Paris DJs - Interviews (English)

Interview with Wade Schuman (Hazmat Modine, english version)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:56:00 +0200

Wade Schuman (Hazmat Modine)
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - May 2012)

Wade Schuman is Hazmat Modine's frontman and founder, an incredible 8-piece and two-harmonicas blues band from NYC that sounds truly like no other. These adventurous musicians use unusual instruments and pour countless musical traditions, sounds and influences in their musical recipe (African, Caribbean, Klezmer, Gypsy, New Orleans... ). For a long time since their 1998 beginning, Hazmat Modine has been NYC's best kept secret until they finally release their first LP Bahamut in 2006 (Jaro Medien/Barbès Records). Last year they came back with Cicada (Jaro Medien/Barbès Records), a new masterpiece praised in many reviews worldwide and finally awarded 'best 2011 blues album' by the prestigious Charles Cros Academy in France. Wade Schuman is not only a formidable multi-instrumentalist, he's also a fine arts teacher, a painter, an amateur zoologist, a professional hedonist and a very special Nature sound engineer. All these qualities makes him a delightful and obvious candidate for an in-depth exclusive interview. Hazmat Modine come back for an european tour this spring and summer (starting in Paris on May 24th) with new songs. To celebrate this, Wade has just cooked a great blues and brass mix. It will be online on Paris DJs very soon, so stay tuned!

Wade Schuman (Hazmat Modine)
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - May 2012)

01. I almost always begin my interviews with a bit of etymology. Tell me about this strange band name, Hazmat Modine.
HAZMAT is an American English word for Hazardous Materials. AKA dangerous materials, you see it on the sides of trucks or special trashcans. MODINE is the brand name for an industrial forced air heater unit, the kind that hangs down in garages and artists lofts... the company is in Muncie Indiana... they are both American words, but the sound of them together is rather exotic. People often think HAZMAT is Turkish. I thought Modine sounded a bit like a 1950's rock n Roll band.

02. You're a musician, but you are teaching fine arts for a living. At one moment, have you hesitated between those two vocations?
No, not really, I like being a person who does many things... I would be miserable if I didn't... my life goes in many directions always... Life is a rich experience and I am blessed to feel passionate about many things, art, teaching, music, zoology, sound, swimming, etc... Painting is an important part of me... I need texture and colour and variety of expression and these are fundamental to both art forms... visual and aural... Also being a good teacher means being a good performer in many ways, and facing a class of graduate students is as hard an audience as any, so it helps the performing chops.

03. The cast of past and present hazmaticians is quite impressive. Is HM a real band or something closer to a collective of musicians around you?
Well, I am not sure what a 'real' band is...? All bands are different in someway... I am always surprised, we all figure it out as we go along, there is no one system... After 14 years I have made it my own way... You mean a democratically run band where all parties make equal decisions? Then no. I am certainly the leader and the person who keeps it all going and does all the producing and conceptual work, the design and most of the promotion in the U.S. I pick the band members and the material and I take financial risks in the U.S. and I take the blame!... Having one person who does that is one reason I think it's still there, bands don't tend to live too long... but Hazmat Modine is still a real band and all the members are very very important to it's sound and feel... And my goal is to let (and make) everyone shine. We have been touring for over seven years in this present configuration... Although Joe Daley (the Tuba Player) has been in the band from the start, going on 14 years! And Joe has a lot to do with what this band sounds like in many ways… But I do like bringing in other musicians to collaborate on the records. I get obsessed with the range of sounds and textures that exist in the world. I love sounds that are unexpected and that have a richness... (nothing is better then the Tuba... what an instrument! Such a rich, pure, deep sound... it's like coffee in the morning: I have to have it). There are so many colours of sound that I still haven't explored enough... Bassoon for instance... it has such a wise sound... Kora, different kinds of percussion... there are a lot of sounds I want to incorporate some day. When you play music with another musician and it clicks it's like meeting an old friend that you didn't realize you missed so much... it is a very sweet experience. I always wanted a band with certain sounds and certain instruments... harmonicas, Tuba, horns, Guitar, all the textures I heard in my head... and New York is a Great place to start a band, there are so many astonishing musicians here who can play all sorts of things... but the musicians I found brought a lot to the band I didn't know I needed, and am so very glad for that! They bring a huge wealth of musical ideas and idiomatic voices... and of course what is most important: soul. So yes it is a band, but it is a band that was started with a certain vision, and that evolves also with what the fellow musicians bring to it.

04. Who had this bright idea to blend diatonic and chromatic harmonicas?
I started the band in 1998 with Randy Weinstein another harmonica player who is no longer in the band... We met at a meeting of professional harmonica players in my loft in NYC. Randy and I had a lot in common musically, and I knew he was the perfect guy to start the band with, he is a great musician and can play many styles with a lot of soul... initially I really wanted two diatonics mainly, but then I realized that the sound and texture difference between the diatonic and the chromatic was a really interesting contrast, they are really two very different instruments... When Randy left the band after ten years, I called up Bill Barrett, who I had always admired and asked him to join... luckily he said yes. Bill is a tremendously dynamic and interesting player... few chromatic players can do what he does and no one sounds like him. Bill is also a great singer and that brought a lot to the band... To be honest, the idea of this band for me goes back to Philadelphia in the early 90's when I was making mixes of multiple harmonicas on a boom box... at the time I wanted a four piece harmonica band... then I moved to New York and met Randy. But back in the 1920s there was a whole harmonica band movement that continues to this day in Asia and other places... that was certainly an inspiration

5. Speaking of harmonica, who are your harmonica heroes?
Deford Bailey, Rythm Willie, Gwen Foster, Paul Butterfield, Jaybird Coleman, Joe Filisko, Papa lightfoot, Howlin Wolf, Pegleg Sam, Onie Wheeler, Charles Leighton, Son of Dave...

06. HM music is rich and complex, mixing elements from different traditions and culture. It's a cliché, but it's seems to a kind of 21st century melting-pot music…
Well, truth is that it's an American band coming out of the blues... but Probably not in how most people think of Blues bands these days... But a lot of the early musicians who played blues played very eclectic music, W.C. Handy's big hit St. Louis Blues has a Tango section in it, and the early Jugbands played Waltzes and Fox trots, stringband music, and Blues... We are a kind of Post-modern-ethno-Jugband... But, I think at the core of what I do IS blues... it's the language I came out of. It's at the core of everything that I do musically, and it's at the core of most good American music. There is a lot in what we do that has influences of other music forms: R&B, Rock and Roll, Latin, Carribbean, African, Eastern European, Asian, etc... but at the core it's still coming from blues... it has sadness and humour and it has rhythm. It is music that can let go... the most important thing is to let go.

07. By the way, you seem to enjoy a lot traveling to Europe. It never seems a chore but something you want to live deeply…
Well, I spent a lot of my youth traveling all over Europe and I have a lot of very close friends here. And since I am a painter European culture is pretty important to me. Plus in many ways Europeans appreciate Art and Music more then Americans do unfortunately... America is dominated in many ways by the huge pop music machine. You still seem able to listen to live music here! In America after a gig they kick everybody out and have a DJ. He is the real star... The DJs are replacing live music... I cannot tell you enough how much I appreciate that Europeans will pay money to see live music. Unless they are going to see a big pop star most Americans have lost so much touch with the idea of live musical culture...

08. Animals (mythical or real ones) and fauna are important in HM's world. Your two albums got their titles from eponymous animal names tracks.
We are all animals, aren't we? My first love was Zoology... some days I think I should give it all up and move to Borneo and study Proboscis monkeys. Almost all metaphor exists in nature. There is nothing that we can make up that rivals what already exists.

09. Bahamut appears in Wim Wenders' Pina's soundtrack. How did this happen?
Through our agent Uli Balss... He is German... But we have played in Wuppertal, and we are pretty well known in Germany...

10. Some of your lyrics are quite elusive and seem loaded with innuendos. Is it a reminiscence of hokum?
Sure... Sex is a big part of music... it's all very physical.

11. Tell me about the Gangbé Brass Band? How did you meet?
Gangbe Brass Band we met at a world music concert on a mountain in Malaysia. It was a world music festival in Genting Highlands... which is one of the largest casinos in Asia literally on the tip of a mountain. It was musical love at first sight for me! I pursued recording with them for many years... but it was hard as they were often touring and we were never in the same country or continent at the same time. We finally played together again in Tubingen Germany two summers ago, but I had a kidney stone! We were ready to do the show, there were hundreds of people waiting, a camera crew and a recording crew and I was rolling around on the ground back stage in so much pain... I was foaming at the mouth. I finally took three pain killers, did the gig and then went to emergency and had an operation to remove the stone... None the less the music with them was incredible, I can't tell you how much I love that band and the vibe and energy they have! Last year we played with them in Kazan Russia at a concert of 200,000 people, it was quite an experience... ! My goal is to do a full CD with them, I hope that we can go to Benin and record with them there... it's a very exciting collaboration... I love that band.

12. There are also sounds from nature on the records, recorded in many different places of the world, as if you put some sounds of your journey diaries in those...
Yes, that is important for me, I am kind of obsessed with sound. How things sound different when you record them, it's kind of how color looks different in a painting then in real life, it's all heightened. We never really notice sound since we are bombarded with all sorts of images and sensations as well, but when you separate it from the visual it's astonishing... sounds tell stories, we live in this incredible sonic world that we miss 90% of the time. It's all context. Plus it's bringing all our touring and life experiences back into the recordings of the band, it's like a sonic journal... I have sounds from the rain forest in Indonesia and insects in central park, fireworks from the 4th of July on a small island in Maine off the coast of the U.S. An unknown accordion player under a bridge I recorded in Amsterdam on my cell phone... Dogs barking in Bali and Monkeys in Sumatra and recordings off my answering machine...

13. I can see the painter's interest for natural history and anatomy in this...
Yes, it is like painting with sound... I once made a recording of a kingfisher on an island in Maine in a rain storm... he flies by panning from right to left singing in the storm... I lost the recording and I have been looking for it for years... Some day I will find where I filed that recording! One of the best things I have ever made!

14. I saw your paintings on the net. You seem to love Magritte and Jerome Bosch...
Magritte I respect, Bosch I love... I studied 16th and 17th century European painting techniques mostly, but I love most of western painting with the exception of some 18th and 19th century stuff...

15. Do you still find time to draw or paint?
Yes of course! I am working on a series of paintings based on the idea of the Virtues... Years ago I did a series on the Seven Deadly Sins... it wasn't the typical Catholic iconography, I was more interested in the concept of what is sin. Turns out that the depiction of the seven sins goes back to Babylonian culture... I used different animals as personifications. It was a meditation on the idea of Sin. So now I am doing the same with Virtue... which believe me is much harder, since most people are less interested in Virtue. But I find it fascinating... for instance to me one of the greatest virtues is so over looked: Humor... one of the amazing human qualities... one of our most brilliant attributes, the thing that can save us from the worst of our selves is humor. We tend to trivialize it, but it is perhaps our greatest art form because it protects us from the overwhelming realization of eminent death. It changes time. For the series I am doing hybrid animal/people images. For humor I plan to do a self portrait as a baboon based on an image from Velazquez’s buffoon series... I am also doing a large polyptyk kind of based on an experience I had in Sri Lanka a few years back, and then a smaller series of paintings of insects on shaped canvases.

16. What can we expect from your European tour this spring?
Well, a damn good band! We will have the full eight piece band and we have been working on new material... I have co-written a song with Pete and Michael that I am very pleased about at the moment... it's an R & B tune, kind of a Stax sort of vibe about feeling that no matter how hard you try in life you always feel like you are barely keeping it together, I think we all feel that way at times that it takes all that we have to keep it all going... I am pretty pleased with the song, it's perhaps the catchiest thing I have written so far... then we have another tune that is half way between Mali and a Kentucky old-time tune, called Whiskeybird, and Steve wrote a tune that a friend and I (Erik Della Penna) are writing words for about his dad who is completely obsessed with building a wall in the middle of nowhere from large stones... I don't write material fast, but it's very exciting to write new songs and I hope to have a complete set of new material by this summer... We plan to do a live recording of the band for the next CD on the road. We are doing several tours: France, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy Spain, Austria, Russia, UK and Canada... And we are looking forward to seeing you in Paris!

Links :
Hazmat Modine : official | discogs | myspace | wikipedia | youtube

A Conversation with Neal Sugarman (Daptone Records)

Djouls — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:21:00 +0200

Daptone Records, a funk and soul independent record label from Brooklyn, New York, formed by Gabriel Roth and Neal Sugarman, have been celebrating their 10 year anniversary and thanks to our promoters friends What The Funk we've been able to catch the latter last week for a video interview right after the Charles Bradley show in Paris, right before the aftershow party at le nouveau casino with Soulist, Neal Sugarman and friends. And it's a cool pick since Neal has a new Sugarman 3 album out ...
A huge THANK YOU goes to the What The Funk guys who made video possible, to Fred Feuillet and Nicolas Ragonneau for their work and to Daptone Records for giving us a bit of their time. Next on our list of filmed interviews are The Black Seeds who are playing in Paris tonite (may 2nd).

"WHAT THE FUNK #94 - DAPTONE 10th anniversary with NEAL SUGARMAN"
Nouveau Casino, Paris, 26/04/2012
Video : Fred Feuillet - Full Power Prod | youtube.com/shantibabou
Interview : Nicolas Ragonneau - parisdjs.com

Watch the video on youtube
More info on Daptone Records on daptonerecords.com

Daptone Records Biography :
If you wanted a shorthand to the last 10 years of Daptone Records, the fiercely independent Brooklyn-based label that has been delivering the New Sound of Old Soul since the turn of this century, all you would need to know is this: their offices are based out of a rickety row house. Not a generic steel-and-glass façade in some anonymous office park or high rise - a bona-fide, honest-to-goodness house in Bushwick, Brooklyn, one where the label's storied analog studio takes up the first floor, and the second floor hosts shelves packed with LPs and just a few desks from which to sell them. Founded by Dap-Kings bandmates Gabriel Roth and Neal Sugarman, Daptone has established itself over the last decade as a place where quality, heart and feeling trump convoluted six-point marketing strategies. To put it another way: some labels develop a brand - Daptone has built an identity.

The story of Daptone's first decade is one of struggle and perseverance and, ultimately, one of family. Though it was formally launched in 2001, the foundation was laid by Roth's previous label, the now infamous Desco Records, on which saxophonist Sugarman had released his first two LP's under the name Sugarman Three. Roth and then-partner Philip Lehman had developed not only a reputation for gritty, idiosyncratic soul and funk records, but more importantly the beginnings of what would become the family of musicians at the core of the Daptone story. They released records by the Daktaris, which would later spur the creation of Antibalas and become a catalyst for the afrobeat renaissance to come. The Mighty Imperials, a sixteen year-old foursome who had to ditch school to cut their instrumental sessions, featured Homer Steinweiss on drums, who would later become the heartbeat of the Dap-Kings rhythm section. Sharon Jones, Lee Fields, and Naomi Shelton all recorded for Desco, backed by the Soul Providers, Desco's house band featuring future Dap-Kings Binky Griptite on guitar, Bosco Mann on bass, and Fernando "Bugaloo" Velez on congas. "It was a great time, but Phillip and I got to a point where we couldn't do business together anymore," Roth explains. "We were growing very quickly and had a lot of doors opening for us at the time. It was hard for me when it ended. It left me personally in a lot of debt." After Desco closed it's doors in 2000, Roth bounced from one fruitless temp job to another, unsure of his next move but certain starting another label wasn't it. "I knew that I liked making records - that was fun - but I'd had my fill of the record business."

But an offer of a production-only imprint from a boutique label gave Roth reason to reconsider. Buoyed by a handshake deal and the expectation of an imminent advance, Roth borrowed money to buy recording equipment and set to work on Dap-Dippin', the first record by Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, in a friend's basement in Williamsburg. Needless to say, the company disappeared and the check never materialized. However, a serendipitous offer to do a month-long residency in Barcelona gave Jones and the band an opportunity to solidify as a unit, and a perfect excuse for Roth to press up some copies of the record. It was at this point that he first employed the Daptone name and logo, ironically dreamed and doodled up at a Sony Records Distribution desk he was temping at the time, and not intended to be anything more than something to look cool on a handful of record labels sitting on a merch table.

Meanwhile, Sugarman had come to Roth to produce a third Sugarman Three album, Pure Cane Sugar, and had been similarly frustrated by unfruitful negotiations with independent labels to release it. "At some point Neal and I sat down and said, 'Let's just do this ourselves.'" The new partnership came with a caveat: "I told him, 'Look man, I don't like the record industry,' Roth remembers. "'I'm down to be partners with you, but it'll have to be your job to actually sell the records, because I do not enjoy that." Sugarman was hesitant initially, unsure of his ability to make the transition from musician to business owner, but eventually he assented, and the two steadily set about navigating the industry by following their own compass. Their first releases were proper issues of Dap-Dippin' and Pure Cane Sugar, accompanied by a flurry of 45's from the same sessions, all sold from the kitchen table of Sugarman's Brooklyn apartment.

In the Fall of 2002, they received the first statement from their CD distributor showing a significant balance due. Anxious to invest their forthcoming capital into a proper recording studio, they found and rented the two-family house in Bushwick, started knocking down walls, and began charging up their credit cards on sheetrock runs to Home Depot. However, within weeks a middle-man went belly up, and the check "in the mail" - which was to cover the next few months' rent, credit card bills, and the cost of labor and materials for the rest of the renovation - never materialized. Lease signed, deposit paid, walls tumbled, gas and electrical half-ripped out, radiators disassembled, they found themselves flat busted in the dead of winter.

With no other option but to move forward, they turned to friends and whatever resources they could scrape up to complete the work. Sharon Jones helped with electrical wiring; Charles Bradley showed them how to install radiators. Fan and friend Kenny "Dope" Gonzales bought construction supplies in exchange for a credit for a future recording session. Future members of The Budos Band helped knock down walls and jack up the sagging ceiling afterwards. They used old tires found on the street and fabric clippings from local sweatshop dumpsters to isolate recording booths and they re-purposed gas pipes as curtain rods. "One of the reasons this studio is so important to me is because we all worked so hard to build it," Roth explains. "It wasn't that I had some kind of manifest destiny in my head. In the thick of it, it was hard to believe we were gonna pull it off." He somberly reflects, "That was the coldest winter I can remember."

Their perseverance would pay off, as within a few months the studio soon became not only functional but the veritable epicenter of the soul explosion that was to come, as one of its t-shirts proudly proclaims, a House of Soul in every possible sense.

The next years would bring a golden age for the label. Subsequent releases by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings would again and again blow away all sales expectations and pave the way for other Daptone acts to flourish. The Budos Band joined the stable in 2005 and hoisted their heavy new Staten Island Afro-Soul sound on the world with their first three self-titled albums. Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens' What Have You Done My Brother? was a white-hot shot of gospel soul. Dap-Kings/Budos guitarist Thomas Brenneck produced the Menahan Street Band Make the Road by Walking album (the title track of which Jay-Z sampled for his summer smash 'Roc Boyz') in his bedroom on Menahan Street introducing the world to the cinama-delic Daptone subsidiary Dunham Records. Daptone used their newfound independent clout to relaunch earlier Desco releases like The Mighty Imperials' Thunder Chicken, The Sugarman Three's Sugar's Bugaloo and Soul Donkey, and the Daktaris Soul Explosion. Reissues of largely undiscovered gems by The Poets of Rhythm, Bob & Gene, Pax Nicholas would incite the creation of another sub-label dedicated purely to re-issues Ever-Soul, which hosted 45's by Eddie and Ernie, Hank "Soul Man" Mullens, and Darrell Banks. Throughout all of this, the bands were touring relentlessly and spreading the message. The pleas by distributors to blow large sums of money on ads for big box retailers were either mocked or ignored outright, as Roth and Sugarman kept their focus on the thing most important to them: the music. 45's by Dirt Rifle and the Bullets, Lee Fields, Binky Griptite and the Mellomatics all rounded out the catalog, while Hank Shockley, Mark Ronson, Amy Winehouse, Michael Bublé, and others began employing the studio and stable to try to capture the raw new soul energy for their major label projects. The rhythm didn't let up in 2011which started with No Time for Dreaming, Charles Bradley's strong, emotional debut album produced by Brenneck for Dunham.

In spite of its growing success, Daptone remains a tight family of musicians at its core. Dap-King Dave Guy, arguably the top soul trumpeter of all time, plays alongside Steinweiss and Brenneck in the Menahan Street Band, as well as stepping in on many a Budos session and anything else that requires his talents around the house. The Gospel Queens came in and sang backgrounds for Sharon Jones on Tell Me. Conga man Fernando Velez, Bosco Mann, and guitarist Joey Crispiano jumped off a recent Dap-Kings tour to fill out the line-up for a recent Sugarman Three session. Mikey Post, who by day is Daptone's full time retail man, packing and shipping boxes off to record stores, is also the drummer for Naomi and the Queens. To decipher a comprehensive tree of who's in what band and who played on what record would be near impossible at this point, but suffice it to say this is a true family of musicians.

That kind of camaraderie and collaboration is crucial to Daptone. It helps to create not just a specific aesthetic, but communicates the idea that Daptone is more than a mere business. They're a group of like-minded musicians who care not only for the quality of the music they produce, but for the people they produce it with. "We want to preserve this unified sound," Sugarman says. "We wanna do stuff our way. Having that family element is important to us." It's a rare bond - those people who helped build the house now help inhabit it, and are equally committed to making music that is pure, honest and soulful.

Beyond the artists, Daptone is staffed by adamant proponents of the sound and fierce protectors of their label mates. "What pulled me into the label and locked me in as a fan was the energy and showmanship of their live shows," says Nydia Ines Davila, a Daptone vice-president and soul DJ who has helped run the label for the past six years. "We have a family of skilled musicians with a whole lot of soul who have been working together and making honest music for a long time and it's what I think has carried us through more than any TV performance or high profile press coverage will." Most of the roster share the management of Alex Kadvan, who has been quietly in the thick of the story for most of the decade, handling the endless and essential details that keep this army of musicians on course. If you're looking for a sports metaphor, look no further than Daptone's Chief Tape Operator and Miami native, Wayne Gordon who compares his beloved Daptone to the Dolphins in their undefeated 1972 season, a comparison that may not give much insight into the company's strategy but illustrates the kind of passionate loyalty that abounds in the Bushwick house.

