there a particular artist whose
career is one you’d like to emu-
late? Billy Joel is one of my big-
gest inspirations in terms of art-
ists today. Another one would
be Ben Folds, another piano guy.
His style is a little more edgy,
more jaunty in his piano style,
but he’s got awesome chops. I
saw him at the Count Basie The-
atre in Red Bank in September.
It was an awesome show and
he’s definitely another inspira-
tion as well. Another one is Ja-
mie Cullum. He’s a British pop/
jazz crossover artists and a song-
writer. Some of his stuff sounds
more poppy and some sounds
more jazzy, but he’s definitely an
influence as well. I’m influenced
a little bit by Elton John, but
not as much of him as the other
three.
Are you planning use the next
few months to get ready for col-
lege or are you going to try do-
ing some shows this summer?
I’m definitely going to try to do
some shows, hopefully in July. I’ll
Watch John Paciga perform “New York State of Mind”
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