Music is his medicine

Bordentown doctor releases his third self-produced CD

By: Michelle McGuinness
   You may not suspect it from the long white coat, magazine-strewn waiting room or medicine-stocked offices, but Dr. Nick Rossos is a musician with three CDs under his belt.
   The Bordentown resident’s third CD, "Bohemian Fusion," was completed this year. Dr. Rossos has been distributing it to family and friends as well as patients at his internal medicine office on Farnsworth Avenue.
   "I’m just having fun," Dr. Rossos said of his music career. "Getting people together and making a song is so much fun."
   The doctor-turned-producer said he got interested in music after taking keyboard lessons. Shortly after he started his lessons, he created his first CD, "Listen to My Music," in 1993.
   He said he discovered during the process that he enjoyed writing and producing songs more than playing them.
   His second CD, "Cathexis," came out in 1998 and featured soft rock songs, a change from the more calming new age music in his first CD.
   The newest CD, "Bohemian Fusion," incorporates several different styles of music. It includes songs such as "I Love You," which features improvisation by flutist Susanna Ngao and "Guitar Talk, played by Tom Marolda, a songwriter and guitarist currently in Los Angeles producing music for television and movies.
   Dr. Rossos called "Guitar Talk" the rock song of the CD. "It’s like a round table of guitars talking to each other," he said.
   "Bohemian Fusion" also features songs from Dr. Rossos’ first two CDs.
   He said it was partly the success of these first two CDs that inspired him to produce a third.
   "I had a little fan base," Dr. Rossos said of his first CD. He said about 20 copies of the second CD were purchased by Borders.
   However, Dr. Rossos said his main purpose in making music is just to have fun.
   "For me, it’s just fun," he said. "I’m seeing the reaction of people. Big smiles come on their faces and they just love it."
   Noreen Rossos, Dr. Rossos’ wife, said patients are excited about getting a CD when they come in for a visit.
   "It’s a nice surprise at the end of the visit," she said. "How many times do you go to the doctor’s office and get a gift?"
   Dr. Rossos added that he tells patients with anxiety or high blood pressure to listen to the CD to lower their blood pressure.
   Ms. Rossos said their younger daughter Alexandra, 19, used one of the CDs in a science fair project where she had people listen to the CD and then listen to rock music. She compared their blood pressure after listening to each type of music and discovered that her father’s music had the effect of lowering people’s blood pressure.
   Dr. Rossos said the title of the CD comes from all the different types of music he tried to incorporate this time around.
   "I tried to fuse a lot of different styles this time," he said. "If you didn’t like the first one or the second one you’ve got to like something on this one."
   The CD also includes recordings of Dr. Rossos’ late father playing traditional Greek music on a sandouri and five "meditation songs."
   Alexandra Rossos said even her friends, who are younger than most of the patients to whom her father distributes the CDs, like Dr. Rossos’ music. "They all think it’s cool," she said.
   She said many of them would jump at the chance to go into the studio and record with her father.
   Alexandra said she was surprised that even people they don’t know are listening to and enjoying the CD.
   She said she returned to the Peddie School in Hightstown to visit a counselor she had worked for two summers ago. "As I walked in, he said, ‘I heard your dad’s CD,’" she said. He said he’d gotten the CD from a nurse at the Hamilton Hospital.
   "So even people we don’t know have it," Alexandra said.
   The Rossos also have an older daughter, Rachel, 23, who is working as the marketing director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra in San Francisco. Rachel helped create some of the songs, including doing vocals for "Dear Mother."
   Alexandra said her father has always been playing music around the house and it inspired both her and her sister to get into music.
   "We’ve loved music the whole time we’ve know each other," Ms. Rossos said.
   She said Dr. Rossos’ love of music will probably inspire him to produce another CD.
   Dr. Rossos couldn’t say if or when he’d make another CD. He said for now, creating music is a hobby and he isn’t able to write new music on a regular basis. Because of this, it would be difficult for him to produce a new CD soon.
   "I think he just needs to find time to sit down and write songs," Ms. Rossos said.
   Dr. Rossos said he doesn’t make any money off the CDs, since he gives out many for free. His CDs are also available on iTunes and cdbaby.com.