Tomas michaud

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You often get likened to like Ottmar Liebert. How do you feel about that? I hear often people's first impressions when I'm performing "is that an Ottmar Liebert song" or "I thought I heard Ottmar Liebert". I like Ottmar Liebert's music very much and consider him one of my big inspirations. I feel honored to be likened to him. I also think that when people are more familiar with my music they hear some of the uniqueness and different influences. Who are some of your other influences? Santana in one of my earliest influences. The first album I really loved was the Santana album with "Samba Pa Ti" and "Black Magic Woman". I played that album over and over until practically wore it out. I credit Santana and that album with inspiring me to want to play guitar. It's strange how things work out. I actually got to see Santana and Ottmar Liebert perform together at the Concord Pavilion and my current band lineup includes David Margen who played with Santana for 6 years. Another big influence is the Gipsy Kings. I first heard the Gipsy Kings on a bus in Zamora, Spain. I remember asking the bus driver "who are those guys" (yes - in Spanish) and he showed me a Gipsy King tape. Since then I've seen them 3 times at the Greek theatre in Berkeley and the Concord Pavilion. Why did you choose to play guitar? My first instrument was trumpet. I played trumpet for about three years as a child. I never really had much passion for the sound of the trumpet. At 14 I started to play mandolin. I enjoyed that and then my friends talked me into playing bass. Someone also gave me a guitar around this time and while I was playing bass in bands I would go home and practice what I saw the guitar player doing on the guitar. It was at the same time I was listening to guitarist like Santana. Within a short time after I started playing guitar I knew I had found my instrument or "voice". I feel like I can express subtle things with the guitar that I could not express with any of the other instruments or with words. Sometimes I struggle with the "right" notes but on my best days the strings and notes feel like they are directly connected to something deep inside me and beyond my decision making process. They just seem to flow. What is New World Flamenco Jazz and where did this term come from? New World Flamenco Jazz is a blend of world beats from South America, Central America, the Middle East and Spain. Throw in some Smooth Jazz and Flamenco guitar and this is what you get. I couldn't find a label out there that really fit so I made one up with the help of my fans. In some stores I find my CDs filed under New Age along with Ottmar Liebert. In others they put me under World Music. A few of the artist that could be categorized as New World Flamenco Jazz might be Ottmar Liebert, Strunz and Farah, Gipsy Kings, Shahin & Sepher, Armik, Jesse Cook, Govi, and Peter White. What inspired you begin to write this style of music? I played rock for many years while growing up and played in rock bands. I began to realize as I got older that the music and the environment really wasn't syncing with my personality, interests and values.

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