Simply Six: Pheroze

1. For many artists, they cite a defining moment for themselves when they knew they wanted to be a singer.  For many it was the appearance of Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show, to another generation it was the Beatles’ appearance on Sullivan half a decade later.  Is there such a defining moment for you?

When I was 12 and in my last year of living in Saudi Arabia, my friend Mus called me up to tell me he just bought a guitar. Playing music was a completely foreign notion to me at the time, I don't come from a musical family, so I wasn't really impressed with his new gain. That (pre-hipster era) douchey nonchalance changed like a wet diaper as soon as I went over to his place and picked up his guitar. It just felt so... right; like I had found a missing limb that fell off at birth. That was the defining moment of knowing that I wanted to eschew all semblance of a standard balanced life and pursue music with extreme diligence. I spent the next 8 months 'playing' a tennis racket along to albums until I managed to save enough dough to get my own guitar.

As far as knowing when I wanted to be a singer? Frankly, I never wanted to be a singer. Sure I did it on my own, but never really wanted to be a front man. It usually ended up defaulting to me to sing in bands, though. I became aware that I was actually decent at it when I was at a Berklee summer session in Boston for guitar and a bunch of people I was hanging out with wanted to form a band. If you ever stepped foot in Berklee you'll quickly find out that EVERYONE plays guitar- and bands with 6 guitar players just don't work (even if you're the Allman Brothers). So I sang. And screamed. But mostly sang.

I never really had an 'a-ha' take on me moment with singing. I had to develop it slowly and painfully - not just the skill but the confidence level in being a front man. These days I'm pretty comfortable just stepping up and doing it, but it was a journey to reach this point.

2. When you’re not creating music what are you listening to?  Who are some of your favorites?

I like silence. I like to hear myself think. I like to hear the music that's rumbling in my head- whether it's mine or others. I have my own version of Spotify in my brain. I tend to go in phases with listening to music. I'll go months without listening to anything and then months where music is on constantly.
My go to band is always Soundgarden - they're my security blanket for musical relevancy.

Right now I'm listening to The Joy Formidable. Today I listened to Kvelertak, Chris Cornell, Stevie Wonder and Mastodon. 

3. What would you say is your greatest moment so far as an artist, either on record or live?

I don't have one. I'm pretty much always in the moment when it comes to creating music so, while certain moments do stick more than others, I consider myself to constantly have my 'greatest' moments. The feelings within the processes of creating, recording and playing music are what I live for and whenever I'm doing those things I'm indulging in my share of absolutely fantastic moments. These moments are internal, though I do dig seeing the feeling reflected back at me through a listener.

That said, there was a moment not too long ago when I realized I had crossed a certain goal line that I never knew I had - the transition from making what I would consider to be good music to making what I consider to be GREAT music. Again, this is internal and, as egocentric as that transition may comes across, it's what keeps me fueled to keep going. If you're not self driven as an artist then you will constantly face a significant amount of crippling defeat - so I take my internal victories very much to heart to better deal with, and grow from, my failures. Next step: Make GREATER music.

4.  Do you believe music can change the world or is just something to listen to?   How much can music influence current events?

Art changes people and people change worlds. The world doesn't have to be the physical Earth or politics in as much as it can just be someone's personal world. I know music has gotten me through terrible times and elated me at joyous ones. 

Music is always a world and event influencer; it depends on how you relate to it and its place in your life. There's stupid fun music that plays on emotions in the same way that Reality Shows do- factory produced scripts written to hand the listener an emotion - musical McDonald's. This crap doesn't change anything - it's all media hype and marketing vessels to artificially sway people to a certain side. I think of this as music for lazy people - the people who just want to be told what to listen to and how to feel when they listen to it. If you're reading this, don't be that person.

Then there's the stuff that actually evokes the creation of feelings within the listener. Music like this brings out the emotion in people and the best part is that the listener gets to own it. It's THEIR emotion, the music acts as an attenuator. That's the stuff life runs on.

As much as certain movements and scenes have played a part in social history, I don't like infusing music with community, it's too personal to me to get mixed up in the will and ebb of others like some inane religion. I do think that exceptional music will permeate certain people's sense of self and that, in the right hands, the resultant charge can move social and political mountains.

5. How has technology affected the music industry?  How has technology affected your career as a musician?

I love technology. Here's the deal: These days I can record, market, make videos, broadcast shows, and interact with fans completely on my own and, more importantly, on my own terms. This is directly due to technology. Ten years ago, any of these steps were part of a process that required a team of people (aka a label) to get done with any level of proficiency.

To be a musician in this day and age you have to not only embrace technology, you have to embrace the spirit of the DIY ethos that has been a mainstay of punk rock for decades. There's a notion that the music industry is dying. It's not. The power has just shifted from the labels and their cliques to the ARTIST and the FANS.

So what is people can download my music for free? They're downloading my music and that's what matters. I'll make money other ways and true fans will help me out along the way by coming to shows and nourishing the creation of my music. Hell, I used to give away tapes and CD's for free all the time. As a creator I just want my music to reach whoever wants to hear it - and technology allows me to remove the middle man.

Now, sometimes that middle man can shout louder than I can - so it's not like there's no benefit at all to being with a label or a good management company, but technology has allowed the artist to hold on to their power. Artists who don't embrace technology and the freedom it provides should pack it up and go do something else. You can't afford to pine for the past or be a dinosaur these days.

Let's just use tonight for an example on how I've used technology to directly affect my music career. On this same computer that I'm answering this question on I've done the following in the past few hours: Created drum patterns to demo songs for my next album; lowered the price of my new album, Crows Into Swine, on my website pheroze.com for a holiday promotion; responded directly to a fan question in near real time on Twitter; updated my followers and fans with links to buy my albums for cheap; gotten real time statistics on who's listening to my music on two internet stations; bought a new microphone for my home studio; coordinated drummer auditions for another band I'm in.

That's a 5 hour span. And I took a break to eat dinner. I couldn't have done any of that ten years ago. I love technology.