Featured Artists, Songs and Posts

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Nagamag:
What are the genres that describe better your music style?

Sacha Hoedemaker:
Cinematic Piano.
Often, his music is compared to film scores. Soundtracks.
Atmospheric Piano.
There is always a story in his music. A universal story.

Nagamag:
Few words about your musical background and career?

Sacha Hoedemaker:
Sacha started playing piano at the age of 8. After two years of piano lessons, he quit. Thinking; this is not for me.
Then he was cast as a musical accompanist at the age of 14 in a school musical. He fell in love with musicals and wanted to learn everything there was about musical theory. How were songs built up and what were recurring patterns, etc. He quickly realized that he had a good ear and started exploring different genres. After a couple years he was playing professionally for semi-pro singers as well as in theaters and restaurants as a background pianist. Always listening to how his music had an effect on the room.
This skill then became useful when he tried improvisational theater. He scored scenes with the same ears as listening to a busy restaurant. What is needed in order for the 'audience' to have a good time. Connecting music with emotions and stories. That's what makes him a highly sought after musical director.
Sacha is now a musical improviser. Envisioning a story and letting go of all that is distracting, through meditation and mindfulness. Using all his gathered knowledge about music in the last decade, and focusing it on his craft by creating a listening experience. On a daily basis, he plays for Europe's biggest improvisation theater called Boom Chicago. He graduated from the Abbey Road Institute in Amsterdam in 2020 and currently is running a growing home-studio called The Music Maker. At the start of 2020, he was looking for more creative outlets and he joined several collaborative projects, one of them resulted in an Emmy win. (#CreateTogether) He is the pianist for Dr. Peacock (in Concert).
He started releasing music during the pandemic, in August 2020, and has been growing his presence on the classical piano market ever since.

Nagamag:
Do you remember your first connection of love to music that was the right impact to be a music artist now?

Sacha Hoedemaker:
Yes, after I had discovered that I could play anything.. I took on the challenge of learning Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin. It took me a full week, but I managed to do it. I couldn't contain myself and kept playing new songs every day. From Classical to Pop and from Jazz to Gabber. Seeking to challenge myself, was a driving factor for me to keep coming up with, and taking on creative projects.

Nagamag:
What is your goal in terms of music?

Sacha Hoedemaker:
It has been a dream of mine to score a full feature film, as a composer.
Starting small, my initial goal is to create several cues, or score a short film. Help conveying a story in any way that I can. Too many stories are silenced, I see it as a my calling, to help tell some of those.

Nagamag:
Most artists have a favorite song from a different music genre than the one they are producing music for... Which is yours?

Sacha Hoedemaker:
Vulfpeck "1612"

Nagamag:
Of Course Nagamag would love to listen also which track from a similar artist you admire?

Sacha Hoedemaker:
Elliot Jacques "Kaleidoscope"

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Nagamag:
What are the genres that describe better your music style?

Alberto Rizzo Schettino:
I write original music for film and video games. I play piano and keyboards and in the years I have gathered quite a collection of synthesizers, guitar amps and FX pedals. This definitely drives my music towards those instruments as I like to mix elements of electronic music (ambient, downtempo, glitch etc.) with more traditional orchestral instruments (strings, brass, percussion) and ethnic sounds from Africa and the Middle East. I try and mangle these original acoustic sounds from world music to be 'assimilated' by the machines, while still retaining their contrasting features. I try to maintain a delicate and constant fight between an industrial, cyberpunk and somehow dystopian sound palette and a more organic, classical setup with roaring strings and epic orchestral elements. I guess a lot of my work with techno artists and the club scene plays a role in what I imagine would be the sound of the streets and the underground in a distant future.

Nagamag:
Few words about your musical background and career?

Alberto Rizzo Schettino:
I've worked as a pianist/keyboardist for artists, bands and recording studios, mostly as a session musician. I've had my good share of live gigs in rock, acid jazz and fusion setups in which I would bring my keybards, guitar amps and guitar pedals and kinda force the stage to accept my sounds. I am not a fan of playing 'realistic instruments' live, and unfortunately you can achieve pretty good ones these days with keyboards.. but for me it's either acoustic piano, vintage keys or straight up synthesizers and mangled sounds. There's no in-between. In 2007 I opened my own recording studio, called 'Fuseroom' and I started producing records and keeping the facility open to music education programs. In the past years I went back to my role of composer and joined some game development companies (among which were some good friends of mine, from high school) to write original music for their video games. Getting back to writing music by myself was an adventure and somehow reconnected me with an artistic self that I had kept asleep for a while. It was a good time to get back at it and I was able to use this momentum to release a new solo record, called 'Future in the Past', highlighting some of the most iconic elements of my sound and songwriting, in the soundtrack genre.

Nagamag:
Do you remember your first connection of love to music that was the right impact to be a music artist now?

