New Chapter - The Phoenix Rises

Every once in a while, an artist sometimes needs to take time off and go on a journey of self-discovery, so as to be able to effectively portray their heart's contents...

As an individual, I have had a fair share of ups and downs in the last couple of months. From heartbreaks to broken friendships and uncertainty of future expectations, I would say I have experienced more downs than ups. Rather than laying down and wallowing in self-pity and misery, I decided I would do things differently, starting with absolutely and completely adoring myself. Me, myself and I are head-over-heels in love, and our relationship is doing quite well, I must say.

As a musician, I have been like a plank of wood floating on rapids, just going with the flow. What will I play? I don't know. You tell me. How will I play it? I don't know, tell me. Eventually, I met people who told me what to do. The only problem was that there were too many of them, each with their own idea of the ideal."You're a better bassist than pianist", "no, no, no, you're a better pianist", "play jazz....jazz is so us" (us??), "no, pop, punk, rock", "eeer...and violin? Come join our jazz quartet...yes...with your violin", "blah blah blah yaddi yaddi yah"

I had lost all sense of self and was now just letting the waves carry me along. Until that forsaken moment when a former student of mine, in a rather condescending tone, I must add, "suggested" to me what to do on the keyboard. Now, I don't mind being given ideas by someone who has genuinely earned bragging musicianship rights. In fact, such people have never, ever implied that I lacked even the most basic of skills, and are ever so humble in their suggestions. This former student though, had the nerve to issue out unwarranted instruction and advice, and to make it worse, implied that I was rubbish. Never mind that I taught them the little 123 that they know. This was when I realized that I either had to put my foot down and have an identity, or find a new passion.

In the last 20+ years, I have won dancing competitions and music awards, failed some, quit music, picked it again, met geniuses, injured a nerve, almost sold my guitars....Music and I have traveled a long, emotional journey together, so finding a new passion was out of the question. During the journey of finding myself, I struggled with finding the right identity. Will I always be just someone's instrumentalist for the rest of my life? I struggled with my instrument. As a multi-instrumentalist, what should I do? Should I focus on one instrument? Which one? I struggled with sound. Which genre? Where do I fit in? Whats the best technique?

The answer to all those questions was simple; be yourself and embrace your wholeness.  I love the musical depth that classical music has to offer, I enjoy playing piano that I grew up on and don't I just adore composing. I am still a classical musician and compose orchestral works. But while performing on bass guitar, I feel a different kind of energy and freedom, so I have decided to take on the journey being a bass performer. But I will not extinguish any of the fire, but rather let my bass experience influence my classical music and my classical music influence my bass playing. The Phoenix Rises. Ri-Bass is back!!