48 | BOROMAG.COM | MARCH 2015 THE ARTS Interview By Lizabeth Nieves BORO: Where did your love of music come from? Costas Baltazanis: I guess my parents were listening to music all the time when I was a kid. My first attempt at an instrument was pretending to play drums on my mother’s pots and pans. By the time I was five, I remember I got a melodica as a present. BORO: When did you start playing guitar? CB: At the age of 10, I visited my friend who’d had a couple of lessons of classical guitar, and I was amazed. I went back to my father and I said to him that’s what I want to do. My audience back then was a couple of relatives and a 60-year-old literature teacher in high school. On the other hand, my friend had a rock band, and his audience was about five hundred students. So, I said to myself, ‘no more classical’, and that was the point where I picked up the electric guitar. I would wake up to go to my friend’s house, play guitar, and then do the same thing after school for hours and hours. By then I was listening a lot to AC/DC, Blue Oyster Cult, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and all these great bands. BORO: Where did you study music, and how did you wind up in the United States? CB: At the age of eighteen, I left my hometown and I went to Boston to study at Berklee College of music. BORO: What was your time at Berklee like? CB: It was a big shock in the beginning—I was very young—that I successfully survived. Being among people from all these different countries and cultures was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Studying jazz in the place and country where this music was born was definitely the best thing that I could ever do. BORO: How did you wind up in Astoria? CB: I had a couple of good friends living here, and I always thought that it was one of the best places to live. Somehow Astoria always felt like a very nice neighborhood, and very soon felt like home. Astoria is a place where people say hello, they remember your face, and people are very easy to talk to. BORO: Tell me about End of Seas… CB: End of Seas is my personal debut in the States. A get together of some of the greatest musicians I ever played with. The artistic chemistry is great. Something like getting Miles Davis and Pink Floyd on the same stage. BORO: Where can people see you play live? CB: Every Tuesday at 9 o’clock at the Letlove inn in Astoria, and stay tuned for my CD release party in May. For more info check out costasbaltazanis.com or www.facebook.com/endofseas Seas End of Listening to Costas Baltazanis new album End of Seas can only be described as a cinematic experience. The album, due out this month, was recorded live in a Brooklyn studio. The nine song album is moody and complex, combining Baltazanis’s Mediterranean background with his experience with the New York Jazz scene. BORO spoke to the Athens born Baltazanis about his musi c, his influences, and why Astoria feels like home.
BM032015
To see the actual publication please follow the link above