Lit. & Music Review - Bandzoogle

PRSB
THIS ISSUE:
Short Story
Deaf Orchestra
by Lisa Pelletier
Book Review:
Old School Romance
by Conrad Sucatre
Reviewed by Crystal
Poetry
The Writer’s Pen
The Curse of Another Man’s
Cook Used Without Permission
Lit. & Music Review
June 2008 Volume 1 Number 2
SHOWCASING TALENT
PRESENTED ON
www.PRSeitz.com
A Conversation with
Songwriter Chris Gillard
Music To Read By
“The Gababeat”
A Myspace Pick

PRSB
June 22008
Volume 1 Number 2
Coverr:
Chris Gillard – read more in n the
Conveersations
sectioon.
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in fuull
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1541 Lemoine Ave SSte
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Owneership
of all poetry and short s
storiees
remain withh
the authors. . The
authoors
have posted
a sample of their
workss
on www.prseeitz.com
along with
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like thheir
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write to the em.
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whenn
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and connectted
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If youu
want to view more on any topic, t
simplly
run your curssor
over the tit tle or
picturre
to be instantly
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Aroound
the WWeb
The UUltimate
NYC PPoetry
Calendar
If you
live in Neww
York or are e just
passinng
through annd
feel the nee ed to
expreess
yourself by
open mike, , this
calendar
is just whaat
you need. Clubs C
throuughout
Manhattan
and the other o
four bboroughs
submmit
their sched dules
to thee
web master who then pres sents
everyything
in a handy cale endar
formaat.
wwww.prseitz.ccom
Lit. & Mus sic Revieww
Editor’s CCorner
TThis
month we have
ssome
excellent
sselections
foor
your
eenjoyment.
In this
eedition
we open up
aanother
sectioon
called
“ “Conversations”
where we’ ’ll have a
cchat
with aan
author, poet or
ssongwriter.
TThere
is a funnny
notion that Literature
iis
about peopple,
the humaan
gift of
eexpression.
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it is about emotions,
aambitions
andd
the drives thhat
create
oour
lives. In tthat
sense, litterature
is
not about greaat
works of thee
past that
wwe
must studdy
in school bbut
about
ggreat
works off
the present, tthat
shape
oour
thoughts aand
ideas. Yett,
past and
present can coo‐mingle
I recently readd
Faust for the first time.
From the boook
covers and
other
media that surround
us, I expected
a
ffull
and very serious gothiic
tale. I
tthought
it woould
take some
time to
sstruggle
throuugh
but, like a teaspoon
oof
medicine, itt
would be apppreciated
wwhen
finished.
I was pleasanttly
surprised. I read it in
a single sittingg
completely unable to
put it downn;
even hearrd
myself
laughing at ceertain
passagees.
Not
ggiving
away thhe
story but I was very
ssurprised
that pre‐marital seex
played
TThe
Writ
TThe
Writ is a wwriter’s
workshhop,
and a
sshowcase.
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ddelightfully
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amid the rraw
talent
ddisplayed
at every
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songwritinng,
short stoories
and
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in bbetween,
some
may say
tthe
content iis
ambitious bbut
really
not, The Writ is highly focused,
upon
tthe
delicious sensory
of wordds.
June 2008 Vol. 1 No. 2
a central role in the pplot.
Written inn
the earlyy
nineteenth century, thee
book readd
as lively and contemporaryy
as any current
work. Was this thee
same ‘Faaust’
touted by academicss;
how could
it be so enjoyyed?
Because it was about
people; thee
experiencces
and concerns
of 2000
years aggo
are still oour
emotionaal
struggles today. A lessson
learned; I
will put more faith in the words
written oon
the page, tthan
upon thee
false reveerence
of the mmedia.
Loki Listens
Loki Listeens
is a blogg
that carries
along like
a traveler with no cleaar
destinatioon.
Like that traveler, thee
reader is brought alongg
simply for thee
enjoymennt
of the ridee,
seeing neww
things aloong
with old tthings
but noww
from a neew
and different
perspectivee;
finally, a bblog
where thee
writer likes too
write andd
the reader rambles.
