Finally, Midon expands his sound including the flamenco-inspired "Tembererana".
For a man raised in a small New Mexico town of less than two hundred, Raul Midon made a huge impression on the music world.
I recently had the opportunity to interview Midon. What follows is our exchange.
Just days into your second major release, as you look back at the past seven years, from your days as an independent artist, to appearing as a backup singer, to performing with Louie Vega's Elements of Life band, and now a critically acclaimed artist, what goes through your mind?
What goes through my mind is it’s a miracle I made it this far. It’s also a testament to the importance of persistence. If you want to be an artist, you have to commit to it and stick to it like a bloodhound.
When listening to your music, it is apparent that you are truly a singer-songwriter. Describe the importance of not only creating, but singing, your own compositions.
The advantage of singing and playing your own songs is that there is no problem with having a connection to what you are singing about. It strikes me that sometimes I hear singers singing a song and it doesn’t sound like they are connected to what they are singing.
As a songwriter, who are your influences?
My influences are varied and some of them are more musical influences while others have more to do with lyrics. For example, I’m very influenced by Thelonious Monk musically while lyrically Randy Newman and Joni Mitchell come to mind as great influences.
I've had the great fortune to watch you live, even before State of Mind was released. The live, acoustic version of your music certainly has a different tone than your studio productions. When constructing a song mentally, describe whether you hear the final production with strings and background singers or just the stripped down version? Of course, you enjoy the final production, is there a part of you that embraces the original version?
It depends sometimes I just hear the song with guitar, record it and then build on it. Sometimes I hear the whole thing in my head including lyrics, and all of the other musical accoutrement. I’ve always enjoyed working in the studio and coming up with production ideas. For me I imagine it to be similar to working as a chef in a great kitchen where you have the ability to mix and match ingredients, experimenting until you find something that’s tasty.
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