Morpheus Music Interviews

MORPHEUS MUSIC INTERVIEW - AUSTRALIS 23.12.08 - on release of The Gates of Reality.


Q: Can you tell us a bit about your musical beginnings.	I have mental images of my mother playing the guitar and singing the saddest conceivable song while I, seated at her feet, tried to assimilate meanings and emotions. I must have been 4 or 5 years old, but I think that's where I got the notion that music is the language of emotions. Soon after, when I started exploring the piano my parents hired a piano teacher. The formula, however, didn't work. I found myself forced to play from a book without any of the emotions that used to draw me to the instrument. Fortunately, my parents noticed the situation on time and took upon themselves to teach me whenever I asked by myself, allowing me to explore music in complete emotional freedom. During the next years, as I learned new piano pieces by myself (with the invisible but always present help of my parents), it felt only natural to start introducing personal modifications and adding my own "extras" to them, unconsciously learning to express more and more of my own emotions musically, and beginning a path that would lead me to where I am now. Eventually, when I was 12 years old, I ended up involuntarily creating a completely original piece for the first time. That night my mother sat by my bed and told me the meaning of what I had done. It opened my eyes to know that, instead of repeating somebody else's emotions and thoughts playing their music, this time I was casting my own unique feelings through my own music. "Now you are finally expressing your own heart," she said. That talk changed everything forever. I never went back to play music from other authors. Starting at that age I dedicated myself to compose and create with no purpose other than to learn the infinite intricacies in which those emotions can be expressed musically. Of course my musical characteristics and styles have been in continuous evolution ever since because the learning never ends, but that's the story of how I began making music.	Q: How did the Australis project get going?	Well, I got my hands in as many musical genres as I could, forming and participating in numerous musical projects. By the early 2000s I was the composer, keyboardist and (oddly enough) the singer in a pop / rock band; but I was experiencing an increasing musical dissatisfaction. Despite enjoying all the fun and excitement of being the front man in a popular local band, and although all the material from the band's repertoire was composed by me; I eventually reached the point where I felt limited by the handful of styles our audience expected from us. I knew I had more to say, more emotions to convey than those styles allowed me. So in 2004 I decided to start composing independently on the side with the intention to alleviate that frustration. The result from that complementary pastime , however, opened my eyes once again. On one hand it helped me remember my original musical purposes (discovered when I was a twelve year old kid). On the other hand, I felt so refreshed, so renewed being able to say what I wanted to say, musically; that around the middle of that same year I formalized these intentions under the name Australis. That's how the project started.


Q: What was your personal vision in approaching the new album?	For the new album, The Gates of Reality, my vision was the exploration of the frontiers between reality and imagination, this strange territory where reality starts to lose its realism to start turning into fiction, the same place where fantasy starts losing subjectivity progressively turning into possibility. We all experience reality and we all experience fantasy, even from birth; but where exactly is the point where one side becomes the other? Where is the line that separates fantasy from reality within the human mind?, and what happens there? Although definite answers to these questions will probably never be found, I have always been fascinated by how relative reality is from one person to the next, and that's what the new album tries to address. In fact, each one of its tracks represents a particular approach to this subject.	Q: What would you say is different about this second CD - how have you progressed since Lifegiving?	Lifegiving is an spontaneous collection of unrelated musical pieces. It was my debut, a birth of sorts, and therefore it didn't follow a thematic structure. Instead, it came out as a mosaic of many different subjects. The Gates of Reality on the other hand groups musical pieces that explore many angles of the same multi angular phenomenon. In this sense, if the the first album can be perceived as an anthology, then this second album can be conceived as a novel: each track has a relationship with the other tracks and also a relationship with the album's subject; parameters not present while working on Lifegiving. This goal forced me to impose additional structures to my creative approaches. Although creative freedom is always cardinal, I found the need to filter my sources of inspiration to concentrate on those that related to the subject of the whole album. The exercise - arduous most of the time - has been a wonderful experience, full of wonder and adventure at all times.

Q: How do you work with the collaborators on your album?	The talented artists who so generously have collaborated with me on The Gates of Reality are people whom I have had the privilege of working with before on different projects. We share a common love for music and I admire their individual works as much as they like my music. Their help in several tracks for the new release is a result of these shared friendships. Normally I don't know if a particular piece will need vocals until I am past half way through its composition. If at that point it becomes obvious that the piece requires vocals, I start creating the lyrics in parallel as I complete the instrumental piece. Usually, when the instrumental production reaches its completion, I have a pretty clear idea of the kind of voice(s) the piece needs. When I meet with the guest artist(s), we go through the instrumental piece repeatedly, sharing the base idea and exchanging impressions until concrete notions start taking shape. In this regard I have to say that, for the process to work, the guest artist's perceptions are crucial. Each collaborator brings something unique and special to the studio and the only way the piece can become all it can be, is to allow each collaborator to shine with their own talents.	Q: Where are you based and where do you make your music?	I live at the feet of the Rocky Mountains in Utah (United States), in the small town of Kaysville. The quietness of the area, the friendliness of its people and its impressive landscapes have always been ideal to allow inspiration to find its way into my heart and my mind. I create my music at my home studio where I can work with no regards about time or expenses. Most of the time that's also where I invite guest artists to start mulling ideas for particular tracks.


