favorite Genres/Music to play: Rhythm instrumentation, singer-songwriter, folk roots

Roger Roger is a sibling folk/roots duo from Winnipeg, Canada. Twins Lucas and Madeleine Roger are both singer-songwriters who have joined forces, each playing guitar and shamelessly harmonizing all over each others' songs. The offspring of producer/engineer/musician Lloyd Peterson, the twins have a knack for songwriting that must have something to do with growing up in a recording studio. 

Before we started the interview, I had the great opportunity to hang out with Madeleine and Lucas over some tea as they shared stories of growing up together and how they got their adorable but temperamental cat "Turtle". I was able to hear the story of the unexpected birth of this charming duo and how their fun and enjoyable music came to be. This adorable and quirky pair are definitely some of the coolest performers in town.

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Ashley: You [Lucas] like rock and roll and you [Madeleine] like folk music?

Madeleine:  Oh I love rock too! In terms of playing, I’d love to be able to do something like thrash around, but that’s just not where I am right now. We grew up listening to a lot of rock music.

Lucas: The Who, Tom Petty (that’s a big one), the Hold Steady. It sounds nothing like our music, but we like it a lot. Deep purple, country-rock, Jayhawks, Canadian rock like Matt Mays and Joel Plaskett.

Madeleine: People who kind of walk the line between folk and rock. Ron Sexsmith is one of my favorites. I’m typically drawn to is singer-songwriter style music or people who are singing about stories. I ‘m really drawn to the lyrics and melodies.

Lucas: Even if it’s not a unique story; but the performer sings a normal topic in a really interesting, unique way. It’s always fun to hear a songwriter write like that. I think that’s what Ron Sexsmith does so well. He has really cool and interesting stories, like “Strawberry Blonde” and “Pretty Little Cemetery”; and then he has songs like “Clown in broad daylight” which is a song about a clown in broad daylight. You wouldn’t normally think of things like that but he just does it so well. That’s what I like in songwriters.

Madeleine: I think a lot of the art that I like, in many genres and aspects, has some kind of connection to human truth and there are many ways to access that kind of inspiration. I like it when someone puts their finger on something and an audience can listen to it or view it and think “I know exactly what that feels like” or things can just be amazing to listen to. If it’s something that sounds so incredible and imaginative that it’s a new way of hearing something.

Ashley: So you told me earlier you have been playing instruments since you were little, why did you decide to play together?

Lucas: At the time, we were both writing songs on the acoustic guitar. I had been playing in a rock-and-roll band that dissolved in a very healthy way. I took some time to enjoy writing songs on the acoustic guitar and singing them in the kitchen, waiting for the pasta to boil, and Madeleine would walk by and she would add a harmony line to the chorus. Then Madeline went away to the cottage by herself and wrote a bunch or really great songs and started playing them when she was waiting for her pasta to boil and I would hear her.

Madeleine: I would say it was almost accidental. When Lucas was in his rock back, I would hear them rehearsing in the basement and would be sitting at the top of the stairs singing along the entire time. They didn’t know and I probably actually didn’t want them to know that I was making up harmonizing tunes and blasting from my little haven in the kitchen. Then at some point, like Lucas said, I went out of town and started to write more. I had written a couple songs and I knew that I liked songwriting; but I didn’t really like the songs yet. So I thought maybe if I go somewhere and just focus on it for a while so I could figure out how to do it.

Lucas: Did some woodshedding.

Madeleine: Exactly. So when I came back, I remember being a little sneakier that Lucas said. I remember quietly playing the songs I had written in my bedroom. When I thought no one was home I would come down and play them in the living room. Lucas would come in and say “Hey whose song is that?” I would bashfully say, “Oh, it’s my song” and he would ask me to teach him. 

Lucas: In the winter, Madeleine works out at this ski hill and pretty much everyone who works there are musicians. They all like to get together and hang out.

Madeleine: The family that owns the resort is so wonderful and generous. They really have gathered this incredible community of artists around this resort and around that area. It brought together a lot of like-minded people.

Lucas: We had a chance to play some tunes out there. It was a lot of fun and then we started thinking we should see if we could play for the Young Performer’s Program at Folk Fest. I think that was the first things we tried to do together as a duo. We were going to need some demos, so we went on the computer and recorded some basic songs. It got to the point were we needed a name. It wasn’t a one day decision.

Madeleine: We maybe wouldn’t have realized it could work if we weren’t living together. We wanted to sing songs with other people and we were both here, so it just kind of made sense.

Ashley: So, how often do you guys practice your instruments, alone and together?

Lucas: Uh.. [laughs] Easy answer: not enough. I don’t spend a lot of time practicing to get better at the guitar. I probably should, I work all day on guitars and then go home and work on some guitars some more in my shop.

Madeleine: I think the nature of the work you do though has you noodling away on the guitar all day.

Lucas: Yeah, I guess so.

Madeleine: There you go, so you practice.

Lucas:  Yeah, you could say I practice 12 hours a day [laughs].

