Below is John P. Olsen’s  interview with new age music artist Vicki Logan. Also see his review of her album The Journey to the Places in my Soul.

 John P. Olsen:  I understand you did not receive formal piano lessons, do not read sheet music, and play practically everything by ear, which will be surprising to many people.  How is it that you are able to compose such beautiful and creative music  ?
 
Vicki Logan: I honestly wish I knew.  I’ve been asked that question for years and I still don’t know what to say.  I can sort of explain the process though.  (And yes, I do everything by ear, so to speak.  Anyone I work with can attest…I “push the buttons and just do my thing!”)
 
I’ll sit at the piano and start messing around with the keys.  Something will hit me just right and all of a sudden, I know what I want to play and how the whole song should be.  I’ll record the base piece (usually some type of chord progression) and start layering a melody and other sounds to “paint a picture”.  I never really know how it’s going to sound until the end.  I’ll “dial-a-sound” on my synth and then something new hits me.  Even after a song is supposedly finished, I could do more to it.  I don’t start with an idea and a song doesn’t have a title until it’s completed and I listen to it.  Whatever it makes me think about, that’s where the title will come from.  Yes, I know.   I’m backwards.
 
When I record the actual album, I’ll play the parts in a demo and bring that demo into the studio.  I’ll record what I can and then hire other musicians to play the parts that don’t sound right on the synth.  These musicians get free reign to add their ideas to the material since I don’t know what the real instruments are capable of doing, although I do have final say.  For example; guitars can bend a note when a string is slid up or down on the neck.  I can’t do that with my keyboard.  The song, I find, is only enhanced by their performances…as it should be.  This is where it’s true “life” comes from.  That’s why I’ve reverted back to playing with other musicians rather than letting people record things digitally; making the song “perfect”.  Computers are wonderful tools, but, in the end, there just isn’t enough that can be said about the performers.  The feelings/emotions and oopses are priceless!
 
John: Many of your songs and albums have been recognized on New Age music Charts, plus you have helped many musicians just starting out as artists.  What song and album awards and personal recognition have you received as artist yourself ?

Vicki: This is going to seem really disrespectful, I know, but I really don’t intend for it to be that way.  I have received a lot of honors and awards from various organizations.  I’ve won some song contests.  I’ve been truly honored to receive these awards, and, for the most part, they were given to me in good faith, but, the more involved I’ve gotten within the music industry, the more I’ve found how political they are.  For example – The Grammys.  First off, you have to be a NARAS member.  If you are not, you can’t even submit your material for consideration of any award.  Next, if you do get in, you have to compete against the larger corporations who belong and have several of their staff as members as all members vote on the Grammy Awards.  You can guess where those votes are going to.  And then, there is a lot of “vote for me -s” e-mails that percalate to members.  In the end, the memberships to these groups are expensive and I don’t have that type of money to waste.  Like all of you out there, I have to figure out what gives me the most bang for my buck.  An attempt at stroking my ego or doing more of what I love to do?
 
Again, don’t get me wrong, honors and awards are wonderful things, but only if done for the right reasons. The best award I could ever receive?  If I could make the world a better place for even just one person so that that person could do the same for the next, then creating and sharing what I do was worth it all.
 
John: We are currently playing Enchanted Winds  and  The Ride and other songs of yours from previous albums on Home of the Stars Radio.  You indicated that The Journey To The Places In My Soul is your most creative and best album yet.  Why is that Vicki  ?
 
Vicki: I would say that The Journey is the most creative as I’ve learned so much since my first CD and I’ve attempted more than I have to date.  For example, I’ve played more flute on this one; more than on any other album.  I’ve recorded more of the album at home and just brought in the hard drive to the studio.  I used some new ideas (for me) and made some of my ideas more pronounced.  There is an actual story interwoven into the music for the first time.
 
Anyhow, I believe that each album has a special place for me since each album helped me get to the next.  If I didn’t do the first the way I did, the second one wouldn’t have come to pass.  Same for the third and fourth.  Each one builds on the last…each represents that time in my life in which it was created.  Even the photos chosen represent what was happening; many were from my backyard. 
 
In album number one, I was chasing a dream – trying something I never thought I’d be able to do, thus CHASING DREAMS only to end up FINDING MY WAY in the music industry.  This CD I even arranged a couple of cover tunes, only to find that most people preferred my originals.  I was on THE RIDE of my life realizing that I could do this and ended up with THE JOURNEY TO THE PLACES IN MY SOUL when everyone wanted to find out more about me…about how I came to this place…about my weird life!  (And yes, it’s been strange…lol)
 
So that’s why I believe it is the best so far…but even better is yet to come…  By constantly moving forward, attempting new things and keeping an open mind, a person can only progress…even when they think they aren’t.  It doesn’t matter what someone else believes.  In the end, if YOU believe in yourself, YOU do the work, anything is possible.
 
John:  There were a couple of obstacles you had to overcome with your latest album, if you don’t mind, could you tell our readers what happened during the release of the album  ?
 
Vicki: I believe someone once said to me sarcastically, if anything can happen, it will.  About 3 years ago, we purchased a home only to find that it had major mold and moisture intrusion issues.  The previous owner was found guilty of fraudulent seller misrepresentation and was given the order to repair the home. Instead of getting our home repaired, someone arsoned it and we lost everything…our pets, our businesses.  We literally had the clothes on our backs.
 
