Written by: Jo Ann L.B. Duggins Photos by: Denise MahoneyFull Name: Nicholas Vasallo Age: 28 Function: 1st year Doctorate student Currently Residing: Santa Cruz, CA Currently Listening to: Conlon Nancarrow
Sometimes I meet people and I find they are flying at the bare minimum to "get by". Sometimes I meet people and they blow me away. Such is the case of Nick Vasallo. This California native is a musician and composer and although started his venture later in life, has really grown to understand the inner workings of great musicianship.
I have always been into Classical music, (thanks, Mom), but didn’t really grow to appreciate it until much later in my life. For, me Classical music is a force to be reckoned with. The power of one piece can bring me to tears and I love that emotion in my music. Nick Vasallo’s creates a dark world of not only Classical, but also the raw force of....wait for it.....Metal. Yes, his love and talent of guitar meshes quite nicely with his Classical compoosition painting a landscape of sounds. It can be minimal at times and very ecletic at others.
It’s easy to tell that Nick has a keen sense of the complexicty of composing these pieces. It’s Classical music for the modern age. I like how he did a presentation on The Parallels Between Metal and Classical Music...very interesting. After hearing "The Burning, I feel so unaccomplished!
You’ve just finished your first piece of 2008 entitled "Coalescence". How did it go? Very smoothly; I finished it rather quickly - perhaps a week, but I was pre-planning its construction in my head for a while.
When did you begin composing music and has it always been in this particular genre? Well, when I was fourteen I started writing songs on my guitar...I was just learning how to play so the songs were simple, melodic, and sometimes full of yelling/screaming. When I started a punk band (high school) with my best friend, Carlos Saldana, I took songwriting more seriously...by the time I was nineteen I was getting into more complex music (Metal and Classical). After writing and performing for my metal band, Antagony, I was searching for a more flexible avenue of expression - that’s when I turned to "Classical" composition. I was never formally taught music - everything was very organic and by the ear. I wrote a string quartet when I was 23 and showed Dr. Owen Lee at Diablo Valley College and he recommended I study music academically.
I thought it was very interesting and impressive that you didn’t start your music training until you were 23 years of age! What sparked the want to do such music and do you think of where you would be if you started earlier? In addition to my aforementioned succinct compositional history, I was also doing some Film Scoring before I went to school for Music. I thought that maybe some formal training might do me some good. I sometimes ponder where I would be if I had those parents that forced their children to learn piano or Music Theory at a young age. I really don’t know. I actually think learning music the way I did - "on the streets" as Professor Hansen told me, has benefited me...at least in setting me apart from the majority of other composers.
How did you come up with the notion of "Burning"...is there a story with the movements? The graphic designer for "The Burning" really liked that track and the sound of the title. I was going to emit that track from the CD but it ended up being the hidden track and there are some clues on the actual cover. "The Burning" title comes from my favorite song by the (now defunct) Oakland Crust Punk/Doom Metal band Eldopa.
What do you find most challenging about doing this type of composing and the most easy? The most challenging part for me is capturing everything in my head...sometimes there are too many ideas. Focus is very important for a composer. The easiest part...hmm....not performing it.
Your music has been featured on film and tv...how does this happen...do they find you and do you compose a new piece or use one already completed? Most of my work in Film and TV has been work for hire but on many occasions a director will want a particular track of mine and license it from me.
What were you listening to growing up and who has influenced you through the years? When I was young: Beethoven, The Beatles, Nirvana, Eldopa, Screeching Weasel. Since then: Stravinsky, Bernard Herrmann, Mike Patton, Arvo Part, Ligeti, Radiohead.
You give a very modern approach to classical music, how do you feel the culture is changing if at all? "The Burning" is new in its approach to western art "Classical" music. I, and my generation, is guilty of being easily bored. It’s not that our attention span is short, it just takes a little more to get our attention. Rather than saying something overly eloquent, musically speaking, or soporifically subtle - this album speaks directly and succinctly...beauty through simplicity.
Where do people go to see you perform? Are you a touring musician or do you stick to more studio work? I am mainly a studio musician, but people can see my works performed by others throughout the country. Find the "Upcoming Performances" link on my website.
Who or what would you most want to compose for? What is your favorite classical piece in history? I would love to compose a requiem with the San Francisco Symphony and Vienna Boys Choir. My favorite Classical piece would probably be Beethoven’s op.130 fifth movement (Cavatina) it is part of his late string quartets and his most moving work ever. He felt that of all his pieces this one haunted him the most.
