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The following interview was given for Solo Piano Publications in February of 2004. If you like this interview, see also see this one from Oct. 2003, or this one from 2002. David Nevue (pronounced NEV-yoo) is something of a Renaissance Man. He is a composer and a performing pianist, runs several music-related websites, launched an Internet broadcast called Whisperings: Solo Piano Radio, authored a book on Internet music promtion, organized piano concert showcases and more. He wears many hats and does all of these things exceptionally well. David and I have had an email correspondence for several years, so it was really fun to have a long phone conversation to learn more about him and where some of these ideas have come from. We’re talking about doing a workshop in the near-future, so this will serve as an introduction to this very interesting man. David Nevue was born in North Bend, Oregon in 1965. An only child, David’s father worked in a lumber mill when he was growing up, but had glue poisoning when David was twelve, and had to go on disability. At that point, David’s family moved to Colorado so his father could attend Seminary. He became a preacher and an evangelist. They lived in Colorado for five years, and David returned to Oregon for college. His mom was a cook for many years and is now retired; his dad passed away in the fall of 2003. David started piano lessons at age 12, and went through three different teachers in three years. After the third year, he quit altogether. He played trumpet for three years as a child and currently plays piano, bass and acoustic guitar for the worship band at his church. David cites Rush, U2, Kate Bush, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, and Renaissance as the artists who influence his musical style the most, and his favorite classical composers are Chopin, Debussy, Lizst, Ravel, and Rachmaninoff. Outside of music, David enjoys going out to eat (“a bit too much, perhaps!”), car races, bowling, football, and finding time to go off and be by himself in the forest - “I love a good waterfall!” He is married and has two young children, and the family resides outside Eugene, Oregon. Here is the interview we did in February 2004: Where did you go to college, and what was your major? I went to George Fox College in Newberg, Oregon from 1983-87. I started out as a music major, but after being disappointed with the music department, I dropped the music major after my first semester, and was undeclared for about a year and a half. After that, I was heavily involved in theater, but since a theater and drama major wasn’t available at the time, my theater credits went to a Communication Arts major, with a minor in Music Theater. I was also one credit away from a minor in Writing Literature; I was writing a lot of poetry at that time. So you’ve always been very diversified. Yeah, at that time in my life I really wanted to be a writer. I also wanted to be involved in theater. After I got out of college, I interned with a local theater group. That ended when the founding couple divorced, and I never really pursued theater after that. My focus was starting to change, anyway, and I began to delve more into music composition. I had a rock band phase, and after all the dust settled, I ended up being a solo piano artist. The only poetic prose I write now is the liner notes for my CDs. It seems like the majority of pianists in the new age/contemporary instrumental genre compare themselves to George Winston and name him as an influence, but with you, that seems to be especially true. My college roommate used to play Winston’s music all the time. I
had never heard anything like it, and was fascinated by it.
When
I first started to compose for the piano, I remember thinking about
his
riffs and seeing if I could find that sound, trying to get that vibe.
I
can’t imagine being a solo piano player had I not heard his music. It
was one of those things where you’re exposed to something new, and
the
light goes on. Winston was my primary musical influence
early on. I found my own sound with my second album, and then I kept
on developing that.
Oh yeah, totally! I started promoting my music on the Internet in
‘95, but at that time all I had was a web page to promote my second album. I didn’t really know what I was doing, and I
don’t think anyone else did at the time, either. At the beginning,
most
people looked at the Internet as a kind of video game. I don’t
think anyone really expected it to become the culture it’s become. I
got on there early, and then I wrote my book the end of ‘97 on how to
promote your music on the Internet. I’ve been updating that every few
months since, so that’s a big part of my life and my income. I also I have
the Music Biz Academy, which is my
educational website for musicians. And then I have my CDs and sheet
music, so I have a lot of different aspects to my online business as
well as the various partnerships that I’ve formed. As my business
grew,
it got to the point where I was making as much money on the Internet
as
I was at Symantec. I worked both for a year to be sure that it wasn’t
a
fluke, and saved enough money to live on for a year if the rug was suddenly
pulled out from under me. I left Symantec in November 2001, and I’ve been
doing
this full time ever since.
Can you expand the bandwidth or start a second broadcast? Yes, I'll continue to expand the bandwidth. We've also just launched Whisperings with our first syndicate, AudioFeast. And I'm talking with other companies about carrying the program. When did “Whisperings, Solo Piano Radio” start up? The first official broadcast was August 1, 2003. I’m very confident in our ability to continue to grow and
seriously create a brand of solo piano music.
No, I didn’t. My dad was a street preacher. He would go to
downtown
Portland, with kind of a tent-trailer on the back of his rig that
opened into a platform. He’d stop at rest areas, and would pull out
his
Bible and preach. A pretty dynamic guy, my dad. He was the pastor for
a
couple of churches, but his gift was always more toward evangelism.
There is a difference between teaching and preaching, and Dad was a
preacher. A bishop from Kenya who was visiting the states heard him preach and invited him
to come to Africa. My dad was a very strong
person with a strong personality. That served him well in using the
gift that God gave him in terms of his preaching. He was in Africa
for
many months at a time - in Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia. He was a
great
man in that not everybody is built that way - he was able to be in
front of strangers doing something that he knew was going to irritate
some people. People responded either very negatively or very
positively to my dad with everything. I think that Africa was where
he
had his most successful ministry. Here was a short white man who had
such a power about him. He was 5’6”, but he was like a giant with his
personality. My faith is the best thing my father ever gave me. We
didn’t the best relationship, but I think I inherited my drive and
go-get-it-ness as well as my ability to persevere from him. However,
I'm a much more sensitive person than my father was, and that I got
from my mom. It’s like I got the hard edge from my dad and it was
softened by my mom.
You have said that most of your recorded music is very composed
as
opposed to improvised. Once they are finished, do you play your
pieces
pretty-much the same each time, or do they evolve?
Do you have any words of advice for young people who are studying music now? In terms of playing the piano, do what you like to do. Go for
whatever excites you musically. If classical music doesn’t excite
you,
what does? What do YOU want to learn to play? Get the CD, sit down at
your piano, and see if you can pick out the song. Find the melody,
figure out the chords and song structure, and be determined to learn
it. Next, be willing to compromise. Once you’re working on songs that
you actually WANT to learn, take some time out every day to work on
your music theory, even if you dread doing it. In the end, the music
theory that you learn will give you the understanding you need to
better play the songs you really want to play. I never had a chance
at
becoming a serious piano player until I understood basic music
theory.
In fact, it was the point at which I began to understand that my
musical ability really took off.
I’m just extremely thankful to be able to do what I’m doing. I
cannot imagine my life without music. I think the music itself
creates
a real drive in me. It’s like each of the compositions and each
moment
at the piano is itself like one single note in the grand composition
that is life. Music, for me, definitely has a purpose, especially as
it
relates to my faith and my belief that it came from God. It’s what
God
gave me to do, and I’m going to do it to the best of my ability. I’m
not the perfect piano player, I’m not the perfect composer. I’m just
fortunate to write and play music that people enjoy. That was
what
made me realize that maybe I could do it as a profession. It’s a
marvelous thing to be able to compose and do something you love, and
have other people relate to it and really appreciate it.
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