"For me a big part of the records is the idea of craftsmanship," says Roth, who has either personally produced or overseen production on nearly all of the label's releases. "It's like building a rocking chair - there's a difference between something you buy at IKEA, and something made by someone who has apprenticed and worked in their father's shop all their life and has an intimate understanding of their tools. That kind of hands-on craftsmanship - whether it's arranging strings or splicing tape, laying out type on a label, or getting a sound on your instrument and being able to blend with a section that you've played with for years - that's the stuff that makes a great record. Not fancy gear or computer tricks."

"I want people to know, when they buy a Daptone record, that it's gonna be something that makes them feel good," Sugarman says, "and have a certain feeling and a certain sincerity and a certain rawness you need to make good music. Roth continues Sugarman's thought, saying, "For the people that like the records, I want them to love the next record. I want people to know the records will be soulful and honest and raw. We were never saying 'Well, there's a market for this, so let's do it.' We make records that we want to hear, and if nobody buys them, we're still gonna make them." That enthusiasm, natural and unbridled, radiates from the speakers every time a needle hits Daptone wax.

This is Daptone's legacy: music made for love, not for market pressure or trend-hopping. But, by relentlessly operating outside a structure they saw as alternately absurd or corrupt, Roth and Sugarman have set a template for succeeding on one's own terms. "I hope people get inspiration from the spirit of it - the idea of doing stuff independently and doing it on your own way, and not falling into any of the prescribed rules and formulas," Roth says.

At the mark of a decade in business, Daptone Records has remained proudly independent: weathering financial hardships, industry pressures and fickle trends, and emerging stronger and more reliable than labels four times their size. To hear Roth tell it, the secret is simple: "We were able to stay rooted in this idea that people want to hear good music. And that's our business plan: We're gonna try to make really good records. Period."

Interview with Skerik (English version)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 12:51:00 +0200

Skerik
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - April 2012)

Skerik's discography is as easy to follow as an invisible tiger's trail in the melting snow... so do not even try. This untamable Seattle-born but ubiquitous saxophonist's output could be compared to John Zorn or Mike Patton's discography in that respect. Besides, he shares with the californian singer a common taste for noisy experiments and funny provocation. Skerik (aka Eric Walton, aka El Guzano, aka Nalgas Sin Carne) has been playing (sax, but also grand piano, vibes and guitar) and has featured on more than a hundred records in every genre from jazz to psychedelic pop, from doom metal to post punk, from avant-groove to New Orleans brass band. His bands and projects include Skerik's Bandalabra (with whom he's just released a fantastic Live At the Royal Room on The Royal Potato Family Records), Skerik's Syncopated Tainted Septet, Critters Buggin', Tuatara, Garage à Trois, Ponga, Crack Sabbath, Midnite Disturbers, The Dead Kenny G's (Gorelick is their brand new punk rock EP on The Royal Potato Family, and it's not really what you would call an antidote to headaches)... just to mention the bare minimum without delving into his myriad of cameos. In each of his performances, Skerik brings some unique energy spiced with an idiosyncratic sense of humour. He masters the art of putting effects on his sax (palying saxophonics in the great tradition of Rashaan Roland Kirk), allowing him to sound very loud, just like the heaviest and meanest distorted guitar or like a groovy and equally nasty keyboard. The man has become something of a cult figure in his native country, but has yet to be discovered in Europe - where he lived years ago, and where he'd love to perform. Skerik has been on Paris DJs' list of musicians to interview since we started doing this. So we are quite proud to catch up at last with the man while he's doing overdubs for his next record, a collaboration with drummer Adam Deitch and keys master John Medeski. This Skerik special would not be complete without a mix, so stay tuned for a podcasted introduction to be posted this Saturday 14th of April.

(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - April 2012)

01. Is Skerik a portemanteau made of 'Scary' and 'Erik'?
My given name was Serge Gainsbourg, my foster parents didn't like that name so they legally changed it to Skerik.

02. Sax is your main instrument, but you play also keyboards, and drums. Was there a moment you had to chose between various instruments?
I was raised in a windowless basement, and I was told what to do on a regular basis. Sax was the only instrument I was allowed to play until I was rescued later in life.

03.There seems to be two sides of Skerik. The first side is a traditional sax player with a 'classic' jazz sound (for instance the one we can hear on the Skerik Syncopated Septet 'Live at the the Triple Door'). The second one is a wild, free, devilish and experimental player (the one we can hear on Garage à Trois' last albums or The Dead Kenny G's). Do you agree with this black-and-white description terms?
It's important to confuse people and yourself as often as possible. Variety is the spice of life.

04. You've played on more than 100 records, you're involved in numerous projects. As the cliché says, you have many children… Do you still love them which an equal affection?
Yes! I don't get to revisit very often, but when something like Critters Buggin comes up, I feel very good, I'm really glad we had that opportunity. We'll be mixing a record of new material this spring.

05. Being in many projects means meeting new people all the time. So you're also a very social animal, aren't you?
Yes, I guess so, my dad is a 'headhunter' (gets people jobs) so it's in my blood. I like to collaborate with as many people as possible, they're my Sorbonne!!

06. What is punk or being punk today? What does it mean to you musically or politically speaking?
We're inspired by punk rock created by Dead Kennedy's, Minutemen, Mike Watt, Bad Brains, Sun City Girls etc., so we look for a powerful musical statement and an equally powerful social/political statement. I don't see it much today, comedians like Chris Rock, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert (who all owe the great Bill Hicks) have taken over the social comment aspect, so we get inspiration from them.

07. I wouldn't like to be you assistant or the person in charge of your schedule… where do find the energy to achieve all this? Is there a secret or particular way of life behind this?
If I don't write it down, I'm fucked. Pretty simple actually, just write it down on the calendar. Energy comes from survival, if I don't work, my daughter doesn't eat, and I like to work. But I'm not rich, every month is hand to mouth for sure!!

08. Let's talk about your contribution to saxophonics. With you, sax sound has turned to distorted guitars, noisy and groovy keyboards...
Necessity is the mother of invention, I needed to be loud when I was playing with certain rock bands, and effects helped me achieve that. So I studied effects as I would anything else, I learned a lot from some amazing people, engineers, etc. as for keyboards etc, sometimes I want to play a rhythmic part that doesn't steal the focus, and I can play chords etc. I want to sound like Keefus Ciancia and Bernie Worrell as well as Eddie Harris and Albert Ayler!!

09. Do you thing new sounds could still be invented on sax?
The acoustic possibilities have not been fully explored yet. Rahsaan Roland Kirk started a direction, now Colin Stetson is doing something else amazing with circular breathing, can't wait to hear what he does next.

10. You've lived in Europe (Paris, London…). What have you learned from this experience?
Well one of the biggest unintentional learnings was being able to see where I came from. I saw the USA with a whole different perspective. That taught me a lot. Then of course there are the new cultures you discover. I was very fortunate to work with many African musicians in Europe, I'm still learning from those experiences!!

11. In Europe you've also played with African musicians. Has this influenced your way of seeing/making music?
Very much so, I have a whole rhythmic vocabulary that I learned from those experiences, rhythm is limitless, and combining it with other ideas is what we do. I'm really trying to explore that in my new group BANDALABRA.

12. Tell us about Skerik's Bandalabra.
Bandalabra is all about rhythm, and specifically danceable or dance related rhythms. I am trying to build a vocabulary for the saxophone so that I can use it as a rhythm instrument as well as a melodic instrument. We're on tour right now as I write this.

13. Then the New Dead Kenny Gs, Gorelick, quite a suprising record and very different from the previous albums.
It's more raw, we wanted a more garage/punk sound, I play heavey guitar on a song, etc lots of vocals, it's crazy. They're songs that we play at our live show, so it's good to have them recorded.

14. Last summer you began to play with Adam Deitch and John Medeski. An album comes soon. What can we expect?
We didn't know what we wanted to do, then we stated playing in the studio and it just came, we call it dark wave. Haha. It's gonna be really trippy I think, but based in big beats. We start overdubs next week.

15. The final word?
Listen to John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, Dead Kennedy's, Mr. Bungle, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Messiaen, Grisey, Eyvind Kang.

Links :
Skerik : official | bandcamp | discogs | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | soundcloud | twitter | wikipedia | youtube
Skerik's Bandalabra (new record 'Live At The Royal Room' dropped marched 13 on Royal Potato Family records) : facebook | kickstarter | myspace | ragman | soundcloud
The Dead Kenny G's : official | facebook | myspace
Garage à Trois : official | archive | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | soundcloud | wikipedia

Mile Marker: Garage A Trois by StealThisTrack

Beast Crusher | Skerik's Bandalabra by Royal Potato Family

Charlie Don't Like It | Skerik's Bandalabra by Royal Potato Family

A Conversation with Céu

Djouls — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:10:00 +0200

Brazilian Diva Céu was in Paris last week for the very first gig in her Caravana Sereia Bloom Tour (her brand new album just released on Six Degrees Records/Urban Jungle). We caught the Lady at Théâtre Traversière for a filmed interview and a few exclusive live tracks. On stage the Brazilian Beauty delivers an hypnotic show with her unique style blending tropicalismo, psychedelia, samba, afrobeat, dub and reggae.
This exclusive 14-minutes video opens a new series of filmed conversations with film maker Fred Feuillet. So stay tuned, and expect great footage in the next months!

"A conversation with Céu"
Paris - March 2012
Video : Fred Feuillet - Full Power Prod | youtube.com/shantibabou
Interview : Nicolas Ragonneau - parisdjs.com
Sound Mix : Grant Phabao - grantphabao.com

Watch the video on youtube
More info on Céu on sixdegreesrecords.com

Interview with Joseph Woullard

Nicolas Ragonneau — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 07:03:00 +0100

Joseph Woullard (Black Joe Lewis, Hard Proof Afrobeat, Ocote Soul Sounds)
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - March 2012)

As SXSW 2012 begins, we've caught up with Austin talented sax and flute player Joseph Woullard. He plays in no less than 3 Austin bands (garage act Black Joe Lewis, afrobeat combo Hard Proof Afrobeat and afrolatin funksters Ocote Soul Sounds) and has a few gigs during the festival (check the links at the end of interview for details). He talks about sax playing, Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears, being in a texan afrobeat band, and at last he gives his own Austin tips.

Joseph Woullard (Black Joe Lewis, Hard Proof Afrobeat, Ocote Soul Sounds)
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - March 2012)

01. Tell me about your SXSW schedule.
I'm doing a few gigs with Hard Proof and Cilantro Boombox and a couple with Black Joe Lewis and Ocote Soul Sounds. Details are still fluid, but I'm looking forward to an ESL Records showcase with Hard Proof, Cilantro, and Ocote on 3/13. Hard Proof is participating in a NOLA showcase, and also partnering with Zenzile and bands from Angers for a "French invasion" day party. We will publish full schedules when the shows are all firm.

02.What are your Austin tips? Any places and clubs to recommand?
Some of my favorite Austin restaurants are Hoover's (soul food, hooverscooking.com), Mr. Natural (vegetarian and vegan Mexican food and pastries, mrnatural-austin.com), and Your Mom's Burger Bar (eatatyourmoms.com). All are on the East side of Austin, and close to where the action is.
In terms of clubs, I really like Sahara Lounge (1413 Webberville Rd) and Frank (407 Colorado St). Both clubs have great bands most nights of the week, even after SXSW has come and gone.

03. Where are you from ? When did you start playing music ?
I grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I began playing music in elementary school, but I was about twelve or so (in middle school) when I began playing the sax.

04. What did you listen to when you were a child ?
I mostly listened to what my parents listened to: Motown/Stax era soul and R&B, some contemporary blues, oldies, classic rock.

When I became a teenager, I mostly listened to stuff all other teens were into at the time: hip-hop, grunge rock, etc. But I also started seriously listening to jazz, primarily Charlie Parker, Coltrane, Miles. You know, the folks that many typically start with when they start getting into modern jazz.

05. Why did you chose to play saxophone especially ?
My father also plays saxophone and had a couple around the house, so it was initially a combination of emulation and convenience. I was really hooked after I started hearing more music featuring fantastic performances by saxophonists.

06. What kind of sax players influenced or influence you ?
In addition to the guys I mentioned earlier, Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, and Wayne Shorter have been very strong influences to me. I've also spent lots of time listening to Maceo Parker, King Curtis, and Eddie Harris. There are also a lot of current players that I really like too, too many to list. I'm always influenced by players that I get to work with or observe directly.

07. Tell us about your collaboration with Ocote Soul Sounds & Adrian Quesada.
I think that all the Ocote albums have been amazing, and I was a fan prior to meeting any of the musicians. Martin and Adrian create and perform the majority of the studio tracks, so my collaboration with thus far Ocote has been in live performance settings. The group version has really only coalesced in the last few years since Martin moved to Austin, and I've been fortunate to be involved in it's growth and evolution.

08. What about your second band, the Honeybears ?
The Hard Proof Horns (Hard Proof Afrobeat's horn section) are also the Honeybear Horns. Black Joe Lewis is a funky blues band, and it's certainly influenced by soul music, but I think we basically try to play rock and roll. It's not that weird when you really think about it, because most of the early rock and roll bands were based primarily on the blues and many featured horns.

09. You also play in Hard Proof Afrobeat.
Hard Proof developed out of a little jazz combo thing that I used to do on Sundays with Stephen Bidwell, Derek Phelps, and Michael Faircloth. It quickly grew to about 10-12 members at times, and is currently a 9-piece instrumental group. Although horn-driven Afrobeat is our primary influence, we also draw much inspiration from Ethiopian and other sub-Saharan musical styles.

KVRX Live: Lion by hardproof

10. Percussions play a major role in Hard Proof Afrobeat (compared to other Fela's modern disciples). What do you want to bring to afrobeat ?
I'd say that we want to create strong compositions and develop our own unique sound within the genre. Fela's imprint is very large and we are all big fans, but we do not wish to simply imitate him. Or any of our peers, for that matter.

11. What does afrobeat mean to you ?
To me, musically, it's about the groove. The way that guitars, horns, and percussion weave a quilt of poly-rhythms, and multiple melodies are often stacked on top of each other. All instruments are rhythm instruments. I think it's very symphonic music, but it is also very accessible and great for dancing.
But it's hard to adequately express what Afrobeat really means to me. When I first heard Fela, I was kind of overwhelmed by the intensity of his lyrics and music. Fela was a very complex and controversial person, but I think he expressed a lot of universal truths and was a musical genius. His passion for his people and culture gives the music energy that resonates far beyond the specifics of Nigeria.

12. From this side of the ocean, Austin Texas does not seem the best place in the USA to play soul and afrobeat music (compared to Chicago, NY or San Francisco). But maybe it's a cliché ?
It is true that the scene for these kinds of musics is more pronounced in places like NYC, SF, or Chicago, but I think Austin provides more opportunity to create and develop new musical projects in general. We can let things mature and develop organically here in a way that I don't think you typically can in those other cities, mainly because they are expensive and life moves very fast.
Besides, there is also a lot of cross-pollination between all these different cities. We are ultimately drawing from a relatively small pool of players worldwide as opposed to more mainstream genres, so you end up crossing paths with the same people. I believe that technology now enables us to essentially build global scenes, and people are able to seek out music they like wherever (or whenever) it comes from.

13. Can we expect new music from Black Joe Lewis and Harproof Afrobeat soon?
Yes! Hard Proof and Black Joe Lewis are both on course to record new tracks later this year. My electro-Latin pop collaboration (with DJ/multi-instrumentalist Felix Pacheco) is preparing its first album, and it's sounding great. Lots of great musicians from bands I've worked with have guest spots on the album. My horn section was fortunate to record on a new song by The Toadies, and with a great indie band The Preservation. I've also recorded some dub plates with McPullish and Don Chani (with the Hard Proof Horns), and I will soon record a few tracks with a great Latin/ska/pop band called La Guerrilla. I've been busy; I'm sure I'm forgetting a few.

14. You told me of a possible collaboration with Gato Loco.
It really could happen any time now! I just crashed with Gato Loco bandleader Clifton Hyde in Brooklyn recently, so we are actively making plans now. I might even join them for a tour or two later this year.

15. What do you do when you don't tour, practise or record ? Do you have hobbies ?
Family time pretty much fills all the space in between, but I do occasionally draw and paint, and we like spending time outdoors. I used to consider music and travel as my main hobbies, but that's my job now.

Links:
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears : official | discogs | facebook | myspace | twitter
Hard Proof Afrobeat : official | discogs | facebook | myspace | bandcamp | twitter
Ocote Soul Sounds : official | martin perna | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | twitter

Interview with Matthew Halsall and Nat Birchall (Gondwana Records)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 15:18:00 +0100

Matthew Halsall & Nat Birchall
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - March 2012)

Nat Birchall: sax. Matthew Halsall: trumpet. Two men from the Manchester’s area brought together by a sole passion for modal jazz and a constant quest for Beauty. A unique friendship that goes beyond age gap and the kind of story that only happens in art or music. Imagine this, Nat celebrates 30 years of playing the sax (a lot of reggae then jazz) while Matt isn’t even 30 and began trumpet at 6… Together (and each playing on the other’s records) they write one of the most brilliant pages of UK’s contemporary Jazz. Matt runs Gondwana Records, a label that welcomes Nat’s music and his own. Nat has just released his new album, Sacred Dimension, while Matthew’s last album (On The Go, 2011) has recently won best jazz album of the year at Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards 2012. We’ve interviewed the two friends separately but with common questions, and you will see how their visions and aesthetics converge. At last Matthew Halsall, who’s also a talented DJ and a true vinyl lover, has done an exclusive guest mix (download it here) featuring the partners in crime’s peaceful music.

Matthew Halsall & Nat Birchall
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - March 2012)

01. Gondwana brings us back to supposed origins of the world. What does the name evoke to you?
Matthew Halsall: I came across the name via my mother. She had a furniture shop called Gondwana, which imported furniture from all over the world. I really liked the name and its meaning so when the furniture shop closed I decided to use the name.
I also like the fact that Miles Davis did an album called Pangaea and one of the tracks titles is Gondwana, even though it’s not my favorite Miles period.
Nat Birchall: Well, Gondwana is Matthew's label of course and so it was his idea for the name. I think it's a great name because to me it has connotations of pre-history and foundations of the world that we know, so it has a resonance of something strong to build upon and something that has roots in the past. And, as we all know, we need these things to build our creations on. So it's a very appropriate name I think. As a word it's good too, it has a certain 'ring' to it that I like, and it's all about sound of course! Only time will tell if it breaks up into smaller continents though!

02. What's spiritual jazz according to you?
MH: To me spiritual jazz is soulful, honest music that brings together instruments, musicians and influences from all over the world. It often has a mystical eastern feel to it that’s quite magical, meditative and dreamy.
NB: This is a tough question! To me 'spiritual' as applied to music has several meanings. One is that the music has to have 'spirit', which is difficult to quantify of course. You can have 'spirited' playing which is energetic, but not necessarily having'spirit'. So it's a way of playing where you give yourself (your 'ego') up completely to the service of the music. When you play this way it's kind of like you yourself have no decision in what comes out of your instrument, the music is just coming through you from a higher source. What this 'higher source' is can be a matter of opinion, some say it is God, some say it is a spirit, some say it is your subconscious, etc etc. But it doesn't really matter what you think it is, you just have to let IT dictate what comes out. So to me,'spiritual' music is any type of music which is played this way.
There is of course a style of jazz, a genre, which is called 'spiritual jazz', and people have slightly different interpretations of that term (like 'jazz' itself!) but I don't see it having much to do with instrumentation or harmonic or melodic forms, although there are some of these elements that seem to be more prevalent in this genre.

03. Can you remember how you met and began playing music together?
MH: I remember asking my friend Bernard Moss if he knew of any saxophone players who where into the music of Coltrane and he recommended Nat, so I went to see him perform at Matt & Phreds Jazz Club in Manchester. I remember him playing a nice cover of Alice Coltrane’s Journey In Satchidananda, which is one of my favorite tunes of all time. After the show I introduced myself and asked him if he’d like to do some gigs with my band and he said yes, and it was that simple!
NB: Matt and myself had mutual friends and I had heard of Matt and his music from some of them but never heard it. I think he contacted me via Myspace and asked me to do a gig with him. He sent me his music and I really loved it right away. I was so happy that finally there was someone else, not living 1,000 miles away, who was into similar music to myself, I had always struggled to find people to play the kind of music the way I wanted to do it, but Matt had managed to do it! Plus, his whole set was 'modal' jazz. I always loved to play modal music but musicians, especially piano players and guitarists, like to play music with lots of chord changes so much that after maybe 2 modal tunes they are crying to play a 'standard' tune with chord changes in it! I turned up at the gig and we played and the 'rapport' was instant, our sounds worked very well together I thought, and his band was fantastic so I had a great time!

04. @Matt: Name a Nat Birchall quality you envy ; @ Nat: name a Matt Halsall quality you envy.
MH: Nat has a great knowledge and understanding of music. He’s been digging for records for over thirty years and has an amazing collection. He’s also very wise and has helped me on a number of important decisions over the years.
NB: Well I don't think 'envy' is the right word but I really admire Matt's ability to know exactly what he wants in his music and also to know how to achieve it.

05. @ Matt: Three adjectives to describe Nat' musical style ; @ Nat: Three adjectives to describe Matt's musical style.
MH: Spiritual, soulful and honest.
NB: Well I would say Matt's style is 'honest'. He really only plays what needs to be played, or says what needs to be said if you like, none of his notes are played just for the sake of playing them, everything has meaning.I would say it is also 'beautiful' Myself I believe that as 'creative artists' ( a very grand term but I can't think of another one at the moment...) we should strive to create beauty, anything else is negative I think. Of course our definition of what is beautiful can be different to different people, but to me Matt's music is really beautiful. And I would say that his sound and his playing is 'vocal' It 'speaks' to me. It has a real voice-like quality to it, which is a mark of true music I think.

06. What do you think you could improve in your playing?
MH: I’m always trying to improve my technique. I spend a lot of time working on my tone, fluency and range. My aim is to be able to play anything that comes into my head straight away.
There are so many things to improve in my playing! Where do I start? I'm always thinking about the actual sound (tone) that I get. NB: Sometimes I think it could be stronger, sometimes I think it could be more beautiful, have more edge, more body, more depth etc etc. I think my articulation (the way you start each note) could be better, and fluency in phrasing definitely could be better! So many things, I could go on and on. But everything can always be made to be better, so I try to make it all better little by little every day.