Favorite body of water and why? The Pacific Ocean; its beautiful and frightening.
For more info on Nick Vasallo, visit his MySpace or you can go to his site and check out his video section.
The internal (and external) battles of a composer
Current mood: determined
Category: Music
"It will never be known what acts of cowardice have been motivated by the fear of looking insufficiently progressive."
- Charles Peguy from "Notre Patrie" (1905)
I was introduced to this quote by my former teacher Frank La Rocca. Whose work I greatly admire, especially his choral stuff. I remember reading of his orchestral piece "Crossing the Rubicon" and the parallel of his change in style to Aaron Copland's in the late 1930's. For those of you that don't know Copland you will hear his influence upon almost every soundtrack involving the American countryside (and the 'ole West). He consciously wanted to reach out to the broadest possible audience and therefore wrote in a more accessible style. Who is to say that his new writing is of less merit than his former angular atonal language? In addition, who is to say that a struggling folk musician that made it big (eg. Kimya Dawson's music from the movie "Juno") is so much different than what Copland or many other contemporary composers that achieve some success have also done.
As in my essay "Dark Reflections..." I speak of classical musics' (aka Western Art Music) sometimes dogmatic and patriarchal view and its marginalized fanbase that tends to revel in its obscurity or exclusivity...admonishing others and dealing mainly with people into the same thing. It is also of note to recognize that "Classical" music is the poorest selling genre today. So for me and the other 99.7% of "Classical" composers out there...this is not for the money.
The criticism I receive mainly revolves around a "mainstream" voice that overshadows my modernist attitude (at least in my older works) . The thing is, I have many musical spheres I work within. If you have a good set of ears you would have noticed the strong return of tonality (in contemporary classical music), albeit not exactly functional as we are taught in school, but functional within itself. Yes, I write tonal music. Yes, I write film music. But I also write experimental, aleotoric, electronic, atonal, and even Death Metal music. Eclectic...yes. Most of the work on my page was written 2-4 years ago and to my great honor it has been received well. Just because it has been released by a label and I help promote it on my site does not mean I am attempting to sell my soul with shameless self-promotion. Why do you think there are so many musicians on MySpace - let alone the Internet (especially "Classical" composers)??? Furthermore...why do we even perform music live??? Because we want others to HEAR IT!!! To quote Bernard Herrmann: "What good is music if it's not heard!?"
Nowadays, I write in an ever changing style (The Vertigo Series was written 3 years ago), my newest works are not up here, I only have a single movement of a set of piano miniatures which is relatively new compared to all the other pieces. I am carving out my voice and honing in on things I wish to make my own. So, while creating a caricature of me may help alleviate your own insecurities as a composer and subdue deeper (musical) meanings; there is nontheless, a fundamental problem that will always haunt you. You must figure this out on your own... Throughout history, we have seen criticism to artists from their peers (or worse - from mere critics) - ridiculing other's work because of either its popularity and/or accessibility (eg. Metallica, Green Day, Steven Spielberg, John Williams, Aaron Copland, Arvo Part, Phillip Glass, Danny Elfman). I cannot speak for those artists but I can speak for myself. I write what I want to hear. No more...no less. I love and live to create...and if someone that hears my work is touched in any way, then that is a wonderful thing. I believe that there is beauty in simplicity and you can create a complex universe with simple undercurrents. I will continue to evolve and utilize everything in my musical spheres in order to harness the energy I wish to conduce to the listener.
If this monologue still perplexes your understanding of my artistic integrity - then know this. I will write what I want to write. Are we still at the crossroads? I'll walk my path.
Dark Reflections: The Disregarded Parallels Between Classical and Metal Music
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Music
As promised, here is the complete version of my research paper. I may change some of it for publishers and their editing desires but this it the gist of it. Thanks to everyone for all the interest in my research. The actual presentation was filmed so I'll have a clip up here soon.
Passionate letter from a listener
Current mood: mellow
Category: Music
Here's another message from a listener, totally different than the last one (who could not listen to the music):
Dear Nick,
I haven't been able to get your music out of my head all day. I absolutely love what you have done to break the boundaries between classical and popular music. I am an 18 year old cellist going to SUNY Fredonia School of Music for Music Education, and I have been composing as well for about a year now. I love that your music is not only pleasing to the ear, but also technically interesting-- I just went to a concert for new music last night, and it was so frustrating because all the pieces had great intentions and musical content, but I just couldn't bear to listen because every single one of them was atonal and displeasing to the ear. Maybe its just me, but I feel like making music should be about evoking a particular response, and the language should be secondary, as a means to accomplish your goal.