Alberto Rizzo Schettino:
As a kid I was lucky to have friends who one day told me on the phone: "We're making a band. What do you want to play?". It was that simple. We wanted to move from air guitars and air drums using broomsticks and empty soda bottles to playing for real. I looked around, I had a small digital keyboard I had been playing since I was in primary school and decided that I wanted to play piano and go to a real teacher. I started both classical and modern piano together and never stopped taking lessons from the day. At around 18 I felt like I had to choose and was captivated by modern music. I've played in pop/rock bands, jazz ensembles, small freestyle and acid jazz bands etc. especially when I moved my beautiful (but small) town of Firenze (Italy) to continue studying in Los Angeles. I cannot remember how many people I've played with and whose projects I joined. From there on I kept on studying, moving cities, attending to more music academies in the US and in Europe. If there was one constant that never left me is that I do not partake in projects that I do not like. I just cannot do it. I've studied to be a professional musician and I am happy to provide others with my expertise but I have to hear some kind of pulse in the project. Exposure, fame, money, you name it.. they just do not cut it in the end as I cannot go to sleep and look at myself in the mirror if I am doing something I do not genuinely and directly enjoy. I guess that spontaneous phone call from my friends when we were kids really left a mark.

Nagamag:
Is there a cliché or recurring pattern in the way you come up with a new piece of music?

Alberto Rizzo Schettino:
With the passing of time (and things become more recurring or fixed, with deadlines, revisions, team discussion, production supervisors and so on) I noticed that I start working on a song only after I can hear it in my head 'enough', over the course of a couple days. It is kinda funny to say that but once I receive the initial brief for a new music project and the team or production sends me guidelines for the vibe they are looking for, I do not sit at the instrument and try to put down ideas. I just let things breathe for a couple days and I start thinking about a tune. It might happen at the worst time or before falling asleep. If the idea is good, in a couple days I can always recall the main theme and at least the B-section that answers it. That is usually the right time for me to sit down, turn my computer on and start writing music.

Nagamag:
If you only had to keep one musical instrument, what would it be?

Alberto Rizzo Schettino:
This would be very challenging. I certainly consider the acoustic piano as my foundation but I have so many instruments that I like for their specific sound palette, some of which have almost healing properties when played, in my opinion. I would have a very hard time parting from my Voyager, Polysix, Juno-6 and Hammond, as well. Please do not make choose! ;)

Nagamag:
Most artists have a favorite song from a different music genre than the one they are producing music for... Which is yours?

Alberto Rizzo Schettino:
Andy Summers Mysterious Barricades

Nagamag:
Of Course Nagamag would love to listen also which track from a similar artist you admire?

Alberto Rizzo Schettino:
Ola Strandh Tom Clancy's The Division (Original Soundtrack)

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Nagamag:
What are the genres that describe better your music style?

Messergeist:
Dark Melodic Techno and Progressive House

Nagamag:
Few words about your musical background and career?

Messergeist:
I’m a full time music producer and musician since 1998. Mainly working in the metal and rock scene, I’ve always had a deep love of mixing organic music with electronics elements, my former band Sybreed is a perfect example. Currently guitarist of the band Samael, I’ve started working on full electronic music during the 2020’s lockdown when I’ve initiated the project Messergeist.

Nagamag:
Do you remember your first connection of love to music that was the right impact to be a music artist now?

Messergeist:
My dad was a musician, both my parents are music lovers so I’ve bathed into music since my very first breath. I’ve always wanted to be a musician, I remember a Depeche Mode concert in 1993 that gave me chills, but maybe my need of becoming a music artist was when I've heard the track "Mouth For War" from Pantera in the early 90's

Nagamag:
What are your plans with Messergeist in a close future ?

Messergeist:
I have a few more tracks ready that I’ll release as singles. The next one will be called « Dawnopolis » and will be released in April with a video by the artist Fractually who already worked with me on my previous single « Blurred »
I also have a remix of Kiephil’s track « Tunnel Vision » coming out on March 27th, remix with whom I won a contest in the Metapop community earlier this year.
Also working on a hard techno project with my friend Pseudo Pulse. The first EP will be out somewhere this spring.

Nagamag:
Most artists have a favorite song from a different music genre than the one they are producing music for... Which is yours?

Messergeist:
Depeche Mode "In Your Room"

Nagamag:
Of Course Nagamag would love to listen also which track from a similar artist you admire?

Messergeist:
Boris Brejcha "Future"

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Nagamag:
What are the genres that describe better your music style?

Paul Cook & The Chronicles:
Folk, alt. Country, Indie Pop

Nagamag:
Few words about your musical background and career?

Paul Cook & The Chronicles:
Grew up listening to 50s/60s music, along with whatever was in the charts at the time. Started playing guitar aged 11. My first proper band got signed to BMG, the second band to EMI, then I went solo as PC&TC, and my first solo album was Rough Trade Stores Album Of The Week.

Nagamag:
Do you remember your first connection of love to music that was the right impact to be a music artist now?

Paul Cook & The Chronicles:
As soon as I heard The Beatles I knew I wanted to be in music. And then I used to see The Monkees TV programme as a kid and wanted to be in a band.

Nagamag:
Most artists have a favorite song from a different music genre than the one they are producing music for... Which is yours?

Paul Cook & The Chronicles:
Solange "Cranes in the sky"

Nagamag:
Of Course Nagamag would love to listen also which track from a similar artist you admire?

Paul Cook & The Chronicles:
Phoebe Bridgers Garden Song