Gergely Kalapis Music

How did you start writing music? What comes first - lyrics or the melody? I have been asked a couple of times... In all honesty I never really wondered about the above questions or even gave much of a thought to the process of how a song is actually created. Of course, when studying music production, I did have a module discussing the ins and outs of how hits - classic and contemporary - were written and produced, even had top producers lecturing us, but for me writing always remained sort of an organic process. Thinking about it, none of the above questions is very easy to answer. I started playing the guitar when I was 13 - I learned classical for two years before my teacher left the music school I went to and I rather not had the teacher taking over teaching me, so I left after year 2. It was around the time I discovered and started listening to rock heavier than Queen; the likes of Nirvana, The Offspring, Carzy Town, Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park. Although it was the early 2000's...

Just a couple of years ago, my friend, Peter has already embarked on his mission of creating instruments, and his projects have since been some of our most talked about topics. You will find out why soon, but believe me when I say do check him out ,  I have a very good reason to say so. His informal mission statement was “affordable guitars, made for you.” The idea behind it all was the fact that although many musicians have a good idea of what they would like their dream guitar or bass to look, feel and sound like, they are restricted by their budgets and simply can’t afford buying them even from the second hand market. But truth be told, I think the main reason he dived into it all was quite simple: because he loves to craft. His first work was another Strat, followed by a Tele featuring a painting of his on the body and I must admit, even those two were easily above the league of standard entry-level guitars (think of Squier bundles) despite the relatively cheap components. Bo...

Sadly, in today's world to get your music heard it is insufficient to just create music that you believe has a market, as with digitalisation and tools and knowledge to produce music now being widely available, the sheer amount of new music and artists resulted in overwhelming supply versus  nearly unchanged levels of demand. Most importantly, it has become ever so difficult to outroar a pool of screaming musicians. I have always been too submissive to be a good salesperson. I always use the excuse that the only thing I can do acceptably well is producing, I am not particularly good at writing or performing, let alone promotion. On one hand, this is a good thing, as I can focus on what I enjoy doing the most, challenge myself in what I want to improve in while retaining the joy of creating something out of nothing, without the weight of expectations on my shoulders. On the other hand, you might start wondering what is music without an audience, let alone the fact that it is an expe...

This was around the time when the Starcaster came out, and I have to admit I really wanted one. However my collection of guitars already started growing beyond the extent of justifiable, plus sadly it cost more than what I could afford with a good conscience. My friend, Peter of EP Guitars was somewhat of a collector himself before he started making instruments, and at some point had to make the painful decision which I am incapable of to this day - selling some of his rarely used instruments. As we have been close friends since childhood, we played together more and for longer than we have in any other formation, I knew all his instruments and also had the honour of trying out most of them. Hence I was rather puzzled when he told me he was going to sell his Ibanez guitar . “What Ibanez guitar?” - I asked. Turns out he did have one, and even more surprisingly he would have bought it around the time when we still lived in the same area and saw each other often. “It’s a jazz guitar, bu...