It really excites me the way you have cross pollinated the classical and musical worlds. I love both types of music, and I think that to often people from the "classical" community ignore or gloss over popular music, when it is popular music that actually has a fanbase. I especially enjoy how you've blended the two not only with instrumentation, but also with musical content. I listen to a lot of alternative cello music, and bands that play metal on cellos like Apocalyptica, and Break of Reality, but there simply playing popular music on classical instruments. You've wrapped both into a tight ball and created a new type of music!
Anyways, I would love to play one of your pieces, but I'm not quite sure if I can put together a group of guitar, cello, percussion, and voice etc. That's why I'm wondering if I could play your string quartet. Do you have sheet music, or a recording? I'm in a string quartet, and I know that we would all love to read a piece of yours (once I tell them about you) and possibly perform it.
On another note, if you ever write a piece for solo cello, or cello with accompaniment, please let me know! I'm craving new music to add to my repetoir that won't make people cringe when they hear it.
Thank you for writing your music, for affecting the musical world in the way that you have, and for affecting me with your sounds. Keep writing! You're an inspiration.
Info on new work from Jan '07-June '07
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Music
1. "Never Odd or Even" op.47 (2007) - My first piece for 2007. The piece, like the title, is a palindrome. Only not a literal one - it's an emotional palindrome that requires extreme sensitivity for the listener on many levels. Listen for the motivic transformations and the fugue. Dedicated to my fiancee - Denise Mahoney. (Performed by Lawrence Granger, Alex Kadarauch, Irene Gregorio, and Jeff Patterson)
2. "The Vertigo Series III. Confrontations" op.49 (2007) - There are many levels fighting for supremacy in this piece: a musical Confrontation. The original theme from the 1st movement ("Monolith" op.35), a new rhythmic motive that develops and encompasses all that cross its path, and a Spanish motive that becomes intertwined with the other 2 thematic ideas. They end up culminating into huge waves of gravitational harmony pulling you down into an abyss of musical infinity. (Performed by the CSUEB Percussion Ensemble directed by Arthur Storch)
3. "Without a Dream" op.50 (2007) - My friend, Rodrigo Cortes, has been asking me for months to compose a song for him to sing. This came to me as I was driving home, all I could think of writing was the saddest thing I could imagine: everything you ever thought you wanted is gone...now life is meaningless. (Performed by Rodrigo Cortes and Dominic Serrano)
4. "Emergence of the Kraken" op.52 (2007) - Another friend of mine, Israel Santiago, has been asking me to write a trombone choir piece. Rafael Hernandez (my Composition teacher at the time), wanted me to write using no references (piano, Sibelius, etc.) - only my internal ear. So this became an exercise in texture. It is also a tone-poem on Alfred Tennyson's "The Kraken". Dedicated to Israel Santiago and Andrew Walker. (Performed by the CSUEB Trombone Ensemble)
5. "De civitatibus" op.53 (2007) - For my last piece as a student at CSUEB I wanted to write something for a retiring professor, Dr. David Stein. He loves choral music and has been encouraging me to write more of it. Thanks to him I wrote "Lumen et Tenebras" op.45 which earned an award. The text is from JOB 24:12 and it is composed in the style of late Gesualdo. Carlo Gesualdo is a composer that caught my ear when I noticed the various similarities in our sound. (Performed by Amy Boyer, Mary Low, Liz Calame, Sean Cooper, Alex Kadarauch, and Nick Vasallo)
Sinful Directed By Tony Marsiglia Released: 2006 Starring: Misty Mundae, Erika Smith, Ronnie Kerr, and Nikos Psarras Running Time: 74 minutes DVD Released By Shock-O-Rama
Lilith (played by Misty Mundae) is obsessed with having a child and her husband, Jim (Ronnie Kerr), has been unable to give her one. Their neighbors, Aisha (Erika Smith) and Sam (Nikos Psarras), seem to have no troubles at all as their incessant lovemaking results in a pregnancy. An unhealthy friendship develops between the two women due to the fact that the lack of a child in her womb is beginning to drive Lilith mad. She decides to take the baby from Erika by any means necessary.
