Q. How would you describe your lifestyle (student/traveling performer/9-5 job/etc.)?
A. Traveling Performer. Sometimes I feel more a Professional Traveler than Performer.
Q. What keeps you motivated?
A. The Goals. Both the mini ones and the Big ones. You should always have goals and be driven. I don't understand how anyone can exist and not have them. What are we doing on this planet if not!? What are we doing otherwise, watching others achieve on social media, while sitting in a coffee shop with a pumpkin spice latte as our time ticks past?
Q. What gets you out of bed in the morning?
A.Well again the goals, but furthermore the people who achieve greatness at the highest of levels, pretty much all of which are not in music actually. More people (both dead and alive) in fields where Greatness is more easily quantified. Tom Brady, Valentino Rossi, Roger Federer, Ayrton Senna, Bill Clinton, Paul Kocin, etc.; if they could do what they've done, I should be able to get at least 1/2 of their achievements if I work hard enough.
Q. What inspires you to do what you do?
A. Moreover from the last 2, my own parents for sure, who worked their butts off to become middle class citizens from nothing. My task is easy compared to what theirs was, so I'd Better go achieve it for goodness sakes. And the overall goal: To make the Accordion cool again. It's a very very difficult task, and I grew to love that early on. What is the fun in an easy task?
Q. Describe a daily routine that makes you feel great.
A. I actually don't have one haha. But certainly listening and analyzing / transcribing some solo I love, watching an incredible Boston sports playoff game ending in a comeback and win, playing with Top musicians who are better than me of which I can learn from, and driving a great handling old sports car through mountain roads would be a good daily routine!
Q. What is one habit would you like to change?
A. Putting down the phone and going back to 2001. Unfortunately for musicians, our livelihood rests in the 50 phone calls we make a day for gigs and connections (if you aren't doing that, you're not doing it right), and the e-mails we need to see and respond to ASAP.
Q. What is your practicing routine, if you have one?
A. Oddly enough, I have never had one. First as a kid I was trying to make sure I practiced at least Half as much as I played video games (didn't always work out!), but really the practice depends on the situation. I do try to at least play for a bit every day for sure. But the playing can be for many hours if I go to a jazz concert and want to figure out what someone did so I come home and vigorously play, or I hear a classical piece I want to learn, or I have a gig with a singer who has music I've never heard and I want to understand the entire genre and its history.
Q. What do you do if you feel like you're in a practice rut?
A. Get your butt kicked haha. Which with YouTube, is very easy. It doesn't take but seconds to find someone who is better to way better than you at any aspect of music. That will get you back to the practice board real quick!
Q. Describe a habit or a ritual you do every day and you "swear by".
A. Listening. I feel, especially in the classical world, way way too much is put on physical practice. Listening to me is everything. Music comes to you by way of the ear, not the eye or the hand. You are what you eat, and you are what you listen to. If you listen to Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus and Justin Beiber, you are going to sound like that. If you listen to Stravinsky, Art Tatum and Keith Jarrett, you're going to sound..... a bit different. But not just listening, but listening and analyzing. Chord changes, poly-rhythms, odd meters, etc., and then hearing your own ideas over it once analyzed. I can only do this when I hear music, even just n a store with pop music on. I honestly, truly, do not even understand the idea of "enjoying music" ; to me, music is always something to be analyzed, then marveled at (like most everything you'll hear at NEC in every department!) or thrown out.
Q. Do you exercise regularly? If yes, what do you do and how often?
A. Actually, I didn't even exercise before my Guinness World Record where I played accordion for over 32 hours haha. I'm a bad example on exercise!
Q. What do you eat before concerts/performances?
A. Well I'm a bad example again here; probably pretzels, pizza, garlic bread and water. I don't drink or have ever touched drugs, and I would say to 110% stay away from both. I see Way way too many musicians seeing this as something to help them before a concert. I think it's pure insanity. I need 100% of my skills to be at my best, and not a tenth of a percent less.
Q. How to you manage your anxiety or daily stress?
A. I don't have much data to give here as I've rarely ever dealt with this. Obviously there are many non-musical aspects that can stress us out haha! The singer always starts the song in the wrong key, the drummer is always late, the sax player doesn't practice his part, the accordionist always forgets which registers to use (oh yes), etc. ; But for the music yourself, if you're confident in your abilities, and they've been proven, there's nothing to be scared of. For daily stress, and career stress, I always always always tell people to have To Do Lists, and update them constantly, many times per day. There are too many people and situations, and we can't remember them all.
Q. Do you have a routine before an audition?
A. I've rarely had auditions, but my World Championship competitions I'm sure are similar. I just simply run through what I'm going to do in my head. The same way Larry Bird would run the play in his head before executing it. This makes your brain believe it's fully possible. I have won competitions before where what I played had never been played full through in a practice run. It's all mind. If you've done your work to acquire the skills and tools, your brain is capable of the rest.
Q. What was the most important mantra/lesson/idea you learned in the last couple of years?
A. These were learned very early on, but they are most important - Never be satisfied + Have very small prizes for yourself. I could have been satisfied with a National Championship at 15, but my goals for competition achievement were far greater. I could have been satisfied with the first ever skinned accordion, but my goals for creating a truly unique accordion were far greater. I could have been satisfied with 3 World Titles in 3 different disciplines which had never been done, but I accepted a Guinness Record would be more marketable for my career, so I went and did that. The other is small prizes, and I feel this may be even more important. Young people today seem to need constant positive energy, constant pats on the back, and constant celebrations for achievements. I can tell you one of the only times I've had one of my favorite drinks (special ice cream one) is when I came home from my most important World Championship. That's all I gave myself for my greatest achievement. Keep yourself hungry. Be the 6th Round draft pick who was told they aren't good enough; not the 1st overall pick. Negative energy harnesses the greatest power to achieve.
Q. What's the best piece of advice you've been given?
A. Ask for criticism, and open it with the most welcoming arms. I completely do not understand the modern approach of always looking for compliments, positive remarks, and the "I do things my way, and don't care what others think" movement. It's frankly asinine to me. My dad used to tell me that when he had open house for homes he built, he would take people out to expensive lunches Just to have them tell him what they did Not like / Hated about the house. For how can we learn to become better if we are told we are already good? The moment you think you're good, you’re done. Look for those who have something negative to say, because even some uneducated negative comments of which you want to throw out, could yield a foundational element you need to fix, and one which shows up in other people's comments disguised as something else. Even if you end up listening to none of the negative comments, at least analyze them and store them in your data.
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