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-You are Peruvian and living in the United States. I didn't know there was an interest for New Age music in Peru. Am I mistaken to think that your permanence in North America has "injected" this musical style in you?
-My interest in New Age music was born during my teenage years, more than one decade before I migrated to North America. However your suspicion is correct: other than the few examples that become commercial (like some from the beginnings of Enigma and Enya), the New Age genre is unknown by the majorities in Peru.
In my case, I began to take an interest in this style thanks to a tape of weird music my father acquired during the 80s and took with him during one of the family trips we used to do during vacations.
During trips I've always felt strongly enticed to let my imagination fly in absolute freedom, and then just follow it wherever it takes me. But on that occasion, when my father played that tape in the van's stereo, suddenly it was like attaching jet engines to my imagination! That music sounded very strange and unusual, the chords were extremely long and didn't change but evolved. And the music piece kept going and going (just take on account that two of the pieces took a whole one side of the tape!).
I think if I had heard it in less adequate circumstances, it would have bored me very quickly with such long and apparently monotonous music. However, being predisposed because of the trip, that paused and mysterious music immediately created an imaginary context infinitely richer than that I was used to, and intoxicated me with sensations of magic and deepness never experienced in my life with any other music style.
The rest of the trip was a fight between my brothers and me, because I wanted to keep listening to that tape again and again, while the rest of the family had other preferences. That's how I discovered New Age.
At that time I had no idea how that genre was called; and on top of that, since Peru has never been a very good market for that musical style, it wasn't easy to find more exponents on music stores and even less on the radio. So, even when I was a converse at 17 years old, it took me a long time to hear and get to know the essential New Age exponents.
The tape of weird music my father took to that trip was 'L'Apocalypse Des Animaux' from Vangelis.
-I say "'injected' in the United States" because of the many New Age record labels and musicians present in California! I know you don't live there but, what do you think is the reason?
-I suspect the phenomenon happening in California with the record labels is similar to what we have in other aspects of society. For example, in almost every city in the world there is some street where bread makers, restaurants of appliances stores are grouped. I think the music industry behaves like that.
Personally I think this case was related to the movie industry. When some movie pioneer established himself in Hollywood, California at the beginning of the last century, and started to have success after much work and effort, many other movie makers must have found convenient to move closer in order to copy methods and styles, and thus to grab part of the success from the big guys.
After that, when technology allowed the use of audio in movies, it is possible the big record labels from then realized it was a good idea to be a little more within reach to have more opportunities. Thereafter, it is probable that the other labels followed the big ones, also to copy styles and trends, and ensure more opportunities with less effort.
As I see it, it is always harder to achieve success being alone than being among other like one; although the first form of success has much more merit than the latter. I think it has to do with the fact that it is easier to "follow" than to "lead".
-How's life in the United States?
-This is a somewhat delicate question and I know that regardless of my best efforts, I am not going to be able to remain impartial because my only point of reference is Peru. I have not settled in any other country long enough to answer with more authority.
Having said that and accepting my informality on the matter, I must say that life here is much more stable than that in Peru. Of course, it is not worries-free like it is often seen from the outside (I know because I used to think that way). There's hard work like everywhere else, and the same basic principles of ethics, honesty and civism applicable world wide, are a must here.
I am sure the roots of instability in Peru are as deep and complex as the roots of the relative stability here. I am also sure there are more unstable places in the world than Peru, and also other places more stable than United States. However my capability for comparison is very limited and I can only say that after I settled here it made sense to make long term plans and set important and difficult projects for my life, because now I knew I could reach them if I worked hard for them.
Apart from that, and discarding the cultural differences present between all countries in the world, the rest is very similar. People are the same, the distribution of virtues and defects is the same; things that make you happy and things that move you are the same.
-Aren't you fed up with so many invasions and wars?
-Yes!!!, Yes, yes!
And it is not only a Peruvian living here who says so, but also the 55% of the people living here! At this point, personally I think it is more than just being fed-up, it is more like nausea.
I have to warn you though, I am not an authority in matters of politics by a long shot, but I think the concept of patriotism is one of the least understood in the world, and one of the worst used by politicians.
-How where your first steps, musically speaking?
-This is an interesting question because, every time I have thought about this, I have been forced to admit that most of those steps were uncalculated, or came from weaknesses more than from merits.
Since I can use my memory I've been always vulnerable to music in general. I have never been able to remain immune, since being a child, to the chords and melodies from honest music. I believe that, although it is not very noticeable, that was the first step of all: vulnerability.
