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AV: What was it that originally drew you to music and
eventually being a performer yourself?
MA: My dad played in country bands when I was very young and
that made a huge impact on me. I was 8 years old when I started really becoming
interested in the guitar. Around that time (1964-65) I began listening to The
Beatles and a lot of Motown and R & B records.
AV: Having listened to a lot of music during the 70's and
80's I remember some great stuff and some not so great stuff. Tell me about the music that you made and the groups that
you played with during that time and what you enjoyed most about the music that
you played during that time period.
MA: I joined my first "professional" band Brimstone
when I was in High School and some friends of mine who were starting a new band
needed a lead singer.
I loved to sing so it seemed the natural thing to do. I
was a "bass player"at the time but they already had one so being the front
man was very interesting to me. It was a great way to hone my vocal skills and
learn how to become an "entertainer". I was really into the whole
Peter Gabriel thing at the time. Disco
was a raging phenomenon but there were still many great bands to listen to. My
favorites were Genesis, Yes, ELP and all of the English "progressive
rock" bands. The ascendancy of electronic music in the 80's gave exposure
to some fantastic artist's too like Peter Gabriel, Michael Brooks, Depeche Mode
and the Art Of Noise. All made significant contributions to how music is
conceived today.
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AV: Do you still see that same level of creativity and
innovation in today's music scene as existed back then?
MA: The technology is certainly better but I'm not sure the
creativity is there.
A lot of the stuff today sounds great but it lacks
"soul". No matter which genre of music in the 60's or 70's you
choose, it almost always had soul and a great feel to it. I don't mean the more
commercially successful music because a lot of that is awful but the stuff by
Tower Of Power, Marvin Gaye and Earth,Wind & Fire and English bands like
Genesis, Pink Floyd and Yes were just amazing. I love a lot of different kinds
of music including Jazz and Blues and the 60's and 70's were filled with
incredible sounds.
AV: In 1992 you made the decision to quit touring and
trying to catch the rock and roll dream. Was this more because creatively you
had other music that you wanted to realize or was it more that the lifestyle
was just too much to take that you decided to give it up?
MA: I was pretty tired when I left New York in 1987. I went
into semi-retirement, moved to San Francisco, bought myself a keyboard and
decided to really slow things down. From 1975 until 1987 I was extremely busy
touring, writing and recording which is not a lifestyle I would recommend to
anyone. Up until the early 90's trying to have your music heard was nearly
impossible if you couldn't get a record company to release your stuff but
thanks to the Internet and technology which enabled the artist to record at
home, playing non-stop in rock bands was no longer necessary.
AV: Once you were off the road and recording in your home
studio did you already know what direction you wanted to go with your music?
MA: Albums like Eno's Discreet Music and Another Green World
proved to me that you don't need very much to make incredible music. Bill
Nelson and Patrick O'Hearn were pioneers in the D.I.Y. philosophy. They also
made a living at it which was encouraging. I've always loved
"ambient" and "electronic music". What was very attractive
about that kind of music was it's simplicity and what I needed in my life at
that time was simplicity.
AV: You mention in your bio about "wanting to record
in a stress free environment" as one of the reasons to give up touring and
chasing the rock and roll dream. How much pressure was there to "make it
big" and compose the next big hit and how does that affect the creative
flow of an artist who has to live up to these demands?
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MA: The demands were different when I was getting started in
the 70's. If you weren't signed to a major label, touring was the only way your
band got heard. And the only way you got signed was if a label saw dollar signs
when they heard you. Now an artist can upload anything he wants and get heard
from more people in a day then you could in an entire tour. I wish I had the
Internet when I was starting out. Some of the bands I played in were really
quite good and we could've used it for sure.
AV: Tell me about the name Darshan Ambient and where that
came from and what it represents to you as your performing name.
MA: Since I was very young, the metaphysical world fascinated
me. I was 18 when I met Naux and he introduced me to yoga and meditation. I
fell in love with the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda. From that time on,
musically, everything I wrote was geared towards a form of Self-Realization. It
became cathartic for me to make music that actually produced something positive
in people. "Darshan" is an ancient word from Sanskrit meaning
"divine vision". I put the word "Ambient" after it because
there was already another band using Darshan.
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AV: So after making the decision to quit touring where did
your muse take you in terms of musical compositions and how would you describe
the music that you were composing back then?
MA: Brian Eno was my biggest influence when it came to what I
did after I quit the music scene. Originally I made this music to calm myself.
To help me relax and focus on changing my lifestyle. I did a lot of drugs and
drank heavily during my years as a "rock musician" and composing
"ambient" music grounded me and gave me a sense of purpose. The music
I composed was very similar to what I'm doing now except I'm a lot better at
it. I had one of those cheap Yamaha keyboards that you couldn't program but I
made pretty good use of it. I used a 4 track cassette recorder and made many
hours of relaxing music.
AV: Everyone is an amalgamation of their experiences and
the things they have learned along life's journey. How did your previous
musical experiences help to shape and influence the kinds of music that you now
compose under the moniker of Darshan Ambient?
