In part two of my interview with Aloud, Jen and Henry talk about the recording studio, videos and online promotion, and balancing the business end of their music with creative stuff.

Jen de la Osa and Henry Beguiristain have been writing, singing, and playing guitar together since they were young. Today they are the core of Boston-based Aloud. The songs on their sophomore album Fan the Fury are an engaging collection of observations, each expressed with urgency and true emotion.

For artists the battle has always raged between the desire for complete artistic freedom and the need to work within a limiting set of rules. Some people insist that creativity and limits are mutually exclusive. I would argue the opposite: people are never more creative than when forced to work within limitations. Limits generate their own kind of creative freedom. Don’t believe me?

We all know it when we hear a great song because we can’t get enough of it. It makes us move, it makes us listen and it draws us in. But it’s a lot harder to write a great, or even good, song than it seems, as anyone who’s ever tried to write one knows. We can analyze great songs all day long to see what makes them tick, but sometimes can learn just as much by analyzing the ones that aren’t that great as well.

In part 2 of my interview with fusion guitarist Ed DeGenaro we discuss his country project, his new album, and his battle with music piracy:

AC: And Neck Bone is a nod to your country influences. Are you still playing with your country project?

ED: Yeah….I gotta eat. (Laughter.) I’ve only sold about 100 copies in the last two months of “Less is Seldom More”. But then again, you know, it’s readily available on your favorite download site for free.

AC: Do you have to deal with a lot of piracy?

ED: Of my stuff? Yeah! I’d say I spend a day a week chasing down blogs that host my album, like on Rapidshare and those kinds of sites, just to have that shit shut down - and a week later it’s up again.

The world is full of great guitarists. Spend just half an hour on Youtube and you will be convinced that every bedroom in the world now houses an unknown prodigy. Standing apart from this crowd has become no small feat, but Seattle based guitarist Ed DeGenaro has managed to do it by blending an unusual approach to the guitar with a bottomless musical imagination. The result is tasty jazz-fusion, seasoned with Latin, country, and rock, and topped with a dollop of humor. It is a musical flavor that is uniquely his own. Recently I got a chance to chat with Ed about his guitars, his music, and his new CD “Less is Seldom More”.

Here’s a quick shout out to an excellent music production workshop coming to New York City next weekend.

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