Then I got lyme disease because I am an over zealous lawn mower.  I mow everything.  Due to genetics, I found that I had back issues.  I had stenosis.  My bone was growing onto my nerves and causing massive pain.  It was a quick surgery and I’m hoping it’s not the beginning of more because the pain is starting to come back yet again.  Then I had cataract surgery.  (By the way, those of you who would like to know, I’m 43.)  I haven’t been able to see right since 3rd grade!  To wake up and see the alarm clock in the morning – to actually see who someone is and not a big fuzzy blob – to go swimming and not worry about getting splashed and losing a contact lens – wow!  And the list goes on!  And I didn’t even added the rest of my families challenges!  Maybe someday I’ll write a book…  lol
 
 
John: Something everyone might wonder is, like most Americans, we are constantly surrounded by rock, pop, jazz, and other genres, which are all great forms of music, so how did you discover, or what brought you into the New Age music scene  ?
 
Vicki: STRESS!  (Just kidding…kinda)
 
Really, it’s the creativity I find within myself listening to this specific genre, but I think that many of you will find that even the term “New Age” covers a lot more than just one style of music and the term has a different meaning for a lot of people.  (A subject for a much later conversation.)  I think that, using my music as an example, “New Age” music can be found labeled Celtic Pop, Smooth Jazz, and a gazillion other things.  I love all music and I think that comes out in what I create.  I hope people realize that it’s not the music that people are attracted to or not.  It’s the message of the artist using the music that people relate with.  Music is but a tool that allows people to communicate with others.  Instrumental music is all encompassing.  There are no words so there are no boundaries.  Not even for the deaf or animals, believe it or not.  At least that’s how I view it.  It’s another medium with which to paint something.  So, I like the “New Age” music best because I feel that most of the artists here have a more postivie view on life and I think we really need to be more positive.  Personally, a label is just something we put on something else because we need to be able to identify it when we communicate with others and we all label differently according to what that label means to us.
 
 
John:  There are other talented musicians who perform on particular songs and albums, who are the band members, and is creating the albums fun for you and the group, or do you consider it work  ?
 
Vicki: In reality, I am all the parts when I create the songs.  The musicians I work with take the parts I create and give them life.  Technology has provided me with a lot of sounds which are similiar to the real thing, but it’s not like having the real item in the studio.  People are capable of manipulating their instruments in ways computers can’t.  To give credit where credit is due, these musicians all have excellent ideas to help make a song much more interesting.  I don’t know everything and I don’t expect I ever will, so human interaction is something that we all need.  Period.
 
The folks that help me out are Randy Gildersleeve (also my main mentor) who performs miracles on guitars, mandolin, banjo and pushes me to learn more and open my mind when we are in the studio during production.  Then there is Andy LaCasse who does things with bass that I would never think of.  He also puts my music into sheet music form so others can play the parts with backing tracks.  I can’t read a stitch of it, but I guess it’s pretty cool since there is a lot of black all over the paper!  The other person who helps me get the music where I need it to be is Peter O’Gorman – percussionist extraordinaire.  He will play anything to get the sounds we need…and that is no lie.  Give him a garbage can lid, a stick, whatever.  He’ll make it sound awesome.
 
There are several other people that help out depending upon what my needs are.  Matt Fink (aka – “Dr. Fink”) is an incredible keyboardist and producer and taught me a lot about midi recording, computer work and pro-tools in his home studio.  I now know why I hire people to do those things!  Too much information and I just don’t have the nack for that part!  Then there are loads of other instrumentalists, producers, mentors and more that I’ve worked with but would take forever if I named them all.  They ARE ALL listed in my CD packages and I could never thank them all enough.  That’s why I get to be where I am.  With all of them.
 
Work?  Music is NEVER work.  Promoting and making merchandising things…figuring taxes and making sure the right things go to the right places…THAT’s work!
 
John:  You already have 4 exceptional CD’s now available for purchase.  Are you presently producing, or plan to have another album in the future besides the 4 currently on sale  ?
 
Vicki: Funny you should ask that question.  I literally got my new equipment today (after waiting patiently for the past 2 1/2 years!) and when I started messing around with all the buttons, I found that I have more sounds then I had previously and songs were rushing out left and right.  I hope to have a new CD for release sometime in 2010.  We’ll have to see what happens until then, though.  Timing is everything and it has a mind of it’s own!  Beisdes, remember my little quote above?  If anything can happen it will?  I just have to see what will happen!  lol
 
John: After reading your homepage biography, you seem to be philosophic about a person obtaining their goals by your own life experience.  What advice can you offer persons just beginning in the music business, or suggestion to others about overcoming obstacles in general  ?
 
Vicki: Everyone is different, yet everyone is the same.  What I have found is that if you do what it is that you truly love, you make time for it and you are happier.  If you THINK you want to do something and have a million excuses as to why you don’t get to it, I’d say that you must not be that interested in it.  Think about it.  If you want to go to the park, you will find a way to go to the park.  If you want to take a vacation, you will find a way to take that vacation.  For the most part, we will do the work necessary to get instant gratification.  For some reason, we don’t do the work necessary for LONG TERM gratification.  Time goes by so fast, even our so called long term is here before we know it.  My favorite quote is “Dreams are only dreams unless YOU are willing to make them a reality.”  Many someones out there said that opportunities don’t just happen, we make them happen and that is more right than any one can imagine.  If you want something, then do what it takes and get it!  Just be realistic. 
 
Life is a precious gift.  Use it.  Enjoy it.  Live it.

Check out Vicki Logan’s homepage.

Picture Copyright BigStockPhoto. Yoga Heart.

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