Madeleine: I also don’t spend much time sitting downtown to practice the instrument specifically. I try to play each instrument everyday, but most times, what seems to happen is when I sit down to try to learn a new song; I just deviate into songwriting. I can’t find myself actually focused on just the instruments for too long because I start to hear tidbits or lyrics and melodies in my head and I end up wanting to catch that. So I stop practicing and start songwriting. I’m starting to see songwriting as a practice in itself. I can happily spend four hours of an evening, just working on a song. And with the practice of songwriting, sometimes it resolves in nothing and sometimes it resolves in bad verses.

Lucas: That’s such a good thing though!

Madeleine: It’s so great! There’s a song you didn’t have to write.

Lucas: I find it so helpful to get past a song. Not to discard it completely or saying that’s awful. 

Madeleine: Just to be able to have the exercise. I’ve written a chorus and I don’t think a verse will come up and that’s okay. I can walk away from this and maybe something will come to me two months later. That’s been happening to me a lot lately. I have this book that collects all the lint and static and madness from my mind. I go through it periodically and see what’s in there from months ago. I might see something I’ll want to work on more. It’s amazing what can happen. I finished a song the other week that had been a couple chords and a couple lines that resurfaced from a year ago. 

Ashley: I’m glad I’m not the only one who has a crazy little book of music.

Madeleine: I would go absolutely mental if they were on just little scraps of paper or worse that I’d try to have my mind remember them. My phone is filled with little pieces too and I will often put them on paper. I always feel I have to catch that stuff. If I don’t it’s gone; which is okay too. 

Ashley: What accomplishments are you most proud of?

Lucas: Getting along?

Madeleine: Not killing each other. It’s amazing how we live together, we shared a womb, share an Instagram account, a bank account a house and a refrigerator and we don’t hate each other.

Lucas: Or we are really good at pretending! I think our greatest accomplishment is that we are setting a goal for something. Madeleine has been doing a lot of work in terms of preparing for the future and what we are working on. It was so much fun to play together in the Young Performer’s Program because we had been going to see performances there our whole lives and it was important for me to be on the other side of the microphone.

Madeleine: Even the other week, we had opened for Carly Dow’s CD release and played with the Crooked Brothers at the West End Cultural Centre. We had been going there since we were born. Our parents used to pack us up in snowsuits and blankets to haul us there two or three nights a week because our dad was often working or playing there. We would always be going there to see shows. We spent so much of our childhood falling asleep in that building. It was so exciting to play on the same stage where we watched so many of our favorite performers play. A whole bunch of our family and other Canadians musicians I’ve watched on that stage. It was pretty special to play that show with performers and artists that we really respect and love as human beings. It was so amazing.

Ashley: What advice do you have for beginners who are starting out who are nervous about getting out there?

Madeleine: The biggest thing I believe in is to go for it. There is nothing to gain from not trying. You have to just jump in.

Lucas: I would say the same thing. I wish I could tell myself that. I don’t open myself up much to playing with other people. I’m very reserved with how I play and write. I like to do it on my own. But, whenever I play with someone else I learn so much. Just have fun with it.

Madeline: Be nice to people!

Lucas: Write bad songs!

Madeleine: and get over it. Writing a song is an incredible thing. You took something that had nothing there and you turned it into something. That’s amazing! I also really believe it’s important to find other people who are your comrades; we can all help each other. People want to be touring, doing shows in town, recording, they want to be experience new instruments. They are all around us, we just need to find them and drink tea with them!

Ashley: How do you balance work and paying bills with your music.

Lucas: I don’t balance very well.

Ashley: How so?

Lucas: I put work at the top of the list and put everything else at an equal last place priority list. Lately I work eight hours a day and fix guitars then I come home and I work in the shop in our garage until 11:30pm. I’ll give myself time to eat and I can pay the bills; but I just shut everything off.

Madeleine: He’s also been doing fantastic things. Like he’s making me a new acoustic guitar. The guitar he plays is the first one he’s ever built. So we will both have instruments that’s he’s made. They will sound really great because they will have similar qualities.

Lucas: I’m working on making them complement each other well. I think it’s cool that madeleine and I just like making things. She draws, sews, makes kayak paddles, and whatever else she’s making.

Madeleine: And the moccasins I’m wearing!

Lucas: Yeah, it’s apart of who we are, so why not play on guitars I have made.

Madeleine: In terms of balancing, we are both trying to do a lot at once, sometimes it can be hard to focus, or figure out what we want to focus on. I’ve been having an easier time with it because I’m not working full-time. I’ve been able to put a lot of my efforts on navigating learning more about the music industry. I’m learning how to make grant applications, and what’s the best order or operations for releasing an album. That’s what I was talking about before with knowing other people in the industry.  Those people are so helpful. Every time I have a question, I feel like I have a couple people I can call up and ask about pieces of advice. Like booking a show or whatever the case may be.

Lucas: Madeleine is able to just tell me when something needs to be done. I’ll be doing something in the shop and she’ll come up to me and tell me that on Thursday we are going to the studio. If there isn’t a second party making that call, I won’t even be able to do it.

Madeleine: I’m making a lot of my work the administrative side of the music making process. I’ve actually found I quite enjoy it because it’s a lot of logistics and a puzzle needed to be put together. I’ve never really been okay planning two years in the future, Lucas can attest to this, I’m more of a traveler and a wanderer. I usually don’t stick around too often. It’s nice to have found something that I feel really solid and safe in planning two years in advance. This strange feeling of peace comes up when doing all this paperwork for planning, recording, releasing and marketing an album. I need to figure out audiences and what kind of playing we want to be doing for the next couple of years.