Q: Can you describe some of your musical equipment and recording techniques?	I am fortunate to own tools that provide me with more musical room than I need to explore with no limitations. They include hardware equipment (synthesizers, samplers, acoustic and electric instruments, etc.) along with software tools (sequencers, virtual instruments, audio libraries, etc.). The current state of technology is a blessing to composers like myself, whose art relies heavily in the capability of developing their own sounds and atmospheres. I record in a multitracking system that provides complete and independent control of each track and instrument. For acoustic elements (vocals and/or instruments) I use an acoustically inert room equipped with sensible microphones to register the performances complete with the subtle inflexions that are part of their innate personality. On certain occasions, when the sound I am looking for cannot be performed in a studio (like nature and environmental sounds) I take some of my equipment out to record it in situ.	Q: Graphics are clearly a major part of the Australis world - how involved are you with the visuals? What is the inspiration behind your imagery?	Yes, I consider the graphics are an integral part of a release. They are the one thing that still differentiates a physical album from digital audio files downloadable form the Internet. Additionally, the graphics can either strengthen or weaken the message the album is trying to convey musically. Poor visual concepts will contradict even the most powerful music, predisposing the listener in a direction different than that of the music, and weakening the album's overall strength. For those reasons, I always try to involve myself deeply during the conceptual stages of the graphic design, making sure that the graphic ideas being developed complement the music. The inspiration behind the imagery in The Gates of Reality is the same as the inspiration behind its music. The images convey the paradoxical relation between reality and fantasy: A flower sits inside a cage in the middle of the desert. On one hand, the cage's door is open, no longer imprisoning the delicate sunflower. On the other hand, a merciless desert awaits outside the cage. This conflict between safety and risk, between freedom and captivity is a parallel of the conflict between dreams and responsibilities, between reality and fiction. Of course, it is the listener who has to decide which symbol represents reality and which one represents fantasy.

Q: What is the most satisfying experience you have had in music making?	The most satisfying experience I have while creating music is when everything clicks. You see, composing is - at least for me - a delicate process of translation from emotions to music. When the emotional content is there, the process begins with the precarious task of selecting the instruments better suited to express those emotions. After that there's the challenge of assembling chord progressions, rhythms, melodies, etc., in such a way that the resulting combination is actually able to convey those emotions musically. It sounds fairly simple when explained like that; however, try to imagine how your sadness, fear, determination and victory should sound like such that other people will experience them with as much detail as you... and you'll begin to understand how complex the process can really be. Well, while immersed in such a multilayered endeavor, it is not unusual to lose clarity among the infinite ways in which musical elements can be combined; and is it not unusual after long working hours to realize that one has strayed away from the actual emotions motivating the piece in the first place. It can also turn into a duel between your intentions and your limitations: you get tired, you get hungry, you get over accustomed to that particular piece; and, on top of that, there's also the possibility that the emotions fueling the piece evolve into something else, leaving you speechless in the middle of your speech, figuratively speaking. Only when all those obstacles are cleared all the sonic elements fall into their right places and all the melodies, rhythms, sequences and textures act in unison to carry the message they have been created for. Reaching that point is my most satisfying experience in creating music.	Q: What does life hold for you outside of Australis?	The normal substances of life: family, learning, love, community, evolving, fear, work, hope, wonder, challenge... In fact, it is from outside Australis that I gather the materials I need for Australis to exist. In that sense, Australis is a vehicle, a channel I use to cast experiences, reflexions, desires and ideas; mine and those from the people around me.

Q: What do you listen to for personal enjoyment?	Growing in South America, I was exposed to a very wide variety of musical genres. I have to admit this overabundance of styles caused me to adopt an attitude of discrimination that wasn't very appropriate. Fortunately, it is now obvious these influences were somehow leaving deep marks in my psychology since early in my life. As you know, music in South America is the results of hundreds of years of mixture and ethnic influences from almost everywhere in the world. First, Europeans conquered the continent; then they brought African natives to be bound by slavery; and later, as countries started to achieve their own independences, Asian workers also migrated to South America to help the nascent economies. Of course, each of these and other groups brought their musical art with them. Add to this the global influence of modern popular genres and you have cultures boiling with different music styles. With that background, what I listen to now is a very diverse mix of music. One day I'll be enjoying pop music, the next I'll be humming at some classical orchestra; and the next I'll tapping my fingers at some tribal rhythms.	Q: Where is Australis heading for the future?	I don't know. Some years ago I thought I knew, then reality showed me I didn't. A few years later I thought this time I knew. But again, reality proved me wrong. So now, even though I think this time I know for sure, it is probably better to do my best effort and hope the future takes me somewhere positive. My personal desires are to keep producing sincere music, music that reflects the human nature, music that invites the heart to grow. Additionally, I have always been very interested in film music and would love the opportunity to write music for motion pictures. But while that opportunity decides if it will come to me or not, I will be always happy composing original music.
Thanks to Oscar AKA Australis for allowing us that interview.