Page | 1

PRSB Lit. & Music Review
Poetry
June 2008 Vol. 1 No. 2
The Writer’s Pen
by Ella Wahab
A forgotten evening;
A single star;
A night of futile bliss;
The issues of nature
call to each their own
And the writer's pen submits.
To record dreams on canvas
pleasures forsaken
and tokens long forborne;
and to plead the moment
the fleeting moment
to remain ere it is gone.
Stories of passion;
Stories of tragedy;
Stories of sprites and hallow'd send
will seek out this poet's page
ere the night meets end
The Curse of Another Man’s Cook
Used Without Permission
by Michael Walker
Oh I can resist temptation!
Alpo! That’s the po!
I can withstand anything but
repetition
After it, they’re all of a suit
So damnit I can stand not dinning on
your dinner tonight
Pioneers, Theorists, Showboaters
What I can’t stand is repetition
Form two lines ‐ everybody signs
I can’t make a stand
My favorite rhyme?
Can’t cope my friend
“Twenty years?! Judge Judge
Can’t take it
That ain’t no time
Downwind a well‐fed young winner
My daddy’s in Folsom doin’ 99”
Take her out tonight son
Have mercy on the soul of this hungry
old sinner
www.prseitz.com
Short Story
Deaf Orchestra
by Lisa Pelletier
As Astrid strolled into the common
kitchen of International House, she
smelled the aromas of onions and
peppers sautéing in the iron
casserole. When she caught sight of
the illicit wine bottles lined up along
the stove, she smiled. Diego had
somehow managed to smuggle them
past the keen eyes of the resident
assistants. Actually, this wasn't so
hard, since the RA's were guilty of
pilfering a glass or two on Friday
nights.
On Fridays, the Supper Club gathered
for its weekly Saternalian rites. Astrid
took a mental picture of the room,
noting the balloons that filled the
ceiling and the hallways leading down
to the basement. As if Diego had just
nudged her in the ribs and winked,
she understood the language of the
balloons. Diego had filled the halls of
house with them from the high
Moorish ceiling of the living room all
the way down to the cellar where
they would descend after supper for
dancing and intimate conversations.
Astrid took off her shoes and placed
her hands on the wall. As she
suspected, there was music in the
background; someone had put on a
CD. The cooks were already dancing
to the lounge/dub beats of a
Lebanese band. From the resonating
walls and floor, Astrid felt the
rhythms of the drum through the
soles of her feet and palms. As the
vibrations flooded up through the
floor, penetrating her body, she
swayed to the syncopated beats.
Slowly, at first, she began to move to
the sensual rhythms of the dumbek,
rocking in time to vibes she heard
only in her head. Watching her, Diego
jumped up, grasped a balloon off the
ceiling, and bounced it towards
Astrid, who caught it in mid‐flight.
Feeling the flesh of the balloon
between her fingers, she sensed the
high and low tones of the oud and
dumbek, playing counterpoint to each
other.
As the music eased into a slow,
sinuous taxim, she suddenly
remembered her first date with
Diego. Of all things, he had taken her
to a concert. His strange obsession
with music didn't phase her much;
she'd had a lifetime of feeling her way
into sound. But this was her first
concert, and she had no idea what to
expect. Diego refused to tell her
where they were going or who the
headliner was, but he promised her
that this concert would be special.
Not wanting to reveal the surprise too
soon, he led her in blindfolded. When
he finally removed the ribbon of cloth
from her eyes, she looked around
excited and expectant.
The first thing she noticed was the
coterie of deaf kids lining the stage.
She was stunned at first. The deaf
community was so small that she
immediately recognized several kids.
The odd thing was that they were all
carrying balloons ‐‐ giant balloons
that bobbed above their heads in a
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PRSB Lit. & Music Review June 2008 Vol. 1 No. 2
fantastic array of whimsical color. She
signed excitedly to the kids she knew,
"Hey, what's with the balloons?" But
no one answered, as the lights grew
dim and the band began to saunter on
stage. The last person to enter the
scene was a tall, red‐haired sorceress,
cradling a pair of percussion sticks
between the fingers of one hand.