Ashley: What is your writing process?

Lucas: I hide away where no one can hear me and I don’t come out until it’s done. That’s probably a very basic answer. I often come up with the entire structure of the song on the guitar and then piece in words. I’ve only ever done the opposite once. I wrote the words down and then the music. It actually went really well so I maybe I should do that more often but; most of the time I hum along to a few chord progressions until something comes up.  I don’t co-write. Again, I’m very reserved. I don’t really do that.

Madeline: I love this question because it perfectly highlights the difference between Lucas and I. Lucas will write a song all at once or the same way every time, and always alone. Where as for more, it’s a choose your own adventure. I honestly have no set steadfast way of writing. Sometimes I write the lyrics first; sometimes I’ll write a melody and plug in the words later. Or I’ll be thinking about a topic a lot and I’ll decide to write a song about that story. One time I decided that I wanted to write a two-chord song and I sat down for a day. It really depends, I don think there are two songs that I’ve written that have been approached the same way. Maybe the first couple songs I wrote, but they were really directionless. I think I decided that I want to write a song and sat down at a guitar and plugged some meaningless words; but I quickly moved away from that to a completely scattered but intentional writing process. A couple times, I’ve had dreams where I’ll hear a song so I keep a journal beside my bed. There have been a couple times where I’ve gotten tidbits of songs from dreams and that’s really cool.  When that happens it feels like magic.

Ashley: What made you decide to make this upcoming album?

Madeleine: It’s time.

Lucas: It just came from looking forward to what we want; what we want to do. Like when we were talking earlier about the accomplishment of thinking of the future.

Madeleine: We have so many songs collectively. We have probably 50 finished songs between the two of us. That doesn’t include the bits and pieces that could turn into songs and those that are still brewing. When we play live we only play originals and we can play several sets of exclusively original songs. After most shows we have people coming up to us asking if we have an album for sale and we have to keep telling them no. We really want to start going on tour and see that it would be best to go with an album.

Lucas: Also venues want to see what kind of product you have. In terms of needing some kind of representation of what we are, we could have thrown up a couple microphones and done a demo but what we agreed upon was to make an album as best as it can possibly be. We realized this is the first one, and it we will be all over the place with ideas of what we want to do with it with how it should sound; but we want it to be done properly, in terms of how its produced and engineered and who else plays on it. We wanted all those aspects to be done professionally, not DIY. 

Madeleine: Even thought so much of what we do in the rest of our lives is DIY, we decided to take the opposite approach.

Lucas: we wanted to start with something we are proud of rather than worry that we don’t have representation online. We hear it all the time, people can’t find our music online. 

Madeleine: We made the conscious decision to not put music online until we have something we feel is really good quality, so the first time people hear our music, it’s something we are proud of and a true representation of our work.

Lucas: And until then, you can see us play live! 

Madeleine: Something else is, I want to make this first album so we can hurrying up and start making the second one. We have only been working on demos right now and it’s the most fun we have ever had. It’s so awesome.

Lucas: Recording is so great. We decided to, with our album, that we are going to have other people play with us. When we perform, we usually just have the two of us: two guitars and two voices. 

Madeleine: Believing that the art of recording is different than the art of performing live or song writing is a whole other entity. You have so many options available to you in a recording studio. It’s more opportunity to play with the songs you have created. Our songs have been growing and developing through the recording process, we have been changing things.

Lucas: When you hear it so many times, and you hear something you don’t like that you’re forced to fix it. It’s good to sit back and hear what you do. Although I’m very critical of myself when I record.

Madeleine: But who isn’t though?

Lucas: I just find doing vocal recordings to be so stressful because someone’s voice sounds slightly different then it does in their head. Or you’ll sing a take and you’ll think it sounds great but when you listen to it you’ll hear it wasn’t actually very good and you have so many things you need to fix and where to breathe and what to stress. 

Madeleine: We love that human quality of recordings though. We decided that we don’t want to make an immaculate album.

Lucas: That was another mutual decision.

Madeleine: We want to make an album that’s us: the real people. With all the flaws and all the moderate mis-chords that may occur.

Lucas: Maybe not so much mis-chords, but making a decision on vocal harmonies.  Some people want them to be bang on that it sounds great and match each other perfectly. There is a song we did the other night that with the feel of the song, even though the vocals didn’t line up it sounds kind of cool. It sounded like we were singing together than rounding off every corner and make it really comfortable. 

Madeleine: A lot of our favorite recordings, the older stuff, when the recording style was more analogue, you weren’t able to take as many takes as the digital world is able to offer. Those albums are filled with all kinds of things that now you wouldn’t often find. 

Those moments, where you hear something unintentional can turn into your favorite part of the song.  That’s the part you remember and you can picture the human in the room recording that part.

Ashley: Do you guys have any upcoming performances?

Lucas: We are playing at the Real Love Summer Festival, this summer in Gimli. It’s a good time.

Madeleine: We’ll be hosting some morning singer-songwriter workshops.