07. You live far from London sound and fury. Tell me how your surroundings and countryside influence the way you make music.
MH: Well I live ten minutes away from Manchester city centre and have the countryside not far from my doorstep. I live here because I have a lot of family and friends, plus I’ve spent many years building relationships with musicians and people in the industry. It only takes me 2.15hrs to get a train down to London, so I don’t really need to live there.
I’m not sure whether I’d make my music differently if I lived anywhere else. For me composing is a time to escape reality and all the stresses of life. It doesn’t really matter where I live as long as I have my trumpet and a piano to compose on.
NB: This is something that a few people have picked up on, in my case anyway. It's true I live in the hills with nice (although a little bleak sometimes maybe!) countryside around me. I'm from the countryside originally and I feel more at home here, I like nature in general and it gives me a sense of peace within myself to be near the hills especially. But I didn't think that manifested itself in my music until people started to mention it so maybe it does. It certainly helps me in a creative way that I live where I live, it makes my mind more clear so I can focus on the music more. People say they can hear the hills or see the landscape in my music and maybe they can, and I always imagine places and things when I listen to music that moves me so it's a good thing I think. But then maybe it's just suggestive because they know I live where I live and they make that association, I don't know really.

08. Your music is quiet, peaceful, timeless, anyway the antithesis of our times of western speed, greediness and frenzy. So maybe you are the real anarchists and Manchester subversive outsiders of today?
MH: As I said in my previous answer, composing helps me to take my mind off the crazy things that are going on in the world. I can create all types of different moods and atmospheres to have fun in. I’ve also studied various meditations over the years, which have helped me to stay chilled.
NB: Like I mentioned earlier, I just try to make beautiful sounds. I have learned that to be myself in music I have to play what I really want to play, in a way that I really want to do it. I used to try to play in a 'modern' way, but what I was doing was just trying to play like some other people do. Now I just try to let the music come out in its own way, even when composing, so it's not a conscious choice to play a certain note, or a certain sound or rhythm, it has its own life. So I'm not making music for any other reason than the pursuit of beauty. How it is perceived in relation to everything else depends on the observer's (listener's) perspective. The main thing in music is the intention, the reason why we play at all and the reason why we play a certain way, or a certain note. The intention colours the note and reveals everything. Some people ( especially some critics! ) miss this entirely I think and focus only on the outward appearance of the music, the instrumentation etc, which is not important at all. So if the music seems 'against the grain' of everything else that is going on then so be it, but it's not intentionally made to be that way.

09. Some of your tracks are really crafted like poetry with verse, recurring sounds and structure, but also like a story. Do you agree if I say there's a narrative dimension in the music you make?
MH: Yeah each track is like a musical journey. My compositions tend to start with a main theme in which the musicians can all lock together, then I like to give soloists the chance to express their own thoughts and feelings within the music.
NB: I think all good music tells a story, it doesn't have to have words of course, but it should hopefully sound like singing or storytelling. And like I mentioned before, music can be evocative of things, places and feelings etc. So I would hope that the music does sound that way yes!

10. Are chamber music and/or medieval music an inspiration for you?
MH: I’ve listened to quite a lot of classical music over the years including chamber music and I guess it has had an affect on my music. I compose nearly all my music on my piano and I’ve definitely been influenced by the solo piano work of Erik Satie and Ravel over the years. NB: I don't really know about chamber music but I do like medieval music, I can't say that it has really influenced me because I haven't really listened to that much, but what I have heard I really like, and there are some reggae tunes which have horn lines that are a little like medieval music to my ears!

11. @ Matt: Fav Nat track ; @ Nat: Fav Matt track
MH: ‘Higher Regions’, I love the combination of kora, harp, soprano sax, piano, double bass, drums and percussion.
NB: My favourite Matt track?! There are some things that Matt has recorded that he hasn't released yet, maybe several albums worth, but there are a couple of those songs that I really love, my favourite might be one called 'Loving Kindness' but he has many such songs, and I don't even think he has released the best ones yet!

12. There's something happening in British jazz with new blood (Greg Foat Group, Portico Quartet Hackney Colliery Band, Neil Cowley Trio, etc.) these days. Do you think it's the beginning of a golden age?
MH: I hope so, I’m always amazed by the amount of positive vibes Gondwana Records receives. People seem to be really into British jazz and the more they support it the more it can grow.
NB: I really don't know about a golden age, these are things that sometimes get ascribed to events long after they have happened. I know about the people you mention but I only actually know Greg personally and have played with him a couple of times. But I guess time will tell whether there is something bigger happening!

13. Tell us about your record collection and your fav vinyls.
MH: I’ve always been fascinated by vinyl. My parents had a great collection of 60’s folk, blues, rock ‘n’ roll and soul. I also remember them having a pretty far out record player designed by Bang and Olufsen, which looked like something from a space ship. I remember sifting through all the records and looking at the gatefold sleeves of the vinyl’s and reading the liner notes. I think that’s where my addiction started. As I got older I began digging deeper for new and interesting music. I listened to a lot of the DJ’s on the radio. Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide show on BBC Radio 1 has had a massive impact on me over the years and it’s still is one of my favorite shows. He’s introduced me to all types of artists (Yusef Lateef, The Cinematic Orchestra, Matthew Herbert, A Tribe Called Quest, Art Blakey, Fela Kuti and so many more). I used to record his radio shows onto cassette tapes and then go out and buy all my favorites from each show on vinyl. Another DJ that has been a big influence on me is Mr Scruff. I love going to his Keep It Unreal nights in Manchester, in fact that’s where I first heard the Pharoah Sanders track ‘You’ve Got To Have Freedom’ and Fela Kuti’s ‘Water No Get Enemy’.
My record collection continues to expand all the time. I’d say it mainly consists of jazz, soul, funk, afrobeat, reggae, dub, hip hop and electronic music.
NB: My record collection?! Where do I start?? Well, I have been buying records since 1972, so 40 years!! I started really buying regularly when I got into reggae later in that year. I used to buy records every week from then until about 1978 or so. Unfortunately I sold a lot of my big reggae collection about 25 years ago when I wanted to buy a soprano saxophone so I could play with the band of a Turkish drummer. I have since bought lots more though and still do quite regularly. But I wish I still had some of those records man! I got into jazz in 1979 when I started playing the saxophone. I'd already bought a couple of John Coltrane records ( 'Blue Train' was the very first jazz LP I bought ) and a couple of Charlie Parker records, but when I started to play the saxophone I really went out to find as much jazz as I could, and back then, before the internet, sometimes the only way to hear a record was to buy it! I used to go to Paris quite a lot in the 1980's and always brought back a lot of records! I used to go to shops in St. Michel, like Rive Gauche Musique, and Crocodisc and others I can't remember now! Some of my favourite records are the reggae records I still have from the 70's, LPs like Keith Hudson 'Flesh Of My Skin' and Count Ossie 'Grounation' and 'Tales Of Mozambique' also Cedric Brooks 'United Africa' which might be my favourite LP sleeve! And 45s like 'Black Up' by Karl Bryan and Count Ossie and 'Black Is Black' and 'Mun-Dun-Gu' by Im and David. Jazz-wise, John Coltrane's 'Afro Blue Impressions' is an LP that I have played to death over the years, it's not a rare record but it has the best, by a long way, version of 'My Favourite Things' on it, truly incredible music. Clifford Jordan's LP 'Glass Bead Games' is also one that I have played over and over and never got tired of. The very first jazz gig I did, we played 'Biskit' from that LP as the first tune so it has a special meaning for me! And 2 LPs that feature my favourite tenor player after John Coltrane, John Gilmore, one is 'Turkish Woman At The Bath' by Pete LaRoca, and the other is 'From In To Out' by Jamaican trumpet man, Dizzy Reece ( recorded live in Paris!! )

14. What job would you do in another life?
MH: The same one I do now, I love it!!
NB: Well really this is my 'other life'! Or put another way, in my other life, which I had already, I was a tree surgeon mostly! That was a long time ago, and I never thought that I would one day play the music that I loved to listen to so much. Even though it's what I wanted to do I wasn't brought up to believe that it could be possible to do what you really want to do, but learning all about the music has shown me that anything is possible in life really.

15. In which animal would you be reincarnated?
MH: It would have to be a peaceful and possibly lazy vegetarian animal, maybe a Koala or Sloth, but failing that I’d be a cat.
NB: You really have some different questions! I guess I would be a cat, but a wild cat, living in the hills! I don't like to rush around, just take my time and quietly get things done according to my own timetable!

16. What comes next?
MH: Lots of gigs across the UK and Europe and I’m currently working on a new album, which I plan to release later in the year. I’m also expanding Gondwana Records and I’m in the process of signing two new artists to the label.
NB: Who knows what comes next? I am just trying to make the music better, make my playing better, make my sound better. I'd like to release a new LP/CD every year until I leave the planet. Hopefully that will spur me on to keep making better records and to leave something for my children when I join the Celestial Arkestra!

Discography at Gondwana Records :
Matthew Halsall : On The Go (2011) - Colour Yes (2009) - Sending My Love (2008)
Nat Birchall : Sacred Dimension (2011) - Guiding Spirit (2010) - Akhenaten (2009)

Links:
Matthew Halsall : official | discogs | facebook | myspace | soundcloud | twitter
Nat Birchall : official | discogs | facebook | myspace | soundcloud | twitter
Gondwana Records : official | discogs | facebook | flickr | myspace | parisdjs | twitter | youtube

Higher Regions (unreleased outtake) by nat birchall

A Prayer For... by nat birchall

Interview with Mr. Chop (Coz Littler, english version)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:38:00 +0100

Mr. Chop
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - March 2012)

Those of you who have been following Paris DJs for years will know about Mr. Chop (aka Coz Littler) for sure. We've been supporting his music since the early days, from the outstanding EP 'Sounds From The Cave' (Jazz & Milk, 2008) up to his recent masterwork 'Switched On' (Now Again, 2011), one of our ten records of 2011 - and believe us, it's still a heavy 2012 rotation. As the man says in his own words, he "provides a blend of futuristic cinematic synthetizer prog, psychedelic funk, jazz and musique concrète". In his studio and vintage instruments sanctuary near Liverpool, the multi-instrumentalist patiently and endlessly sculpts incredible cosmic and liquid sounds, never-heard-before beats and breaks. The alchemist Mr. Chop belongs to a prestigious ancestry stretching from Raymond Scott, Dick Hyman, Pierre Henry, Gershon Kingsley and Jean-Jacques Perrey to Bernie Worrell, Money Mark, DJ Shadow, and other groovy noise eccentrics. Whenever he covers Can, Jimmy Smith, a reggae tune (Greedy G from Switched On) or Pete Rock (For Pete's Sake), Coz Littler adds a touch of wizardry to the originals and turns the standards into genuine Choppy tracks - these melt invisibly into his own compositions. We've caught up with the man as he was working intensively on his upcoming album, due later this year on Now-Again Records. He talks vinyl/analog obsessions, vintage gear, Malcolm Catto, moog demigods, and his next album. In for a penny, in for a pound, we have prepared a killa mix (online on Saturday, 3 March) presenting Mr. Chop's music with two brand new tracks he's exclusively written for Paris DJs' sake!

Mr. Chop
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - March 2012)

01. We do not know much about you. Would you mind presenting yourself a little bit?
My name is Coz Littler and I record under the Mr.Chop pseudonym for Now-Again Records. I own and run Ape Studios a vintage recording studio in the North West of England outside of Liverpool. I'm an analogue/vinyl obsessive mixed into one vessel, others will know that's not a healthy mix of obsessions. I love strange esoteric records, library records, freaky soundtracks, the more psychedelic the better. Records that inspire me most are La Planete Sauvage by Alain Goraguer, Jean-Claude Vannier - L'enfant Assassin Des Mouches, most Can/Kraftwerk and The Velvet Underground. Old radios, tape delays and talking computers make me happy!

02. What was your musical education?
I spent a year at school going through the Music theory grades playing guitar but I found that not to be very inspiring. My real musical knowledge has come via a few avenues, my Dad used to play me all sorts of stuff when I was young, everything from The Beatles, Motown, Stax, Northern Soul, lots of psychedelic stuff, early Floyd, Velvet Underground, Prog/Classic Rock, Classical etc. That was a real good grounding for me as a youngster and kept me open-minded to all genres, cultures. When I first heard hip-hop that changed a lot of things for me because I needed to know where all these samples were coming from, that's when I got into record collecting. I've spent best part of my life absorbing everything from entry level James Brown & JB's raw funk to the more obscure, esoteric soundtrack and library music lps then onto the stranger things like say The Feedback Band etc. It's been a great journey and still one that continues day to day. I'm self taught multi-instrumentalist, but I'm not a fantastic musician or play any particular instrument very well but I seem to be able to get sounds out of most things I put my hands on. But saying all this you probably wouldn't want me in your band...

03. Where does this Mr. Chop pseudonym come from?
The name Mr.Chop was sort of bestowed by a friend after he dropped in on a session on saw me working on a track with a hilarious amount of edits/chops on ProTools. Chop does sum up a large chunk of how I make music so it pretty much has stuck from there after really...

04. A few weeks before the interview you told me that 'Switched On' was quite tough to realize. Why?
Well the original tracks we chose for the record are just classics and sound amazing, its was just very hard trying to do these great records some justice. I'm not even sure we did, but you guys liked it at least... it was fun to do and I think I could make a better one if I ever attempted something like this again.

05. What kind of sound and textures were you looking for on 'Switched On'?
The concept was that we were a band from 1970's, like when all these Moog records where first being produced, only we'd had a glimpse of the future and travelled back in time with a little knowledge of the future of music evolution. With that in mind we recorded everything with equipment from that era, lots of old vintage equipment, analogue tape machines etc the kinda stuff that would have been used to make records from the 60's-70's.We only cheated by using Pro Tools for our edits and and some drum pads that we bought from Maplin's Geeky electronic shop hooked onto Malcolm's drums to trigger a modular synth. Overall I was just going for a very in-your-face organic record with lots of different analogue synthesisers and great heavy drum-breaks.

06. Does the title 'Switched On refer to the great albums of Walter/Wendy Carlos?
It's a tip of the hat to all the synth records from that era, tracks I love are Dick Hyman's 'Give it up Turn It Loose' and Gershon Kingsley's 'Hey Hey' etc., everyone was doing some kind of novelty record to demonstrate the Moog synthesisers capabilities, most of the ones I've stumbled across aren't really something I'd listen to much, but theres a few diamonds in amidst all the usual Moog-does-classical stuff.

07. Moog is a very important instrument in your music. Tell me why it's so special to you.
Not just the Moog but most analogue synths from that same era are a obsession of mine. The world of modular and analogue synthesisers are fascinating to me, not just sonically but the realms of possibilities you can explore are very deep.

08. Who are the Moog artists of your own pantheon?
I have real admiration for the likes of Raymond Scott, The BBC Radiophonic workshop and the Musique Concrète guys for the real hands on approach they used to make electronic records before the invention of the modern synthesiser as we know it. My electronic heros are Kraftwerk, Popol Vuh, Klaus Schulze, Pierre Henry, Giorgio Moroder, Brian Eno and Delia Derbyshire, there are many many more but my mind is a blank right now... I love what Francois De Roubaix, Piero Umiliani did with the EMS VCS3.

09. You are very close to The Heliocentrics. Can we imagine one day a Mr. CHOP / The Heliocentrics' project on the same record?
Possibly a collaboration, but we work in quite different ways. I tend to work by myself and produce/sculpt the sound as I go along where as those guys are really strong on performances and an overall band production approach. I could imagine doing something with parts they have already recorded in the Chop lab and have some fun. Malcolm Catto and myself have talked about doing a project together, when he came up to play some drums for the new Chop record we sorta planted a seed with each other. That would be something I'd love to see grow...

10. Tell me about your Ape studio and your vintage instruments collection.
Ape Studios is my lab where I conceive all the Chop records, it was once a commercial setup catering to the more vintage minded out there, but now I pretty much use soley for recording my own projects and for bands who approach me because they like what I do.
I favour old tape machines like Ampex and Studers to record on but I prefer the flexibility of editing with digital. I use big old plate reverbs, tape delays and have a fondness of analogue synthesizers. The EMS VCS3 is my goto synth, this was built in Putney London and is used on too many great records to mention. Everything is recorded live via a big old Neumann and Helios mixing board from the late 60's with vintage microphones. Instruments wise we have lots of old drums, Ludwig and Slingerland springs to mind, keyboards consist of Hammond organ, Mellotron, Minimoog, Solina, Clavinet and a Digisound modular synth. The usual outboard an guitar efx plus a few drum machines...

11. What are the records made at Ape Studio you would be particularly proud of?
The current Chop record I'm working on is the one I'm most proudest so far without a doubt. I can't really single out any one project from the past as they all have fond memories in one shape or form, but if I had to pick one working with Phill Brown was a great moment, he's the man responsible engineering the likes of Sly Stone, Harry Nillson, Led Zep, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Brian Eno, Pink Floyd etc...

12. What about your upcoming projects?
Upcoming Chop projects - Well I'm finishing up the new Chop record for Now-Again and thats about the only thing I can concentrate on right now, it's the most exciting and hardest record I've ever made. It should hopefully will be out before the Mayan calendar runs out…

13. You remind me of another Jazzman/Now-Again artist, Miles Newbold of The Natural Yogurt Band. Like you, he owns a studio loaded with instruments and is an analog addict. Like you he's a multi-instrumentalist doing a music between Library, Jazz and instrumental hip-hop. Like you he's quite discreet.
I know of The Natural Yogurt Band, Egon sent be some of their music, its great. Although I don't know Miles personally, we both seem to have quite a few parallels in life. Maybe we should meet up...

Tasty slices from Mr. Chop
In addition to the interview, we've asked Coz Littler to comment briefly some tracks he loves, and some his own tunes.

Gershon Kingsley - Hey Hey (From 'Music to Moog', 1969).
This is just fantastic. I brought this of Jazzman Gerald about 12 years ago for probably too much money. How much Moog Modular can you cram into 2 minutes, quite a lot apparently. Thanks Gershon, you are the man..... Great drum break intro, drones and superhero sword bending breakdowns!!!!! Mega Moog modular-tastic.

Issac Hayes - Breakthrough (From truck Turner Soundtrack, 1974).
God damn what can you say???? Fuzz guitars, super tight drumming, funky ass Fender Rhodes, mega tight production and that guitar solo. Yikes! where's my woman????

Mr.Chop - Caveman (From Sounds From the Cave, 2008).
Robots and Cavemen... I should go back and make another record like this, it was a good fun time when conceived...

Mr.Chop - Greedy G (From 'Switched On', 2011).
The notorious monster from the 'Switched On LP'. I quite like this number, sounds nice in the background while I drink this cup of tea in front of me. What? I am English for Pete's sake!

Mr.Chop - Mecca and the soul brother (From 'For Pete's Sake', 2009).
Hmmmmm! Sometimes you look back in life and realise you could have done a much better job, this is one of those moments...

MRR-ADM - Untitled One.
Possibly the heaviest drums ever? Shall we all have a street fight? I'll settle for a good old fashioned arm wrestle if that's ok.

The Beastie Boys - Off The Grid (From 'The Mix-Up', 2007).
I love The Beasties. I'm much more a fan of the earlier 'The In Sound From Way Out', it's got a bit more lofi quality that makes my ears pop up, but this is still really cool and has some great stand out tracks, plus it's always good When Money Mark pops his head up behind the keys...

Broadcast - Pendulum (from 'Haha Sound', 2003).
Amazing track, I love this band, the real deal these guys, no-one gets anywhere near this. Such a tragedy you are well missed Trish X.

Links:
Mr Chop : apestudios | discogs | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | twitter
Now-Again : official | discogs | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | twitter | youtube

Interview with Adam Scrimshire (english version)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:45:00 +0100

Adam Scrimshire
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - February 2012)

Maybe you're not familiar with the name of Scrimshire. No, it's not the name of a hidden british county (even if it could have been), but a new and young talented multi-instrumentalist from Rugby, England. Adam Scrimshire released a first and advisable record in 2009, Along Came The Devil One Night (Wah Wah 45s). A cliché says that a second album is dicey, but Scrimshire has transformed this so-called trap in a superb achievement with The Hollow. We can understand, at a glance to the gorgeous art cover and perfect typography, that he is a man of great taste, a craftsman who loves working detail in every aspect. The record starts with A Promise Is All It Was, a virtual one-man-band track where Scrimshire plays and sings every single note, and it ends without him: on the eponymous and final track, he's vanished and leaved harpist Rachael Gladwin (Matt Halsall and Nat Birchall's longtime collaborator) alone. She draws indeed a moving epilogue and makes us think that maybe The Hollow is a metaphor of disappearance and vanishing souvenir itself. This is one of the surprises of a subtile and mutiple record that welcomes folk, soul, spiritual jazz, afrobeat, malian splinters and fine electronica in one single flow, with a predilection for the female voices (Heidi Vogel and her Nina Simonesque tone, the warm gospel of Stac...). Fans of The Cinematic Orchestra, Nostalgia 77 or José James will love the exquisite fusion delicacy of The Hollow for sure. Adam tells us how he imagined it and, as one of the Wah Wah 45s' label owners, evokes the label's latest news and the music industry.

Adam Scrimshire
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - February 2012)

01. You've just published 'The Hollow' a highly peaceful record with a fantastic cast of singers and musicians. What was the idea behind the album?
Early on I wanted to make something less polished than “Along came the Devil”. I knew I wanted it to be darker and more introverted and I wanted to make music that was more like what I made when I first started making music. Which was a lot more electronic, a lot more cinematic.
I also knew I wanted it to be in some ways simpler. Less solos, a little less jazz, more soul and groove based music with distinctive elements. So I got a drum kit, borrowed a bass guitar, got some more microphones and began recording an album that would be entirely home made and, mostly, played by me.
It’s a dedication really to my childhood, musical influences of that time and to the basement of my current home - my studio - as I will be leaving this place this year. Very sentimental. Haha!

Scrimshire - The Hollow by WahWah45s

02. You write in the liner's note that this record is 'a trip back in time' for you, 'closer to the music you started making when growing up'. Isn't it something strange to say this for a man as young as you are?
Haha! I wanted to be a musician when I was 15 years old - 18 years later I’m finally achieving that dream. It feels like a lifetime ago that I started putting sequences together on an Amiga in my bedroom, 10s of ideas every week.

