Alexandr Miskostarted playing the guitar at age 12, first learning the classical style. But after discovering fingerstyle guitar music online, he began to learn it on his own.
"[Fingerstyle] leans more toward pop music much more than classical music, but at the same time it's very interesting harmonically, it's very rhythmic ... so I was instantly hooked," says Misko.
His musical style and technical presentation, along with his original works, has made him widely accessible to any listener around the globe. At just 22 years-old, Misko has gained an impressive following online, with his music videos getting over 200 million views. He was named “Guitarist of the Year” in 2018 at the UK Guitar Show and has shared the stage with other fingerstyle players of note.
While fingerstyle guitar is a dynamic art form not just in sound, but in sight - Misko says that he still wants to make sure what he writes holds value without YouTube.
"I'm still trying to imagine myself listening to that music without a video and if the music has some kind of value outside from being watched, but being listened to, then I think it's nice music," he explains. "Because we're not trying to write genius things, we just write music that represents us as people."
But despite Misko's many accomplishments as a younger player, he says it's always about trying to remain authentic to creating unique music.
"I never invented anything," he notes, "I just took the things that I like the most from all of my biggest inspirations and I’m still trying to put it all together nicely."
Misko came to the Lake Effect performance studio while he was in town to perform at UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts MKE Unplugged series. The studio session was recorded before the safer-at-home order was mandated.