I think the second step was my parents' wisdom, without which I wouldn't have stopped being a music listener to become a music participant. At 6 years of age I was unable to accept music as a discipline. The piano lessons were a torture for me, for my parent and for the poor piano teacher. I am sure that if my parent were only responsible, they would have insisted with those lessons until I became a disciplined pianist. Fortunately, they were also smart parents that allowed me (under their alert guide) to become something more important: what I wanted to be. They let the piano teacher go, and they took upon themselves to turn the activity into an interesting and attractive game. The results were that I always felt music is voluntary and pleasurable; something personal naturally born in the heart; instead of being an imposed responsibility hard to enjoy.
Turning Point (Lifegiving) (mp3)
The third step came to me at the age of 12, also involuntarily. For some months I had been feeling that the music I knew at the piano was less and less fulfilling, and to learn new pieces was only good to keep that void alive. That consternation has to have been what pushed me to begin experimenting with the music I knew, adding arrangements, changing sequences of chords, trying random modifications and discovering in wonder or in pain (more of the second that of the first) the results. It was a completely spontaneous process and I wasn't after any defined purposes beyond trying to recover the pleasure of playing the piano.
Then the day came when I sat down at the piano and I wanted to start experimenting from scratch instead of using one of my known pieces as the starting point. That night, when I said 'good night' to my mother, she asked me where did I learn the music she had been hearing me practicing that afternoon. I can still remember the excited expression in her face when I told her that I had invented it. She remained for one hour seated at my bed explaining me that what I had done was to compose original music, that that music was mine and that it told what I wanted it to tell and its meaning was what I wanted it to mean.
That experience changed my life. After that I never went back to play music from other authors, instead I dedicated myself since then to compose with intention, translating my true emotions, regardless of how intimate or painful, into music.
Of course there's much more history after those days, and much of the musical formation that allowed me to create Australis, took place during following years; but those were my first musical steps, the decisive ones without which nothing else would have happened.
-Why the name Australis?
-This is a two-part answer. The first part answers why I adopted a pseudonym. The second part answers why the specific name Australis.
I decided to adopt a name because I want my music to carry all the possible meanings. You see, my personal name is very meaningful for me and for those who know me personally; but it only represents me as a person. On the other hand, my music is much more than just me. I consider my music is also passions, experiences; times and places, cultures and emotions anxious to be freely shared without obstacles. I feel using my personal name would be tying my music to a person and therefore I would be taking away meanings and intentions from it.
And I took the name Australis precisely because of its meaning. It is a native word from one of the tongues pillars of the human race, latin. It is translated as "coming from the south" and not only it symbolizes me as a person, but also my origins, the culture that molded me as well as the history and traditions from a whole group of people as seen from the eyes of one of their children.
In my opinion this concepts, much more eloquent that the personal name of an unknown person, provide more substance and meaning to my music in the hears of who hears it.
-Your first disc ('Lifegiving') it getting big successes. It has even won the "2004 Best New And Independent Artist Award". Tell us about this.
-This another questions I have to place in context for your readers to know what we are talking about.
The type of success my album is obtaining is so far "conceptual", if that word can be used here. It is a disc composed, produced, printed and released to the market all by only one person, independently and with no support whatsoever from any record label. And that person has had (and still has) to: run with all the included expenses, learn commercial relationship techniques, distribution, promotion and accounting he never imagined existed, and which he never felt inclined for; act as public relations personnel, authorized contact for fans, official contact for the media, mail dispatcher, press editor, etc, etc. And all that just to be able to get the tip of my shoe in a door the big record labels want to keep closed.
Under that perspective, it is obvious that the success we are talking about is not a commercial success. 'Lifegiving' is far from being a best-seller if it is compared with discs released and promoted by the big ones in the industry. However, the impact it is causing among listeners of independent media (online radio stations) and people that have discovered my music through other ways in this few months, is a bigger success from the one I expected.
I won't deny things are now starting to get movement by themselves, since my music has already been added to the programming in several commercial radio stations, some record labels have been in contact with me and I just signed a distribution contract with a company in Asia. And honestly, all this is extremely exciting for me. But, for the composer that composes because his/her heart doesn't stop singing to him/her, success is always measured by different parameters that the commercial ones.
-There's a mixture of New Age, Ambient Electronica and World in your music.
-Yes. After many years working with many other styles (rock, pop, folk, choir, etc), I came to the conclusion that New Age (according to its definition in Peru during the early 90s) was the most flexible and the most free-of-expression genre for the composer.
At that time in Peru, New Age was everything using electronic instruments that wasn't Techno, or everything using classic instruments that wasn't classical music; or any kind of music with spiritual content but wasn't religious music, or any style that sounded like a soundtrack but wasn't part of a movie.
So by then, in Peru artists as distinct as Vangelis, Jarre, Patrick O'Hearn, Enigma, Enya, Yanni and others with very different styles and instrumentations, all fell under the same label of "New Age". That's the mindset with which I compose. I don't pay as much attention to styles as to the message I am trying to communicate.