Lucas: some good friends of ours put on the festival and they do a really good job of making that happen; it’s a really cool thing. It’s good to be around people like that too, they said they were going to do something, and they did it. We are also performing at Folk Fest. We are doing the Young Performers again. 

Support Winnipeg Musicians Madeleine and Lucas Roger!

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Jun 6, 2015 at 8:59am PDT

If you like this post, please hit the like and share button below! Please reach out to me via Twitter or my contact page! I would love to hear anything you have to say! Really, anything. I'm lonely. Also I now have a new Facebook page that will let you know when each post is posted! I would really appreciate if you could like it! Thank you!

Genre(s): Alternative, Folk, Indie, Pop

Instruments: Drums, Piano, Alto Sax, Guitar

I had never met Ty before this interview so I was really nervous meeting him. I realized right away that he is actually really cool and super easy to talk to! It didn't really feel like I was interviewing him, it was more like we were having a nice and friendly conversation. We actually lost a chunk of the recording, so I missed some really cool stories Ty shared with me; but I still learned so much from him. Check it out!

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Ashley: How often and how long do you practice as a band?

Ty: Practicing in a band is much different from practicing on your own. If we have a show coming up and we feel really comfortable with the set, we will just play through start to finish. If we notice there is something off, that’s a little funny. We stop and work at that part. We’ll try to break it down if it’s a rhythmic thing, make sure out harmonies are correct, that we can hear each other, or see some parts are overbearing. If we find a particular line that we keeping flubbing up, we will work on it. If we do have something coming up, the main thing is we practice out set and transitions to make sure there is no dead weight.  We practice for the stage.

A: Who inspires you musically?

T: Everybody. Mostly. My dad was a big influence because he was always playing when I was little. He was in a funk/R&B/blues band so I grew up on a lot of Motown,  Marvin Gaye and Wilson Pickett. They played a lot of 80s and 90s so a lot of funk and rhythm sensibilities that I picked up early on translated well into soloing and grooves. Later on when I was learning piano, I got into classical and rock piano like Elton John. Also lots of classical rock, alt. pop, blues for soloing, and jazz because I was in jazz band in middle school. 

A: What kind of music did you learn for each instrument you played?

T: In terms of piano, when I was taking lessons at my neighbors, it would have been a lot of pop stuff from all over the place while using early technique books and stuff like that. The first time I focused on classical music was my grade 5 Royal Conservatory of Music exam for the high school credit. I also wanted to make sure I had something in my back pocket for teaching, and grade 5 seemed like a good benchmark. I ‘ve always had classical training but started jazz band in school. I also did a little jazz on the guitar for a little bit on the drums. In band class I was playing tenor and alto sax also upright.

A: What got the band Sc Mira together?

T: Well it started with the singer Sadie and I. I was a producer for a couple of her first acoustic folk songs and then we started writing together. A year and a half ago we were started as a duo, but decided we wanted it to be a full band. 

A: So then, what accomplishments are you most proud of?

T: Teaching little kids. I teach at a unique place, where at the end of the year instead of a concert or recital; we put all the kids into small bands. We then have five weeks of them rehearsing together on the same song. When you have these 6 year old on stage completely on their own, playing a rock or blues song, I guess it’s not my own accomplishment, but when I see them on the stage the feeling is so neat.

A: What do you like most about being a musician?

T: The biggest reason I like being a musician is because I’m good at it.  I mean that sounds arrogant but I feel that’s fair to say. For a lot of things that people do, if you’re good at something you generally follow that path. I’m good at it and I like it. It’s an artistic challenge. It’s logical challenge with pattern forming; mathematics, science and art components. It makes people happy and you get to share that with them. You go on stage and let go, play characters if you want. Open up and tell stories. As lame as it sounds, you reach for the stars. You get to travel or tour and play with other people. I love how you get to connect with others that are not a necessarily normal [way to communication with others], like talking. It’s kind of like an extra level of interacting with people. No one really knows why he or she makes music. I think I’m just making excuses as to why I make music [laughs].

A: What advice would you give to beginners who are just starting out?

T: Suck it up, [laughs] in the nicest way possible! For me, I still get extremely nervous. Not as much in the last year or so, but I would be terrified about doing any kind of performing with other people. I still get nervous. I don’t know how I got through it all those years or what kept me going; but there is always going to be some kind of nerves with showing something so personal to other people.  It takes guts to get out there. It’s not something everyone deals with on a daily basis. It’s not like your forced to go and play songs with everyone from the day you are born - like talking and walking. It’s still interesting that we don’t really understand why we connect to others with music so much.

To come out and say “ Hey I play music” and sharing such an intimate part of your like can be daunting. So to get over it, just close your eyes and jump off the cliff. Baptism by fire is the absolute best option for me. Some of the biggest things I’ve have to overcome, like when I played at the MTS Centre, that was the absolutely terrifying. If I had sat back and thought about it like “oh no I can’t do this, I’m going to mess up” I would have started doubting myself and throwing all of these things in the air that hadn’t been there before. I just closed my eyes, closed my ears, shut up and went out and did it. When I finished, the adrenaline and the feeling of accomplishment were amazing and there are very few things that match that feeling. On the flip side and you do go and make a mistake or embarrass yourself, which I have don’t countless of times, it will freak you out for a bit but it gives you really good incentive to never to that again.

