The Obelisk Questionnaire: Leo Maia
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Leo Maia
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I’m a singer, composer and play instruments such as guitar and keyboards, and a solo artist focused on progressive rock / metal. My technical studies are way deeper on vocals than instrumental playing, its the music theory that gets me to play them and compose.
I’m also really passionate about songwriting, how to chain together harmonies and melodies that have cohesion and tell a story without words. Each note that I choose is aimed towards what emotion it should transpire. I focus on getting very complex time signatures and harmonies justified by intention in order for them to feel organic even to listeners who are not familiar with these odd choices common in progressive rock and jazz.
Describe your first musical memory.
I remember when I was just 6 years old and my dad sitting me on a chair and pressing play on Pink Floyd the wall, the movie. I was simply blown away by it. My brain literally melted and I was never the same. I had no idea on how to process those psychedelic images, and I didn’t speak english to understand the lyrics, but the music itself connected with my heart and made me feel a multitude of great emotions through the course of the movie.
Since then, I’ve gravitated towards listening to albums that have a tale behind the music and it seemed like if there weren’t elements of prog in the track I immediately felt like it was missing something. Only many years later I’ve realized what I really liked once I heard King Crimson for the first time, and my journey with musical studies and composing started.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
First thing that crossed my mind was when I saw King Crimson live for the first time. I cried through Mel Collins’ emotional playing and remember Starless vividly. They even played Islands which is an underrated piece by Crimson that I wasn’t expecting them to, it’s one of my favorites, i really cherish my vinyl copy of Islands.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
As a teenager I used to really like shredding and extremely technical musical execution and firmly believed that “good music” was “hard music”. As I grew older, I realized how wrong I was. As a great example of this, if you would ask me to rate the best guitar solo of all times, I’d probably pick something from David Gilmour, like comfortably numb. Its something my teen self would surely disagree on as it’s not a shreddy solo, but now I understand that the right notes at the right rhythm (motifs) is what makes melodies great and a solo must be melodic. A really fast execution is impressive, but doesn’t communicate emotions as a very melodic and well composed solo does.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
It is absolutely leading to me becoming a better artist and musician for sure. But also, and maybe most importantly, it’s leading me to meet people, both other musicians whom I’m collaborating with, but also extremely enthusiastic listeners who connect to the music I’m making and building genuine connections with them.
How do you define success?
My initial naive thought is that success is defined by your goals. Each goal needs a success criteria attached to it so you can define what success is, so it varies from person to person, goal to goal. That said, after deeper thought, I think success can also be achieved when you don’t meet the criteria. We don’t know what we don’t know, and its by going down the route of pursuing a goal that you learn better, and sometimes, along the way you realize that what matters the most is not what you’ve set as your goal, and having that insight and changing your goals is also success. It is also the friends you make along the way :) Or as another cliche, it’s your experience of the road, not the destination.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Not something physical that I’ve seen, but more of a movement. I wish I hadn’t seen modern progressive rock / metal lean heavily into technical proficiency, where the harder is considered the better, and instead kept more attached to the intentional emotional roots of the 70s prog rock. Of course there are many that haven’t, but many more that have, and we, the fans, are the ones looking for it, but I wish we hadn’t. Shredding and being an awesome player is super cool and all, but if its shredding for the sake of shredding rather than shredding because the song passage needed to convey a chaotic emotion then I think it loses the emotional connection with the non-technical listener.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
Well the next single that I’m working on after Sonhos is probably about “Passive Genocide”, a critique on the handling of the pandemic. How you can create a massive killing of a group of people not by actively causing it, but instead by being passive and NOT doing something. It will also feature violins and I’m inviting a very special guitar player for a killer solo on it. It might become a long song as the composition is developing.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Tell a message through emotions. Art will always cause some sort of emotion when experienced, and the emotional response has an implicit message to it, even if you can’t decipher it, you can feel it.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Surely looking forward to my next vacation trip to India and Bali. :)
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https://leomaia.bandcamp.com/