03. Speaking of this, what was the music you were listening as a teen?
Most prominently probably Herbie Hancock, Jamiroquai, Genesis, Phil Collins, Galliano, Portishead, Bjork, Stevie Wonder, Isaac Hayes, Burt Bacharach and Paul Weller.

04. The way you mixed the album suggests it has to be listened to in full in one time.
If you don’t mind! I kept it a reasonable length to make that easier for you too. I still like the idea of an album, and the album as an experience. Also by the end I was telling the mastering engineer “I just want it - bang, bang, bang, bang, over - no hanging about”. Stevie always put his tracks really close together and I like that no messing approach too.

05. Strangely, all the musicians on the album are not credited. For instance, who's playing with you on "A promise is all it was"?
No one. That’s me on drums, guitar, piano, bass, vocals and percussion. All played and recorded live except for the Mellotron strings which are a synthesiser.
There are only a few guest players on the album, by and large I played and recorded it myself. Where people have joined me they are credited. Maybe I should have mentioned it but I didn’t want to come across as a show off. It’s just how I like to work.

06. The Hollow presents many colors and textures, although it's compact and homogenic. It reminds me of a score with black and white or a calligraphy with downstrokes and upstrokes...
Thank you, I think that’s a really lovely way to put it. I try to establish at some point not too far into the project how it should sound as a whole, but as long as the overall vision is strong I think you can do some really diverse things. And sometimes you just have to breathe deep and be brave. Like a five minute piece for harp. It felt like the right thing to do.

07. It seems there's a kind of renaissance of British jazz these days, with young and very promising artists. With you, we could drop the names of Matt Halsall, Nat Birchall, Greg Foat, The Portico Quartet, Ben Lamdin, Rachael Gladwin, Richard Spaven...
I would feel incredibly honoured to be mentioned alongside those people. They are real heroes of the British Jazz scene. In particular I hold Matthew Halsall’s work as some of the finest jazz of the last 50 years. Delicate but with energy, respectful but with it’s own originality. I feel out of my depth among these names. Having said that - they are an incredibly lovely bunch of people and I’m very proud to have worked with some of them.

08. What are you favorite contemporary drummers?
Hmmmm? I was really lucky a couple of years ago to play a number of live shows with an Italian drummer called Francesco Mendolia, he plays with Incognito amongst many others and I have to say he is another level and a total joy to play alongside. I’m working with an amazing French drummer right now for the live show called Benji Bouton. I think it would be foolish not to mention Chris Dave though. He’s invented something new with the instrument.

09. Let's talk about the Wah WAh 45s label. What's your job at the label?
I’m one of three owners, a director, a bit of everything. Day to day, Dom Servini and I run the show with some amazing young guys who have recently come on board. We are DJs, A&R, Promoter, Agent, Marketing and everything in between. My skills are specifically in the data and marketing and online side of things. Dom is an excellent promoter and event organiser to name just a couple of his talents.

10. What's the label's philosophy?
Songwriting is king. Sounds come and go but great songwriting lasts forever. Live music is an essential part of music - we put on anything up to 3 live shows a month in London and really love live music. We provide the support, love and attention that our artists need to grow, find the people who love their music and then nurture long lasting relationships with them.

11. I can see most of the physical albums' retail price are quite low (from 6 to 10£ ; around 11 euros in continental Europe). As the income from digital sales is growing, do you think physical albums are too expensive and what should be the ideal price according to you?
We think £8-£10 for a CD album is more than enough. We would rather our artists were reaching a wider audience than getting a higher average yield on every CD. Although we of course try to strike a healthy balance between the two.

12. Do you think this low-price strategy should have been set by labels 10 years ago and do you think it could have changed the situation?
I think there were a lot of mistakes made by the majors over the last 20 years and to be honest that doesn’t seem to be changing any time soon either. Though to be honest, short of actually beating Napster to market with a similar product I don’t think they could have changed the current situation. Someone was always going to make music free at some point. Since the birth of recordable media it was on the cards. Adapt and change.

13. Do you think there's a future for physical albums on CD (wax is another story I think)?
The CD is on the way out. Wax will keep making a come back and other more elegant forms of physical delivery of music (clothes, art prints, posters etc.) will probably be the thing. Once all the highstreet music shops (the CD variety - HMV etc.) have gone, there seems to be less and less reason to deliver the music in an easily stackable uniform manner like CD. Cloud storage is gaining a surprisingly quick foothold.

14. I saw you your advent calendar at Xmas and also the interactive artwork of The Hollow online. You seem to be very creative both on artistic and promo sides.
People have different ways of engaging in things, we need to reach out to everyone so I’m trying to do that. And I believe that creativity needs to be in every part of what we do the music and the business - it keeps your head fresh. For me there is a lot of stimulus that makes the album and I’m quite keen to share it - the places, the images I see in my head when I’m making the music. Plus I’m a geek, so if I see something like ThingLink (the tool we used for both things you mention) then I want to work out how to do something with it.

15. Benedic Lamdin is involved in many projects of the label.
Ben records at a fantastic studio in West London called Fishmarket - it’s a treasure trove. So when we have projects that need recording in a studio we go there and we always ask Ben if he will run the session. We recorded Stac there and we did Hackney Colliery Band. I recorded my track with HCB during their album sessions hence why Ben is on this album too.

16. What can we expect from Wah Wah 45s in 2012?
Stunning new albums from Part-Time Heroes and Resonators, an amazing new artist named Bev Lee Harling. New music from Stac and Colman Brothers towards the end of the year, a couple of announcements about new artists on the label, festivals, live shows and videos. A busy year that will hopefully involve a few of us coming over to play in France too.

17. Any young artist to recommend?
Hard to pick just one.
If you haven’t listened to Tanya Auclair yet your life is about to get a whole lot better. Look out for Paper Tiger, they have an amazing live show and some great music coming. And Laura J Martin - definitely worth looking up.

Links:
Scrimshire: official | bandcamp | discogs | facebook | parisdjs | soundcloud | twitter | vimeo | youtube
Wah Wah 45s: official | bandcamp | discogs | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | soundcloud | twitter | youtube

Scrimshire - Home feat. Faye Houston (Single) by WahWah45s

Interview with Miles Newbold / The Natural Yogurt Band (english version)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:11:00 +0100

Miles Newbold / The Natural Yogurt Band
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - May 2011)

Everything began three years ago at the Music Library down to my house. There I met Gerald André, The Norvins’ drummer. “Hey Nicolas, you should listen to this, man. It’s very good and I think it’s really your stuff” he said, picking a CD from a shelf. On the sleeve were two men dressed like Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson on a Victorian-like black and white photo. The name of the artist was The Natural Yogurt Band, the album was called Away with Melancholy and it was filed in the acid-jazz section.

I went back home with this find in hand and sat to listen to the record. I was immediately mesmerized by this weird music. Though it was hard to describe, it reminded me at first of the instrumental Beastie Boys albums for the strange grooves, of Perrey & Kingsley for the fun, and of some obscure TV or movies scores I loved in my childhood (like François de Roubaix’ Chapi Chapo). There was nothing regarding the musicians on the record itself. I remember that I tried to get some more information on this band and found almost nothing. The only thing I discovered was the fact that the band was actually a Nottingham-based duo formed by the former Little Barrie drummer Wayne Fullwood (playing also bass) and Miles Newbold playing keyboards, flutes, vibes, kalimba and the other instruments. Away with Melancholy has been a heavy rotation for me since, and a real cult album. I was steadily checking news from the band, but except the re-release of the album with a few extra tunes on the cool Now-Again label, nothing really leaked.

Then last February a follow-up came finally (Tuck In With…), as strange and good as the first album was. I had the idea of doing an interview of Miles or Wayne either a long-time ago. I just needed the occasion. So I sent a mail to Now-Again with my request and I was answered to ask Gerald Short at Jazzman Records. I wrote a few messages to Gerald and got no answer. I went back in vain to Now-Again. So there will be no interview… I lost faith and I began to doubt about the whole thing. Was The Natural Yogurt Band some kind of hoax cooked by Jazzman, with the help of drummer Malcolm Catto and DJ Format (both loved the album and their quotes about the band were on a few sites)? The kind of funny hoax John Lurie has done with Marvin Pontiac, for instance… Why should I succeed where the others have failed ? But like in Edgar Poe’s Purloined Letter, the key was lying in front of me. I noticed that both NYB’s albums were recorded in a studio in Nottingham called The Chicken Shack, so I sent one last and desperate message to the studio. A few days after I got a message saying : “Hi, this is Miles speaking, may I help you ?”… So here we are now, with one of the very few interviews Miles has ever allowed, and a groovy mix he cooked exclusively for Paris DJs, downloadable here.

Miles Newbold / The Natural Yogurt Band
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - May 2011)

01. We know little about you except your music. Can you present yourself and Wayne ?
My name is Miles Newbold, I am the owner of my studio «the chicken shack», in Nottingham. Bands rehearse and record there, and I also teach piano and hammond organ. I have been into music ever since I can remember. To me making music is as exciting as recording it, so being in the studio is my favourite environment.
When I was growing up,the house was always full of music, from folk to jazz and all things in between and beyond. My collection of vinyl comprises of stride to gospel, library and jazz through to early hip hop.

02. How did you meet Wayne?
I met Wayne when we both played in Little Barrie. Although we cannot remember each other, (probably all the booze) !! then I saw him a couple of years later, and I said, "fancy making some music??" and he said "yeah, why not". So we got in my studio and had a giggle and made the first album for a bit of fun.
Perhaps at this point I should say that the track listings on the "Away with Melancholy" album are incorrect!!! I dont know how this happened, so the names do not correspond with the music. If you go to my studio website (thechickenshackstudio.com) I will put all the correct track listings on there.

03. Did you have a precise idea of the kind of music you wanted to make when you began the NYB?
No,we didnt. I am more into the jazz and library side of things, where as Wayne is more of a soul guy. Most of the NYB stuff was made up there and then,some had more of a structure, but alot of it was just on the fly, you know just improvising, which is my kind of thing really. We both like a funky beat, so that was sometimes a good starting point! ha! but the spirit of improvisation and of freedom was also important.

04. Where does this strange band name (the NYB) come from?
The name is just a name that I plucked out of the air, it means nothing, perhaps sub consciously I called it something fun and stupid on purpose! ha!!

05. What kind of music did you listen to when you were a teen?
When I was growing up there was alot of jazz in the house, then I got into early hip hop, by listening to my brothers records. Things like Grandmaster Flash, and the electro compilations. Then I started buying records with just breaks on, so I could rap or beatbox or put something over the top, and funnily enough a lot of the records I have now are the originals of what I used to listen too. So it’s gone full circle in a way.

06. What’s your favorite instrument?
That’s a though one, piano or Hammond organ, hold on maybe moog... ermmm no sipsi or flute.It all depends on what I want to play, for example there are some things that sound great on piano. 'Stride piano' for example sounds great on piano, but try playing it on the Hammond organ and it just sounds uncomfortable... there's a challenge for me!!

07. You play kalimba on the records, which is quite uncommon.
Not if you live in parts of Africa, yes the thumb piano, I have a few of them all different.

08. Tell me about the keyboards you use on the records.
At the "Chicken Shack" I have too many keyboards to mention! All the usual suspects, and also a large aray of vintage recording equipment. I think I have probably had about ten Hammond organs by now!! I have had most of my equipment and instruments for years and years now.

09. You and Wayne are playing a lot of instruments on the two records. Do you plan to play live or tour a bit ? If so, in which kind of formation?
Yes, Wayne plays drums and electric bass. I play the other instrumentation, and record it. This puts us in a difficult position for playing live!!! as we cannot play ten instruments at the same time!! ha ha !! we never had any intention of playing live it was just studio fun, it seems to have been well received. NYB was asked to play the world wide music awards last year, which Gilles Peterson invited us too. I did think about putting a band together for it, but decided to leave it as it was and keep what "mystique" we may have had intact.
It is the same with radio interviews, we did the Jonny Trunk one at Resonance FM, and loved it!! Jonny is a really nice guy, and most interesting too. He made us feel very welcome.
I don’t get the time to do interviews generally speaking, because of work etc, and also going back to keeping what little « mystique » we may have, by not exploiting ourselves too much. It’s funny because I don’t see what all the fuss is about, as I have always done music like this and have reels of tape in the vaults gathering dust.
I only got a computer a year ago and don’t go on the internet very much, perhaps I am not fully aware of any impact NYB may have had, friends have told me that there are people talking about it, and it was causing a stir. I don’t hang on to the music I have done, I like to move onto the next thing that I’m doing, like "the sign of 4", I actually started the first album before the first NYB one!! and now I have 2 done. i will be working on my next thing when i get time in between recording other bands.

10. The music you play is full of power, weird and rather hypnotic, but it’s also fun and humorous.
Ha ha !! weird and hypnotic.....that’s a good compliment, I think! A lot of the music I make is quite tongue in cheek, I like to inject some humour sometimes into music, I just can’t help myself. Hee hee!!! I have a lot of fun when playing, perhaps sometimes it comes across in the music.

11. Your music is quite impossible to file. What are the NYB’s influences behind the records?
I think perhaps the Italian and French library music from the 60's and early 70's, is a big influence on me ; Gianni Mazza has done some great things in the past. Of course I cannot forget Galt McDermott,who has such a distinctive style. I don’t want to emulate anybody in particular, I just do what i think will work for that particular piece of music.

12. On 'Tuck in With…' there are some short pieces called 'Biscuit', like sketches of something bigger to come (A cake? or not).
Going back to when I used to buy beats breaks and scratches records and other "DJ" records as they were called, and on side 2 at the end there would be a load of breaks and noises etc that you could mess about with!! I always liked that idea, being able to have instrumental parts that you could play about with. They are all from NYB songs... see if you can tell which they are from!! fun eh?

13. How do you choose your tracks’ titles?
That’s the most difficult part....seriously! the names usually appear when they are ready too!

14. On the original artcover of the first album, you and Wayne appeared dressed like Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson on a Victorian-style photo. You also got another project called The Sign of Four. Are you some Conan Doyle fans?
ha ha !!! yes we are. We just thought it would be a bit of fun. I’m a big fan of Sir Conan Doyle, nobody quite writes like he did, I’m also a massive fan of Sherlock Holmes when Jeremy Brett was playing it... he was the best period!!
"The Sign Of 4" is my other band, I have 2 "The Sign Of 4" albums in the vaults as well as other things that I have done many moons ago.

15. There’s a pleasant story telling that you sent a demo with just a few informations to Gerald Jazzman and he loved so much that he decided to make the record. Is that true?
When we did the first album, it sat in the vaults at the studio for a while,with all the other stuff. Then I think we just decided "oh well let’s just send it to Gerald at Jazzman records and see if he likes it", so we did, and we communicated on the telephone, and that was that, he said he wanted to put it out, I was amazed. So yes it’s a true story.

16. Can you recommend a few unfamous bands or artists you love ?
OK, erm.... "The Soundcarriers" which I’m currently recording at the moment, "The Simonsound", I would like to collaborate with them, I think it could be interesting.

17. Tell me more about your studio.
Ok, it is based around old fashioned methods and technology, because that is what I have been used to working with. There is studio 1 which is 750 sq ft and is quite dead sounding, and then there is studio 2 which is about 4000 sq ft, it’s like an air craft hanger, it’s that big!! there are other rooms for storage, and rooms that people can hire out. I teach piano and Hammond organ, as well as bands rehearsing and recording there.

18. What do you do when you don’t work at the studio, give music lessons or playing your music?
I think a lot about the studio and how to improve it all the time, it’s a constant pain having your own business, takes up all my brain capacity!! Music and sound is always going on somewhere in my little head!

Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau. First published on his now defunct website in May 2011.

Links :
Free download of The Natural Yogurt Mix on Paris DJs
The Natural Yogurt Band : discogs | myspace | nowagainrecords | facebook | youtube | parisdjs | thechickenshackstudio

Interview with Will Bernard

Nicolas Ragonneau — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:55:00 +0100

Will Bernard
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau for Paris Djs, january 2012)

Guitarist Will Bernard has just released an excellent new record (read Outdoor Living's review here). This album comes in an already brilliant and immaculate discography where jazz (Stanton Moore Trio), funk and soul meets reggae (Rockamovya) and… french bal musette (Baguette Quartette). The common denominator is a great sense of groove. Will Bernard is, even if he finds his own color, in the tradition of guitar legends such as Grant Green. This 100% californian now lives in NYC. He tells us about his new Big Apple life, his guitar style, his taste for french popular répertoire and his upcoming projects.

Will Bernard
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau for Paris Djs, January 2012)

01. You left California recently for NYC. Does this imply a change in your music or the way you want to make it?
I had been planning to move here for a long time. It just took a while. I've always felt an affinity with the New York scene and been influenced by the music that comes from here. I have mostly admired the downtown scene that used to center around the Knitting Factory but also the straight ahead scene and everything else.
I do feel that there are a lot of things about the California music scene that I like as well of course. It may seem a bit cliche but in general it's a bit more laid back and relaxed where is New York music is more angular and intense. I think there is truth in that. I have a lot of friends that have moved here from the Bay Area and bring that California thing with them in their playing.

02. Your new album is entitled 'Outdoor Living'. There's also a track called 'nature walk'. Is this ironical for someone who lives now in one of the biggest cities of the world?
I guess that could be true. When I was a kid I had a class where we went into the woods and identified all kinds of plants and animals and it had a pretty big impression on me. It could have been a career path I liked it so much. I think the thing I liked about it was when you pay attention to that kind of detail it makes your experience that much more satisfying and full. We walk around so much of the time not noticing much, or actually blocking ; out much of the noise and discord of city life. I like to take nature walks in the city ala John Cage, noticing all the sounds as if I was in a movie or an electronic piece.

03. With 'Outdoor Living' you come back to the trio formation.
I have been working as a trio for a few different reasons. The first is probably economic. It's hard to tour with anything larger these days and make money. I find the organ trio format a nice way to make a big sound that can be adaptable to a concert hall a dance club or a small jazz club. Wil Blades and Simon Lott have been my go to trio when I can get them and we have a great chemistry together.

04. As far as I know, your guitar playing on this new album has never been so plain, so concise.
Well I think I was doing that consciously. On the last couple of CDs I had been listening to a lot of Grant Green and those types of players that play a lot of linear notes with not many bends or slurs. I kind of mixed that up into whatever else I do. On Outdoor Living I take a more Melodic approach I think. There are a couple songs that don't really have solos per se.

05. You're often been compared to Grant Green or Wes Montgomery. What do you think of this?
Those are a couple of my favorites. I especially love Wes who really gave everything he did his unique stamp. Grant Green as well is super influential especially in the retro movement of Soul Jazz and Boogaloo. He is the guy everybody copies when they try and get that sound.
Wes To me was beyond though... he was genius level. All his tunes and arrangements are so well crafted, and concise. They are worth much study.

06. B3 Hammond seems to be an essential companion to your guitar. This organ is almost on every record of yours.
It's on 5 out of 6. The last one is the only one with only Hammond though all the other ones had other keyboard instruments.
The one with Medeski had about 5 or 6 keyboards on it. I tend to like the old keyboards.

07. You leave a lot of room to your musicians on your records.
I always like a situation where there is interplay between musicians and I think of myself mostly as a member of a group rather than a soloist with accompaniment.
I look for musicians that can react that way, I think. Maybe that's why I am attracted to music like New orleans music and funk. It's more of a polyphonic texture than just background and melody. I love African music for that same reason.

08. Who were your musical heroes when you were a teen?
As a teen i was soaking it all in like a sponge. I grew up in the san Francisco Bay Area and had a diverse palate. Led Zeppelin, and all the classic rock stuff. My day-to-day listening was something like: Art Ensemble of Chicago, Anthony Braxton, Sly Stone, P Funk, Al Green, Herbie Hancock, Weather report, Thelonious Monk... most guitar players... Jimmy Raney, Joe Pass Wes, Captain Beefheart, Tom Waits, Harry Partch, Bela Bartok, Varese, George Russell, MIles, Trane, Talking Heads, Zappa, Stevie Wonder Charles ives. I didn't fit in a normal teenage listening pattern.

09. Will there be a follow-up to Rockamovya or some other reggae project?
I hope so. It was so inspirational getting to play and record with Leroy Horsemouth Wallace. He's the real deal. His rhythmic feel is so deep it can get very trancelike.
I got to play with him with the band Groundation on a Bob Marley tribute tour and I like playing with him so much I pushed the fellas to go into the studio for a couple of days and record. We did all the basics for that album in 2 days.

10. You know a lot about the french popular music répertoire. Tell me about your contribution with Baguette Quartette.
I have been a francophile since High school french classes. I have always been a fan of French culture and lived in Paris for 4 or 5 months at one point. When they asked me to join the Baguette Quartette in around 2000 it was a good fit. the BQ is a group in the Bay Area that plays only french music from the 20s 30s and 40s... entre les guerres. It was a real education playing with that group. They have an interesting philosophy that you don't see that much, in that they were content to live in Berkeley California and play acoustic music. They didn't care about international success or getting a record deal or Billboard charts or anything but they were well loved in the area and sold thousands and thousands of CDs just on their own in little stores at gigs. It's a very grass roots philosophy that I liked. It kind of goes with some of the movements focusing on living more locally that seem to be gaining popularity.

11. What's your favorite song from the french répertoire?
I don't know what my favorite song is but on the BQ CDs I was on we did a Cocteau song called "Mes Soeurs, N'aimez pas les Marins" that I liked. Also a valse musette called "Fetiche" and another one called "En Douce". I love the Trénet songs too like "Que reste-t-il de nos amours", and Mistinguette songs . There are so many gems.

12. A question for guitar addicts. How many guitars do you have? What are your favourite guitars in this collection?
I probably have about 15... I haven't counted in a while. I like vintage guitars a lot and I play a Gibson es 335, a Starfire III, and Gibson es 175 mostly these days. I have a D'ell Arte Anouman for the Musette stuff.

13. You've played on Tom Waits' last album. Tell me about this experience.
Of course it was amazing. He has been one of my heroes, as we say, "since forever". I think it really changed the way I look at the whole process and made me really want to focus on what really is important for me musically.

14. What are your upcoming projects?
I have been working on some projects here in New York that seem to be evolving naturally. One is a band called "Baker's Dozen" where we interpret the music of guitarist Mickey Baker. (a Parisian resident I am told). Another is an organ trio with Sugarman 3 organist Adam Scone and Sharon Jones drummer Eric Kalb. Another is an ongoing collaborations with John Medeski that happens randomly at this point.
I am feeling like New York is the right place for me to be right now.