Trust your gut. Trust your talent. Don’t listen to the voices in your head, just listen to the feelings; because that’s what music is. It’s feeling not thinking.

A: How do you balance music with your other obligations?

T: I’ve managed to turn music into my obligation. For example, being able to teach music as a job. I also do composing and songwriting or I produce and mix for bands, TV shows and movies; so that fits in really well. It’s difficult. But, the more I focus, the more it’s easier to become apart of my work and school life. It’s definitely a juggling act. You’ll find yourself  saying “I really want to work on this right now but I have an exam tomorrow” and it’s unfortunate. I could be 100% invested in music but it would make life very difficult at the moment. 

A: What is your common and successful songwriting process?

T: I would say there are three main ways I personally go about it:

1.     Someone needs a song. You sit down and say. “Okay I need to come up with something.“ It’s not very inspirational; but the music will be good! The music sensibility will still be there, but you’re being told to write something. The producer will tell me  “I need this, I need that” and I work on something and send it to them. They’ll tell me what they like and what they don’t and I’ll keeping working on it until it’s completed. That’s the least creative way. It’s still fun, it’s just a different kind of challenge. You’re trying to work to someone else’s schedule.

2.     The second way to compose is in a group, where I might start with some kind of melody or structure and sit down at the rest of the group saying “here I have this, I don’t know where it’s going. “ I’ll play something, they’ll play something; they’ll sing something, I’ll sing something.” We’ll sit together and work on a tune or two. It might take a day or a week; but the entire band works together. It’s really interesting because you get everyone’s different ideas. It’s like sculpting a weird sculpture with everyone brining his or her own chisel. It’s a very interesting process. A good team-building project.

3.     The last way to compose is the most personal way. It’s 100% just myself. I’ll hear a tidbit of a song and immediately have cogs turning in my head and out of nowhere I’ll coming up with a melody. Sometimes it can be quick, other times it will take forever. Many items it just clicks: BOOM, there it is. You’ll get an idea and sit down with it. Just keeping at it and building on it. Lots of times that will be without any instruments in front of me.  When I have something I like, I’ll run to an instrument to try it out. I’ll even try to record it to make sure I don’t forget it. I usually don’t but it’s a good safety net. The third option is the way I write most of my own personal stuff. 

A: Anything you are currently working on that you would like to share? Upcoming performances?

T: Nothing until the EP or Album release. We are releasing it at the West End Cultural Centre in June. Once we finish that show, we are going on the road for three weeks. We have a big tour across Canada and the United States planned. 

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on May 22, 2015 at 6:00pm PDT

Support Winnipeg Band Sc Mira!

If you like this post, please hit the like and share button below! Please reach out to me via Twitter or my contact page! I would love to hear anything you have to say! Really, anything. I'm lonely. Also I now have a new Facebook page that will let you know when each post is posted! I would really appreciate if you could like it! Thank you!

Solo and collaborative pianist Indra Egan has been studying music for 16 years, including training as a soprano and violinist. She holds her A.R.C.T. in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music and recently completed her first year of her Bachelor of Music at the University of Manitoba, where she studies piano with David Moroz and voice with Robert MacLaren and Monica Huisman. She has performed piano concertos by Haydn and Schumann respectively as a guest soloist with the Prince George Symphony Orchestra, where she was the Chamber Music Series pianist for the 2013-14 season and first violinist for two seasons. In her home province of BC, she organized a series of 8 concerts called Indra and Friends that raised $15 000 for 7 different Canadian charities. She also taught piano and violin for nearly 10 years; her students have been accepted to Bachelor of Music programs across Western Canada, including University of Victoria and Mount Royal University. 

Indra has collaborated with a variety of artists, including lyric tenor Robert MacLaren and American violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn. Indra, who enjoys music of all styles and genres, is very passionate about contemporary music and has premiered works by multiple Canadian composers. Most recently, she won the University of Manitoba Concerto Competition, and will be performing a concerto as a guest soloist with the University of Manitoba Symphony Orchestra in their 2015-16 season.

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I had a great time talking to the talented Indra Egan a couple weeks ago. I was surprised how much I learned from her from a half-an-hour conversation. This girl is wise beyond her years. 

Instruments: Piano, Soprano, and Violinist

Genres: Classical solo and collaborative opera

Ashley: How long have you been playing piano and violin, and singing?

Indra: I have been playing piano since I was 4 years old. I started violin when I was 5 and didn’t actually start voice lessons until I was 18. Voice was a huge learning curve for me because the way you approach music from a vocal perspective is so different from a pianist, or really as any instrumentalist. It’s so much more linear and more organic. Instruments can be really intuitive but the voice, because you can’t see it, you need to internalize it.  It’s such a different way to approach music that I started incorporated that into my playing piano.

A: How hard do you push yourself, how often do you practice?