Barefoot and poised, Evelyn Glennie
crossed the stage, stopping before a
massive drum.
Fascinated, Astrid drew in her breath
as the percussion sticks rained down
on the drumhead. She heard the
conversation between drummer and
drum as it electrified every pore of
her body with sound. She watched
the skin of the drum pulse like a giant
lung…felt the air thicken with the
rhythms of her own beating heart.
Then, as if she had bitten the
proverbial Madeleine, memories
flooded up with the call‐and‐response
as the other musicians joined in. Like
all teenagers, she had spent hours in
her room dancing to VERY LOUD
music, driving her hearing parents
insane. She could almost hear their
desperate shouts: "TURN THAT
DOWN!" She felt the vibrations in
ordinary objects all around her, as a
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passing car whizzed through the wine
glass in her hand. On rainy nights, the
hollow wooden door frame was an
Andean rain stick, her father's guitar a
Peruvian drum. From a young age,
she realized that all objects breathed;
she felt their unique rhythms deep in
her core.
As the band heated up, Diego pulled a
shriveled, red balloon from his pants
pocket and began to blow it up. When
it had fully expanded, he held it out to
Astrid like some strange, enticing
flower. As he tied the knot, she took it
between her fingers, and all at once,
she felt it: a sudden, visceral
connection with the music that was
unlike anything she had experienced
before. The balloon vibrated like a
giant lung that concentrated all the
sounds in the stadium, allowing her to
sense individual tones and
confluences of sound all at once.
Through the balloon, Astrid heard the
sounds of an entire orchestra in her
head.
That night, they pulled down every
balloon they could find from the I‐
House rafters, and filled Diego's bed
with them. Diego put on his favorite
jazz album: Dave Holland's
Conference of the Birds. As they lay
there, blind and naked in the dark,
they felt their way to each other
through a sea of balloons. Giddy with
excitement, they felt the pulse of an
entire universe thrum through the
lungs of the balloons that filled their
bed.
© 2007 Lisa Pelletier
Page | 3

PRSB Lit. & Music Review
Conversations
June 2008 Vol. 1 No. 2
Chris Gillard, Songwriter
Interviewed by K. Craig
We all know of the image of the
struggling artist, be it author or
songwriter/musician. They are the
ones who sacrifice themselves for
their art, working, living a lifestyle far
removed from suburban posh in order
to express themselves. That’s the
way it has always been, and it has
been deemed something of luck for
the artist to be graciously chosen by
society to “make it big”.
What if that was no longer the
condition under which artists must
work? Chris is a testament that the
artist need not sacrifice everything to
express himself. A confident,
intelligent and handsome man, he has
used the tools available to him to
create a balance that allows him to
choose how he expresses himself to
society without compromise.
I met with Chris in his apartment, a
cramped room packed with electronic
sound equipment.
PRSB: Is it true that musicians get all
the girls?
Chris: (Laughs) No, actually quite the
opposite, most women are either
taught or conditioned by experience
not to date musicians.
PRSB: Do you have a personal
experience with that?
Chris: Yeah, throughout my life
(laughs). Women think the whole idea
of dating a musician is cool and
everything but it’s not. There’s a lot
more to it than they think. A friend of
mine who recently married a musician
said it takes a very certain special kind
of woman to be with a musician.
www.prseitz.com
PRSB: What are some of the things
that they have to worry about?
Chris: They can’t be insecure; they
have to be self sufficient in a lot of
ways because he may not be there
when they need something. I think
women who are not self sufficient
tend to have problems with that.
PRSB: You’ve been trying to get into
the music business for a while, given
that you said that it takes a certain
type woman to be with a man who is
a musician, why do you want to be a
musician, what are some of the things
that are attracting you to this?