Links
Will Bernard: official | discogs | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | twitter | wikipedia
Baguette Quartette: official | facebook

Interview with Stephen Coates (The Real Tuesday Weld, english version)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:50:00 +0100

Stephen Coates (The Real Tuesday Weld)
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau for Paris Djs, january 2012)

Stephen Coates is a man of many masks, illusions and smoke-and-mirrors. Under his weird female pseudonym The Real Tuesday Weld he’s released impossible-to-classify records since the end of the Twentieth Century. I, Lucifer (2004), The London Book Of the Dead (2007) and The End of The World (2008) were major achievements. Stephen's baroque and romantic world is tinged with bittersweet melancholy. London is its sole setting, and the Clerkenwell Kid (one of his other aliases) a recurring character. Long before the electro-swing fashion, blending early jazz, cabaret, easy-listening and electro, he invented a genre of his own called ‘antique beat’. His new album Songs for The Last Werewolf (Crammed Records/Europe, Six Degrees Records/USA) is released on Tuesday (coincidence?) 16th of January and it’s the OST of the eponymous - and critically acclaimed - book by Glen Duncan (The Last Werewolf, Canongate Books, 2011). His side-project, the psychedelic garage-blues band Lazarus and The Crash Plane (read the review here), has also released its first record on his Antique Beat label. Stephen talks about the beginning of The Real Tuesday Weld, the way he uses dreams in his life, his love for London… just before releasing the nice mix he’s cooked for us, scheduled for January 17th on Paris DJs.

01. Preparing the interview I was struck by your obsession with dreams in so many tracks titles, in so many songs until the 'Dreams money can buy' OST . 'Dream' shall be the most important word in your universe...
It absolutely is - along with 'love' of course - I am still writing songs with both words in the titles, in fact I have just finished one for Valentine's day called 'Dreams of Love'. I am not an expert in either.

02. You had a dream of crooner Al Bowlly once then another dream with actress Tuesday Weld, which led you to music and chose the band's name. Can you remember precisely those dreams?
I can see them in my mind as clearly as the night I dreamt them. Al Bowlly was leaning over the statue of Eros in Piccadilly like a giant. Tuesday Weld was walking away from me through the London streets but always with her head turning over her shoulder.

03. There's at least one connection between Al Bowly and Tuesday Weld. Have you ever thought of this?
Aaah - please give me a clue...
- Well, the keyword is 'Prohibition'. Al Bowlly was famous in the 30s, and Tuesday Weld's character in Once Upon a Time in America appears during Prohibition times...
OK, I got the connection now. Of course I love 'Once upon a Time in America' - a great movie with a great, if somewhat peculiar, score.

04. What's the meaning of those dreams according to you?
I took the Al Bowlly dream as a sign to turn back to the music I heard in the house I grew up in - which was mainly 1930s jazz and easy listening. I took the appearance of Tuesday Weld as a kind of goal - an unattainable icon - forever about to disappear over the horizon. Al Bowlly was kind of the first English pop star despite actually being Greek. But there is something unearthly about his voice and he died during the bombing of London after a concert so he is a very romantic figure for me. Tuesday Weld seemed to embody something opposite - an beautiful feminine American glamour but with brains.

05. Are you interested in dreams' interpretation, especially in the ancient times?
Very much. A bit of background here which may make sense of the above: in the mid 1990s I became convinced, as you do when you are young, that I could become enlightened. I had been practising Buddhism and I went to live and study in a monastery in the mountains in southern Spain. I had an amazing time there but... I didn't get enlightened. When I came back to London and after a love affair went wrong, this began some sort of psychic crisis - or as we would say in England: 'I went round the bend'. I had some extremely strange experiences in the city. I began to study Jung and so came to take my dreams seriously (I was already taking MYSELF very seriously...). I made many decisions based entirely on dreams and intuitions. I still do so - although I have become a bit more business-like of late.

06. I was told that actress Tuesday Weld is planning a band called The Real Stephen Coates. What do you think of this?
Hahaha - yes please. I have had various letters and messages for Tuesday over the years. It is quite strange - I mean I ask myself 'do these people look at the website, and think "Ok, she is now pretending to be an English guy and has started making music, but I will email her anyway?"'. I share their admiration but I think I may have saved her some awkwardness by not passing the messages on - they are often very weird.

07. You music gives a feeling close to the floating moment (especially in the morning) between waking and sleeping. I this intentional?
Well I am very pleased to hear that - yes I would like it to be so. My two intentions are 'A dream in every song ' and 'A film in every song'. Which reminds me, I don't know if you have had this experience too but every now and then I hear some beautiful music in a dream - not only beautiful but incredibly commercial - but I start to wake and I am desperately trying to fall back into the dream - or get to my phone so I can record the melody into it. It is usually too late - or perhaps a friend will call me later in the day and say "What was that message on my answer machine with you making these terrible groaning sounds?"

08. How have you begun in music?
My sister and I were musical children but I grew up, forgot about it mainly and studied at the Royal College of Art . Then I made a project to recall the sound of my childhood and a friend sent it to a record label who got in touch and wanted to release it. Then they asked for more, so I did an album with them and ended up signing to a US label too. I agreed reluctantly to perform a one-off show in London (just four songs) but then got invited to play in Athens and then in New York and so it started. I had no grand plan - I just followed things as they occurred. I have been very fortunate and benefitted from other people's enthusiasm and hospitality - if invited I generally say 'yes'.

09. Any musical heroes when you were a teen?
I was very affected by songs - probably more so than by personalities. And also by films. I was very influenced by the films Angel Heart, Brazil and The Singing Detective. The first artist that really blew me away was Gainsbourg.

10. Since the word 'cabaret is often pronounced about your music, have Gershwin and Kurt Weill influenced you a little bit?
That would be nice. I hope they have and that Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim, Bertholt Brecht, Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan would do too.

11. What's the working process with Glen Duncan behind 'I, Lucifer' and 'The Last Werewolf'?
So some more background here. Glen and I have been close friends for a long time. When we lived together having parallel existential crises in my apartment in Ladbroke Grove, our daily routine was to get up in the morning and tell each other what we had dreamt the night before. By the way, I recommend this to anyone. Firstly you become very intimate with your friend in a psychic way; secondly, there is nothing like hearing what someone else sees in your dreams; thirdly your imagination gets fired up by the images from your dreams and also from your friend's dreams. Also, you remember many many more of your dreams.
Then because of a dream, I moved to Clerkenwell and later Glen came there too. It was time for him to write a new novel and for me to make a new album. We had a drunken idea in the pub that it would be interesting to make a soundtrack to a book. That is how 'I Lucifer' came about. We were living together and the book and album are a little like a brother and his younger sister. We thought everybody would start to do it - but of course no one did so we tried again with The Last Werewolf. I don't read fiction apart from Glen's books. He gave me this one in manuscript and suggested I might write a soundtrack. So I read it and over about a year, the songs emerged.

The Real Tuesday Weld - Me and Mr. Wolf

12. You've said many times that you feel at ease telling a story in an album. Given the fact that 'I, Lucifer' and 'The Last Werewolf' were books' soundtracks, wouldn't it be obvious to try making a real concept album of yours, the kind you could play exclusively with actors, visual performances and guests?
I would love it. I am trying to move towards something more like that. The little 'At the End of the World' album we made is a concert set on the evening of the apocalypse. I am working with Marcella Puppini and the playwright Mark Markham on a musical right now. Our shows are quite theatrical- using the animations and film we have made. I like the idea of creating a little world for people to look into - much more than a gig.

13. Your lyrics are brilliant and very simple at the same time. Is it difficult to write nicely with simple words?
Thank you. I love lyrics but I do find them more challenging to write as time passes. I think the secret is to write a lot and to edit. I have written a lot of very bad songs - they are kept out of sight in the drawer. There doesn't seem to be a way to avoid that. It is easier to write well for someone else - or to inhabit a character I find. Stephen Sondheim's book 'Finishing the Hat' has all the secrets.

14. Tell me about your fantasized vision of London. Are you still living in Clerkenwell?
I still have an apartment in Clerkenwell but my studio is in Vauxhall. When I came to London, I immediately felt like I had arrived home. There are three levels with this city (maybe with Paris also): first you are a 'visitor'; then if you decide to stay you become a 'resident'; then if you do actually stay you become an 'inhabitant' - but the last stage is a decision made by the city, not by you. I like most cities but after I came back from Spain, I had some very intense experiences here which changed things totally. I began to have a sense of being in a big story or myth and I have been trying to write about that.

15. Tell me about your other project Lazarus and the planecrash.
So that is me with Joe Coles from an English garage band called "The Guillotines". I write the music and he writes all the words - he is an amazing Captain Beefheart style poet and great performer. The album 'Horseplay' will be released in the UK in January and hopefully in Europe shortly. It is a strange hairy thing and I like it very much.

Lazarus and The Plane Crash - King of the Village Fete

16. You've worked on the LA Noire video game soundtrack. How have you composed for this? Is it very different than doing a classic OST?
They rang me last Christmas Eve, I have never played a computer game and with the film soundtracks I have worked on, I have been much more involved with the actual pictures but I liked the brief which was to write original songs with the theme of crime in a 1940s noir style. So I did and we recorded them with Claudia Brucken of Propaganda and I gave Rockstar Games all the parts seperated out and they placed them throughout the game. I am not sure quite how they do that. I don't know if you have seen it - but it is a complex world. Very stylish.

17. I leave you the final word. Chose one question and answer to it like in an auto-interview.
What would be nice next?
I'd like to play more shows - especially in Europe, work with more filmmakers and theatrical people oh, and write a masterpiece.

Questionnaire de Proust

01. Your fav classic novel
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

02. Your fav writer/poet
Peter Ackroyd

03. Your fav silent movie
Underground - Herbert Asquith 1927

04. Ten movies to bring on a desert island
My Dinner with Andre, F for Fake, Brazil, The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I heart Huckabees, Synechdoche New York, The Last Picture Show, La Jetee, Mary Poppins, Dr Zhivago

05. Your fav Hammer movie
The Wickerman

06. Your fav werewolf movie
(Did Proust watch Werewolf movies?!) An American Werewolf in London

07. Fav directors
Orson Welles, PT Anderson, Charlie Chaplin

08. Fav soundtrack
Angel Heart
09. Fav classical composer
Chopin

10. Fav 'torch song'
September Song - Kurt Weill

11. Fav painter
William Blake

12. Fav museum
Museum of London

13. Fav photographer
Lee Miller

14. A living artist or musician you'd dream working with
Tom Waits

15. Your definition of a dream
The unconscious becoming conscious

16. Your definition of a nightmare
The unconscious becoming conscious

17. Your fav witty quote
'The higher a monkey climbs, the more you can see it's bottom'

18. A very important thing you have to do before you die
Make a will

19. Write your epitaph
Born, loved, dreamt, died.

Links:
The Real Tuesday Weld : official | antique beat | bandcamp | blogspot | discogs | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | soundcloud | twitter | wikipedia | youtube
Crammed Discs : official | discogs | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | soundcloud | twitter | wikipedia | youtube
Six Degrees Records : official | bandcamp | myspace | soundcloud | twitter |facebook | wordpress | youtube
Lazarus and The Plane Crash : official | facebook | myspace | twitter | youtube

Interview with Adrian Quesada (english version)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:00:00 +0100

Interview with Adrian Quesada
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau - April 2011)

Adrian Quesada, one of the most interesting modern guitarists from funk afro/latino's Austin scene (Grupo Fantasma, Ocote Soul Sounds, Brownout) answers a few questions about his new project The Echocentrics.
We've done a mix about Adrian Quesada that you can download here, we also have a photo shooting session by Jean Saint Jean of this summer's Grupo Fantasma show in Paris to publish, along with a mix from Adrian to be aired soon in our World People series... so stay connected people!

Adrian Quesada - photo by Jean Saint Jean

01. How did you come’ to music?’
I’ve been infatuated with music as long as I can remember. I was an only child so I had a lot of time to myself and used to draw and listen to music all day long. I watched the very first day MTV hit the air and remember the rocket launch and everything...I grew up in a relatively small town so it turned me onto a whole world of music out there, especially hip hop. My father tried to get me to take piano lessons at around age 12 but I settled for guitar at 13 which my uncle offered to pay for.

02. Did you have ‘guitar heroes’ when you were a teen?
I had the obvious ones like Hendrix and Santana but to be honest maybe because I was so into hip hop I had an aversion to flashy fast lead guitarists and preferred soulful rhythm parts (probably like the samples I was hearing in my favorite hip hop).

03. Is Sunshadows an Adrian Quesada album?
It’s the closest thing to a solo album I’ve ever done but not 100% solo. I wrote a good part of it years ago and still have over 40 songs written for the project but it really took Tita Lima and Natalia Clavier to help me finish it off. I had the vision of psyched out laid back soul stuff but wouldn’t have been able to do it alone and they really were able to make it all come together.

04. Where does the name Echocentrics come from?
The original name was Los Electrics but so much of the music I work on gets lumped into "latin" that I wanted to avoid "Los" anything as this is far from it. I wanted something to do with either spring reverb, tape echo or something that hinted at psychedelic and Echocentrics just came into my head. I was surprised in this day and age a name that simple was still around....I didn’t want to have to settle for Lovelorn Tiger Sits a Tree or some crazy shit like that.

The Echocentrics - Sunshadows - plus d'infos

05. In the album’s influences, you name Ennio Morricone. Have you got any particular soundtrack and movie in mind?
It’s hard to nail one down as there’s so many and I’m no expert but off the top of my head I’ve always liked «Il gatto a Nove Code», it’s spooky and funky in an understated way.

06. You also name Serge Gainsbourg. What’s your favorite album/period?
Probably Histoire de Melody Nelson....I love the lush arrangements and all the attitude that gave it such a funk. The shit is out there!

07. In Sunshadows, it’s easy to recognize your guitar style, smooth and wet at the same time. How would you describe it?
Rhythmic. I like the guitar to play the role of a rhythmic instrument and love when there’s enough room to lay down 3 or 4 parts that all interlock and stay out of each other’s way, that’s my favorite part of a lot of african music. Guitar players love to overplay, I tend to underplay. In a sense I play guitar like I would play the drums.

08. One describes also your style as ‘psychedelic’. Do you agree and what’s your idea of psychedelic music?
I think it’s rather psychedelic. There’s obviously much more psychedelic and drug-induced music out there and what’s psychedelic to other people is pretty normal to me but I do think this one is on the slightly psyched out tip....loads of spring reverb usually add that touch.

09. The whole album could be a magnificent soundtrack for a Sam Peckinpah’s movie, Orson Welles’ «Touch of Evil» or any ‘border movie’. Do you think there’s a ‘border style’ in music?
It’s hard to call it border style as it’s such a vague term and border to one person can mean something to another. For example, I grew up on the border of Texas and Mexico, spending almost equal time between the two cities and countries and what’s called "border" down there is completely different what might be border somewhere else. As a generalization I think it implies some Texas desert feel and it does have that sparse, desolate feel.

10. There are only female singers on the records. Was it intentional?
When I started to work on writing these songs years ago I didn’t know exactly who would sing but it was either a high male voice or a female voice I felt would fit the music. Once I started working with Tita and Natalia I figured it’d be best to keep it consistent, all female.

11. I discovered Tita Lima five years ago on Apollo Nove’s album. Then I was happy to find her back on Ocote’s album and on Sunshadows. How did all begin with Tita?
A friend named Mat Whitington told me about her years ago when I first started writing these songs. We met via email and stayed in touch and she came down to Austin years ago and we’ve been working on and off ever since.

12. Tell me about Ocote Soul Sound’s new album. When will it be released and what will be the colour of the album?
The new Ocote record will be out late May/early June of this year. It’s called Taurus and it was produced by Eric Hilton....we recorded it between Austin and Washington, DC and spent a couple of weeks out there last year working on it. I would say the record may be the most consistent sounding record we’ve made so far and features usual suspect collaborators Chico Mann, Will Rast as well as a few others. It has more vocal tunes than ever before and it was our first time working with an outside producer so it was nice to have an extra set of ears.

13. Austin is now a very important place for music with Ocote, Grupo Fantasma, Brownout, Black Joe Lewis, Hard Proof, Iron and Wine, The Black Angels to name a few, and also SXSW festival. How do you explain this?
The talent is there and it has a very "keep it real" aesthetic as musicians and performers are very much part of the community for the most part the only difference between Austin and a bigger market like NYC or LA is that there is a bigger concentration of media and infrastructure in the bigger cities which often leads to more opportunities. I love to travel and VISIT bigger cities around the world but I’m Texas all day, I love living in Austin. Part of why it has such a good reputation is that bullshit bands don’t make it out of there as there’s thousands of bands playing every night and you better be a good live band or people will let you know you’re not and you can’t get by on style points alone there, you gotta be able to play.

14. You’ve played with Prince. I know you should have told the story many times, but can you tell any anecdot about this?
We used to be his Thursday night house band at his now defunct 3121 club in Las Vegas about 4 years ago. From there we went on to play a few parties with him in LA and it blossomed into us backing him a few times, opening for him at the O2 arena in london, backing him at a Super Bowl Party, rehearsing with him for Coachella and The Tonight Show and so on and so forth. I felt like I matured so much as a musician just being in a room with him. Haven’t played with him in a couple of years now but I look back at those years like I had the opportunity to learn from a genius and am so lucky to have been a part of that. He helped us out so much when he really didn’t have to, he really believed in us. One thing I will say that most people probably don’t know is that he is funny as all hell, when he wants to make you laugh there’s not many people funnier.

15. What do you do when you don’t play or practice music?
Spend time at home with my wife and kids..don’t really have much time for anything else. I used to have hobbies like basketball, drawing, bike riding, etc but it’s hard to find time just to practice my instruments nowadays!

Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau originally published on Musiques Impures website, April 2011.

Adrian Quesada Links : echocentrics.tumblr.com | grupofantasma.com | brownoutmusic.com | levelonestudiosatx.com | soundcloud.com/level-one-studios | myspace.com/adrianquesada | facebook.com/adrian.quesada1 | twitter.com/levelonestudios | twitter.com/adrianmquesada

Interview with Tommaso Colliva / Calibro 35 (english version)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 15:36:00 +0100

Interview with Tommaso Colliva (Calibro 35)
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau for Paris DJs - november 2011)

Calibro 35 is an italian four-piece band (Luca Cavina on bass, Enrico Gabrielli on keyboards, Massimo Martellotta on guitars, Fabio Rondanini on drums) created in Milan by mastermind Tommaso Colliva. A great fan of 60s and early 70s italian soundtracks (polizieschi - the italian thrillers - and gialli), Tommaso noticed that everybody pretends to know italian soundtrack, but no one really plays nor document this music anymore. Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai excepted, who else than diehard collectors remember Gianni Ferrio, Stelvio Cipriani or Gianni Mazza? Most of the time polizieschi or gialli were minor movies, but the music indeed was major (A-music for B-movies!). Here comes Calibro 35, playing this repertoire the hard and funky way, and composing new material in the manner of the forgotten masters of the genre, recording three albums so far (Calibro 35, Ritornano Quelli di... and RARE), released in Europe by Ghost Records and Nublu in the US by. Besides, they've just collaborated on Adrian Younge's new project Something About April performed by Venice Dawn (Wax Poetics Records).
In addition to the italian soundtrack killer mix he's just cooked for us, Tommaso talks about his longtime research, Calibro 35 creation and musicians, the next Calibro album and being a 30-years-old sound engineer for MUSE or Afterhours.

01. How came the idea of Calibro 35?
The idea came because of few different factors that happened at the same time.
- Me and Massimo had the idea of putting a project together for a while, and it was quite clear that Fabio would have been the drummer for it (he's just the best drummer I've ever met.).
- I was touring the US with another italian band (Afterhours) and that made me think a lot about italian musical heritage, about "what can we say on the worldwide musical scene remaining italian and being proud of being italian".
- I had been a obsessive compulsive crate digger for years with soundtracks being my favourite researches
- I had a brand new studio in Milan so I needed a band to come in to test the whole room.
So i thought: wouldn't it be fun to put a band together and re-record some soundtrack music from the '60s and '70s? I rang Massimo, Fabio and Enrico (who was keyboard player for Afterhours at the time) asking them if they mind to come down and try to lay few tracks down and see what happen. We were still missing a bass player though and Enrico brought Luca in, since they wanted to start a project together as well and the rest is history as they say....

02. Can you unveil in details the way you did your research and the way you dug?
In my mind it was pretty clear that Polizieschi [italian noir movies] music was going to probably be the best compromise between having fun, sounding badass and being able to do several tracks in few days. Plus Tarantino was using classic songs from those movies on every film so a potential audience for this was quite big.
This said the first album is almost a collection of my favourite Polizieschi soundtracks ever. There are a couple of them missing but the other Calibros didn't like them....

03. Is there a kind sound archive for italian soundtrack?
I' ve been listening to italian soundtracks from almost 15 years now (I'm 30 this year) and I have a good idea of what has been out there. There have been tons of reissues and compilation out but amongst them I'd say Easy Tempo collection is a good and quite comprehensive anthology even though it's too "easy" for my personal taste.

04. According to you, what made Italian composers so talentful for OST?
I thought a lot about this after we formed calibro. I think the really interesting and peculiar thing is the mixture of genre, ensemble an instrumentation they used back in the days. For example between mid '60s and early '70s classically trained composers were asked to "copy" blaxploitation stuff coming from the US but they simply could not do it properly so they added funk elements to orchestral composition having italian jazz players as backing band... This quite obviously provoked a musical clash and generated a quite complex sound kaleidoscope that is part of what we now know as "Italian Soundtracks".

05. Have you managed to see all the movies corresponding to the soundtracks you dug?
I can't swear I've seen all of them but I can say I've seen most of them. Some are really difficult to find and some of them are only available as download files in terrible conditions, so I may have stopped halfaway thorugh because watching such flickering images was disturbing for my eyes. Some of them are great movies, some are honestly not.

06. What was the concept of each of the three albums?
As I said before the first one is kind of a "The Best Of" italian polizieschi soundtracks. "Ritornano Quelli di" is made of two kind of compositions: original material we did for an american documentary (titled Eurocrime) plus some killer covers composed by Morricone, Ferrio and Ritz Ortolani. In between our main albums we've been involved in a lot of different projects: soundtracks, compilations, collaborations, vinyl releases... At a certain point we realized we had 15 or more tracks that weren't included in one of our albums so we decided to put them all together and release "RARE".
Concept for the new album (coming out February 2012) is: put five italian musicians in a studio in Brooklyn for five days and see what comes out of it...

