As The World Tunes

Motivation Under The Microscope

by Steve Bussey
GeoSynchronous Records

We take a look at one example of setting goals for a music career. Many people assume that musician’s want to have that hit single, sell a lot of CD’s, and make a lot of money. And this is certainly true most of the time, but there are other goals as well. Mike Pachelli’s recently released CD “For Now, Forever” is a labor of love with a motivation other than fame or fortune. I recently discussed this with Mike, just prior to his leaving for a two week concert tour of England and Wales.

What is the motivation behind “For Now, Forever”?
“I wanted to make a contemporary Christian CD. In 1993 my mother passed away, and it really got me to think about a lot of things, and I rededicated my life to Christ, and I wanted to make sure that I did an album that exactly expressed that feeling, my feelings about my rededication and how I was living, and in my opinion, what it meant to be a Christian.”

What makes a Christian record?
“The lyrics. The important thing is that the message comes across thru to this music, this is positive music, contemporary Christian music, so it has all the positive vibes of knowing the Savior. If you listened you’ll be uplifted, you’ll feel good, you’ll be inspired, you won’t walk out feeling depressed.”

You also enlisted the help of renown Christian guitarist/vocalist Phil Keaggy on “For Now, Forever” just as you did on your previous release, “Tube Driven”. How did that come about?
“We grew up together in Youngstown, OH, we’re like brothers. On “Tube Driven” we had a shoot out really, it was like a healthy competition. Rather than being a healthy competition,“For Now, Forever” is more like a Lennon-McCartney collaboration vocally. This one was more fun, laid back, no competition, just fun.

Were you aiming more towards your inner feelings and less towards what could be considered commercial in today’s market?
“I felt a little slighted sometimes. You feel like, well, maybe you should try to point things in a certain direction and try to do what you can to be as commercially viable as possible. But I’m kidding myself because I’m really not interested in being all that commercially viable.”

Why not?
“I had just come to the conclusion really the only reason why someone doesn’t get commercially successful is because they don’t seem to happen to have the same taste buds as the A & R people at these major labels. But personally, I don’t, I mean when I hear what they decide is commercially viable, I’m not putting it down, but it doesn’t entertain me. It doesn’t entertain me sonically, the tone isn’t what I call great, the lyrics are banal and most songs that get to the forefront of commerciality are so negative. It’s like if you write a happy song, I guarantee you’re not going to get on MTV or any airplay.”

“ I’m not saying you can’t have any fun, and I’m not on a high horse, I have as much fun, I have more fun now. But there are absolutes in the world, there is good and there is bad, there are pluses and there is evil.”

So the primary goal of “For Now, Forever” is other than commercial success, but would you be OK if it sells a million?
“That would be great! I don’t think there is anything on “For Now, Forever” that will cause anyone to do anyone else any harm. That’s a problem I have with music, so many things get popular and its some guy or whoever singing some negative thing, and he’s force feeding it down into your subconscious, and you’ll get this negative vibe, and you’ll love the song and sing it over and over again every time you hear it you’ll gravitate towards it, and the lyric is saying something terrible , it’s not saying anything that you could grow from. It’s some sort of misery coming to the forefront. Why is the world in such a predicament? This is the reason: we keep feeding our children this negative stuff. It’s all based on greed, because its easier to sell some titillation and it's easier to say I’m in misery, I’m in pain. I don’t have the same taste buds as those people who decide what is commercially viable, but I don’t feel bad about it anymore.”

About the author: Steve Bussey is a singer/songwriter/guitarist and is currently the owner and general manager of GeoSynchronous Records (http://www.pan.com/geosync, Listening Line 800 235 9193, ask for a free catalog), an indie label handling artists such as Les Dudek, Mike Pachelli, Bong Water Taffy, and Big Red & The Bus. Prior to this, Steve earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Acoustics from Georgia Tech, designed sound equipment and guitar amps for Fender, and supervised design of communication systems for the Space Shuttle at Kennedy Space Center.