[Click the picture to go to YouTube
and see Chris singing “Crazy Love”]
Chris: It’s not really something that
attracts me to it, it is just something I
am. I don’t do this full time, and
haven’t done it full time for several
years. I don’t care what I end up doing
for a job, the music is my work. A job
is just what I do to get money. I’m
always going to do music. No matter
what happens I’m still going to be
doing this. It’s not a hobby, I just
don’t know how to not do it.
PRSB: Would you call it a compulsion?
Chris: At times.
PRSB: Describe the push that draws
you toward writing a song.
Chris: Different things, sometimes it’s
an idea or a situation I experience in
life, a situation I see someone else
experience in their life; a story in the
paper or something I see on the news.
Sometimes it’s just a melody that
pops in my head while I’m brushing
my teeth. There’s no one way that it
happens. The only thing there is to
learn is to be open and be able to
hear it when it comes. That takes
some practice and work in terms of
just letting myself go with those
moments when they happen, as
opposed to trying to judge the idea
before I’ve even fully had it. Like
having a couple of words come to me
and I catch myself saying too soon,
“Ah that’s no good.” Well, how do I
know that for sure? It just popped
into my head, I haven’t really thought
about it yet. For me, part of it is
learning not to start to editorialize too
soon.
PRSB: Would you say it is a form of
personal expression?
Chris: Yes, definitely, it’s not so hard
to write about things I have
experienced but I can’t write about
things that I can’t at least relate to.
Some things I’ve written about that I
haven’t actually experienced but it’s a
situation that I can relate to. As long
as I can relate to it then it is
absolutely a form of expression. It is
one of the more primitive forms of
expression, one of the oldest among
mankind.
PRSB: You said you’d taken a job and
that the job is just a form of money
but you also mentioned that you had
been a musician full time, were you
writing songs or working in a band?
Chris: I was in a band we did some
original material, some covers, a lot of
70’s funk covers, James Brown, Cool
and the Gang, stuff like that. Most of
the original material, most of my
writing was confined to writing lyrics
which is an art unto itself that I
haven’t quite mastered. I didn’t write
much of the music though. So I’ve
spent the last few years learning
music and learning to write and
interpret the melodic ideas that I have
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PRSB Lit. & Music Review June 2008 Vol. 1 No. 2
and bringing that back to the
structure of the lyrics; interpreting
that into guitar and bass lines and
learning to play all of that.
PRSB: Describe that period of your life
when you were working full time as a
musician.
Chris: It was very much the
stereotype, very transient; for six
months I didn’t have an apartment. I
lived out of my car, hotel rooms and
from the back of a tour bus. It’s a
liberating lifestyle but it is easy to
become disconnected to everything
because you’re never in one place for
too long. You’re seeing the world but
your world becomes only the three or
four other people you’re traveling
with because they are the only
constants in that life.
PRSB: Where did you travel?
Chris: The southeast mainly, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia,
Florida, Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama,
what they used to call the Chitlin
Circuit. It was interesting.
PRSB: What is the Chitlin Circuit?
Chris: The Chitlin Circuit was a term
that they referred to in the earlier
days of the music industry and during
segregation. If you were a black artist
in those days there were a lot of
venues you couldn’t play. The venues
you could play were in the southeast.
So when a black artist, especially one
just starting out, went on tour they
would play primarily in the southeast.
Segregation was strongest there so
there were more black owned venues
that allowed black performers. That’s
how it got the name. So that’s what
we did. We played more of the
college venues on the circuit.
PRSB: So for a young black performer
trying to make a name for himself, is
it obligatory to go on the circuit?
www.prseitz.com
Chris: Obligatory…, not so much now
a days but before it was, certainly,
long before my time. I think it’s not
obligatory now because there’s so
much more technology that enables
artists to get their music out there
and heard by so many more people
across a wider geographic area
without a big expenditure of money.
Although it’s not obligatory, it is
something that a lot of artists would
benefit from because it is not an easy
thing to do and you learn if you’re
really cut out for this and if you really
love the lifestyle enough to pursue
further. It is definitely one of the
things a lot of artists could benefit
from experiencing; that constant
schedule, every night a new city, a
new venue, a new crowd. A lot of the
times you’re doing the same songs
and that’s a challenge too, not letting
it get stale for you because the
audience can pick up on that
instantly. They know when you’re just
walking through it, when you’re just
phoning it in and they don’t
appreciate that.
