Paul Avgerinos Interview-The Final on Vinyl Podcast

It was great to have the opportunity to speak with Paul Avgerinos for the first time after covering his music for so many years! We talked about his career and upcoming album Balance.

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

Transcript

Speaker 0:14

Hello everybody, this is Keith MuzikMan Hannaleck with the Final on Vinyl Podcast, and today we are with Paul Avgerinos. He's getting ready to release a new album called Balance in June. Um this is in addition to his 40 releases over the years. That's uh quite the vast catalog he's put out there over the years. And this is the first time I've had a chance to talk to Paul. I've been covering his music for for years now.

Speaker 1 0:38

Welcome, Paul. Hey Keith, it's great to be with you now.

Speaker 0:43

Thanks for coming. I appreciate it. Always like having a chance to talk to folks I've been working with over the years.

Speaker 1 0:51

Yeah, it's nice. It's uh we've been we've been working together for such a long time. I can't believe it took me this long to get you on the phone. I'm a late bloomer, let's face it.

Speaker 1:05

Yeah, I can relate to that. So you also have your own label called Round Sky Music, right?

Speaker 1 1:12

Yeah, that's right. Most of my most of my titles are on there, but I've got a few on Real Music and um a few other places, but the majority majority of the titles are on Round Round Sky.

Speaker 1:26

Do you have other artists on your label besides yourself?

Speaker 1 1:30

Not independently, but just collaborations like um uh you know with uh Anugra on Gratitude Joy and uh Gratitude Joy 3 and Siddhanpatia on the album. So just more as collaborations, but not not releasing other people's music directly.

Speaker 1:54

I I'm just amazed that you have 40 releases out there. What when was your first recording? When did that come out?

Speaker 1 2:01

Uh I think it's around 85-86. There's uh three or four titles that are out of print. They were on this uh New World Productions, which was uh an English uh label that they had a branch in the US back then, and we were releasing cassettes, audio cassettes, which was very quaint, and uh so they were really sweet. They let me do three or four titles, and then um I did a couple titles with uh a label called World Room, but then later re-released them on my own uh label. That was uh Maya, the Great Cartoon, and Balancing Spheres, and then I got to do a label, uh a record for Stephen Hill at Hearts of Space, which was Muse of the Round Sky. And then after that, it was pretty much on my own label, except for oh Peter Cater released my uh Sky of Grace album, but uh then eventually re-released it on my own label.

Speaker 2 3:01

I see.

Speaker 1 3:03

Oh, there's also well after that there was uh two albums with real music, um uh Garden of Delight and uh Gratitude Joy, the original, the first one, which has done really well for me. That's actually one of my most successful albums. It's so simple, it's just a slow table beat with a drone and just simple chanting Hari Om, Shiva Om. And uh but that album has really uh really done well over the decades.

Speaker 3:33

Well, that's good to hear.

Speaker 1 3:35

Do you have any vinyl out there?

Speaker 3:36

Any any vinyl LPs? Or is everything uh CDs sets digital?

Speaker 1 3:41

Yeah, the latter. I uh I never w ventured into vinyl. Uh it just doesn't seem to fit what I do because what I do is very quiet and delicate, and there'd be a lot of times when the uh surface noise of the vinyl would be louder than the music. So Is that right? Yeah, it's well it's a problem because a lot of the beauty of what I do is in the quiet nuance, you know, the low level m information, which is reverb trails and effects and delicate layers, and there's a certain amount of surface noise with vinyl being an analog medium. And so um the problem is the signal to noise ratio, you know, it's not it's not that big of a window. It's great for for louder music or more consistently solid waveforms, you know. But for super delicate stuff, I don't I don't really see the I don't really see the uh the the use case. I mean I do love the big uh you can have the giant artwork on there which is really cool. Definitely. Uh you have your own collection?

Speaker 5:03

You know you must have a huge uh vinyl collection, huh?

Speaker 1 5:06

No, I'm sorry to disappoint. I I don't. I I let that all go. I don't even have a decent vinyl player. I'm I'm I'm I'm sorry I'm not uh I'm not carrying that torch forward. Um it just doesn't appeal to me. Um I mean I do listen to some louder music sometimes just to wake me up and stuff. The digital is fine for me.

Speaker 5:32

You're not alone. I talk to a lot of artists that are in the same uh same space. And you know, speaking of space, it does take up a lot of space. So yeah, but it's uh it's a real commitment, right? It is, it's a passion and you know, I'd have to say for me it's an addiction, really. If I'm being honest.

