Gozzi continues to build his brand, evolve his sound, and refine his techniques as a versatile Producer, DJ, and Musician.We recently caught Gozzi For a quick interview for our read here you go 🙂
Q:When and why did you start playing?
ANS: I’ve started to perform music at the age of 14 professionally. Playing music made me felt more expressive of myself more than anything else. As a kid growing up, I was very shy and not really the talkative type. Performing music, oddly enough, got me in my comfort zone more often than not and it expressed a different side of me that I didn’t have.
Q: Which instruments do you play?
ANS: I’ve started off with Piano, and then I got heavily into drums. Along the years, I’ve learned to play guitar and bass and incorporated them both into my producing. And then I picked up a pair of turntables and started scratching, blending and mixing music for experimentation later in life.
Q:When you decide it’s time to make a new record, is that more exciting or stressful?
Ans:It does feel exciting, yet a little stressful at the same time. A lot of things come to my mind when I’m finished with one record and moving on to a whole new one. Once I open my computer and open up a new project with a clean slate, it feels so weird. Its just that “A Clean Slate”, and there are times that I would feel that I have gotten something good that I have experimented with and later on possibly not like it, or I don’t like what I’ve made but open it up later and it actually ends up sounding different and interesting. Thats really the curse of being a productive PRODUCER, so to speak. You can never be pleased of your work in all aspects cause once you fall for the inevitably of settling with something, it is over. I’ve always had the need to feel like making a hit record when I have to work. But sometimes, Its about just making a song with good structure and good rhythm, even when sometimes, critics feel like it is necessarily good to them or not. Its about starting off with something than with nothing at all.
Q: You write all of your own music; where do you draw inspiration from when you write songs and what’s your favorite part about the process?
ANS:Most times, collaboration isn’t a bad thing. I guess I would say thriving on the energy of other great songwriters and producers or showing other artists my work for critique, has been a good guideline from working ground on a track that I would focus on next. Going through this kind of process can be productive, but exhilarating in all aspects. Learning new things, even as a master at your own craft, can only make you more stronger and can have an impact on your life with just one idea alone. Thats why its a journey that I can only discover with different explorers of music, when Im always looking for something my inner being would search for in music.
Q: Who was your first teacher? Other teachers?
Ans:My first real music teacher, if my memory serves me correctly, was a music instructor before I even embarked on my way college and in music school. His name was Eugene. He was very strict, but a very disciplined and talented individual. It wasn’t just about drums to him, but it was also about learning the body, mind and spirit of a musician, and to break boundaries that your mind would tell you that you couldn’t do. And most of all, he was a good friend.
Most of learning came from schooling from Frank Sinatra School Of the Arts and from achieving my degree in Five Towns College. But really, and honest to God, the most craziest thing in this career is that the most helpful teacher was going out on the street, and play with different musicians all over. Their experiences and knowledge taught me so many things that I couldn’t have learn in school at all. Really Crazy !!!!
Q: How do you handle mistakes during a performance?
Ans:Lol I don’t. I honestly just keep moving forward on the performance at hand. Whether it’s Mixing Music or performing with an instrument. I would just keep playing on forward, because if theres one thing Ive learned when I perform in a concert, a party, a club, or even in front of family, friends or colleagues, it is that once you have stopped, the performance is considered to be over and you won’t have a second chance to create that sound that you’ve lost, again.
It sounds cruel lol I know but its just the nature of the music business. You learn from those mistakes when its over, and to try hopefully to prevent it in more ways than one, for next time.
Q: Do you get nervous before a performance?
Ans:Yes.Being nervous has always been in me throughout any experience, because all I’ve wanted in every show s to make sure that it is better than the lost one I’ve done. But I’ve also tried to keep my senses intact and focus on whats in front of me and not be so indulged on the incontrollable events that would possibly happen. All I would have to do is make sure people enjoy what they hear and what they see.
Q: What advice would you give to beginners who are nervous?
Ans:It Would have to be that being nervous is normal, and it only shows that you care about what you’re doing.But don’t let the nerves control your actions when you have to make your decisions on stage. Performing music is and always has been about having fun and doing what you love at the same time. Confidence is nothing in comparison of cockiness. It is an action within oneself,more than to others, that keeps telling you in your mind that “You Know What You Must Do” in any given situation and that you have the ability to do anything that your heart desires.
Q:How often and for how long do you practice?
Ans:Not too often. But when I do, I practiced with a pair of sticks and learn my rudiments and hand exercises or go into my studio, pick up a guitar, open my keyboard and just play songs from my songbooks, just to keep my mind and soul nourished on learning and learning and just simply learning more… No matter how long it takes. Sometimes for hours, others for minutes, depending upon learning what I wold need to know for my brain to obtain for one day.
Q: How do you balance your music with other obligations – mate, children, job?
Ans:Balancing my mate and my music both have certain ways of discipline to me. I always separate the two, as they truly are both loves of my life. My job is my music, as well. I would know when I have to devote time to all of them when I know I have to, in my heart.