However, with the years musical styles have been defined better and better, and I've come to learn that my music can be categorized in several different genres. It is very interesting.
-Also, your music is very film-like, a perfect soundtrack to close your eyes and fly. What would the destination be?
-That is a very good question. I think it depends on the musical piece we are talking about.
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One of the concepts that define me is that I only compose when I am under the influence of any emotional force. In the past, while still discovering this characteristic, I have tried composing without feeling the need in my heart, and the results were always mediocre and with no inherent merits. After learning this lesson I have never wanted to try composing again without having something honest to say. As a result, every musical piece paints a sincere personal landscape, but different from the others; and then the imaginary destinations are always different too.
Lifegiving (Lifegiving) (mp3)
Personally, there are some tracks (like the one that carries the title of the disc) that take me to a dark forest where every night, in the deepest where only unicorns dare, a miracle of light happens and the rest of the world ignores. There are other tracks (like "Fire Tamer") that take me to places planted with challenges; and yet other tracks, born from spells hidden among the rooms in some castles (like "The Enchantment"). There are other tracks that take me to arid deserts where the only companion between one mirage and the next is the wind (like "Barren Lands").
Barren Lands (Lifegiving) (mp3)
However, independently from what I imagine when I compose or from the emotions that pushed me to do it; the purpose of my music is to awake in the listener his/her own emotions and destinations. I believe most of the magic from this genre lays in the fact that it doesn't impose subjects or thoughts in the listeners, but instead stimulates them to develop their own ones.
-At the same time it is very melodic and it has a brush of sadness, as if it was crying from someone. What inspires you?
-There's not an exact answer to this question.
Of course I can only speak for myself, but I think to compose intense and deep music, the composer must be possessed by deep thoughts and intense emotions. And I use the word "possessed" because it is the one that best describes the process.
Sometimes inspiration is triggered by external situations. They can be impressions or memories that surface at any moment; or certain images that combine specific ingredients that strike a particular sensibility. On that level, a composer is some sort of a collector of impressions and feelings; someone that goes through life experiencing and exploring, submitting himself to many intense emotions in order to have raw material to create music.
In my case, nothing inspired me better than conflicting emotions. I hope this won't sound too off-balance. (Laughs). Emotional uniformity numbs me, creatively speaking. What reasons would a person have to pour his/her soul artistically if there was only one emotion to be experienced? A state of constant and unavoidable happiness must be painful as a state of permanent and forced sadness.
What inspires me is what I feel when distinct or even opposed emotions conjugate inside myself and create confrontations, conflicts, longings. And well, if the combination is so powerful that ends up possessing the soul, then the inspiration flows and I can compose with purpose and intention.
As you've noticed, the forces that inspire me are frequently painted with hints of sadness, and describe those shadows everyone has inside the soul once in a while.
-Your brother also participates in this disc, doesn't he?
-Yes. The last track of the disc, one of my favorites, is built over the idea of the relationship existing between the human being and the mother earth; a relationship of mutual support in which the richness we enjoy depends on the gratitude with which we receive it. A relationship that unfortunately our society has been constantly ignoring more and more in recent times.
As the idea for this track grew in definition, I started realizing that the native Andean populations in Peru have always known how to cohabitate with nature and have always been grateful with the gifts from earth (hence the name of the track, "Sacred Earth"); and that's when I decided to imprint a decisive native feeling to the music using the influence from the Andean cultures.
Sacred Earth (Lifegiving) (mp3)
Fortunately, many years ago my brother Alvaro had the valuable opportunity to live in the Andean towns of Peru and Bolivia for a long time and, taking advantage from his own talents, he learned to play the Andean instruments until he became a seasoned musician in those styles.
Then, when I decided "Sacred Earth" was going to have Andean influences, to have the needed talent so close to me it became really providential, such that I could include the sounds of a real Charango (a string instrument that looks like a guitar but much smaller, with ten strings grouped in five pairs) in the production of this piece, despite the fact of being so far away from the Andes at the present.
-One of the tracks I like the most in your disc is number 6, "Forbidden Scents". How was its creation?
-"Forbidden Scents" is a suggestive theme that expresses lots of sensuality.
Several reasons make this a special theme. One of them being that it was the first time I used instrumental elements from other cultures and it ended up being a very fulfilling and educative experience.
But another reason it is special is that this was the theme that gave origin to Australis. At that time I was still producing projects in other genres and composing for other musical groups, and the material I had to work with didn't allow me to express my own emotions; after all, that material had to meet certain style and audience requirements, which was part of my work at the time. So, I started composing on the side during my free time, like when somebody writes in their diary, to record specific personal emotions instead of allowing time to evaporate them.