07. What kind of sound were you looking for on these records?
On the first one we weren't that concious about what we were doing and it was all so new to us. I mean... Enrico never played a clavinet keyboard or an Eko Tiger organ before I asked him to do so for Calibro. We also tried to play old stuff without sounding too cliche' or old school but at the same time we wanted to bring soundratcks back to the future without using the much obvious and abused electronic way.
On the second album we faced the problem of putting together our music without losing the vintage vibe / footprint and think that has been very educational for us because we investigated deeply the essence of what we were playing both musically and sonically.
Being a collection of tracks "RARE" is more eclectic and includes a lot of different tests and experiment we did during the years. Some tracks were recorded with just six mics, some others are the results of the studio jamming and so on.

08. Tell me about the musicians of Calibro 35.
We are quite an eclectic bunch of people.
Massimo is an amazing guitar player with a very big love for improvisation and interplay between musicians. Sometimes you can see him performing on stage and being completely lost inside his musical world. His experience composing original music for movies and commercials is a killer factor for us: he's able to find melodies and riffs as nobody else I've worked with and he can play almost any instrument. He's also the best dad ever.
Enrico has a quite strong academic background since he studied both clarinet and composition at Milan Conservatorium; then around the age of 25 or so he suddenly discovered rock music and decided to abandon the classical music scene. He embraced the rock and roll life and decided to live everything he didn't live before. In the last ten years I think he played on something like 60 records and he's constantly touring with other bands as either a member (for Mariposa, Craxi and Afterhours) or as a special Guest.
When I've first heard Fabio I was at a concert with Massimo and we both asked each other: "Why isn't he known as the best italian drummer EVER?". I still got to find answer to our question. He's precise and creative, technically perfect and uniquely talented at the same time. He can dose his ego serving the music with character... just perfect for a drummer.
Luca is the only member I didn't work with before Calibro and he has been an amazing discovery. A: he remembers everything. (I'm not jocking he really remembers everything). B: he probably felt into the magic groove potion when he was a kid so he can't help himself filling every song with a good amount of badass lines perfectly played. C: he challenges himself and the others a lot. He's always looking for perfection and fighting hard to really achieve it; I love that attitude.

09. How do people and press react to your music in Italy?
This was a very unpredictable factor when we started. Since we crossed few different music genres (funk, rock, jazz just to name the main ones) we were scared that nobody would have paid attention too us because we were "not enough" in each one of them (not-enough-rock, not-enough-jazz, not-enough-funka and so on...). Luckily that didn't happened and we have been received really well inside such a wide variety of ambients that 'm still surprised. We played at classical festivals, avantgarde events, jazz clubs, indie clubs... everywhere. And every place really gives us new stimulus and ideas. It's really a good position to be in.

10. Do you think Calibro 35 aim to stick to the italian cinematic stuff or do you imagine some other directions for the future?
Well soundtracks and their sounds are part of our DNA and we will never abandon that ingredient. Surely we are growing up a lot as a band as the time goes by and we want to experiment and explore other routes as well. We are very lucky we are fast doing things so we rarely get bored of our ideas.

11. Italian noir movies, like other italian cinema in the 60s and 70s, were often very political. Do you imagine this tradition could resurrect?
The political situation is so different from those eras that I think it's almost impossible to make any comparison. I don't think cinema can be like that anymore because the world is not like that anymore.

12. Would you love to be asked writing a score for a noir movie? If so, what would be the ideal director to work for?
Not sure. If I had to dream I'd love to make a Steve Soderbergh's movie but that's probably too much to ask.

13. What do you think of directors who uses old OST for their movies? For instance, have you seen a french giallo tribute called AMER? The movie is fine, but the score is not original...
I didn't see AMER but I will surely check it out.
I think it's difficult nowadays for directors. There's so much easy available music around that taking the bespoke music route may seem just too difficult / time consuming and expensive but I think you can really hear the results when music is studied after the film. Even more so when composers are involved in early stage of the productions and can discuss their ideas with directors before the movie is actually shot.

14. If we except the unbeaten maestro Ennio Morricone, who's your favorite OST composer?
No doubt on this: Gianni Ferrio.

15. Tell me about you. Like all the sound engineers, you are a man of the shade. But you've worked for some big names like Afterhours, Franz Ferdinand and Muse...
I started as an assistant-engineer in a big studio in Milan and I kind of cut my teeth there. That gave me the chance to work with incredible musicians and an extremely wide range of music. I'm totally in love with music and I'm quite a good student too so I always found a way to learn from different projects I was involved into. With some artists such as english band Muse and italian band Afterhours I have a very long standing relationship and this is one of the more satisfiyng thing for me: it's relatively easy to work with an artist once but it's much more difficult to gain their trust and loyalty.

16. Do you have some italian hidden gems to recommend in the actual funk/jazz italian scene?
Mmmmm, not really, but I've got to admit I'm not paying too much attention to that scene nowadays.

17. Last question: Italy and Europe in general are living hard times. Italy is living some massive exodus of the youth. What do you think of the economical and political situation?
It's a shame but it's quite a logical consequence of choices our political class did in the last twenty/thirty years or so. I'm 30 this year, I'm reading newspapers everyday from 15 years and I've read the sentence "Italian system needs to be reformed because as it is is not going to be sustainable anymore" every other day... Why didn't anybody do anything? This being said Italy is still one of the best places to live.

Links :
Calibro 35 : official | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | soundcloud | twitter | vimeo
Tommaso Colliva : official | discogs | myspace
Ghost Records : official | facebook | myspace | twitter | youtube
Nublu : official | facebook | soundcloud | twitter | youtube

Interview with Adrian Younge (english version)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 14:38:00 +0100

Adrian Younge
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau for Paris DJs - november 2011)

Black Dynamite composer and multi-instrumentalist Adrian Younge gives us an exclusive interview while he releases his new project 'Something About April' performed by Venice Dawn (Wax Poetics Records). On this record one can listen to sheer never-heard-before sounds. Why? The answer is the Selene, a very special lo-fidelity weapon and new keyboard Adrian has invented with friends, and he's got the only copy worldwide.

01. What is the story of "Something about this April"?
The story depicts the trials and tribulations of a young interracial couple in the late 60s.The male is a married black man and the woman is a young white female.The song something about april compares their love to the seasons: winter represents the male and April represents the spring (listen to the vocals on the something about april song).

02. Who would be the ideal director for a "Something about April" movie?
I love working with my good friend Scott Sanders (director of Black Dynamite) and my other good friend David Wong (director of my 'Shot Me in the Heart' video). Either would suffice.

03. What instruments are you playing on the record this time?
This album encompasses more of my band, opposed to the black dynamite score. On this album I am playing a lot of instruments ranging from the selene (a modern mellotron instrument we crafted), viola, horns, drums, keys, flute, etc.

04. Dennis Coffey makes a cameo on the record.
Yes! I was fortunate enough to have him play guitar on the song 'Lovely lady'. That guy is a great and underrated guitar player… he added some serious class to that track.

05. Who are the other guests musicians?
My band includes the following: Jack Waterson (drums), C.E. Garcia (bass), Alfredo Fratti (guitar), Mike Wait (guitar, but he is no longer in the band), Loren Oden (lead vocals). Guest musicians on the band include: Rebecca Jordan (female vocals); Todd simon (horns), and the others are listed in the liners.

06. Tell me about the singers on this record?
Rebecca Jordan is a great singer from New York.She was introduced to me by my publishers, Notable Music. They flew her out to LA to record some tunes on the album. The result was: 1) Midnight Blue 2) it's Me 3) Midnight Blue. She has a great voice and definitely knows how to capture the listeners attention.
Loren Oden is one of my best friends (since high school) and is the lead singer of my band. He was also the lead singer on the Black Dynamite score. He is one of the most impressive singers I know and he basically has no limits… he is a beast in the vocal booth! Also, he played Leon St. James in the Black Dynamite movie. He was the alcohol sponsor at the beginning of the film.

07. You have invented a keyboard called the Selene, which is a modern mellotron. What does the Selene do that mellotron can't do?
The selene is a sample based keyboard that I use to record and take on the road. I recorded all of my instruments through tube compressors, vintage mics, etc. and pressed the sounds hard to tape. There is a computer inside of the selene that is triggered by the keyboards. The mellotron is a tape based mechanical instrument that is very conducive to break downs and failures due to the moving parts of the keyboard. The selene is much more sturdy and has more lo fidelity. Also, the Selene has an on-board LA2A tube compressor provided by Universal Audio.

08. How have you worked on this invention?
Jack Waterson and I contracted the services of Ken Rich Sound (a keyboard repair and design company) and we formulated the selene together. The leader of this project was Luke Jones, an engineer at Ken Rich Services. He is a master craftsmen and a great musician.

09. How does the musical world react to the Selene invention?
They love it! Whenever we perform, people go crazy.

10. Do you think the Selene could be manufactured one day?
Never... that keyboard is worth about $25k and I can not see anyone spending that kind of money to purchase one.

11. Your first record was an original soundtrack and this one is also a soundtrack. Is cinema a kind of obsession?
Extreme obsession. I am very much into telling stories with chord changes. All good music that touches your soul is pretty much cinematic... if it innately takes you somewhere, it is magic… I strive to create magic with music.

12. What is the last contemporary OST you loved?
I own a record store and only collect old soundtrack music [NB : the record store is also a hairdressing salon, it's called The Artform Studio].Therefore, I have no contemporary OSTs that I love; and I know I'm probably missing out but there are just so many gems undiscovered that I spend my time searching for those old gems.

14. Will there be a "Black Dynamite 2" and if so, will you compose this new score?
Can't talk about that, but let’s just say that I have a good feeling.

15. What do you think of movie scores today? Don't you think too many productions recycle great OST's of the past, which is the easiest solution?
Definitely, that’s another reason why I don’t listen to them. I don’t like rehashed material.

16. Can you unveil a bit of your next collaboration with the Delfonics?
This project is very important to me. I am heavily influenced by the Delfonics and we are halfway through the album. It will be released by Wax Poetics records and trust me… it sounds like Wu-Tang meets Portishead meets the Delfonics. It is dark and sweet at the same time.

17. So, OK to come back with an original DARK SOUL mix for Paris DJs at the beginning of next year?
You got it! Thanks for the love.

Links :
Adrian Younge and Venice Dawn : discogs | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | twitter
Wax Poetics : official | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | soundcloud | twitter | youtube

Interview with Paul Frick (from the Brandt Brauer & Frick Ensemble)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0100

Paul Frick (from Brandt Brauer & Frick)
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau - october 2010)

No-computer electro German trio Brandt Brauer & Frick has released a new album (Mr. Machine, !K7 Records), just one year after their debut record You Make Me Real, and this follow-up is a must-have for both hypnotic groove addicts and sophisticated experimental music lovers. Our fellow interviewer Nicolas Ragonneau is an early fan of the band since he made this interview of Paul Frick in October last year.

1. What was your musical education/background ?
We all started to play the piano as kids. Daniel learned classical percussion and played in an orchestra. Jan and Daniel also played together in the band of their school. I have studied classical composition at University of the Arts (UdK) Berlin.

2. Where did the three of you meet ?
Daniel and Jan met in school. We all met 2 and a half years ago, first through myspace, because we liked each others music. Then we met to exchange some records.

3. How did you decide to write and play this 'never-heard-before' sort of music ?
When we met we found out that we already had similar approaches in using real instruments to make dance music. When Jan and Daniel heard a piece of mine for classical instruments, they thought that it would be great if techno could sound a bit like that. Then we made a session and the chemistry was very exciting for all of us, so it was clear we had just formed a band... But we are certainly not the first ones to have this kind of idea, we just have our own way of doing it.

4. You quote John Cage and Helmut Lachenmann among the works you love. But what about Chicago and deep house, jungle and drum-and-bass ? What about jazz ? Krautrock ?
Well, all of that!!

5. How many musicians are playing on the record ?
We have only one guest musician on the record, the bass clarinet player Milian Vogel. So that makes it 4.

6. I've seen that you extended the trio as an ensemble last summer in order to prepare a tour.
We'll have our first Ensemble shows in January and February. Since we started we wanted to do this, and now we finally built a fully acoustic group.

7. Does this mean that if you play as a trio you will have to use oversamples?
Yes, as a trio we use our self-recorded sounds and trigger them electronically, with drum pads, a nord wave keyboard and a korg electribe groovebox, but NO computer. But don't imagine that like a playback track, we do manipulate all the elements a lot, and for us it's a very intense way of performing.

8. The record is great, but seeing your music performed is more impressive… isn't it a little bit frustrating?
That's what you say. For me it's about the listening experience.

9. What is the part of improvisation in your 'apparently-very-composed' music ?
Most of our ideas come up when we are improvising. And then we build structures with it. Sometimes we set rules for the improvisation, like "no loop should have the same length" or something like that. We don't think there's a clear separation between improvising and composing, we rather see it as a whole.

10. Imagine you own a record store. Where do you file 'You Make Me Real' ?
I would put some into techno, some into classic and some into jazz.

11. Will you be touring in France in 2011 ?
Yes!! One amazing show is being planned, but we can't tell before it's cofirmed. Anyway, we'll come for sure, just don't know yet when exactly.

Interview made by Nicolas Ragonneau in October 2010.

Links :
Info on the 'Mr. Machine' album
Brandt Brauer & Frick : official | discogs | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | soundcloud | residentadvisor
!K7 Records : official | facebook | parisdjs | soundcloud | twitter | youtube

Interview with Joe Henry (english version)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:45:00 +0200

Joe Henry
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - october 2011)

Only a few artists deserve the title of "living legends" but Joe Henry is, without any possible doubt, one of those. He ties together two great talents, the skill of a much sought-after producer (Allen Toussaint, Solomon Burke, Aaron Neville, Jim White, Ani Di Franco, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Hugh Laurie...) and the skill of a unique songwriter. As a singer and for more than ten years Joe Henry has released several masterpieces with incredible guests such as Ornette Coleman, Brad Melhdau, Jason Moran and many more. This autumn he's back with Reverie (Anti Records), an amazing all-acoustic album. He tells us about the aesthetics of this new record and, because of his longtime love for art, poetry and cinema, he was an obvious choice to answer our Questionnaire de Proust. Oh, by the way, we'll be releasing an exclusive Paris DJs mix celebrating Joe Henry on November, 5th.

O1. 'Reverie' is a very important word for French poetry and literature. Why this title?
The word for me suggests not be “lost in a dream,” as my dictionary describes it, but rather being awake to the mysteries and wonder of living, in a way that our days’ distractions frequently don’t encourage. The characters that walk through these songs are, many of them, fearful of time that has been lost; but the crisis has, as well, found them fully conscious for perhaps the first time.

02. 'Reverie' is an all-acoustic album, though where one could have expected bald and pristine sound, you have chosen another option.
I wanted to speak with an acoustic and stripped-down vocabulary, but that didn’t suggest to me a limited range of expression –or a demurring one. I wanted to feel the weather in the room…the raw grain that is palpable from the rumble of acoustic instruments; and I loved the notion that if something needed to be more exotic, for instances, that we wouldn’t pick up a more exotic instrument, but rather the shift needed to come from our intention as musicians.

03. There’s a kind of continual blow on the background, like a remote river or the sound of a shore.
I left all the windows to the studio open and put microphones at each, so that the sound of life happening would become part of the fabric of the music. Songs don’t happen in a vacuum, and I felt there was no reason to pretend so any longer when recording. I also think it encourages listeners to listen to the whole of the album as a piece, since there is never silence between songs. The ambient noise carrying one into the other allows the impression that it is all happening in real-time as you hear it.

04. More than another record of yours, the form of Reverie seems a circle, something never ending where the end look towards the beginning and the beginning towards the end.
As in life, indeed. The arc of living doesn’t follow a straight line, but rather loops around like a small plane, watching the landscape turn from summer to fall, then back again.

05. Have you asked your musicians to watch some particular movies before recording this time?
John Huston’s “The Misfits,” with Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift.

06. One word about the female guest singers on the record.
Jean McClain sings on “Odetta” and “Sticks & Stones.” I have been working with Jean continuously since my album Fuse (1997), when I enlisted her to share vocals on “Like She Was A Hammer.” She’s a killer, and can occupy some of that space that people Like Mavis Staples and Ann Peebles do. Lisa Hannigan sings with me on “Piano Furnace.” I had just produced her new album “Passenger” (the #1 album in Ireland, as I write this), and was –and remain- completely enthralled by her as a vocalist, songwriter, and as a person. I can’t say enough about her; and I just instinctively wanted to open a door for her somewhere on this album. “Piano Furnace” just seemed to have the right kind of space, and yearning. And now I can’t imagine it without her.

07. Will you be touring in Europe?
Well, I’ll be playing a one-off show in London on December 2nd –a duet performance with jazz pianist Brad Mehldau, as part of a series he has been curating at Wigmore Hall. As for my own shows on behalf of “Reverie,” I believe I will be in early February, though just where I do not yet know. Though I am always looking toward Paris.

08. Your favorite writer(s)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alice Munro, Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, Raymond Carver, Nathaneal West…

09. Your favorite poet(s)
Rainer Maria Rilke, Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Arthur Rimbaud, James Wright, Wallace Stevens, Antonio Machado…

10. Your favorite classic novel
"Moby Dick" by Herman Melville.

11. Your favorite philosopher(s)
Ralph Waldo Emerson, R. Buckminster Fuller…

12. Your favorite painter
Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall…

13. Your favorite classical composer
Claude Debussy.

14. Your favorite film director(s)
Marcel Carne, Federico Fellini, Wes Anderson, Ingmar Bergman…

15. The 10 movies you would bring on a desert island
Les Enfant Du Paradis (Children of Paradise), On The Waterfront, Casablanca, Dr. Strangelove, The Royal Tenenbaums, Chinatown, The Last Detail, I Vitelloni, Rushmore, 8 1/2.

16. Your favorite wine.
Red. Is that enough? I am an enthusiast, and it is hard to pick one; but I am very much into big Spanish reds right now, as well as California Cabernets.

17. Your favorite witty quote
“Be careful what you want out of life because you’ll get it.” Bette Davis

18. Your favorite NOLA artist or singer
Louis Armstrong (aka, “the heavy weight champion of the world”).

19. A musician or singer in Europe you’d like to produce (or work with)
Cesaria Evora (assuming she qualifies as European).

20. A musician or singer in Africa you’d like to produce (or work with)
Salif Keita. I have produced some songs for him (in fact a whole album’s worth, though only 2 songs have been released), but…want to do more.

21. Is there a musical genre you can’t bear?
I don’t think in terms of genre.

22. Have you ever refused to produce an artist. Who?
“Refuse” isn’t the word. I have said “no, thank you” many times; but it wouldn’t be appropriate to call names. My choices are personal and aren't meant to seem as judgments.

23. What job would you love to do in another life?
Film director. Then mail carrier.

24. Do you think time is a line or a circle?
“We live our lives in ever-widening circles…” Rilke

25. In which animal would you like to be reincarnated?
Orson Welles.

26. A very important thing you have to do before you die.
Talk less, listen more.

27. Write your epitaph.
Would be a stanza from W.C. Williams:

It is I, a sparrow—
I did my best.
Farewell.

Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau

Links :
Joe Henry : official | discogs | facebook | myspace | wikipedia | ANTI | a blog about Joe Henry

Selected Discography :
Joe Henry - Fuse 1999
Teddy Thompson - Teddy Thompson 2000
Joe Henry - Scar 2001
John Doe - Dim Stars, Bright Sky 2002
Solomon Burke's - Don't Give Up On Me 2002
Joe Henry - Tiny Voices 2003
Joe Henry - 'I Can Quit Anytime' & 'Animal Skin' on the single 'This Afternoon' 2003
Jim White - Drill A Hole In That Substrate And Tell Me What You See 2004
Ani DiFranco - Knuckle Down 2004
Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm 2005
Bettye LaVette - I've Got My Own Hell to Raise 2005
Various - Our New Orleans 2005
Various - I Believe To My Soul 2005
Susan Tedeschi - Hope and Desire 2005
Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm 2005
Susan Tedeschi - Hope And Desire 2005
Various - Meeting on Mission Street feat. Allen Toussaint, Mavis Staples, Ann Peebles, Irma Thomas and Billy Preston 2005
Various - Our New Orleans feat. Allen Toussaint, Diry Dozen Brass Band, Irma Thomas 2005
Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint - The River in Reverse 2006
Joe Henry - Civilians 2007
Loudon Wainwright III - Strange Weirdos 2007
Mary Gauthier - Between Daylight and Dark 2007
Loudon Wainwright III - Recovery 2008
Rodney Crowell - Sex and Gasoline 2008
Allen Toussaint - The Bright Mississippi 2009
Joe Henry - Blood From Stars 2009
Ramblin' Jack Elliott - A Stranger Here 2009
Carolina Chocolate Drops - Jenuine Negro Jig 2009
Salif Keita - La Différence 2009
Mose Allison - The Way of the World 2010
Hugh Laurie - Let Them Talk 2011
Joe Henry - Reverie 2011

Interview with The Greg Foat Group (english version)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:36:00 +0200

The Greg Foat Group
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - september 2011)

This spring Jazzman Records unveiled a new sensation with The Greg Foat Group's Dark Is The Sun, a fantastic jazz/soundtrack first album. Talented british pianist and composer Greg Foat was kind enough to allow us an exclusive interview : he tells us about being a child in the Isle of Wight, sci-fi novels, keyboards, analogic recording, a mysterious female French singer and being a DJ.

He's also prepared especially for Paris DJs an exclusive Greg Foat Sci-Fi Bugalu Mix, a fun party mix with a touch of sci-fi weirdness...

01. Like The Bees, you come from the Isle of Wight. Is there any particular climate there to breed musicians?
I love the Isle of Wight, I think it is a very special place. A lot of working musicians are based there as well as retired musicians. I learnt to play by sitting in with retired session/jazz musicians that had played on all the cruise ships that passed through the solent in the 60's 70's and 80's. Those guys had a great musical heritage and had played different styles of music all over the world. There has always been and still is a strong live music scene on the island in bars, hotels, clubs and more recently the festivals. I also used to play in the Isle of Wight County Youth Jazz Orchestra, Tim Parkin from The Bees was the lead trumpet!

