Suzanne, your music soothes the soul with its uplifting and expansive nature. Who and/or what have been your greatest influences in developing your particular style of music?

The classical and romantic music I played and listened to as a child is a major influence.  My compositions tend to be emotionally based, yet with a strong underlying compositional form.  My years in electronic music gave me a new freedom and a new language which later was synthesized with my classical background to make the personal style that characterizes my music.

Could you please tell us what inspired you to become a musician/recording artist?

I always thought of myself as a composer, from my first encounter with music when I was young.  I wanted to make records so that I could have a tangible expression of my music- so that it wouldn't just disappear into the air as I performed.  Also, the technology of recording seemed to be a natural partner for my early electronic music.

At what age did you become involved with music and in what way?

I fell in love with music as a child, dancing to songs on the radio.  Then my mother brought home a pile of records from a fire sale and I listened day and night to all of them, becoming lost in another world.  Piano came next, since my older sisters were taking lessons already and when I started I completely hogged the piano.  I took lessons for only one year at about age 6 and then played on my own until high school years when I found a new teacher.

How did you get into electronic music?

I first heard of the notion of electronic music while I was in College at Wellesley and we visited M.I.T. one night to meet a physics professor who was trying to make the computer (a huge thing in those days) make a musical sound.  Later, while in graduate school at University of California at Berkeley, I had the serendipitous good fortune to meet Don Buchla, one of the originator's of electronic music instruments.  After graduating, I went to work in his factory assembling instruments.  I also studied with the "father of computer music," Max Matthews, at Stanford.  And I studied with John Chowning, the inventor of the important FM approach to synthesis, who also taught at Stanford University.  I became completely passionate about the new possibilities of this music technology.

How did you begin your career in New York and how did you become known as the leader in sound design to be hired by such big wigs as Coca-Cola, Merrill Lynch, AT&T, and General Electric?  

I began my career in New York by going door to door to advertising agencies, promoting my unusual approach to music.  I had a rather large Buchla Instrument by this time and, since it had no keyboard, my approach was to design sounds that somehow seemed to represent the mood or qualities of a product or idea.  After over a year of calling the agency for Coca-Cola, I got my big break designing the "pop 'n pour" effect that went into every single Coca-Cola commercial all over the world.

Who has been your greatest mentor?

I have had many mentors over the years.  Who comes to mind now is Billy Davis from McCann-Erickson, who believed in my abilities even though the synthesizer was a completely foreign instrument to him at that time. 

What led you to create your own label?

I wanted to maintain ownership of my recordings.  Making an electronic recording was a highly complex and expensive undertaking in those days, not at all like recording a guitar or piano, and after all the work was done, the major label ended up owning my work.  I didn't think that was right even though it was the convention at the time.  When I teamed up with a good lawyer, Joe Anderson, who was my husband at the time, we extricated me from my major label deal and formed Seventh Wave Productions.  As an Indie, I do not have the leverage that I had with BMG, but I have my integrity and my masters.

Please tell us a little bit about your newest release, Silver Ship. What inspired you to create this particular work and how would you compare it to your previous works?

Silver Ship is in ways a culmination of my career to date. The pieces have my trademark compositional style and the sound includes elements of all my past CD's: analog synthesizers, digital synths and orchestral strings, acoustic piano, members of my group, "The Wave" (Paul McCandless, Matt Eakle, Michael Manring, Teja Bell), and in production I work with arranger Mitch Farber and engineer  Leslie Mona Mathus, who both worked with me on my first recordings. 

You have received numerous awards. Which award has meant the most to you and why?

I guess the Grammy nominations have been important, though I have never won!  This year Silver Ship did win the Indie Award for Best New Age Album.  I am very proud of that.

How would you say you have evolved as a musician?

The early years are spent just falling in love with music.  Then after that one develops a personal language and approach. Since music is an infinite and unending exploration, over the years one develops a wider vocabulary, while still staying true to the essence of one's expression.  I have gone from piano to electronics and back to piano and then back to electronics.  It's all interesting and inspirational.

What would you say has been your crowning achievement thus far?

Crowning achievement?  No crowns here.  I am equally proud of all my CD's.

 

Where do you see yourself going from here? What are your future goals?

I hope to continue to enjoy the process of creating music.  Wherever that takes me.  I would like to perhaps re-explore spatial manipulation of sound now that surround sound is here.  And perhaps revisit analog synths via their digital replicas.

 
Do you have any words of advice for all those struggling artists out there?

Develop an inner critic and listen to it- that little voice that tells the truth.  Don't make excuses for your work- take it to the point where there are no excuses.  Play.

Thank you so much Suzanne for the interview. I have been a fan of yours for many years and have had the pleasure of seeing/hearing you in concert several years back. I was totally enthralled. You are such an amazing inspiration and just get better with age!                                                        In Nepal during the Tibetan New Year

To find out more about Suzanne Ciani and to sample some of her inspiring music, or to order any of her recordings, please visit her website: www.suzanneciani.com.  If you would like to send her an email, her address is: sevwave@aol.com.

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