I: I practice everyday. I try to do at least 2 to 3 hours a day; which I would consider a light day of practice. Ideally I like to practice 4 or 5 hours each day of piano but it doesn’t always workout with school and courses.  The biggest struggle I’m finding with practice is balancing solo and collaborative music. I’m finding myself being drawn more and more to collaborative music and wanting to practice it more; but I do need a strong solo base. That’s why I’m here at the university to study solo piano for the next four years.

I try to spread it out [my practice sessions] through out the day though. I have experienced injuries and after coming back from that I have started taking a close look at my technique and strengthening my muscles. I stay at school for an hour or two between practice sessions in order to maintain a healthy practice regiment. 

A: When you are practicing, what are you focusing on?

I: I generally use my repertoire to work on my technique, so I don’t do a lot of scales or exercises. I did a lot of that when I was younger and I had a great teacher back in BC, where I’m originally from, and I am really fortunate to have a great technical base. I rarely practice by playing my pieces over and over at the full speed. I take each piece apart and study them. I will never forget the time I took 4 hours working on 12 bars. I don’t do that very often, that is an extreme case.

For example I will take something like a difficult sixteenth note passage and play it in seven different rhythms, different volume levels and accents. Even when I have a particular sound in mind, I like to play around with other sounds and colors because I feel it’s really close-minded to have only one idea for the song.

A: I’m always interested to hear other musicians tell me they too spend a lot of time on one section. It can be discouraging coming to a university with all these extremely talent musicians and forget they need to practice just as much as I do.

I: Yeah, I think a lot of the time we worry that the rest of the piece is going to be neglected if we are only working on one part. I find that if we are nervous about a piece that we are not quite prepared for. It’s usually one or two specific spots that worry us; not every single note of the piece. Once you take that fear out, like “I don’t have to worry about this part when I get to it”, suddenly the piece isn’t about worrying that one page of the song and you can pay attention the entire piece and it keeps you stable.

We also have a tendency to start at the beginning of a piece, which gets it to be really good on its own. I’ve begun starting on the last page of the music I’m working on.

One song I’m working on right now is a Chopin Nocturne, which always tends to get more difficult as the piece goes one. I always want to start at the beginning because it’s so beautiful and there is so much to do with it musically. But the last page is not as strong as the first; and so I work backwards.

A: So who would you say inspires you musically?

I: Definitely, the teachers that I’ve had. I’ve been really fortunate to study with really high caliber teachers. Even though I lived in a relatively isolated area, I always would find myself traveling far for lessons.

When I was 4, I would have to be driven for an hour to and an hour back from lessons. I remember getting really carsick. When I was 9 I had to travel 3 and a half hours for lessons. I got to access really great musicians, I would say especially Lori Elder, and of course the wonderful faculty at the university of Manitoba. I try to, whenever I get a chance, go see the performances from the faculty. It’s really inspiring to see all of these musicians with such intention and clear artistic vision that I see on the stage.

I am hugely inspired by the human voice; ultimately, it's what all instruments do their best to imitate. So with that approach to music, I guess it's only natural that many of my biggest influences are singers. Classically, I am a crazy fan of Joyce DiDonato. I love the warm and human quality of her voice, and she is truly an artist who inspires me both on and off stage. I fell in love with Maria Callas at a very young age - she's someone who's not known for a "perfect" or "pretty" voice, but who tells a story, and I connected to that immediately. My biggest piano inspiration is undoubtedly Martha Argerich. She plays with such raw passion, as though there's always a fire under her belly. Outside of the classical genre, I would say my most influential artists have been Carole King, Billy Joel, Radiohead, and Lady Gaga.

A: What accomplishments are you most proud of?

I: I would have to say number one is getting back into music. That was the scariest thing I’ve ever done.  Initially I wanted to do voice, instead of the piano; which everything thought was really strange since I never had any vocal training. I was in university and I knew that I wanted to do music. I felt at the time that voice school was what was missing, what I really wanted to do. I thought that if it was piano I would have figured it out when I was playing piano.

I did a ton of stuff that scared me when I went after voice. I assumed going in with a musical background would help me, and in a lot a ways it did, but it actually hurt me too. I kept trying to place all of the notes on a mental keyboard. Just the way you think of singing in classical sense is so different than how you see it on the piano. You have your chest voice, your mid voice and your head voice. You’ll have notes that are high in your mid voice that are low in your head voice, and so being able to conceptualize that the note is going to feel really high when they actually aren’t was so different.

I remember the first time I stood in front of a group of people; I was terrified - which was a new feeling for me because I don’t get nervous when I’m playing piano in most settings. I usually get excited.

A: How do you not get nervous?

I: I rarely get nervous. I’ll get maybe adrenaline but not nervous because I’m so focused. I remember that first vocal performance. It wasn’t a complete disaster but it wasn’t even close to what I had practiced at all. It was after two months of vocal training and I was doing a music festival with grade 10 repertoire. I just couldn’t handle how my body was no longer doing what I wanted to because I was so nervous. 

A: You had only in to 2 months of training and you were doing grade 10 material?

I: Yes, I took grade 10 right from the beginning. I had been accompanying vocal music for a while and had been singing on my own time for some time. I ‘d also taken French and German in high school. It was the first time being nervous while I sang and that was a really great experience as a teacher for all my students who get nervous so I can understand better.