The dreamlike and bizarre Sinful comes from director Tony Marsiglia (Dr. Jekyll & Mistress Hyde, Sin Sisters). Excellent lighting (love those reds and blues!), talented cinematography, and an eerie yet beautiful soundtrack (from composer Nick Vasallo) help give this artsy indie thriller some class. The film is quite dark and twisted with some disturbing (but not overabundant) gore thrown in. The only misstep in this strange and surreal film is casting a grown woman to play a ten year old child.
As sexy and appealing as Misty Mundae is in many of her film roles, her character of Lilith is actually quite repulsive and frightening in her psychotic pursuit of motherhood. The lovely Erika Smith (Shock-O-Rama, Bite Me!) certainly has her hands full with a very odd character. Aisha is in love with life and incredibly naïve about the world around her. She has no clue as to the amount of danger she and her unborn child face at the hands of Lilith. The male actors handle the material quite well. Ronnie Kerr and Nikos Psarras are perfectly cast as total opposites, Jim (ineffectual and socially inept) and Sam (self-assured and virile).
Sinful definitely shows the lofty aspirations as well as the potential of director Marsiglia. Instead of giving the audience a straight-up thriller or horror flick, he takes the more difficult route, twisting the reality of Sinful so that feels like a dream or a collection of the tainted and unreliable memories of an insane person. However you look at it, this film is some trashy and depressing stuff with a handful of philosophical strangeness mixed in. A thought-provoking and occasionally sickening film, Sinful is definitely an original creation.
DVD Stuff:
Sinful's presentation is very nice. The picture is crystal clear in its 1.78:1 presentation and the audio is quite good. The source material is all over the place with voices going from whispers to screams quite a bit but everything is perfectly audible here. Extras include an interview with Misty Mundae, a Behind-The-Scenes segment, some tape from the gorgeous Erika Smith's 2003 audition, and clips from the festival screening of Sinful. There is also a trailer for Sinful. The DVD insert features a couple of cool promo photos for Sinful with Mundae and Smith.
Review of Sinful (movie I scored)
Current mood: excited
Category: Music
I randomly found a link to a review of a movie I scored in 2005!!! Crazy huh!? So I went on Netflix too and it's up for rental - now I'm going see it (I never got the finished movie) You can also rent it at BLOCKBUSTER
Best Actress Nomination 2006 NJ International Film and Screenplay Festival
Best Film Nomination 2006 NJ International Film and Screenplay Festival
Theatrical Release Dates: USA, 2006 Director: Tony Marsiglia Cast: Misty Mundae, Ronnie Kerr, John Castine, Nikos Psarras
DVD released: October 10th, 2006 Approximate running time: 74 minutes Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen Rating: R Sound: Dolby Digital Mono DVD Release: Shock-O-Rama/Pop Cinema Region Coding: Region 1 NTSC Retail Price: $19.99
Lilith (Misty Mundae) desperately wants to conceive child. Her marriage is falling apart and her grip on reality is hanging by a thread due to her infertility. Lilith becomes jealous of her neighbor Aisha (Erika Smith) who recently has become pregnant. Delusional Lilith refuses to accept that she is unable to bare a child. She is willing to do anything and eliminate anyone who gets in her way to fulfill her dream of having a child.
Sinful sees director Tony Marsiglia teaming up with his frequent collaborator and favorite leading Lady Misty Mundae. Sinful is a nasty little tell about how one woman is driven to the edge of sanity in her quest for a child. Actress Misty Mundae totally immerses herself in the characters of Lilith. Mundae really gets to show her range in this film and it is without a doubt her best performance to date. The rest of the cast are also really good with solid performances from Ronnie Kerr and Nikos Psarras. Another reason why this film and its bizarre plot work so well is because of the performance given by Erika Smith as Aisha the expectant mother.
Tony Marsiglia sets the mood form the opening frames with his stylish compositions and lighting. Marsiglia who also wrote the films screenplay manages to create a truly unique horror film that at times echoes themes that can be found in Rosemary's Baby. Sinful is not without its flaws and most of these are because of the films tight five day shooting schedule which forced director Tony Marsiglia to cut many scenes that not only flesh out the characters but these scenes would also explain what is going on. Nick Vasallo's score for Sinful is a wonderful collection of motifs that perfectly compliment the plots twisted subject matter. Ultimately Sinful gets better with each viewing since there is so much going on that multiple viewings help reveal things you might have missed the first time around.
The DVD:
Sinful is presented in an anamorphic widescreen that preserves the films original aspect ratio. This film was shot in super 16mm and the transfer faithfully reproduces colors and black level look solid through out. Outside of some minor grain the transfer is in great shape.