MA: The art of improvisation is very key to what I do now
which was introduced to me through my work with Naux and the early Harlequin
years. When I sit down and compose I have no idea where it's going and all of
my best pieces were recorded within a couple of hours, start to finish. I have
a very 'jazz' approach to what I do which requires that I work very quickly. I
use a lot of loops in my work and I just layer one idea on top of another until
I have something fantastic.
AV: What are some of the ambient releases you have put
out since making the decision to alter your musical path and what kinds of mile
markers do they represent in your musical progression?
MA: Providence, The Zen Master's Diary, Autumn's Apple, From Pale Hands To Weary Skies are some of my
earlier works but I'm proudest of Providence and Autumn's Apple the most
because of their huge yet very simple sound and composition. What really turns
me on is discovering a melody that can literally make the listener cry.
AV: Your latest release is A Day Within Days. Let's start
with the title. What are you looking to communicate about the music on
this new album through the title?
MA: The title doesn't have any major significance; I just
liked the sound of it. Shortly after starting the project my dear friend Naux
passed away from a long illness and his passing made for some emotional
firepower that helped fuel what I was working on. I'm hoping that people
receive a positive emotional impact with the music.
AV: How long have you been working on this release that
will be available on November 9, 2010 and is this about normal for a project
from beginning to end?
MA: From the moment "From Pale Hands To Weary
Skies" was finished in 2008 I began writing and recording A Day Within
Days. There are many tracks that didn't make it on the final release which easily
could've become a double disc set. It usually takes about a year to conceive
and execute my ideas for a new album. The record label then put's it in the
pipeline and that can take several months.
AV: Does this new album represent any innovative directions
to your music that fans haven't seen to date?
MA: I'm working with guitar and bass much more than in past
releases. I love the combination of ambient elements fused with harder, more
aggressive rhythms.
There are some new software like Spectrasonics Omnisphere
and Native Instruments' Battery 3 that I'm having fun with on this CD. There is
also an orchestral feel to this album that makes for a much bigger sound.
AV: I really enjoyed the first track of the album called
Talking Book. Tell me a little about this song and what you were aiming for as
you worked on it.
MA: I started with a couple of "Imbira" loops on
Reason 4. Slowly I put piano and bass, then added guitar and extra percussion
loops along with Omnisphere. It took forever to mix this track because it is so
dense but I love the progressive nature of it. It's one of my favorite tracks
on the album.
AV: Reading the notes on the CD this is pretty much your
project start to finish. Do you ever seek any outside advice or opinions since
you started to work on your own in your own studio?
MA: My wife listens to everything I do. She's got a great ear
for what's cool and what isn't. I almost always end up agreeing with her
perspective. Originally this was going to be a much more vocal
oriented CD. But some of the tracks just weren't panning out the way I'd hoped
so "It's You" is the only one on this album with my voice on it.
AV: Looking back to how you used to record music and
contrasting that with the making of your new album what are the glaring differences
in how you used to work on a project like this and how has this made a
difference to how the finished album itself sounds?
MA: I spent many years in a conventional recording studio
environment so I was very slow in warming up to computers and all things
digital. All of my early works in the 90's were recorded on an analog TASCAM
688 Midistudio. I moved over to a Roland VS-880 for albums like Providence and
The Zen Master's Dairy. It wasn't until Autumn's Apple that I actually started
using computers and all of From Pale Hands was recorded using nothing but
Propellerhead's Reason 4. I don't know how I survived all those years without
today's technology. The new album sounds fantastic!
AV: After reading your bio and some of the notes on the
CD itself it is apparent that there is a spiritual component to the music you
compose. If you can, tell me how your spirituality alters what you
compose and how you go about recording the music you write.
MA: As I said before, my past explorations in
self-realization through yoga and meditation is what fuels much of what I do.
But above all my role as a father and husband give me so much inspiration for
what I compose now. I love who I am in relation to their lives and that sense
of undeniable purpose keeps my fires burning. Making music is so much easier
now than the days when I was single and living alone. I'm a less selfish
person.
AV: Tell me something about either a song on the album or
the album as a whole that I won't hear anywhere else.
MA: You can dance to it.
AV: The new album is being released on Lotuspike records.
What kind of relationship do you have with them and are they supportive of your
music once it is out of your hands and ready to distributed to your fans?
MA: The folks at both Lotuspike and Spotted Peccary are
great. The wider distribution really helps get my music in markets that were
otherwise unattainable. I appreciate everything they do for my music.
AV: Do you have a favorite instrument to compose on? What
will listeners hear as far as instrumentation on A Day Within Days?
MA: I play a lot of bass and guitar on this one. There are
also some wonderful soft synths that I use for the first time that makes the
music quite a treat to listen to.
AV: Any final thoughts on your music or your new album
that you would like to share with the readers of Ambient Visions?
MA: I try very hard to make a human connection when it comes
to my music. I think I really achieved that on A Day Within Days.
AV: From one Michael to another thanks for stopping by and sharing some thoughts about your music with the readers of AV.
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