Speaker 1 5:58

Yeah, well, I mean it's a very cool a very cool format for um I don't know, it's interesting. I I my feeling about it is I mean, if you're willing to go all the way with it, you know, and get really high-end vinyl equipment, players, preamps, um, especially the turntables gotta be killer, you know. It's just gotta be tricked out. And if you do all that, it is pretty amazing because you know the frequency response goes up into 40k or something. So that's that's pretty crazy. The air up there is very beautiful, you know, for jazz and classical. Um it's pretty it's it's pretty cool, it really is. But the thing is, I I I don't feel like I can maintain that kind of um equipment level. And of course I've got a you know nine-year-old running around here, and I don't she might bump into the turntable and then that'll be a five hundred dollar repair. So I don't know. It's just you know, you know how it is in life. You pick your um uh your passions. Like uh I recently put um a full solar array on the house and I got an all-electric BMW and you know that's like my that's like my joy passion project, you know. I get a big kick out of driving around charging it off of the sun on hitting my roof, you know. So that's kind of like my vinyl uh investment.

Speaker 2 7:30

Yeah, okay.

Speaker 7:32

Well that's cool too. Yeah, it's different. A little bit of your background, I didn't mean to go off the the deep end on that, but uh just curious about, you know, I always try to ask people that. Sometimes I forget, but anyway, um w when you got started, uh when you were growing up, um, I like to hear the story about what it was like for you, uh some of your influences, uh, you know, what mom and dad was spinning on the turntable when you were growing up and how it how it all got started for you.

Speaker 1 8:05

Yeah, yeah. So I have an older brother, four or five years older, and um he was playing horns and clarinet, saxophones and clarinets, and he had the brilliant idea when he was uh in ninth grade to start a big band at the high school. And so he talked the music director into it, and they started this whole big band, a swing band with horns and rhythm section and everything. And uh I would go hear him, and I just loved that, and and um then they even moved the program down to seventh grade, and so when I got there, I was able to play electric bass in the swing band for six years, through right through junior high and high school. It was so awesome. And um, of course, I had my rock bands I was uh you know running or being in, and uh one day one of my buddies showed up to rehearsal with the vinyl of John McLaughlin Inner Mounting Flame, Bahamashou Orchestra, and he puts it on, and I'm like, what's that? You know, we're we're like playing stones, you know, and rocking out. And I was like, dude, what is that noise? And he said, just wait a minute, man, just give it a second. Don't don't don't jump to conclusions. And I'm listening and I'm listening, and suddenly I'm like, oh my God, this is really cool.

Speaker 9:29

Amazing album, absolutely.

Speaker 1 9:32

Totally transformative. Next thing you know, I am a John McLaughlin freak devotee. I hi I we form a tribute band, a Mahavishnu tribute band, and we play the middle of the band is doing all Mahavishnu truths. It's just that the judges are like, what who where do these kids come from? It's like everyone else is playing stones. We're doing you know, Dance of Maya and the Intermounting Flame, and oh my gosh, what a period. And then his guru, Sri Chinmoy, was coming to Norwood, Connecticut every Saturday, and that was like eight miles from where I grew up in Wilton, Connecticut. So I would go down there. It's like, my God, this is John's guru. And so I, you know, got into that whole scene. Carlos Santana showed up one day, and you know, it was just so inspiring. And of course, I went and saw John a few times when I was in high school, and it just completely blew my mind. I was like, okay, I'm doing music. It's like I don't care win or lose, I'm gonna try my best to do this music thing. Because I just thought that was the coolest thing since sliced bread. Because, you know, it was like I realized it's not just great music, but it's music as a spiritual path, like a music as a path to enlightenment, towards raising your consciousness, towards wisdom and grace. And that that really reached me. Because up to then I was like, well, you know, he's a great musician, yeah, but what does it all mean? You know, it's kind of like egotistical, look how great I can play. It's kind of a vanity in on some level. And but then with John, I was like, oh no, this is this is beyond all that. This is pure. And there's like a purity about his his music, his path. And that's I've been doing that all my life. That inspiration set the whole my whole career in motion. Of course, I didn't, you know, I didn't go into jazz rock or fusion. Because I wasn't really I mean, I did that for a while. I got to play with Buddy Rich and you know, some big artists, but um I wasn't really enamored with the virtuosity aspect. I was more interested in the spirituality side of it. Like, you know, how how how can I make music that helps to awaken me and awaken others? So that's pretty much my formative story.

Speaker 12:02

Wow. That's quite the story. So yeah, those guys were great. Moving uh forward to the present day, curious what um brought you to the point of making balance. And uh the title, obviously, to me anyway, was that everybody seeking balance in their lives in this crazy world we're living in, and um wondering what was the driving force behind the that creative model before you went to the recording studio for that.