A: With everything you’ve learned and everything you know now, what advice would to give to beginners who maybe want to take the same steps as you to move away for school or start performing.

I: Well I would say, do things that scare you. Perform as much as you can. That doesn’t mean start off perform a million times a week; taking as many opportunities as you can. within a reasonable amount. Don’t shy away from it. I do things because I’m not sure I can do it. That’s the philosophy I use as an artist, I don’t know how well it will work for other people, but I constantly challenging myself. That constant thrill of not knowing if I can do it is what pushes me.

When I came to this university it was scary.  I had never been this far across Canada. I came here all by myself and had to book my own hotel all by myself.  I actually never auditioned for someone that I didn’t know before because I’m from a small town.

The one of the most important things you can do is things that scare the hell out of you. Because first of all you learn that you can actually do things that scare you and it keeps you on your toes and it gives you that drive to keep going.

Expose yourself to more genres than just the one want to to do. I listen to a ton of music that’s not classical; because I think at the end of the day, music is about communication. Classical is not the only way to communicate. It’s one of my favorite but its definitely not the only way.

I love listening to pop song and thinking to myself “Oh this is the pop equivalent of this lied” because you realize that it’s the same story just being communicated in very different ways. I get performance tips from watching people like Bruno mars because he knows how to perform. Madonna knows how to make it that no one is watching anyone but her.

I think that’s really important to be aware of and actively pay attention to other genres; to be always open-minded. If I wasn’t I would still be trying to get into a voice program. I feel so much more at home in the piano program.

I guess the last thing I would say is a musician; no everyone gets a ton of people telling him or her what he or she should or shouldn’t do with their lives. Whether it’s good-natured advice or people saying, “Man you’re making a huge a mistake” or even people saying, “yes, this is what you should do”. Every once in awhile take a step back and listen to what your gut is telling you. We get so much advice and so many people making our lives their business and we have to live with it. If you trust yourself off stage, you’re going to trust yourself on stage. 

A: How do you balance your music with you other obligations?

I: It’s definitely tricky, there is no doubt about it. I don’t get as much sleep as I should. Like I mentioned before, I need to take breaks in between practice sessions so I’ll take the time to go for a run, do homework, or any kind of paperwork or emails. I think it’s really important that I make sure that I relax at the end of the day or just eat something when no one is talking to me. It’s really important to not just go to sleep. Take a little bit of a breather.  It’s important that as a musician, we go out and experience other things not related to music; like going to the forks or dating that one person.

Music is about emotion. Music is about life. Music is about people; so if we don’t experience those things how are we going to communicate them? The more life experience we have to bring to our music the more we have to offer as musicians. 

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on May 12, 2015 at 5:46pm PDT

Support Winnipeg Musician Indra Egan!

If you like this post, please hit the like and share button below! Please reach out to me via Twitter or my contact page! I would love to hear anything you have to say! Really, anything. I'm lonely. Also I now have a new Facebook page that will let you know when each post is posted! I would really appreciate if you could like it! Thank you!

Instrument(s): Opera Voice, Guitar, Piano, Flute, Drums, Bass, Mandolin 

Genre(s): Classical, some jazz, classic and progressive/art rock

Tristan Zaba is a Canadian composer, arranger, producer, and instrumentalist. In 2012, he released his first album, Thoughts Past Pondered, and released his second album, In The Round, in 2014 with his band ZABA. Both albums feature the band's progressive rock style bringing in modern influences such as Steven Wilson, Rush, Jethro Tull, and Pink Floyd. Currently he is studying music composition with the Faculty of Music at the University of Manitoba.

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Ashley: Let's start with you telling me how long have you been playing?

Tristan: I have been playing guitar since I was in grade 1, but I don't have much formal training. Actually, I never really received any formal training on guitar, but I’ve always made an effort to drill myself technically so I consider myself decent with classical and jazz technique.

As far as the instrument I’ve studied the longest in a formal setting I would have to say is voice. I’ve been singing opera for 6 or 7 years now. I trained when I was living back in Calgary.

A: That’s where you are from, right?

T: Yeah, I’m from near Calgary but I was originally born in Toronto.

A: Did you move to Winnipeg for school?

T: Yeah, I did. I’m living in residence right now, and I came here because I’m a composer. The composition program had a really good offer. It came down between this and McGill and this seemed like a way better choice.

A: How so?

T: I was accepted at a few places, like University of Victoria, UBC, McGill, University of Manitoba and University of Western Ontario. For each university, I was accepted into their direct entry composition. The thing is, at McGill they have the largest number of music students of any school in north america in terms of sheer numbers, and it’s not huge in the composition faculty. I mean, there are only 8 students here. But there is not nearly as much flexible [at McGill]. Yeah, they are going to give you a great training but, it’s extremely regimented and you know exactly what you are going to be doing for your entire degree. They have it all mapped out.

Here at the University of Manitoba, it’s extremely free. I’m getting the same sort of training as I would at McGill; but I can also get away with a lot more. Gordon Fitzell and Orjan Sandred are fantastic composers. If I want to compose an opera or a chamber opera, even in my first year, I can get that performed. It’s great. That would never happen in McGill, not for awhile at least. Definitely not in the early years.

A: So how hard do you push yourself when you practice? How often and how long?

