(Pendiente de traduccion a castellano)

I first met Steven Cravis a couple of years ago in mp3.com, which was in those times the biggest platform for emerging artists in internet. His cd was one of the best selling new age albums there and it was easy to find out why... I'm glad we maintained a friendship since, but during all this time Steven has go on archieving his goals and spreading his art over the net... Here you have a chance to get to know him a little better.

Priscilla Hernandez:Coud you introduce us to yourself and your music... which is the best way to describe your compositions.

Steven Cravis: I play both acoustic piano solos and multi-track synthesizer music. My style is a meditative fusion of Classical, Jazz and Ambient. My style is simple and childlike yet mixed with a mature ability to convey a profound sense of heartfelt emotion, like beams of light that pull at the listener's heartstrings.

NM:If you had to pick one track of yours... which one would it be? Tell us a bit of the story behind it

Steven Cravis: One of my tracks "Father" from my solo piano CD True Reflections has a short and simple, but somewhat deep, (to me) story: I had been living on my own in early adulthood, only about 15 miles from my father's home, but hadn't been talking frequently with him because I thought he was dissapointed in me, or angry with me about how I was proceeding with my life. There was one night where I was feeling so badly about the dynamic I perceived that I called him one night to come to a bus stop halfway between where we both lived. He drove out to talk with me late at night and when I told him that I thought he was angry and dissapointed in me, he told me quite the opposite, that he was very proud and loved me very much. I was so relieved and touched by, not only that he came out late at night to talk when I was down, but by his affirming that everything was 'okay', that I immediately sat at the piano when I got to my apartment and wrote the song 'Father'.

Priscilla Hernandez:You're a skilled piano performer... when did you actually started to play the piano?

Steven Cravis: I started when I was 7. I liked to go hit the piano that was in our house growing up and play random notes. I asked my parents for piano lessons. NM:What artists are you listening to lately? SC:Interestingly, one of the artists who's compositions grab my attention the most when I listen to a TV broadcast radio channel here, from MusicChoice, called Soundscapes is Liz Story. I think she's created highly interesting and unique rhythms, chords and melodies with her piano playing.

Priscilla Hernandez: I follow your great success in the online musician world since the mp3.com times... Being so long in the internet... what is your impression about internet and its possibilities

Steven Cravis: SEARCHABILITY: I think, for anyone searching for new and interesting music, that the internet is becoming indexed much better than before. The search engine companies, like yahoo, google, msn, etc... actually appreciate and act on feedback from users to improve searchability. For example, I was checking on my internet presence within a nice site called Answers.com and when I pointed out to them that some of my iTunes buy buttons were not available for their site (something which was my own fault at having released different versions of my artist name such as Steven Cravis for one album and 'Steven Cravis Piano & Soundtracks' for another album) they actually fixed their own search code to include a broader search when any name is typed in the search box! The internet is constantly changing which is why I check on these things and try to keep up with the changes. Another example of the searchability with music is how you can go to the site Pandora.com http://www.pandora.com and type in your favorite artist, and then find similar artists (Ironically I'm mentioning this and haven't put myself in their database yet, but will in the near future SOCIAL SITES: Since social sites like myspace have been so successful, I expect many more social sites to do what Myspace and Snocap recently did, making it possible for musicians to sell music to their fans, right from within their music page on the social site. TECHNOLOGY: I think we can expect new dimensions of technology to come out in the next several years that are 3D (3 dimensional) performance recordings. People love youtube video so much, they love to watch motion and hear music. I expect there to be new holographic media, or virtual reality helmets that let people feel like they are very close up to a performer or band. This is something that may become available through the internet, but first it's probably going to have to be physical media, just like there are DVDs and CDs before downloaded movies.

Priscilla Hernandez:You're involved with a few projects and websites yourself regarding the promotion of artists and also piano players. Tell us a little bit about them.

Steven Cravis: NewAgePiano.net is the biggest and most recent collaboration between me and WIERZBICKI.org We just wanted a web site that focused on the many great pianists worldwide who continue to put out very interesting solo piano music. The site features information, site links, audio and sheet music downloads (by artists who choose to give something for free) The site also has a very nice videos section, and artists who join can opt into allowing song(s) to be used by multi media students for a competition called the Swan Lake Moving Image and Music Awards http://www.swan-lake-award.org/.

Priscilla Hernandez:Future projects? things on the making?

Steven Cravis: I'm working very hard on one new solo piano album (at least 11 songs) for and may be releasing my first Electronica album (10 or more songs) all for release by early 2008. I also hope to do a long distance collaboration with singer songwriter Queenie during 2007 (http://queeniemusic.com/ ) of at least one really cool song with her for either iTunes or free download at http://www.download.com/stevencravis and http://www.download.com/queenie it would be lovely if you can send a personal greeting to Nuevas Musicas too and feel free to add any question you consider important.

Priscilla Hernandez: Oh certainly, I do worship Queenie's music (also her friendship) and it will be a great pleasure to enjoy your collab. Good luck!

+ about Steven Cravis

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