Pablo Embon is an Argentinian-born, Israeli-based musician, composer and producer. He has released over 20 original albums to date since 2004. All his music is performed, recorded, mixed and produced by himself. Amongst the music tracks, there is a multitude of jazz stylings, however he is not a purist when it comes to Jazz: His music is fusion, drawing on indirect influences which include Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, Al Di Meola and others. His albums contain also other music styles, such as Alternative, Smooth, Funk, orchestral instrumentals, and solo instruments tracks.

In this interview spotlight I chat with Pablo about the latest release (Sunrises Every Night), challenges, surviving a pandemic and more.

Full Q&A along with links and music below.

Sidenote: We’ve featured Pablo before. Find those articles here, here and here.

Where are you from and how do You describe your style of music?

I was born and raised in Argentina, then later in life I immigrated to Israel. I have released over 20 original albums to date since 2004. All my music is performed, recorded, mixed and produced by myself. I typically use a multitude of jazz stylings and blend them with other genres including Alternative, R&B, Rock, Progressive, Funk and even Classical Music.

Since both of my grandmothers were Piano teachers, the instrument drew my attention at a very young age. The second core instrument I picked up was the guitar, which started learning when I was 9 years old and later on continued perfecting music theory, technical skills as trained by famed classical guitarist Eduardo Isaac.

I continued development my music career  mastering harmonization, orchestration, vocalization and arrangement techniques for several music styles, including Jazz. By the time I immigrated to Israel, I had already spent years creating and performing modern and alternative Jazz compositions. I used to play live in bands in my youth but at some point I decided I wanted to dedicate my career in creating music, since then my main music endeavours are the production of Studio Albums.

How did you get here? As in, what inspires or motivates you to create music?

Typically there are some specific moments or experiences in my life  which could feed and drive creativity in my music , but for me it is enough to sit at the piano or guitar as my main creative instruments to shape things up. Usually a very simple idea or groove at these instruments can generate a solid foundation for a new piece of music. At every stage of the composition the ideas evolve and some times I leave the creativity to lead the way to directions I’ve never planned to. Jazz has helped me to push the limits of music boundaries further. In a sense everything is permitted as long as the context is right. I’ve never been a purist when it comes to Jazz so I have plenty of other tools to use to shape a piece of music, however the pieces I create are considered to be approachable with the main intent of  listener engagements.

How does your latest project compare/contrast with your previous release(s)? Were you setting out to accomplish anything specific, follow a specific theme, or explore different styles of creation?

 My new studio album is named “Sunrises Every Night”, it is a collection of several Jazz stylings and Fusion Instrumentals. The new album concept wraps around the idea that  people must find their own daily miracles in life  in order to move forward and grow (as being the case that sunrises can’t possibly happen during the night). Since I consider my music as my own miracle to seek, the album tracks tell different pictures of them. Each one of them has a unique theme and characteristics. I use a quite varied set of instruments and moods in the production. I also added several vocals parts which circle back to my music roots when I used to sing in bands.Vocalizing and singing is a recent feature I reinstated in my latest albums since I consider it as an intrinsic part of myself . The album will be released on Decembeer 15 this year. I am really excited about it as I consider this one a real turning point in my music career.

Incidentally, this new album features a song named  “Sueños”,  I composed in 1987, which I decided to bring back to life with new arrangements.

I self-learn lots of new concepts of music production, instruments performance and I really grow as a musician and producer by the fact that I do these things consciously, learning to maintain objectivity of my own music. My biggest learning curve in this latest album was the vocals parts production, both in performance and integration to the instrumentation parts. I am constantly developing my vocal skills which is, I believe, perceived in the different tracks I recorded along the way.

Name the biggest challenge you faced as a creative during these unprecedented? How did you adapt? How have you kept the creative fires burning during all this?

Talk me through your creative process when writing new music?

Creative process happens spontaneously in me , could be triggered by just engaging with the instrument, occasionally some new sounds I discovered, restringing a guitar with fresh sounds, a groove  coming into my head, everything is a candidate to develop things from scratch. I consider music to be a story to be told and this is clearly reflected in the music pieces I compose during which there are different moods connected to each other, pretty much like in a movie when a scene is changed to discover something new and fresh within the same context

What was the last song you composed?

The last recording I produced for the new album is called “Get it Together”, which ended up being the first track of the album,  because this song  has plenty of energy, it’s  up tempo and  reflects an optimism image and joy of ourselves  in spite of the barriers and challenges we, people, face in life. It is a typical Jazz Fusion instrumental track with lots of lead movements and rich instrumentation and background arrangements. I thought this track would fit well as  the opening in my album journey.

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? 8-tracks? Cassettes? CDs? MP3s? Streaming platforms?

 I must confess: I am old school. In my early  years in music , if you wanted to be a real musician you’d need to release an album. That was what people used to buy in the stores. I understand that this concept does not work like that anymore nowadays. But for me an album is a conceptual new idea to bring to the world. I do believe in concept albums which bring messages and feelings as whole to the listener. This has been the case for all the 21 albums I produced so far. In my mind the singles are just small peeking windows of a much vaster world. It’s OK for people to like specific tracks however I produce my music to bring the message as the whole piece. Streaming services tend to “discretize” music, focusing on songs rather than a set of songs serving a common purpose.

I’ve been always in love with Vinyl records. I used to have and extensive collection and the way they sound is not comparable to Digital music,  which sounds too clean and misses the warmth of the original analog recorders and the way the music was reproduced in this media. I’m also a fun of listening music at higher sample rates than CD quality, which provides another dimension and depth.

Where is the best place to connect with you and follow your journey?

My official website https://www.pabloembon.com/  has been dramatically enhanced lately , now includes free music play, videos streaming, and there is also an immense amount of free technical Instrument and Music Production resources for independent musicians and producers, to help them pave their way to success, also offering accessible Mixing and Production services on a donation basis.

Additionally all news and upcoming unreleased music can also be found following my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pablofembon.

 Music Video streaming of my music library is available at my YouTube Channel  https://www.youtube.com/user/pfembon

I really appreciate Your time. Anything else before we sign off?

Would like to thank IMD for hosting me today and many thanks to all the listeners out there which day by day support my music.