Forbidden Scents (Lifegiving) (mp3)
The result was "Forbidden Scents" and it was during its creation that I woke up, discovering many things; among them, that I needed to unload myself from what was distracting me and dedicate to produce music with personal meaning.
Then, after I finished "Forbidden Scents", I started changing paths until finally I got free from distractions and created Australis in 2004.
-I also liked the cover very much.
-Thank you very much. When the moment came to think about the CD cover and back cover, all that had to be done was to capture the general "ambient" from the music compiled and try to represent that ambient graphically.
To accomplish that, several symbolic elements were used. The butterfly for example evokes nature; the compass pointing South (a detail that requires a close look to be discovered) talks about remote and unknown geographies; the old-like composition and the degraded font types suggest something that comes from mystic past times; etc.
I think the graphic artwork in a disc is an important ingredient to add meaning to the music it compiles.
-Your preferred musician?
-I don't have only one. I admire too many different things in many different composers as to try fairly choosing only one. However, if I had to choose just one, I would choose the one that encompasses many of the characteristics I consider of value in a composer, even if it is someone as known as Vangelis.
Without diminishing so many others I would also choose in a blink, it was with Vangelis' music that I woke up to New Age, and discovered that there was much more than just the styles broadcast in radio, and that originality is not limited by genres, musical instruments or technology.
Of course, Vangelis has also had his periods of not-so-original-music, like happens with every composer once in a while; but generally speaking, every disc I've got from him has surprised me all over again like the first time.
-What discs would you take with you to a deserted island?
-If I was to be forsaken to a deserted island, I think I would use the room for a musical instrument instead of using it for discs. (Laughs). But if I had no option, I think choosing only five would be a very intense internal conflict.
Among the candidates there would be many from Vangelis' discography, and also that from Patrick O'Hearn. There would also be some from Enigma and Amethystium. Ronan Hardiman, Jan Hammer, David Arkenstone and Cusco would also be part of the decision.
I also think I would include material from talented composers with whom I am close friends, although they are not commercially known, like Roger Subirana and Ramón Mendigorri.
-A musical piece that still today gives you goose bumps?
-Honestly? There are several. You have to take on account that the relationship between the human being and music is based on life associations. It happens to everybody that we hear some plain music at a sensitive time in life, and from that moment that particular music acquires important meanings. The same happens the other way around, sometimes we hear excellent music when we are going through painful times, and from that moment we don't want to hear that music again, even though it is outstanding, because it evokes past pains.
In my case, some examples that always move me are Vangelis' closing theme from the movie 'The Bounty', Adiemus' 'Adiemus', Paul Schwarts' 'Veni Redemptor Gentium', Aria's 'Ebben', Deep Forest's 'Sweet Lullaby', among others.
-These days it has been discovered that the Sony BMG label was "honoring" us with a virus in each one of their CDs. Do we live in a society under surveillance?
-What I believe is that we live in an extremely selfish society, not individually but socially speaking. It is because of this selfishness that Sony BMG arrived to the deranged conclusion that it was justifiable to include spying software in their mass products. However, it is because of the same selfishness that many people engage in music piracy too. It is a chain reaction caused by ourselves.
Our selfishness as a society is such that we rather pay fortunes to a small group of already rich people to play some sport to entertain ourselves, than to give small amounts of money to reduce poverty somewhere in the world. Or we prefer to make wars in foreign countries than to educate the youth in our own countries. And, if we examine it impartially, our selfishness as a society reaches even the most apparently mundane and harmless levels; like when we throw the candy wrapping to the street to avoid the work of carrying it to a garbage can.
The abuse done by Sony BMG is despicable, but it is just one more sample of the collective selfishness we live on.
-How do you see this world?
-Honestly I think it is a wonderful place to live. I think this world can make us happy and support us effortlessly. If we believe in God, or if we prefer scientific fundaments, this world certainly is a bubble of kindness in a cold universe where we couldn't exist.
But I also think we are very incompetent administrators for the only planet we have. It is more and more evident every day. We are doing a very poor job, and at this pace, we will be the responsible for the worst of the extinctions.
-What will Australis bring us in the future?
-At this moment I am working on the material for a second disc that I expect to have finished by the first half of 2006. It is a deep excursion through some concepts that I couldn't explore exhaustively when I released 'Lifegiving' and now I wish to express with the intensity and the amplitude they represent. For that, I am also exploring new techniques and exploiting some styles I have only touched superficially so far.
It is an fascinating adventure that (fortunately) never ends because the musical territories don't have borders or limits. I wouldn't change it for anything.
Layton, Utah (USA), November 28, 2005
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