PRSB: So is Chris cut out for it?
Chris: Chris is more cut out for it now
than then, just in terms of
preparedness mentally and I’m a
more skilled musician in general so if
put in that situation again I think I
could make more of it than before.
PRSB: Is that why you backed away
when you did?
Chris: For a while, but part of it was
that I wanted to take some time and
become a better musician. When I
started out, I was just a singer; I didn’t
know how to play any instruments.
When I was in that band, one of the
things that I was often frustrated with
was the gap between vocalists and
instrumentalists. In being able to
interpret each other’s ideas and share
a common vocabulary. That was
something that was a real challenge
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PRSB Lit. & Music Review June 2008 Vol. 1 No. 2
for me. I didn’t want to be someone
who just sings and doesn’t know
music and can’t have a dialogue with
a guitar player or with a bassist.
Whereas the typical singer just knows
how to make the right sounds come
out of their mouth, they don’t really
know much else beyond that. That
can be an obstacle in being able to
work with other musicians. I think
everyone who sings should at least
learn the basics of piano or keyboard
for that reason.
When I go into a studio as a singer
and I meet a bunch of
instrumentalists for the first time that
I’ll be working with, if I didn’t know
those basic structures and music
theory then I’m going to have a very
long night. I’ve done this; spend half
an hour trying to get the keyboard
player to play the right chord that I’m
hearing in my head because I didn’t
know what it’s called. I didn’t know
that vocabulary so we’re doing it by
trial and error. It is time consuming, it
drains everyone and people get
frustrated. That’s one of the things
that has always contributed to the
disdain that instrumentalist seem to
have for vocalists because you can’t
learn to play the guitar without
learning music theory, you can’t learn
to play any instrument without
learning some music theory. Yet
people can have careers singing their
whole lives and never learn to read
music. Aretha Franklin just went back
to school a couple years ago and how
long has she been around, what kind
of career has she had? She didn’t read
music and she went back and enrolled
at Julliard to get that grounding. Even
at the stage at which her career is at
she saw the need for it.
PRSB: Now you’re in New York, and
you have a job and you’re an
accomplished musician; you’ve
learned the theory. How difficult is it
to work full time and keep your music
motivation?
www.prseitz.com
Chris: It’s not that hard, it is just
something I do. There are some days
that are rougher than others and
when I come home I’m too tired and I
just want to lie down and go to sleep
but for the most part those days are
few and far between. There are not
too many instances where something
from work will take away my desire to
come home and work on music in the
evening. Luckily I have a job that is
fairly low stress and doesn’t require a
lot of late hours or overtime. When
5:01 hits, my brain switches from
work to music. You have to
compartmentalize, you really do.
PRSB: When do you think you would
know when to drop the job and pick
up music again full time; or will that
time ever happen?
Chris: I think it will, I’m not holding
my breath for it but I think it will
happen. If I can get to a point where
I’m making equal or greater income
doing music than I am from my job
then, yeah I’ll quit my job. But until
then, I’ll continue as is. The way I
pursue it, I am self contained. I have
all my recording equipment at home. I
have the instruments, I know how to
play them and just about any sound I
can think of that I want to hear, I
know how to get that sound out of an
instrument. I’m not confined to
booking studio time and having to
keep a schedule or having to sit
around and depend on other
musicians to show up. I have a lot
more flexibility. I’ve designed it to
have a lot more flexibility so I can
balance the two together better,
during the time that I need to do keep
the balance.
PRSB: Recently a young musician in
Paris recorded a top hit in her
apartment using a similar set up to
what you have here. Are recording
studios obsolete?