Speaker 1 12:33

Right. Well, I've been doing a series of archetypal titles, you know, love, bliss, mindfulness, peace, healing, beloved, joy. And so balance is a a logical step in that progression of archetypal principles. And as you said, you know, balance is so important and so easy to lose, you know. We're such an emotional, dramatic, reactionary age where people are fighting with each other about you know silly things and instead of finding commonality and practicing tolerance and compassion. So and I struggle with this in my own life. I I tend to overreact to small things. It's hard for me to keep that pure equanimity, and so you know it's the old story, physician, heal thyself. You know, we tend to do that which we need personally. So I definitely am working on, I'm always working on maintaining a higher level of equanimity to respond to situations instead of reacting. And uh I know that so many other people are, so I thought this would be a good archetypal style guide to uh share. So and I've noticed that these albums that I mentioned, they tend to be they they are my most successful ones. They have the most listener, the most millions of streams, and so I pay attention to that, and I try to do more of what's serving people because you know more and more in my career I'm thinking about how can I be of service, you know, how can I be most useful for other people. And so I watch, I see like what tracks have the most subscription, what pe you know the people listen to over and over again, and they always tend to be the simplest ones, which I've taken that to heart. And so balance is very simple and subtle. It's actually, I think, my most subtle album. That's what my mastering engineer said. He he says he thinks it's the most subtle thing I've ever done. And that's good because you know I'm trying to refine that core archetypal principle that I'm seeing is useful to listeners all around the world. And uh it's a it's a lovely place to be, you know. It's a I mean it's wonderful to do music on any level, but when you get messages, oh, you know, I we listen to your music while our baby was being born, we listen to your music while my loved one was dying, we listen to your music and during a difficult illness or a difficult, challenging period, that that really m makes me feel like, okay, I'm I'm on the right path. I'm doing what I'm I'm doing my dharma. You know, I'm doing my duty, my highest duty in life, my purpose in life, I'm fulfilling that. And and that's a good that's a good feeling. So I just try to do that as best as I can.

Speaker 16:01

That's a great philosophy, Paul. And you know, um, you know, looking at it track by track, um if you were to say to people what are some of the variances and um variables that are involved with each track, with the equipment you that you use and things like that, you know, how would you address that question?

Speaker 1 16:23

Right. So I have certain styles that I like to do, and so you'll see the same style come back on each album. For instance, um you could take uh zero gravity. So zero gravity is kind of like an astral trip vibe, like you're floating in space, non-physical being, you know, just pure consciousness. And so that vibe and the kinds of sounds like there's sweeping flanged reverbs and you know, sounds that go, you know, sounds that are moving up and down like they were in space. And uh I've done that many times going all the way back to um actually back to Muse of the Round Sky and Sky of Grace. Uh I've been doing that particular vibe or style guide, as I call it, on many albums because I know that there's a certain group of people that love that stuff. And I really like it personally. I actually like listening to that because it's you know it's it's non-pitched, it's not that it's not really musical in this normal sense of music, it's more sound effects and sound design and just vibe, you know, just like a a cool um space to be in. And then, you know, there's others that are more musical, like um oh like the comfort of silence is uh piano-based, you know, beautiful, simple piano ringing and these gorgeous reverbs. And that's something I've been doing just in the last few years. I never used to do piano uh pieces, but since they're so popular, I thought I would throw my hat in the ring and try to make uh Paul Abgerino's version of a new age piano track. So there's that. And then there's um Balance and Mindfulness Rising are very drone-based with the tambour, Indian tambour drone and a very quiet om chanting. And you know, that's a that's an archetype, a style guy that I've done many times before. And um Poise, the first track is kind of like my it's like quintessential Paul Ev Gerinos that um I've done for twenty years. It has the volume swell guitar and it has the twelve string twinkling plucking, and it has the um the long languid chords that go through charming progressions, harmonic progressions. So um it's interesting, Keith, that I I kind of feel there's a kind of two sides to this. One side I feel like I'm giving people what I know they like, and there's another side that feels like, oh, I've become lazy and I'm just cannibalizing my own my own music and just repeating. Of course, I try to improve it each time, you know, I try to make it more subtle and more beautiful, but I don't know, you know, that's very subjective because some people might like the version from 15 years ago. So um, but I at this point it feels like the right thing to do because it serves the goal of being useful, you know, people are really liking this style. Let's do more of that. You know, I I learned that from uh uh Chuck Wilde, the liquid mind, you know, he he's he's pretty much been doing the same style for you know thirty years, and because people love they love what he does, and you know, if he changed it up, you know, his audience might be disappointed, he might lose a lot of listeners if he went off on some you know wild exploration of um Tibetan throat singing or something, you know. You know, because when I Yeah, when I've tried to do things radically different, like my devotion album with Krishna Das and Jayutal, it's got beats and it's got mantras and it's all singing and everything. It's a cool, it's a really cool album. I'm very proud of it, but hasn't done very well because I'm not known for that genre. So you know that's that's something that artists have to deal with, you know. It's like, you know, I mean I love doing devotion. I'm so proud of that album, and I wish that more people would listen to it, but um, you know, I guess you have to you can do that, but you gotta come back to your core work so you don't, you know, lose the lose your place in the in the audience thread.

Speaker 21:23

Well, I like the fact that you know your philosophy of life and how you feel and from your heart and your spirit aligns with your music, and a lot of new age artists are like that. And we've covered some ground here today, and hopefully we got caught up on all our lost time over the years, Paul, and I really appreciate your time. And just I want to remind uh people who are listening that Balance will be released in mid June this year. And um thank you so much for your time today.

Speaker 1 21:50

Oh, thanks very much, Keith. It was wonderful talking with you. Thank you.

Speaker 21:55

You too, Paul. Take care, bye bye.