NEIL RAMBALDI

"The Quintessence"

By Sergio Vilar

Thank you Neil to consent to this interview. Please, count us shortly your musical career...
My pleasure.  Thank you for the opportunity.  Yes, I am an instrumental solo artist, guitarist, and composer from the New York area.  My professional career started around 1999 when I began working as a producer and doing some occasional guitar work as well for other artists.  I later released my first solo album “Perpetual Horizon” on my own record label in 2002, and performed shows with my live band throughout 2002 and 2003, here in New York and New Jersey, supporting the album.  Today, I continue to work as a producer and session guitarist on various other projects, and look forward to releasing a second album in the future.

Toward where do they aim your musical ideas? How would you describe yourself musically?
My music can be described as progressive / heavy rock, though my eclectic taste in music always gets infused into this main style of mine.  As a result of this, you can definitely say that my music also contains flairs of Flamenco in some of the more laid back songs that I have written, and other styles such as Blues and Classical surely play a prominent role in my leads and the harmonic structure of my music as a whole.  I love and listen to so many styles, that it would be unnatural for my music to not contain at least a little flavor from each.  Basically, anything with some melody, no matter how heavy or soft is what I like and as a result, melody plays a very prominent role in my songs.

I have your album, which has been excellent, and I would like you to give me your opinion in this respect. Were you totally satisfied?
Thank you very much Sergio.  Yes, I am very happy with the way “Perpetual Horizon” turned out.  I feel that I fully expressed what I needed to at that moment in my life through the music that I wrote for that first album.

There is not anything that you had liked to improve or to make in a different way?
Not for that time; although, as I evolve and mature as an artist and a guitar player, I develop a clearer picture of how my next solo release will be, and realize what I can do in terms of production to make it better.  I firmly believe that if there was no "room" for growth and improvement, then all of the albums of an artist would sound the same.  There needs to be that constant dynamic element, you know?

Why did you decide to record for your bill all the instruments?
I never really gave it too much thought in terms of who was going to play on the album.  As I started writing for it, the guitar, bass, keyboard, and percussion parts just poured out of me, and I just went with the flow and hit the record button.  I also just figured "why not" do it myself if I have the ablility, so I did.  As you know, the only thing I didn't perform myself on the album was the keyboard part on “Funky Brew”.  I thought it would add a nice "live" touch to have someone else play keys on that song, so I asked my friend and outstanding keyboardist R. Sean Faust, and the result was just what I envisioned.  I was very happy with it.  Overall, the creative control is really a great thing to have when you are attempting to fullfil a musical vision that only you as the artist can see so clearly.  In any event though, I wouldn't hesitate to ask another musician to perform on one of my works if I felt it was necessary to bring the song closer to my vision.  I like control, but I'm not a control freak either... (laughs)

The only aspect of performance that was done more out of convenience was the drums, which I programmed for the album.  I made them sound as human as possible and am very pleased with the results that I achieved, though I've met many good drummers since the recording and may have a live drummer perform on my next album.  I'll decide that when the time comes though.

We return to the music. How was the stage of composition of “Perpetual Horizon”?
I put myself through torture when I write (laughs).  When I have a musical idea and start to build on it, I go through great lengths to make sure that the parts I am adding to the song are the best possible augmentations.  As I do with anything I compose, I spent a lot of time on “Perpetual Horizon” in deciding what works best in terms of flow for the song and to have at least some form of continuity with the rest of the album.

Could you describe each one of the songs shortly?
For me to describe them shortly may be difficult, but I'll try!  (laughs) ...Well first off, each song has a subliminal message which relates directly to the title.  These messages are my expression of some firm beliefs of mine.  Also, being that all of the songs are instrumental, I focused my energies into making the lead or melody of each song portray the idea in such a poignant way that people should understand the moral to be told without the need of lyrics.  These "song morals" are listed in the liner notes of the CD.

The first track “Move Mountains” is a one-minute intro with a chordal and modal / symphonic tonality to it.  It's shimmering clean guitar sound is designed to "clean the palette", so to speak, and set the tone for the album.  The message is that "patience is a virtue", and it is all about having "control" and faith in what is to come from that action.

The second track is all about taking risks, and is titled “Edge”.  At this point, the flood gates have now opened for the album, and it is at this point that the listener should realize that my music is not for the "faint of heart"... (laughs)  This song can be described as a high-energy Dick Dale meets progressive Metal...  None the less, it's very heavy and the 7/4 groove followed by the 6/4 groove in the "B" section is designed to draw the audience deeper into the song.

The third track, titled “It's Time” brings it down a little bit with my nylon-string acoustic guitar as the prominant role in the beginning, and then builds and carries the listener through a heavy and epic story about passion and inspiration.  I actually always pictured this song to be in the background of some sort of epic romantic film along the lines of  “Braveheart” or “Gladiator” with it's orchestral string arrangement weaving in and out.  Maybe someday...