Chris: They’re not obsolete; it
depends a lot on what you’re
recording. If you’re recording a
symphony orchestra, you’d probably
want those people going to a
recording studio than coming to my
apartment. For the typical singer,
songwriter, solo artist; a voice and
maybe one or two instruments it is
fine. It is a larger outlay of cash in the
beginning to invest in all the
equipment but once you’ve
purchased the equipment, in the long
run it is so much more cost effective
to set up a home studio; partly
because everything is so cheap now
and of such good quality. I don’t think
the brick and mortar studio is
obsolete but I do think it is not as
necessary anymore. Musically there
are some situations where if I had a
live band of ten instruments I
wouldn’t necessarily want to bother
trying to record that on a Mac with a
four channel mixer. If it is just me and
I want to record a version of a song I
just wrote and put some drums, a
keyboard and a bass line on it, why
book studio time at $25 to $100 an
hour. Plus I’d be at the mercy of
someone else. Sound engineers, it is
their job, but they can change the
whole sound of a song. Sometimes
they can make it closer to what you
had in your head and sometimes they
take it in a completely different
direction. That added layer of
communication from the artist to the
engineer and the engineer to the
sound board is another juncture and
opportunity for things to get changed
away from the artist’s original vision.
I’m not saying that those changes are
always a bad thing but it’s good to
have the option of having control of
my own vision.
PRSB: What do you think is the future
of music in the digital age? iTunes is
the top music retailer, now RIAA is
becoming very persistent in their
cases and every band in suburbia has
a website.
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PRSB Lit. & Music Review June 2008 Vol. 1 No. 2
www.prseitz.com
Chris: I think that as a whole the
music industry didn’t a very good job
of capitalizing on the changes. There
were a lot of opportunities but they
chose to see them as threats; for
example, the whole Napster thing. I
think that the record label is no longer
as viable an option for an up and
coming artist who is willing to invest a
little money in equipment and the
time in learning how to use it. You can
get your music out to just as many
people if not more than a traditional
label can. It takes little bit more work
and doing a lot of things yourself that
would have fallen to the label. You
have to be more than just as artist;
you have to be an artist, a producer,
an engineer, a marketing person. You
have to wear a lot more hats. Maybe
you’d sell ten thousand copies of a
song online, whereas with the budget
and the manpower of a traditional
label you’d sell a hundred thousand
copies. Like the model that MC
Hammer set when he first came on
the scene. He had already produced
and released three albums selling
them out of the trunk of his car
before he ever signed a major label
deal and when the labels did come to
him with an offer of a contract, he
laughed in their faces; saying why
would I sign a deal with you only
making 10% off the sales of a hundred
thousand copies when I sell ten
thousand on my own and I keep all
the money? If the major label route is
where an artist is looking to go, self
producing your own albums can be a
bargaining tool to already have
material out and be an established
selling artist before you ever sit down
at the table with a label rep. You have
the advantage of going into the
negotiation with a proven track
record. It’s entirely different to go
into a contract negotiation with a
following already and a couple of
regional hits where you’ve already
sold eight, ten or fifteen thousand
copies of your album or single. You
can point to the sales and say,
although I’m not national or
international or billboard top ten; I
am selling recording artist. It is added
security and comfort to be able to
walk away from the label’s deal if you
don’t like it. Just like what Hammer
said, because he knew he could sell
records on his own and didn’t need
the label.
PRSB: You’ve recently joined BMI and
started copyrighting your songs, is
that an early indication that you are
close to going to the market?
Chris: That is the direction I’m
heading toward. My time table is a
little foggy right now but that is
definitely the direction I’m heading in
right now.
PRSB: Is getting into the top ten
through a record label is less of a
touchstone for success?
Chris: For me, in my personal
definition of success, yes. I’m at a
point in my life and in my growth as a
musician that I don’t care about the
idea of having the heavy rotation
video from MTV or the mega‐million
dollar recording contract. You know,
people don’t realize this when they
talk about how much money they got
in their advance and how much
money is spent promoting their
album; the artist actually pays for all
that. When the record hits the shelves
and people start buying it, the sixteen
or twenty dollars that consumer pay
for the CD; the artist doesn’t see a
penny of that until the label has been
reimbursed for all the money they
spent on promotion, studio time,
producers, and distribution. It is not
the way that a lot of people think it is.
