Erin Costelo
www.erincostelo.com
Stage Essentials: I prefer grand pianos, but any 88-key
weighted keyboard with a decent piano and Rhodes sound
is great. I’ve been using the Korg Grandstage lately.
I used to think about finding my voice and trying to define
my style or genre a lot. In the end, I’ve realized that your
voice – what makes you unique – is based on your expe-
riences and the beautiful mash-up of all your influences. I
listened to many different artists, from classical and jazz
to country and pop, without revering one more than anoth-
er. Willie Nelson and Mozart are equally important me. I
soaked it all up until it was part of my DNA.
Now, the music I make is filtered through all those influ-
ences equally, without judgment. I don’t try to be anything
anymore; I just am, and that’s ever-changing and growing
based on the expansion of my palette. Be a music fan, and
then just be.
Brendan Swanson
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan
www.yamantakasonictitan.com
Thompson
Egbo-Egbo
www.egbomusic.com
Stage Essentials: I love Steinways, but any
piano in tune will do. My personal keyboard is
a Nord.
You have to shape what you do based on
the experiences you have. I’d say one of the
things that’s been important for me when
taking advice is understanding that people
are giving advice based on the experiences
that they’ve had. Even if the advice is good
and comes from a good place, it may not
be the right advice for you. Discovery is
what’s going to feed the art. Trying to figure
out which trail you want to carve out and
follow is crucial to how you express yourself
through the medium you use.
You’ve got to know the rules to break
them. My medium has been jazz, mainly,
and I’ve found that it’s easier to be creative
within a structure. When you use structure
and form to drive creativity, it allows you to
be very clear about where you end up going
outside of the lines.
Stage Essentials: Yamaha P-140 Digital Piano, Hammond SK2 Dig-
ital Organ with Tech 21 NYC SansAmp Bass Driver, Korg Minilogue
Synth, Traynor K2 Keyboard Amp
It’s in adherence to the teachings of the past that we learn to in-
novate for the present. If I sound innovative and unique as a metal
keyboardist, it’s because I’m not a metal keyboardist – I’m a classi-
cal- and jazz-trained pianist who thinks that’s how metal ought to
sound. I just really like harmony and theory and have very strong
opinions about it. I can only break tradition because I respect it.
Royal Wood
www.royalwood.ca
Stage Essentials: Nord Stage 2 Stage Piano, Yamaha C7 Grand Piano
When we begin as artists, we have to emulate and stand on the
shoulders of who came before us, but the truly great moment is
when you break free from those inspirations and finally hear the
voice inside yourself that has no conscious tie to your history;
rather, it operates on another wavelength that only you as a genu-
ine artist can achieve.
When I first began writing music on the piano as a child, I’d
start by playing someone else’s song and then try to write a song
that was similar. It took years to mature enough as an artist to
allow myself to start from the ether, to call upon voices inside my-
self that weren’t rooted in anything I’d heard before.
The first time you create from that place is the most import-
ant watershed moment of your life as a creator. You cease to be
an emulator and, in that moment, become your own unique self.
That’s a holy and special birth.
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 55