The fourth track, titled “Against The Grain” is a dark and heavy rock tune that starts out with sort of a modern-sounding groove with a bass drone and congas overlaying the backbeat.  This builds into a very heavy riff and recurring melody followed by a breakdown, return, and finale.  Harmonically, parts of the main melody and the dark riff that moves below it are most likely the last thing a listener might expect to hear in terms of note choice.  The note choice is definitely atypical, yet still pleasant and later resolves further in the finale.  The message in this song is much more plain-sight in the sense that it is a direct reflection of my initial thoughts of the melody itself, and that even after changing the melody a few times, I went back to my 'gut' on the final mix of this song, going with my first instinct.

The next two tracks “Personalities” and “Speechless” contrast in tempo and tone, but are related in meaning.  After I wrote these songs, I discovered that they both resonated particularly most with who I am and how others may perceive my unique and dynamic personality.  “Personalities” is a heavy melodic tune and after the sort of quirky keyboard/sythesizer intro, comes a meek or shy-sounding melody that grows into this immensely bold "personality" by the song's end.  “Speechless” in contrast brings down the tempo, but maintains a melodic and harmonic intensity that I enjoy using in some of my songs to modulate keys and really trigger emotions in my audience.  I hope I succeeded in this here.

Track seven, titled “Evolution”, is actually the oldest song by far, on the album.

The main riff I wrote in '94 and it sort of "evolved" (no pun intended) into what it became.  The basic idea of this song is that "time provokes change" and is another direct reflection of my thoughts on where this songs goes both melodically and in song structure, yet it does return back to the main theme in the end.  It is a very moody, yet melodic hard rock tune with a slightly neo-classical sound to it.  Very electric...

Track eight, “Funky Brew” is what I consider to be simply a relentless blues-rocker.  Although, there is a slight breakdown, the song just doesn't ever really stop.  The groove was written to imply some 'attitude' into the album, still maintaining my heavy rock sound, but a lot more "funky" in my opinion.  Sean's B3-sounding organ adds a really nice touch too, and I feel it complimented my guitar very well on this song.

Track nine is a deviation from the norm, but for me, the album would not have been complete without it.  It is one of the last songs that I had written for the album and is titled “Déjà vu”.  Regardless of the French phrase, it is a form of Nueva-Flamenco with an unexpected, and very different type of electric guitar solo for me in the middle, twisting things around.  The main melody is designed to be both repetitious and unforgettable in a sort of foggy and mystified way ...kind of like "deja vu" itself... (laughs).

Track ten, “Prowl” is about chasing your ambitions in search of euphoria.
For me, the "B" section is very uplifting and as a whole, listeners should find this song both very melodic and loaded with energy.  ...Very heavy and doesn't stop "moving" until the last beat!

The eleventh and final track is also the title track for “Perpetual Horizon”.  This cut is like my 'mini-opus'.  It's just under six minutes, so it is not extremely long, but I feel it was just enough for its various movements to portray the main idea behind the title: to "persevere and conquer", even when life's challenges seem to never end.  It's all about having faith in resolution for your hard work that you put forth.  This is an extremely dense work of music for me in terms of arrangement, and harmonic content, and I had a blast writing it.  Some of the odd time signatures, particularly in the middle may throw people for a loop (laughs), with the alternating 13/8 and 14/8 grooves, but that was designed to break things apart and then bring the music back together as an even stronger cohesive unit leading into the "icing on the cake" in the last minutes of the album.

From all of the synth parts to the very heavy guitars and my solos, I hope my listeners can truly enjoy the deep textures that I created in this artwork.

Will you carry out more disks of this type in the future, or is the idea to form a stable band?
Yes, I do plan on releasing another solo album as I mentioned, and I look very forward to it.  In terms of live, I would certainly like to have a stable band to tour with.  I had a great lineup with me when I performed all of this material live in 2002 and 2003, including bassist Chris Onjian, keyboardist R. Sean Faust, and drummer Edward Faust (yes, Ed and Sean are siblings...).  All of these guys are friends of mine who happen have tremendous musical talent with their instruments, and I hope we can continue to perform together in the future!

Then, what can we expect from the next album?
For my next album it's hard for me to say, only because if I was to have a "master plan" that was all thought out for the album, then it may come out seeming contrived, and I definitely don't want that.  What I will say is that I feel I have matured as a player and writer since I recorded “Perpetual Horizon”, and I look very forward to seeing what will come out of me in the future.  I am grateful that I am always growing and from the many little ideas that I've written so far since 2002, all I can say is to expect something even more "over the top" than “Perpetual Horizon”!

OK Neil, the last question: what do you ambition as a musician?
My ultimate goal as a musician is to achieve pure effortlessness, and constant growth in both the wisdom of my instrument and evolving as an artist.

Thank you. Is there something that you want to add?
Thank you very much to you and everybody else who has ever taken the time to listen to my music.  It means more than words can ever describe.  Muchas Gracias!

 www.neilrambaldi.com

Nucleus interview: 04/05/04