Thinking the label is just being
charitable and they are going to sink
all this money into you just because
they believe in you. No, they sink the
money into you because they plan to
get it back and they are going to get
their money back before you earn a
penny.
Page | 7

PRSB Lit. & Music Review June 2008 Vol. 1 No. 2
PRSB: If the artist can replicate what
the record label is doing, then all the
label brings to the table is power of
marketing?
Chris: Right and a distribution
network but again with the internet
and downloading there’s a whole
separate distribution channel that the
label hasn’t really mastered and
hasn’t tapped into it yet. That’s ok,
because the artist can tap into it
himself directly at one tenth, or even
less, one fiftieth, the cost of what the
label spends on their marketing and
distribution costs.
PRSB: Let me change the tack here a
little, do you come from a musical
family?
Chris: Not at all, pretty much just me.
I don’t know where it came from,
nobody really knows where it came
from, it just happened.
PRSB: What’s your earliest memory
where someone said you had talent?
Chris: Riding home from school one
day and I was sitting in the back seat
and there was a song on the radio
that I was singing along with and I
heard one of my sister’s friends
whisper “Wow, that kid can really
sing”. I knew that I liked to sing but
that was the first introduction of the
concept that someone else might like
to hear me sing.
PRSB: How old where you?
Chris: I was maybe seven or eight.
PRSB: From there did you go to
church choir? That seems a typical
path.
Chris: It is but I never did that. It
wasn’t until high school that I starting
doing things, that’s when I joined the
choir and started taking music classes
at school. There wasn’t such a great
music program at the middle school
www.prseitz.com
that I went to and elementary school
is not really structured for that.
My parents gave me piano lessons for
a while, when I was eight or nine for
about six months but my parents quit
paying for it because I wouldn’t
practice. I think the main reason I
wouldn’t practice is because I didn’t
want to play the piano. I always
wanted to play the guitar so I asked
for a guitar and got a piano and then
they wonder why I didn’t practice.
(Laughs)
It’s part of what took me so long to
develop as a musician because I didn’t
have a lot of influence at home. It’s
not that my family wasn’t supportive,
it was just that they knew nothing of
what I was trying to do so they didn’t
have a lot of advice or support that
they could give me outside of “Ok,
um… go do it” “Aight, thanks, I’ll be
back when I’m done” (Laughing).
It was never an issue or a matter of
my family being unsupportive or
opposed to it, just a question of them
not having the knowledge or
awareness of how to even do that.
You can’t advise someone of how to
do something if you don’t know how
to do it. I was on my own as far as
figuring everything out and what I
needed to do and how to go about it.
But like I always tell people, if you can
read a book you can learn how to do
just about anything.
PRSB: You’re working on first solo
album in order to have a product to
sell, so that you can do this full time,
is that right?
Chris: I’m working on the album and I
don’t even look at it as I’m producing
a product to sell necessarily. I mean, I
do intend to sell it once it’s done
(laughs), don’t get me wrong but in
the creative process, I don’t even
think about that. It’s about trying to
write the best song that I have in me
and give the best recording of it that I
can. If we want to look at it in terms
of a product then my main concern is
making the best product I can.
Hopefully if I get that right, then
selling it will be a helluva lot easier.
PRSB: Ok, last question then, classify
your music.
Chris: I don’t do that. I know it’s going
to have to be categorized eventually
and that’s why when I get a song
close to where I want it to be I’ll send
it out to friends and get their opinions
on it. I feel like, as an artist, it’s not
my job, my responsibility or my
business to try to classify or
categorize what I do; to me that’s the
listener’s job. You tell me what kind
of song it is. You tell me what kind of
music it is. When I was writing it, all I
was thinking of was making a good
song. I wasn’t thinking “I want to
make a good rap song or I want to
make a good folk song or R&B song. I
just want to write and record the best
song I have in me at that moment. I
try to keep that as my focus.
