In a feat that was as much about physical stamina as musical prowess, Canadian pianist Gonzales won himself a place in the Guinness Book of World Records on Monday, with a concert that lasted an exhausting 27 hours, three minutes and 44 seconds. Originally from Montreal, Gonzales (born Jason Beck), has earned notoriety for producing Feist’s second album “The Reminder,” and releasing six of his own. But his most recent performance at a theatre in Paris, where he now lives, is attracting attention from well outside the confines of his traditional indie-rock fan base—which, according to Gonzales, was precisely the point.

Q: When you were preparing for the marathon performance, you had a team of doctors and an acupuncturist giving you advice. What was the most useful suggestion you received?

A: Well, useful in an oppositional way, interestingly enough. They told me, “Listen, you can’t give 100 per cent all the time. It’s a marathon. You’re not going to be able to do that.” That really rankled me, because the whole point of doing this was to show that not only could I assure the quantitative aspects of the challenge—to do the 27 hours—but I wanted as well to qualitatively succeed, and to me, that meant giving 100 per cent all of the time. And I think I did. Despite being advised to coast on autopilot at certain moments, I really resisted that temptation. And I went as deep as I could into the music and as deep as I could into the dynamics. Playing softly, playing very loudly, taking it to some surreal levels, letting the audience decide what songs I was playing, all of that was a strategy to avoid autopilot, so that they would be implicated in it with me. Because otherwise it would have been very easy for me to get that 27-hour record, but have people leave, or watch the stream and go “Ah, this is useless.” To me, I only get the ego boost when I feel like I’ve shared something. That’s what makes me an entertainer, not an artist.

Q: Before the concert, you said you were “freaking out but enjoying the freak out.” To what extent did that change once you started to play? Were you more nervous or less? How did that play out?

A: It went in cycles. There were a few moments where I just was worried about keeping up the qualitative aspects. I don’t think that I ever thought that I wouldn’t make it to 27 (hours), but I was having doubts about whether the audience would indulge for hours, and just listen to the piano, especially when it became clear that it was going to be a long day. You don’t really realize that until you play the first three hours and then you realize, “Okay, I’m a ninth of the way through.” It looms in front of you.

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