This release comes with one audio a Dolby Digital stereo mix in English. The audio mix is more then adequate as it does a good job balancing between the dialog and ambient music and effects.
Extras for this release include the films original trailer, Erica Smith's audition for "Sinful", a seven minute behind the scenes segment and a six minute interview with Misty Mundae who discusses working with director Tony Marsiglia and the character Lilith. Other extras include two clips from the Sinful at 2006 New Jersey International film and screenplay festival. The first clip is about four minutes and Misty Mundae is interviewed about "Sinful" and the second clip is a six minute Q&A in which Jeff Faoro (Shock-O-Rama Cinema), Misty Mundae and Erica Smith answer questions about "Sinful". Also include with this release are informative liner notes written by Merle Bertrand. Rounding out the extras is an audio commentary with director Tony Marsiglia who discuses writing the screenplay, directing, the cast and the difficulties of shooting a film in five days.
Shock-O-Rama gives Tony Marsiglia's latest film the red carpet treatment with its first arte audio/video presentation and wide variety of insightful and entertaining extras, recommended.
For more information about this film visit Shock-O-Rama Cinema
MOTHER TERESA
Current mood: contemplative
Category: Life
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway.
ECLECTICISM
Current mood: restless
Category: Music
The understanding of ethnic music is premised on an appreciation of indigenous instruments which are used in the various ritual and secular activities of these two cultures. Before my interest in the music of my roots I was (and still am) heavily engaged in the art of Western music. I do not wish to shed or cease the learning of Western music, but I do want to venture even deeper into the different spheres of "World Music". Music is a universal yet highly individual means of cultural expression, cherished as a distinctive and valued cultural heritage. The music the Philippines and Taiwan, besides being intrinsically interesting for its own sake, has much to tell us about the societies in which they reside and about music in general. These two cultures along with my growing knowledge in Western music will help shape my personal music into an eclectic style which on it's own accord will be individual because of the way I happen to form different aspects that seem reasonable to me.
"Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases." Usually, eclectism is a term that refers to philisophy and the groups that do not attach themselves to a particular system but select from existing beliefs that seem most beneficial to them. Compositionally, this is how I am beginning to perceive how I write my music. Even if I stay within the boundaries of western music – there are countless ways I can and am already amalgamating different individual musical concepts and procedures: romanticism, serialism, non-functional tonality, heavy metal, film music's economical use of instrumentation, post-primivitism, classical form, new tonality, etc. We are at a point in time where we have an infinitie resource of musical styles. In western harmony we have have established tonality and broken tonality; we have established set forms and created formless music; we have created music theory and attempted to make it impossible to theorize music in functional aspects but in pure concepts (John Cage).
As a composer, learning music from other cultures will not only expand my musical language but help me better understand myself. What I absorb and take along with me is a reflection of who I am. My career goals are to become a professor of indigenous music of one or both of my two cultures and offer it at a college level curriculum, to teach composition and theory, and write music that will inspire others to open their eyes in order to see the bigger picture of music. I also want to continue learning Western music theory, and find other musical cultures that happen to touch my soul. I feel that if one has the ability to, it is necessary to incite and expand the passion of knowledge within others. To be able to open another's mind, heart, and/or soul to experience something as personal as music in the profound way it has affected me – would be the greatest thing I can bring to this world.
Sometimes I meet people and I find they are flying at the bare minimum to "get by". Sometimes I meet people and they blow me away. Such is the case of Nick Vasallo. This California native is a musician and composer and although started his venture later in life, has really grown to understand the inner workings of great musicianship. 
You’ve just finished your first piece of 2008 entitled "Coalescence". How did it go? 
determined
accomplished
mellow
anxious
tired
cheerful
excited
Lilith (Misty Mundae) desperately wants to conceive child. Her marriage is falling apart and her grip on reality is hanging by a thread due to her infertility. Lilith becomes jealous of her neighbor Aisha (Erika Smith) who recently has become pregnant. Delusional Lilith refuses to accept that she is unable to bare a child. She is willing to do anything and eliminate anyone who gets in her way to fulfill her dream of having a child. 
Sinful is presented in an anamorphic widescreen that preserves the films original aspect ratio. This film was shot in super 16mm and the transfer faithfully reproduces colors and black level look solid through out. Outside of some minor grain the transfer is in great shape.
contemplative
restless