Once the artist starts labeling their
own music, that classification decision
confines them to that category when
it comes to the creative process; for
example if they say, “Ok I’m a rap
artist”, that idea will influence and
inform every song that they write.
Even if it is on a sub‐conscious level
because they may have an idea for a
song or something may come to them
and the artist will edit it before it’s
time. Throwing it out because it is
not hip‐hop enough or it’s not R&B
enough. I don’t think that’s
necessarily the most helpful thing as
far as sustaining the creative process.
PRSB: We look forward to hearing
your album.
Chris: Thank you.
Page | 8

PRSB
Boook
Revieww
Old SSchool
Romance
by Conra ad V.
Sucatre
Revieew
by Crystal
(Clickk
here for
moree
reviews at
Crystaal’s
Myspace)
Conraad
V. Sucatre
has delved back
into tthe
past when
Romaance
was not
considered
smut.
This book is more
of a reference
manuual
to me. Mr.
Sucattre
talks
aboutt
the
differrence
between
romance novels
back in the thirtiies
and comp pares
them to the novels of today.
In the
thirties andd
forties men who
read Romance maagazines
were e not
considered
sissies but today how
manyy
men do you ssee
reading a book
with a lovely wooman
(completely
dresssed)
in a field of flowers with w a
man embracing heer
in a passio onate
kiss oon
the cover? ? I guarantee e the
numbbers
are much smaller now days.
Romaance
novels uused
to be about a
passioon
and less about detail. You
don't read about ggore
and tortu ure in
novells
written in that time pe eriod.
You aalso
hear that it is scandalous
to
sleep with a mann
before you u are
marriied,
but in todday's
culture most
people
pay no mindd
to hopping in n the
sack with a man thhey
just met hours h
beforre.
(I am nott
judging any yone)
For mme,
I felt like thhis
book Old Sc chool
Romaance
was written
in an old
fashiooned
sort of way. I didn't t get
pulledd
in right from the beginning g, but
the innformation
waas
very informa ative.
I cann
tell Mr. Sucatre
spent many m
manyy
hours reseearching
the past
wwww.prseitz.ccom
Lit. & Music Review June 2008 Vol. 1 No. 2
Romance genre
and compaaring
it to
ttoday's
Authors
and their mmeaning
of
Romance.
I am going tto
give Mr. SSucatre
3
hearts out of 5.
Only bbecause
I
couldn''t
seem to
get puulled
into
this boook.
I felt
like I was
reading
somethhing
that
is meannt
for the
older ggeneration
(I do nnot
mean
for thiss
to sound
offensivve,
I am
not calling
anyonee
old). If
you arre
looking
ffor
a book tthat
is great research
material for paast
Romances, , then you
sshould
pick thiis
up.
Music to RRead
By
TThe
Gababeaat
CCategories
fail
this band’s sensuous
mix of deep tthrobbing
bass
coupled
wwith
floating
melodious rifffs
and an
aangelic
voicee.
What
sseparates
thhis
band
ffrom
the rest
is that
tthe
combined whole is
humble and
understated. It is up to
tthe
listener too
give the
ssound
the emphasis
tthey
want, when
they
wwant
it.
TThe
band coonsists
of
tthree
members,
Gabor
plays guitar, bass, and syynthesizer;
AAttila
plays ddrums
and leead
guitar
wwith
Krisztina at vocals. Theey
opened
a Myspace pagge
late last fall and have
been huugely
populaar
with oveer
200,000 hits in justt
six monthss.
Avoiding the flash off
many music
websites tthis
popularityy
is carried oon
by the music
alone, as itt
should.
Much like the motto oof
their hommetown,
Pecss,
Hungary, ttheir
sound is
borderless, , moving easilyy
across the spectrum fromm
alternative to electronicaa
and rock creating
what is
their ownn
unique andd
appealing vvoice.
Their undeerstated
qualityy
makes thheir
sound verry
flexible; Thee
Gababeatt
can be ennjoyed
as loww
volume bbackground
muusic
or crankedd
up at a Frriday
night partty.
Page | 9