by John Bear
Daily Lobo
UNM guitar instructor Michael Chapdelaine said he has something of a split personality.
"My reputation has been this classical guitar nerd who wears a tuxedo and does long, serious pieces," he said. "But lately I've been doing different stuff. I do these pop things on an electrified steel string guitar. It's a lot different from the classical stuff."
Chapdelaine will perform Friday during UNM's Building the Future Festival, part of the Albuquerque Tricentennial.
Though his specialty is classical music, he said he will play pop music and a few originals.
"The entire world isn't crazy about classical, so you just have to give them some Hendrix or Lennon - not the communist."
He said this ruse usually works, convincing people to like classical guitar. He compares it to the Dr. Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham where the main character needs to be talked into liking an unusual dish.
The original pieces he will be playing deal with New Mexico. He said he tries to interpret landscapes and portraits of the state into music.
He said it's an artist's job to transform ideas into his or her chosen medium.
"If you're a painter, you use paint," he said. "If you're a musician, you use sound."
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He said art came along when humans decided they needed to do something besides eating and breeding.
"It's humans' attempt to do something beyond playing video games and watching porn," he said. "That takes the form of everything from Dave Matthews to Beethoven to Beavis and Butt-Head to Shakespeare."
He said he is somewhat nervous about Friday's performance.
"I am used to playing in a room where all the people are coming to see me," he said. "Here, people are coming to see the Governor. I have no idea what this gig is going to be like."
He added that the performance - though it will mostly be old rock 'n' roll standards - will be something fresh and exciting.
"Nobody will say, 'Oh god, we've heard this before,'" he said.
When he is not playing or teaching guitar, Chapdelaine said he doesn't really do much else.
"I am not good at anything else," he said. "I ride a bike a lot. An 84-year-old driver tried to end that Jan. 22."
He said he was badly injured by the motorist and had to quit playing for a while, canceling several gigs. He recalls the incident with a substantial amount of levity.
"Anytime your head goes through the windshield and you're scraping along the ground, it's all a matter of how you hit the ground," he said. "If you don't fall the right way, you're finished."
He said he has gotten old enough to not take anything too seriously.
"Except when an 84-year-old lady tries to kill you," he said. "That's serious. And she never apologized."