02. What is the life of a kid or a teen living on the Isle of Wight?
The island is a beautiful place to grow up. I think childhood lasts longer there than in a city. I played music with my friends and went to the beach in the summer, then I moved away when I was 18 and by 19 I was living in London studying for a degree in music, djing and playing some of the big London venues, but I have always returned to the Island to escape the hustle of the big city. I think the older I get the more I appreciate the tranquility and space down there.

03. How did you come to music? What were your musical heroes?
I fell off a piano stool when I was 3 and cut open my eye.
I had been banging on a piano at a party at my Auntie and Uncle's house and had lost my balance and slipped off the stool which then fell on me. I was lucky not to lose my eye. I guess my love/hate relationship with the piano started then! When I was 10 years old I asked my parents for a piano and my dad bought an old cheap upright from my uncle (not the same one) so that I could have my own piano to play and I remember spending all day on it learning moonlight sonata. After that my piano teacher gave me a simple blues to learn and I figured out how it worked so that I could improvise myself and make up my own tunes, I quit classical tuition pretty soon after that. A few years later Jeff Clyne and Trevor Tomkins came to my school and did a jazz workshop, (after that I joined the Isle of Wight County Youth Jazz Orchestra) Jeff also sent me cassette tapes of various jazz pianists. That Christmas I got a jazz encyclopedia from my parents and I read that Jeff had recorded an acclaimed album with the pianist Gordon Beck called 'Experiments With Pop' I wrote a letter to Jeff Clyne asking him about it and he sent me back a cassette tape with the albums 'experiments' and 'gyroscope' on it - I fell in love with the Gordon's playing and listened to that cassette for years until the tape wore out. He is by far my biggest influence and hero and I now own pretty much everything he has ever recorded. I asked Jeff for his number and called him up and went to visit him a few times and he taught me a lot. Sadly Jeff passed away a couple of years ago and Gordon is now quite ill and doesn't remember me.

04. 'Dark Is The Sun' is your first record, but before that you played a lot as a sideman.
I have been playing professionally for many years, I have toured and recorded for many different artists, highlights include doing a recording session with QuestLove and touring Europe and Scandinavia with Wendy James.

05. On the record you play a large variety of keys. What's your favourite?
I don't really have a favourite, I love big grand pianos, little upright honky tonks, Hammonds, Elkas, Hohners, whatever it is as long as it is real and not a modern sample based keyboard. I like instruments with character, I also like old cars. I am not a fan of digital equipment in music or cars!

06. A part of the personnel on 'Dark Is The Sun' is swedish.
Yes, this is because I recorded most of the album in Gothenburg, Sweden at Mattias Glava's Kungalv Studio. I first met Mattias when I was recording for Universal Scandinavia as a session player back in 2001. He has one of the finest Analogue studios in the world, His mixing desk used to belong to Donald Fagan and the 2" Tape machine we recorded on was purchased from Paul Butler which he used to record the Bees first album on!

07. I know you love reading sci-fi novels. 'Dark Is the Sun' is one those.
I love Phillip Jose Farmer, he is one of my all time favourite writers, 'Dark Is The Sun' is a great book and I highly recommend it. I wanted to record a soundtrack for it. I also hope to one day be able to make it into an animation movie like 'Planete Sauvage' or 'Gandahar' (I am also a big fan of René Laloux).

08. How do imagine your next album?
I find it hard to fully imagine the finished album, but I have a rough plan of what I want especially in terms of production and sounds/instrumentation. The creative process for me works quite haphazardly. Sometimes I go into the studio with a fully written and arranged piece that I have been working on for months and it just does not work, other times I go in with a vague idea and improvise and then suddenly it works out. The track 'Uncle Bessie' for example I made up in the studio in 5 minutes and recorded it first take.

09. There's a female french singer you'd love to invite on this next album.
Yes, I am totally in love with her! She sang on 'Samba Miaou' by the Full Moon Ensemble. Unfortunately I cannot find out any more information about her as she is only credited as 'Sarah' on the album. If only I had a time machine then I could travel back to 1969 and marry her. Sarah's voice gives me goosebumps every time I listen to that record.
(I also asked John Klemmer if he would be interested in recording with me).

10. Tell me about this collaboration with The Heliocentrics.
Nothing is confirmed yet, but I am hoping to get both Malcolm and Jake to play on my next album. I have spoken to both of them and it is looking promising. I am also hoping to get Paul Butler on a couple of tracks too, and also Matt Halsall.

11. You have published an autobiographical book called 'Gigolo'. Do you aim to be a writer, or was this just about sharing some uncommon experience?
I used to write quite a lot, I had a regular column in a woman's magazine in the UK and it evolved into the book from there, my friend Amanda who ghostwrote the book with me was my editor and came up with the idea of getting it published, so I went along for the ride so to speak.

12. How the musicians and musical world react to the book?
I get mixed reactions really, most people see the funny side, but some people are rude to me about it. To be honest anyone who knows me also knows that I did the whole book and publicity thing as a joke. I had to play a character and put on an act. It was a few years ago now and it gets a bit boring having to keep explaining it to people, especially as I would rather be known for my music.

13. In how many languages Gigolo will be translated?
It is available in English, German, Polish, Romanian, Spanish, Czech and Hungarian. I am sure there are some cheap copies available on ebay if anyone is really that interested.

14. Last question? You're djing also. What is your conception of being a DJ? Do you own a very big vinyl collection?
I own over 1000 lps and a few hundred 7"s. I've collected vinyl since I was 11 years old. I started borrowing my parents record collection and then I would go hunt out the sounds I wanted in the old second-hand record stores and charity shops on the Isle of Wight. When I moved to London and started djing in 1997 it was only ok to dj the original vinyl and no re-issues! So I really had to expand my record collection. These days I very rarely play my vinyl out, I mostly dj with my laptop, at least once or twice a week in London and quite a few gigs abroad. I have played clubs in New York, Miami and L.A and I have regular gigs in Sweden, I also dj quite a lot in Paris, mostly at Le Baron and Le Prescription Cocktail Club.

Interview made by Nicolas Ragonneau for Paris DJs in September 2011.
Photos by Alex Lambrecht

Links :
The Greg Foat Group : discogs | facebook | parisdjs
Jazzman Records : official | discogs | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | soundcloud | twitter | wikipedia | youtube

Interview of Mushroom (english)

Djouls — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 15:38:00 +0200

Mushroom / Pat Thomas
(Interview by Mr. Moo, for Paris DJs - summer 2011)

Mushroom, the only one worthy of a well-deserved name, is a very potent band...

Originally from The Bay area, home of the freaks, this rather instrumental combo channels every style there ever was in progressive music: californian psychedelic, electric jazz & funk, kraut-rock, afro-beat, avant-garde, ragas, garage, british folk & jazz, soul, prog & space-rock.

Read the in-depth interview
Download Mr. Moo presents Mushroom mix pt.1

Mushroom, the only one worthy of a well-deserved name, is a very potent band...

Originally from The Bay area, home of the freaks, this rather instrumental combo channels every style there ever was in progressive music: californian psychedelic, electric jazz & funk, kraut-rock, afro-beat, avant-garde, ragas, garage, british folk & jazz, soul, prog & space-rock.
If a scene gathers revolutionaries, poetry, drugs, civil rights activists, space travels, surrealistic hedonism, radicals, hippies sharing music, painted foxy ladies & communal hang-outs, then like a feast of friends at a beggars banquet, they will revisit the legend and melt it down in a giant pot we can all drink from.

The jamming like the line-up is ever-evolving around Pat Thomas (drums) & Erik Pearson (Guitar/Sax/Flute), and it grows and it sprouts like... mushrooms.
With whimsical talent & wit, they gently changes musical identity with each new release, a new skin for the old ceremony.
The ensemble thrive on improvisation, wisely using time & silence, harmonies & dissonances, playing the moment, shaping reality together.
The long pieces like Isle of Wight or The Beards Are Back In Town, through great telepathic conversations, will slowly but surely expand, blossom and flower in radiant musical gardens.
Mushroom will pick up a vibe and juggle with it until the music plays the band. Whatever the tempo or the mood, our San Franciscans freaksters will always take you on a journey, ending some places you would never have guessed... they might even drive you back home after that.

On the top of it all those guys have a knack for hilarious titles, funky mysterious cover-art, that include many a nod to 60's-70's counterculture.
Let me toss you a few, specially hand-picked for inducing apoplectic fits in the music industry executive's spheres:

- "I Had Some Dreams, They Were Clouds in My Coffee"
- "Americans Own The Moon, They Bought It From The Germans-Who Won It During A Poker Game In World War II"
- "Just Because Nobody Understands You, That Doesn't Mean You're An Artist"
- "A Letter From My 5th Grade Teacher To My Mom, Letting Her Know I'm Not Living Up To My Potential - 5 Years Later I Was At A Party At His House Smoking A Joint With Him, I Guess We Made Up"

Hard to sell on T.V. !

In these time and age it's a freak brother's dream come true, a kaleidoscopic vision that merge so many elements that never really collide up until then:

Electric Miles Davis, Traffic, Jack Kerouac, Sly Stone, Fairport Convention, Sun Ra, Jefferson Airplane, Soft Machine, Eugene McDaniels, Television, Jerry Rubin, King Crimson, Funkadelic, Pink Floyd, Can, Martin Scorsese, David Bowie, Herbie Mann, Nucleus, Capt. Beefheart, Fela Kuti, Embryo,The Last Poets, Talking Heads, Agitation Free, Brian Auger, The Monty Python, Spirit, Herbie Hancock, Grateful Dead, Carla Bley, Dr John, Curtis Mayfield, Hawkwind, Sandy Bull, Jimmy Smith, Albert Hoffman, Alice Coltrane, War, The Beatles, Martin Scorsese, Les McCann, The Velvet Underground, Nina Simone, Jack Bruce, William Burroughs, Jethro Tull, Tim Buckley, The Black Panthers, The Graduate...
A complete bohemian rhapsody!

Mushroom, being both animal & vegetal, is the perfect link between, its pure energy is at the core of everything, the secret it shares with the universe is how to luxuriate from very little, to broadcast life's inner vital force.

Following is an exploring conversation I had with Pat Thomas, musician, writer, producer, journalist, social-political historian & musical archivist. While there is no bandleader, Mushroom is his brainchild. the band has more than 20 records out and too many great members and collaborations to list. Pat Thomas as a producer has reissued more than 60 albums (a cream selection) and has a book coming out soon: Listen, Whitey! - The Sounds Of Black Power 1965-1975 by Pat Thomas.

Brothers & sisters, enjoy your trip, have a bliss

Mr. Moo - September 2011

01. We have briefly met before in 2002 at one of your gigs, probably not your bets, The Agenda Lounge in San José, which felt as the most inappropriate place on earth to see you guys play! (Though I got an "Analog Hi-Fi Surprise" CD & tales of Mushroom's legendary requested latin jams - When the crowd would request a latin jam, Ralph Carney used to grab a table cloth before a dining audience, wrap it up like a toga and chant in latin!)
>> Yes, I remember meeting you at one of the worst Mushroom gigs ever in San Jose! (and that club was run by a German! ) So yes, you know what I mean when I say most German booking agents have brain damage!

02. So brain damage is hardly a german booking agent monopoly, hm?
>> Ahh, yes - 'brain damage' can be witnessed all over the place - governments, corporations!

03. Hey, Pat! Any lead for a cure?
>> Hahahah, I wish.

04. Or the only alternative is like the Elliot Smith 's song: " A distorded reality is now a necessity to be free" get a good drug connection and run for shelter?
>> Mmmm. I dunno.

05. And in the smaller scale of things: How come you haven't play that much around in a music world where record sales are dropping as the theaters & bars are full?
>> Actually, Mushroom does pretty well for live concerts since we start performing in 1997. We opened for Krautrock legends Faust, have performed as the 'backing band" for Kevin Ayers and Daevid Allen. Mushroom toured Germany and Switzerland in 1999. We opened for YES at a giant football stadium once. The show you saw in San Jose was a 'step down" - but it's true, we generally play small to medium places (around 100 to 200 people).

06. YES & Mushroom sharing a bill in a stadium sounds like a peanut butter & tabasco extravaganza...
>> Well, I like early YES! it was honor to be asked.

07. Was is it german booked?
>> No, it was booked by a Democratic American.

08. Should I wish I was there?
>> There's a video, but the video has no sound.

09. Rats! More seriously, How was that show & how do you adapt to a stadium crowd & acoustics?
>> To be honest, we did NOT get to play the big stage, we were on a smaller stage, just outside the 'stadium' - but that said, it was still the largest stage that Mushroom ever played - we played to maybe 1000 people! Some of whom really dug us and others ignored us while they drank beer and ate hot dogs.

10. Did you have a Port-a-potty for a backstage area while they rehearsed in a glass pyramid?
>> We did not get much expensive and delicious food backstage, in fact we got almost none. But this is not the fault of YES, it was decided by the 'stadium' owners that Mushroom needed very little to eat, drink and be merry.

11. You obviously are an avid record collector, some titles you came out with certainly nod in that direction: what was the first LP you bought?
>> Well, the first record I owned was in the early 1970's; The Who's "Who's Next" - a couple of years later, the first album I bought with my own money was The Beatles "1967-1970''. Now, I have about, 20, 000 LPs and about 20, 000 CDs > mainly 1960's to 1980's; rock, jazz, soul, folk, pop, experimental, prog, etc

12. Your first "out there" musical experience as a listener?
>> My first "out there" experience as a listener? That's a difficult one. I remember when I moved to San Francisco in 1987, I was a big fan of bands like Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, Green On Red (bands that were basically continuing the sound of the 1960's that I already liked - such the Velvet Underground, Neil Young, the Byrds, etc). But arriving in San Francisco in the late 1980's, I start hearing bands like Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 and World of Pooh. These that bands were already 'hip" to things like Krautrock and Capt. Beefheart; stuff that I had yet to dive into too deep, so they opened my eyes to the fact that there was more than "folk rock" out there.

13. Your first "out there" musical experience as a performer?
>> One time I played a concert in Rochester, New York at a college called R.I.T. A friend of mine named Jon Hull played a guitar with just 2 strings and screamed into an empty sea shell (like you'd find at the beach) and I just beat on one single drum. This was around 1985 and people wanted to beat the shit out of us, because we were making 'noise' and not music. Most of the audience was what we call "frat boys" or "jocks" (meaning they played sports more than they liked music). Jon and I laughed at them, despite their threat of bodily harm. It was fun!

14. Last time we met you seemed reluctant to talk about your collaboration with Daevid Allen & Kevin Ayers…
>> I think the last time we met, was at the worst Mushroom gig of all time, playing a restaurant in San Jose for a dinner crowd, so I was not so eager to discuss anything else!

15. Would you tell us a bit about it now & how you became their "backing band"?
>> Yes, of course. Kevin Ayers; I have been a fan of for a long time - back in the 1990's, there was a Kevin Ayers magazine published in England and the guy who ran that magazine was a Mushroom fan, so he suggested to Kevin that we play together sometime. Through various people, including another guy, Jos Starmans, who released the first ever Mushroom CD "Alive and in Full Bloom" in Holland, we got in touch with Kevin and invited him over to San Francisco to play a show. He flew over and we spent about a week rehearsing (he mostly let us pick the song list) and he stayed at my house and we had a great time (although Kevin does like to drink a bit more than I do), but he was a fun and excellent house guest and we discussed early Soft Machine, Jimi Hendrix, Richard Branson and all kinds of groovy stuff. Meanwhile, the concert was very successful - lots of people come from hundreds of miles around - as Kevin so rarely plays in San Francisco.
Daevid Allen, I was less of a fan, only because I only owned a few GONG albums - but Daevid needed a place to stay in San Francisco for a week and I opened my home to him. Again, we had great discussions about Paul McCartney (and his early tape loop experiments), William Burroughs, Paris in the 1960's and all that stuff. At the end of the week, there was already a Mushroom show planned, so Daevid just 'joined in' for that one show! The next day, we recorded an album, and the next thing I knew - we had a band called "The University of Errors" and a couple of other CDs - we toured and played Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle. Daevid has a lot of 'groupies' - (mostly older guys with beards and sweaters) who really get into his music - he's like the "Jerry Garcia of space-rock" - at the time I did not appreciate how cool it was to play with Daevid. Unlike Kevin, . Daevid rarely told me 'what to do" - Kevin barked out a lot of orders of how he wanted me to play, Daevid generally let me do what I wanted! At the end of the day, I prefer Kevin's music over Daevid's but both men are amazing and cutting edge musicians.

16. Krautland only! What experiences did you gain from touring across the pond?
>> European audiences listen better and more closely than American ones. European clubs pay us more money than American ones. European clubs feed us better and more feed. Overall, playing in Europe is 100x better! Also, most American clubs only want us to play for 1 hour and share the stage with 2 other bands we never heard of. but in Europe, most nights, we had the stage to ourselves and played for 2 hours!

17. One can tell a wide musical spectrum is at the basis of your inspiration, how do you go through all those different doors? All at once….?
>> The way we do it, is we don't try too hard to be influenced by ONE thing. Many bands decide, 'well, I just want to sound like King Crimson 1974" - so that's all they do or perhaps they just wanted to be "Peter Gabriel with Genesis" - so the band’s music becomes very generic. Our thing is to sound like 20 different bands, which makes us sound 'unique' - makes us sound like ourselves!

18. How was your musical path from receiver to transmitter?
>> Listen, Listen, Listen, then Play, Play, Play!

19. I've read somewhere that prior to Mushroom, you travelled around Europe pursuing musical cult figures to play with & learn from: When & how was it? Anyone you sought but missed…?
>> I did NOT travel around to 'play' with them, I travelled around to meet them and learn and hear their stories, at the time, I loved 1960s-1970's British Folk-Rock (and I still do), so I get to meet and hung out with Clive Palmer (of Incredible String Band), Polly Bolton (of Dando Shaft), Ashley Hutchings of Fairport Convention, guitarist Davy Graham, singer Shirley Collins, guitarist Michael Chapman, etc - it was wonderful!

20. I love that scene, beautiful musicians; it must have been an amazing quest! When was that?
>> It was mainly in the early 1990's that I did that adventure around England, although the results were not revealed until about a decade later, when some of the interviews I did got published in a Davy Graham fanzine, on a website called Perfect Sound Forever, and many of them appeared in a magazine called Ptolemaic Terrascope, of which I edited and published the final issue in Oakland, CA. (for years before, it had been published in England).

21. Did you travel elsewhere with the same purpose?
>> No, not really. During the early 1990's, when I was travelling around England, I was actually living in Germany, but I wasn't really into Krautrock at that time, so I was not tracking down German musicians. That happened later, after I started Mushroom.

22. Your resumé is like a who's who of the underground culture. How do you meet all those great artists? Eddie Gale? Pete Brown? (the list goes on & on) Plain karma?
>> I suppose Instant Karma has something to do with it, I think it's a combination of having a lot of knowledge and contacts from all my years of being in the 'music business' side of things (running record companies, doing A&R, and publicity) and then being an actual musician - so it has allowed me into 'doors' that would not normally be open to the casual fan. Also, frankly, I think it's got something to do with my deep knowledge of 1960's - 1970's music of all styles; Jazz, Folk, Rock, Pop, Krautrock, English folk - so that when I meet these people, I usually have something interesting to talk to them about, perhaps something to offer them besides just "I'm a fan"

23. Just to put things in perspective: when & where were you born & raised?
>> I came onto the planet in April 1964. From age 0 to 10, I was near Binghampton, New York. From age 10 to 18, I was in Corning, New York. Then I was in Rochester, New York (where I formed my first 'professional band' called Absolute Grey - we released several albums of 1980's indie-folk-rock (we sounded a bit like REM and bands like the Rain Parade).

24. How did you start to play music?
>> It was about 1974, and I saw these older students playing in a school 'jazz band' - I was watching the drummer and said to myself "I want to do that!" - later on, about 1976, I saw a TV special about the Paul McCartney and Wings 1976 World Tour, and I said to myself "I want to do that!"

25. How & when did Mushroom sprout in your brain?
>> In the mid 1990's, I was writing songs and singing them, in sort of a Lou Reed / Bob Dylan style, I did several tours of Germany under the name 'Pat Thomas' - I released several Pat Thomas albums, but I was getting a bit bored of this style of music, during the 3rd and final Pat Thomas tour of Germany in 1996, I began asking my band to 'jam' during the beginning of each show - the band included Erik Pearson on guitar - the next time we went into the studio (I think it was November 1996), it was to make recordings for another Pat Thomas CD, but instead of singing, I played drums, and we just 'jammed' and recorded 'instrumentals' - half of these songs went onto the last Pat Thomas CD called "Valium", the other half become the first Mushroom recordings "The Reeperbahn" 12 inch vinyl, the Dutch CD "Alive and In Full Bloom" and the German CD "Cream of Mushroom" - in May 1997, we played the first Mushroom show and I never did another "Pat Thomas' singer/songwriter thing again.

26. What did you say to your band-mates before the first session?: "We're gonna explore every psychedelic vibe there ever was?" or "Let's concentrate the whole counterculture in one band?"
>> Hahahaha, very funny, but what is more amazing, is that's true! I mean, I didn't say all that, but that's what happened over a period of time, didn't it? Again, I think what separates Mushroom from other bands that explore a retro-vibe - is that they focus their attention on 'recreating' the sound of just one band, like maybe King Crimson or Can. We recreate the sound of like 50 different bands, sometimes all at the same time!

27. How do you lead a session? Any indications...verbal or else? Do you use poetic words or references for cues & clues?
>> Sometimes I come into the studio with some verbal instructions, for example, I might say, let's trying to record something 'slow and acoustic' or something 'fast and jazzy." I might occasionally play a sample of someone else's music that I'd like to capture that vibe, maybe like an old Bert Jansch or Sandy Bull record. Once in a while, I might have an actual 'riff' or 'beat' in my head and I'll play it on the drums. Sometimes the other guys, have a 'riff' - on "Naked Stoned and Stabbed" Erik Pearson came in with a couple of 'songs' already written. The other way, I lead a session is to add and subtract the number of musicians playing in the studio - as you can hear on "Naked Stoned and Stabbed" - there's three musicians on some songs, just two on others, sometimes six... this is one way of changing the sound, sometimes I do that in the mixing, by just removing a few instruments by not including them in the final mix.