T: The thing is because I played so many instruments, it’s hard to say. What I perform on most with is voice, I do recitals every now and then and perform in my own compositions. And now I’m currently in the Manitoba Opera Chorus for their production Turandot. But for that, I don’t practice as much as I should. I practice maybe a couple hours once or twice a week; but the thing is it’s different because I’m doing a lot of practicing anyway. I’ve got opera rehearsal from 7:00 to 10:00pm every single night except Thursdays and Sundays so I’m doing so much singing anyways. I just don’t want to spend the extra time on it right now.

A: So when you are practicing, what are you doing - exercises, new music, technique, etc?

T: Actually when I practice on most instruments the first thing I think about it tone production.

A: What does that mean?

T: On flute especially when I’m practicing long tones there are extremely specific ways to get a really good tone and there are slight changes between octaves. And I think with singing and with wind instruments, it’s all about proper breathe support and from there you can kind of work on your tone so it comes a lot easier.

Piano and I have an interesting relationship. I had already learned a lot of instruments before I started playing it. I didn’t learn any piano for a long time but then university started coming up and I thought to myself “Oh I better start learning piano.” and after two years I went from knowing nothing to grade 8 Royal Conservatory. I did the same thing with theory.

When I’m practicing anything with dedication for a performance, it’s important to focus on the small sections that you can never get. Because those are the sections you really need to go over. When I was practicing piano every day, my mom would freak out at me because I was playing a measure and a half for an hour before I would move on and it drove her nuts.

A: Who inspires you musically when you are composing or performing?

T: I’m going to say Frank Zappa. He was a classical composer active from maybe mid 60s to the mid 90s. But he was one of those 1970s counter-culture figures. He was a classical composer that did everything else, like jazz and rock.

A: Like you?

T: Kind of like me, but he had a lot more attitude. He blends everything into everything else. He realized that it’s extremely hard to make money as a classical composer in this day and age, so the best thing to do is diversify and he did it without compromising which is really cool!

When you listen one of his rock albums, there are atypical instrumentation and all sorts of bizarre classical stuff. His classical is just off the wall and the amount of material he wrote was just unbelievable. He released 100 albums and he only lived to 55. It’s totally bizarre. If you listen to his jazz, it’s all mixed up with that stuff too. He is also extremely famous for basically pissing everyone off.

A: Anyone else?

T: There are people who have really inspired me on different instruments. In composition, Zappa is one of the composers I’m really influenced by; but, I’m also really influenced by Richard Wagner because I grew up on his music. I was immersed in his music as a kid. I went to see The Ring Cycle live in Toronto when I was in grade 5 or 6 and it made a huge impact me. I really enjoyed it.

As far as other composers go, I really enjoy Ligeti and some other minimalists. There is a lot of stuff I’m into but I try to blend it. On the rock side of things, I love David Gilmore from pink floyd. I love his guitar playing and I decided I wanted to play like him. Then I got to a point where I was like “okay, I can play like David Gilmore, now what?” and since then I’ve learned a lot more since learning to play like that.

A: What accomplishments are you most proud of?

T: It’s hard because music has always been such a huge part of my life. If I weren’t doing music I would have no idea what I would be doing. I can’t think what my life would be like without music. As far as my greatest accomplishments, I’m proud of my second album. My rock album “In the Round” that I released last year. It’s hard, I feel accomplished about certain things about certain pieces too.

A: What advice would you give to beginners who are just starting out performing or starting composition or maybe starting to get out there?

T: I’m pretty sure everyone giving advice to upcoming musicians would say “put in the time man, practice” and that’s part of it but I think the biggest part of music or being a good musician and creating music people with appreciate, is understanding what music really is and what it’s meant for. This is kind of weird answer, but in a philosophical way, but what it the music is supposed to mean to the performer and the audience? When you love a piece a music, what is it you love about it? And you do want other people to feel that way with whatever music you are producing? I think if you understand that, there is that underlying drive that is going to make you practice.

A: How do you balance your music with your other obligations?

T: Music takes up a huge portion of my life, and it has for a long time. I took a gap year before I came [to university] where I basically just practiced. I’m also a black belt in tae kwon do, but I haven’t been keeping up with it since I moved because there aren’t any schools in Winnipeg that studies my style. This year, I have been really buckling down about making everything about music. I have many commitments mostly music oriented. 

One exception, I guess, is I have been doing other classes. I’m in an english class on the thematic approaches to the study of literature with a focus on horror literature. I just got a paper back from my professor that he is wanting me to revise and actually submit for publication. So I’m going to see how that works out.

A: Anything you are currently working on or that you are preparing that you would care to share?

T: Composition wise maybe not so much as I’m starting to buckling down to prepare for juries; but, I have a new band together here in Winnipeg that I’ve been working with for the past couple of months. We’ve been meeting weekly and working on the material from my most recent CD. We’ve got a reasonably big upcoming show with DNA DAY downtown at 72 Princess street on April 24th, 2015. I will be playing guitar and singing. Also Bryson Debroni will be playing drums and Nicolas Pura will be on bass. 

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Apr 7, 2015 at 1:00pm PDT

Support Winnipeg Musician Tristan Zaba!

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