Garrison Keillor once commented, "If I could play guitar the way Michael Gulezian does, I would sit in front of the mirror and watch myself do it."

In a recent phone interview, solo guitarist Michael Gulezian commented on the brilliant "creative soul" that encompasses this campus. Over half the student body owns a guitar, creates music, and writes poetry.

"This is all a natural and organic part of the human experience." The students here "accept this process as normal and good." Gulezian can relate to these means of creativity because it reflects how he was raised. Sadly enough, "it is not like this everywhere," Gulezian comments.

At many other institutions, Gulezian is forced to focus more on entertaining rather than musicianship. Some people just don't understand that it is more than just "wiggling your [behind] up on stage.

"At St. Olaf, I can be myself and deliver great music." Gulezian believes that great music resonates with this audience because "Olaf students possess intelligence with heart and soul." When Gulezian plays for the Pause audience, he has no need for a fancy light show or skinny backup dancers.

"In fact," he states, "a single guitar is more than enough." His finger style, steel string guitar method appears magical at first, and only gets better. The late Michael Hedges was influenced by and influenced the style of Michael Gulezian. Hedges calls Gulezian "a great guitarist, my kindred spirit."

Gulezian believes that St. Olaf recognizes an artist from an entertainer. More importantly, this audience realizes that music, among other mediums, is not "color by numbers."

Gulezian believes "To copy someone else is repugnant." Despite this largely shared feeling, there is a real problem in popular culture that hampers our ability to be individuals.

Gulezian recalls one particular occasion in which a loving mother asked him to make her son sound just like the great blues guitarist, Stevie Ray Vaughn. He also uses the example of the, not so uncommon scenario of teenage plastic surgery as a result of emphasis on image.

"Why look or sound like someone else?" Gulezian asks. He understands that "no one grows up in a vacuum." "We all have our influences. But, to copy someone else leaves you empty and without anything to say."

Gulezian defines a true artist as "someone who uses symbolic thought to express the deepest aspirations of humanity, in a manner that would, in any other way, be inexpressible." He goes on to add, " St. Olaf celebrates that, and embraces that. That is why I love the Pause and St. Olaf."

I highly recommend stopping by the Lion's Pause on Friday the 9th, from 8-10. You may just find out something about yourself through this amazing artist.