Erik Pearson and Ralph Carney on dueling saxophones

28. Can you tell us some on how you pictured & then realized "Foxy Music"?
>> "Foxy Music" was recorded during two studio sessions, spaced about a year apart. The main thing about "Foxy Music" was that I decided that I would edit the songs while mixing them, so for example, on "Analog Hi-Fi Surprise" - if we played a song for 10 minutes, then probably you heard the whole 10 minutes on the final CD. On "Foxy Music" if we played a song for 10 minutes, we chopped out, perhaps 2 minutes of an 'un-interesting' part, or we removed a minute of a 'bad or wrong notes." Many of the songs on "Foxy Music" are 3 to 5 minutes shorter than the 'original' recording. Also "Foxy Music" was during an era, where I wanted a lot of horns in Mushroom, I wanted more of a Miles Davis or mid-period Soft Machine vibe.

29. And later on the dual album "Glazed Popems"?
>> This was recorded pretty much all in one weekend! All one session, except perhaps a bit of Mellotron that Matt Cunitz overdubbed later on.

30. The London side -where one can trace some of the folk origins of "Naked, Stoned & Stabbed - feels like one of them cottage albums...how did you captured that pastoral essence?
>> After listening to all the songs we recorded during that weekend, I noticed that we had some very mellow, pastoral music - not unlike some mid-period Pink Floyd and perhaps like the band Traffic as well and perhaps even a little Pentangle in there as well.

31. And the late-night atmosphere of the Oakland side?
>> And I noticed we had the usual Mushroom sounds, more jazz, more aggressive, but with its own dark edge. So we decided to 'divide' up the songs into a "London" and an "Oakland" side - almost two separate albums. I think the "London" side is much stronger, although the "Oakland" one has some nice moments as well.

32. Do you have a favorite release?
>> Well, it’s hard for me to pick just one, since there are several Mushroom albums that ‘capture’ a specific sound or time period. Of the early days, I think my favorite one is “Analog Hi-Fi Surprise” - that’s our ‘Canterbury’ album. Of the middle period, it would be ‘Glazed Popems’ - especially for the “London” side of the album that we discussed earlier. I know it’s a cliché to say that our newest one is a favorite, but I like the acoustic and ambient vibe of ‘Naked Stoned and Stabbed.’ In terms of my favorite obscure Mushroom album, one that had limited distribution and never got reviewed widely - I really love the Mushroom album “Oh, But They’re Weird and They’re Wonderful” - it’s a collection of some amazing live recordings coupled with ‘remixes’ (very organic remixes in which the re-mixer just took elements of Mushroom live songs and just looped and edited them, he did NOT add in any extra beats or music of his own).

33. Any album you're dissatisfied with and why?
>> A couple of years after ‘Analog Hi-Fi Surprise’ came out and was out of print, I allowed myself to get talked into re-issuing it as an expanded edition with bonus tracks, overall I’m not happy with it, I should have just left the ‘original’ album alone or been more careful about what songs I added and why.

34. On paper it looked like a rock'n roll dream coming true: How was the "Lifehouse" performance?
>> It was great, we played the entire "Who’s Next" album (minus “My Wife”), plus the songs “Pure and Easy”, “Too Much of Anything” “Time is Passing” and “Naked Eye” - we spent 6 months rehearsing it.

There are some great videos of us playing it on youtube:

35. Did you record any of it?
>> We did record it, but sadly, not well enough, just some rough tapes. Hopefully we are going to perform it again this summer, in celebration of my friend Richie Unterberger’s new book about “Lifehouse” which is called “Won’t Get Fooled Again” in that book, he interviews our keyboard player Matt Cunitz about those difficult keyboard parts to “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” which Matt played all by ‘hand’ - not by computer!
 
 36. The Who never played it entirely, did they?
>> No, not really.

37. Who sang?
>> We decided to use my friend Patty Spiglanin (a long time Berkeley folk-country-pop singer) who did an excellent job as “Roger Daltrey” and Mushroom member Erik Pearson did a great job singing the “Pete Townshend” vocals.

38. Does Pete Townsend knows?
>> I don’t know. I told a friend of his about it, and I think she mentioned it to him.

39. What's next? Pink Floyd's "The Man and The Journey"? (Please...)
>> No.

40. Dr John's " The Sun, Moon & Herbs" restored?
>> Yes, that would be cool! Ideally this ‘restored’ version is being officially released by Rhino/Warner Brothers later this year.

41. I'm joyfully ready for anything…
>> I have thought about Eric Burdon and War: “The Black Man’s Burdon”, I once even considered New Order “Power Corruption and Lies” and I’d consider something like David Bowie’s “Hunky Dory”.

42. Exciting selection! I know "Hunky Dory" is not an easy album to perform especially the vocals, though when it's so well written the songs read & play themselves, don't they?
>> Yeah, sort of. Actually, I just sort of tossed off the "Hunky Dory" idea as I answering your last round of questions - the truth be told, I think Mushroom could do a better job with either the "Space Oddity" album or "Low" or "Heroes".

Dan Olmsted on guitar, Pat Thomas on percussion, Alison Levy on vocals, Josh Pollock on electronics
at the Make Out Room in San Francisco, CA in November 2010

43. What was the first song you ever learned?
>> Well, on drums, you don’t really “learn” a song the way you might “learn” it on guitar, piano or bass, but I know what you mean. I started off playing songs by the English band Free, the Southern Rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, various songs by Eric Clapton and Cream, “Evil Ways” by Santana. This was around 1976-1977.

44. Was drums your primary instrument?
>> Yeah. I tried piano for about 5 minutes, that didn’t work. I did play guitar for a couple of years in the late 1980’s and wrote and recorded several songs as a singer/songwriter/guitarist. Very “Bob Dylan” in style. But I haven’t picked up a guitar in years. I have been drumming since the early to mid 1970’s.
 
 45. It's a wild guess but going through your discography I felt that when the space- rock period refined itself into a funkier jazzier sound...
>> After the first couple of Mushroom CDs, I decided I wanted the band to be more ‘jazz funk’ with albums like "Foxy Music" (using saxophones, trumpets and trombones), then I got bored with that sound - although we kept coming back to it from time to time.

46. ...You somehow tried to make it more commercially viable musically "Mad Dogs & San Franciscans" than as it didn't...
>> No man, you misunderstand the idea of “Mad Dogs” - we didn’t do that for money and fame, we did it because we love those old classic songs and because the vocalist Gary Floyd (in my opinion) could sing the shit out of those classics - he’s the real deal as a blues-rock-soul vocalist!

47. ...you shrugged and said: "Fuck it! let it all hang out! " and took a left turn again (hard as it is in San Francisco!) into "Glazed Popems" (which I feel is one of your best )
>> Ok, I agree, I did say “Fuck it, let it all hang out!” with Glazed Popems, I decided I would NOT edit down the length of songs and that it would be a double album and we would just “go for it” - I agree with you, that’s one of our better albums. “Glazed Popems” was not made to sell a million copies, but in the hopes that we’d really freak out the freaks!

48. If you never were not part of Mushroom and hear their stuff do you think you would like it?
>> Hahaha, that’s a good question, would I seek Mushroom out and keep an ‘open mind’ or would I be too cynical to even search for and like my own music? I don’t know. Our first bass player was a guy named Alec Palao - who loves a lot of 1960’s music but likes less ‘new music’ than me - and certainly is not a fan of 1970’s ‘prog rock’ and I used to tease him that, if he was not in Mushroom, he would not even like his own band!

49. What I'm getting at is that you probably put everything in your band that you saw disappear from music (Freedom, genuine communication, imagination, egoless involvement, balls, humility, style, humor, poetry, colours...) and cared so dearly for...
>> Of all the people who have interviewed me about Mushroom, you are the one who really ‘gets us’, you can see the larger picture of what I’m trying to do - and all that comes into it - the freedom, the imagination, the ego and the egoless, the balls, etc. I would love to sit down and have a drink with you or better yet - get into a car and cross the United States or Europe, I can imagine we would have a lot to talk about. All of this means “A LOT” to me - yes, it does!

50. ...And many musicians from our generation & the next & the next feels the same and consequently each through his own spectrum followed a similar brotherly path hence my numerous questions about this or that band.
>> Yes, I love that chain and connection -Elton John loved David Ackles and Lean Russell, Soft Machine loved 1950’s jazz, etc.

Josh Pollock on samples and electronics at the Starry Plough in Berkeley, CA in July 2010

51. What made you switch from singer/songwriter to instrumental psilocybin music and why...?
>> I was bored with singer/songwriter music, I was bored with myself, I wanted to ‘explore’ some ‘new’ music for myself to write and perform and record. I wanted to become somebody else musically. I remember Erik Pearson (Mushroom’s guitar player and before that - the guitar player of the Pat Thomas band) - he had a girlfriend back then (1997) named Alice Bierhorst and she told me that I could NOT become someone else musically - well, actually she said it would be very difficult when I told her that I was going to stop being “Pat Thomas” and that I wanted to start something new, but I think “Mushroom” has proven Alice wrong. I became something different (musically) than I was before. “Pat Thomas” music sounds nothing like Mushroom music - but that’s also because of not just me - but the other musicians too, such as Erik. I don’t think she had faith in either one of us.

52. ...Exchange your lead role in a cage for a "walk on part" in a war?
>> Sorry, I’m not getting this one (...)

53. Really? Beside the obvious reference to "Wish you were here" which can be taken literally or not...
>> Of course, I know the song “Wish you were here” - but I don’t know all the words, so I did not get that reference, sorry.

54. I meant that in a jamming collective band you blend your personality into a whole, while fronting a band that backs up all your songs is like directing a movie, ego is dearly needed for the task.
>> To be fair, I don’t write the songs, everyone writes - but my ego is what keeps the whole machine going. Several band members have told me “remove Pat Thomas and there is no Mushroom” - which is interesting, because I’m “only the drummer”! But then again, I am the “band leader and producer”

55. Also it seems you share more light (& receive) within Mushroom than doing the Pat Thomas thing.
>> In so many ways - not only has Mushroom music reached more ‘ears’ than Pat Thomas ever did, it’s way more rewarding for me in so many ways, you got that right! Musically, spiritually, etc. (...) But I would take a ‘walk on part’ to have been part of the 1960’s revolution (I was born in 1964, so a little too late to take part).

56. Really? Man, you're totally an extension of those times! Many seeds have been planted, yet to flower. It's not over. Mutations & diasporas of the freaky kind are endless & worldwide. It's always time to make a stand, is not what you're doing? Giving lectures, writing the Black Panther book & collecting their music while keeping a free mind?
>> Thank you, you are right when I think about it - having been involved in so many album projects, I’ve put a lot of music into the world - not just my own, but lots of other peoples - having worked in the music business for some 20 years now - and my book on Black Power music and all the colleges I’ve lectured at - and all the young students I’ve spoken to about the Black Power and Black Panthers has inspired some younger kids for sure. The thing is - ever since I was young, I never wanted to do ‘just one thing” - when it comes to music, I wanted to do many different things, I wanted to play rock and jazz and folk and whatever - and I’ve done that - through Mushroom, Pat Thomas band, my early band Absolute Grey that released 5 albums in the 1980’s and many other bands. I’ve never understood why people would join just one band - and stay in that same sound for 10 or 20 years at a time - I’m glad that Mushroom is totally different than Absolute Grey - and I’m proud of both things. Meanwhile, I never wanted to be just a musician, I wanted to write, travel, teach, produce, etc - most people start with one sound ‘rock’ or whatever and just play it and play it - forever.

Matt Cunitz on keys, Ned Doherty on bass, Pat Thomas on drums, Ralph Carney’s ass at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley, CA

57. Do you feel good jams are necessarily a telepathic field?
>> It’s a mental and emotional and music chemistry thing for sure! Yes it is!

58. Your FB page reads: "Thank you on behalf of the group and myself and I hope we passed the audition?" What was that about, if you may?
>> That’s what John Lennon says at the end of the album "Let It Be", it’s from the Beatles final ‘roof-top concert’ in 1969.

59. Can you live on Mushroom?
>> Sometimes I can have a nice meal from Mushroom or pay the other guys like $10 for driving across town and playing a concert. We make very little $$$$.
 
 60. When you're turning somebody on Mushroom which album do you pick? (I usually play "Foxy Music"...)
>> I most often give people “Glazed Popems” - before that came out, I would have said “Analog Hi-Fi Surprise”.
 
61. Have you heard "Super Numeri" that improvisational collective that hailed from Liverpool 'round 2003 released by Ninja Tune?
>> No, I have no idea. I actually listen to very little ‘new’ music, I listen to very little music recorded after 1990 - and if I do, it’s more likely to be a “singer/songwriter” like Elliott Smith or Beth Orton, than a band that does what Mushroom does.

62. How about Flanger (Burnt Friedman & Atom Heart )& the Nonplace scene from Koln germany (sometime joined by Jaki Liebezeit drummer from Can)?
>> Actually, I have never heard Flanger - but I do have a little connection to Burnt Freidman and Jaki - they sometimes used the bass player of the “Pat Thomas band” that toured Germany during the 1990’s. His name is Daniel Schroter. I’m not sure what recordings he’s on, but I know he’s played live with them - but this was several years ago.

63. How about the whole global "revival" thing in funk, soul, jazz, afro, folk, reggae, krautrock & psychedelia lately?
>> Overall, I’m pleased to see “old” music get rediscovered by “new” fans. I generally prefer the old stuff to “new” music by young kids.

64. Are you into Zappa or Funkadelic?
>> Zappa, I’ve come into from time to time over the past 25 years, but in very small amounts, a song here or there - or listening to a whole album at a friend’s house, but more recently, I did dig into "Live at the Fillmore East!"

65. Do you dig Reggae, Afrobeat or Brazilian music?
>> In small amounts I like all this stuff, I love Peter Tosh in the 1970’s, Fela Kuti in the 1970’s is wonderful, I like some of the Brazilian psychedelic stuff that has been rediscovered in recent years. But none of this is my main food, if I had to pick one, I mostly dig the weird Afrobeat stuff of the 1970’s.
 
 66. Any musical allergies?
>> I don’t like “opera” and I don’t like “rap” and “hip-hop” (except in some rare cases, where I like early stuff by Grandmaster Flash).
 
 67. How do you see the future of music?
>> It seems all spread out now - too much new music coming at us from all directions, it’s hard to soak it all in, it’s hard to hear it all. But I keep hearing “old” stuff that I’ve never heard before - there’s always some old krautrock or prog-rock or English-folk thing or some good soul or jazz thing that I’ve never heard before that turns me on!

 
Ned Doherty on bass, Pat Thomas on drums, Dave Brandt on percussion, Ralph Carney on sax,
Matt Cunitz on keys, Josh Pollock on guitar at the Café Du Nord, San Francisco, CA

68. What difference do you feel there is between the music now and then...?
>> I think the main difference between now (1980’s until 2010) and then (1960’s - 1970’s) is that music was connected in the 1960’s and 1970’s to social-political change - there was the riots in Paris in 1968, the riots in Chicago in 1968, the Kent State University student shootings in 1970, long hair and hippies, the anti-war protests of Vietnam, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, the Black Panther Party, Amiri Baraka - all this was reflected in the music of Dylan, the Beatles, Neil Young, but also John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Rock and Jazz was plugged into ‘the movement’ and ‘the revolution.’ In the 1970’s, we had The Clash - an amazing political band. We don’t really have that now. There is some ‘rap music’ that talks about the problems for African-Americans in today’s society. But now, most people are NOT political. Most people don’t give a shit about war and the government and the music reflects that “I don’t give a shit’ attitude.

69. ...Equipment?
>> Well, NOTHING beats the sound of a ‘mellotron’ or the sound of a Fender Rhodes piano or a Gibson SG guitar. So equipment does have something to do with it! But it’s also cool that now, I can record my own album at home without a lot of money and send it to you on a CD-R.

70. Old stuff versus new, what turns you on then & off now?
>> I do love the fact that we now have so much music to ‘draw from’ - I can listen to Miles Davis or Can or Dylan all within 10 minutes by getting onto a computer or pulling out a CD off my shelf - it’s much ‘easier’ to find music now. I like going to ‘small’ clubs, not big concert halls. I like the fact, I can visit an artist’s website, maybe even send them an email - and maybe they will write back. I dunno. On one hand it all seems more ‘down to earth’ now and yet it was perhaps more ‘down to earth’ back then. You could show up at the Fillmore East with a camera in 1969 and just take pictures without asking anyone, now you would have to have a ‘special pass’ to bring a camera into a concert. Everyone is uptight about their image, about ‘copyrights’ - and this makes sense in one way and is total bullshit in another way.

71. How about the sound of the times?
>> As I just discussed just a minute ago, the music was plugged into the politics and the politics was plugged into the music. Now there is ‘no’ special time and no special sound for it.

72. About the sound of the times what I meant to say was: Music being THE vibrational art it's always a reflection of a world at a time, it's not only that but it counts. And there's the sound environment where musicians grow up in that includes everything from flora & fauna but also machines, room acoustics, language, an infinity of possibilities and surely music too.
>> Yes, I agree - it includes everything; machines, room acoustics, language, an infinity of possibilities and surely music too. 

73. Some disappeared & new ones came along, now my childhood street doesn't sound the same anymore.
>> As Van Morrison said in a song he wrote and sang; “The street only knew your name”

Matt Cunitz hands on the keyboards

74. I remember being endlessly stuck for the very first time in my car before railroad tracks in Texas where Mark, my friend and passenger, shouted out:"Listen!" Under the heavy white & blue sky, captivated, we spread our ears to the chuggling sound of a never ending freight train goin' nowhere. He cupped his hands together & blew a harmonica riff imitating the rhythm of the train then a guitar riff in a blues phrasing then a country one, speeding up the tempo he merged into rhythm & blues then rock'n roll.
>> Wow, that’s great - that reads like something Jack Kerouac might have written in 1958, except he’d use the words “jazz” rather than rock n roll. Beautiful.

75. Suddenly he stopped & claimed: "Freight trains! Hobos! Blues and The Big depression! Okies! Woody Guthrie!"
>> Very much like a Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady kind of thing - wonderful!
 
 76. American music to him was always intricately connected to our means of transportation through locations: Bluegrass - Mule riding upon a hill; C&W - Horse riding through plains; Blues & Jazz - Train, Automobile; Rock'n Roll - Motorbike, Airplane; Space Rock: Jet-plane, Rockets, Astral traveling (Rudimentary examples, I must confess)
>> No, it’s perfect, I like it - a lot!

77. Then when our technology in transportation stagnate to the profit of an era of communication: Electronic music: Telex, computer sound glitches, fax noises, cellphones rings, video games beeps, technology... less movement, less craftsmanship. In brief, music follows motion. As important as political & social changes are in giving shape to music I think it's quiet reducing (& paranoiac...) to assume they're the only factor. In that regard I can relate to Jerry Garcia's saying: "For me, the lame part of the Sixties was the political part, the social part. The real part was the spiritual part."
>> I disagree with Jerry, because I love the politics and the social part as much as the spiritual part, but to be fair - Jerry was an adult in the 1960’s and I was only a baby - so I can’t say for sure. I wasn’t really there.

78. Seems to me revolutions get perverted from their original purpose of changing contents to changing forms, same shit different mask while the world gets worse. We address the symptoms rarely the illness. Great combination of small scale thinking & mass control. We have to change ourselves to save ourselves.
>> Agreed.
 

Matt Cunitz on piano, Dave Brandt on percussion, Josh Pollock on electronics, Ned Doherty on bass,
Pat Thomas on drums, Erik Pearson on guitar at the Hotel Utah in San Francisco, CA

Links
Pat Thomas : official
Mushroom : official | discography until 2008 | discogs | facebook | myspace | parisdjs
4 Zero Records (label) : official | facebook | myspace
The Royal Potato Family (US distribution) : official | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | soundcloud | twitter | youtube

Interview with AM & Shawn Lee (english version)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 01:48:00 +0200

AM & Shawn Lee - The ‘Confessions' Interview
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - summer 2011)

Vintage soundmaster Shawn Lee is back again and this time he's not alone. With brilliant guitarist and songwriter AM (bred in New Orleans but established in LA), they have just released Celestial Electric (ESL Music), one of the top pop albums of 2011. This funky, addictive and rather psychedelic record was born in Los Angeles where the two musicians have met eventually (Shawn Lee lives in London). Shawn Lee remembers: "During that L.A. trip, we listened to a lot of music together and bonded over our mutual love of vintage French and Italian library and film music and nuggest from the Finders Keepers record label. I suggested that we make an album together, and the rest is history". Celestial Electric was conceived as a transcontinental music files trade between AM in LA and Shawn Lee until each one was happy with the result. Both were kind enough to allow us a 'confessions interview' or a manner of 'questionnaire de Proust' just before they hit the road for their US Tour. Besides, they cooked an exclusive mix for us called AM & Shawn Lee's Paris DJs Betamix.

' How did you meet?
AM : I emailed Shawn after hearing a track off his "Music and Rhythm" album on the radio here in LA.
Shawn Lee : AM hit me up on Myspace originally. We became cyber friends and later met in person in London when he was playing over here. We stayed in touch over the years and continued to get to know each other both musically and personally, hanging out in both London and LA together. Eventually he ‘set in' live with the Ping Pong Orchestra and me with his live band both in London and LA. The circle was the complete. The stage was now set for Celestial Electric!

Who did find the title 'Celestial Electric'?
AM : Shawn and I had been batting titles back and fourth for a while and just couldn't come up with something that resonated. As Andy Votel was finishing up our album art he said "guys, I need the title today!" We were like shit, ok. So I dug up a recent list I had come up with and emailed like 5 titles to Andy and Shawn. Andy said "Celestial Electric" is the one. So there it was. I had honestly forgotten about that title, but when Andy picked it out I was like "it's perfect". We were definitely aiming for something that played on 70's sci-fi and space themes…that whole space disco thing.
SL: AM did, right in the 11th hour!

What instruments do you play on Celestial Electric?
AM : Acoustic guitars, electric guitars, bass, ukulele, banjo, synthesizers… we actually listed out all playing credits on the album in detail…70's style. As a kid I remember looking at an old Rush LP and seeing "Geddy Lee – Taurus Pedals". I'm like "what the fuck is a TAURUS PEDAL! Some magical instrument from another land! I wanted to create that same feeling for anyone curious about what we used to get certain sounds.
SL : Drums, percussions, bass, guitar, keyboards, glockenspiel, vibraphone, marimba, xylophone, etc.

Have you got an idea of how many files have you exchanged between LA and London for the record?
AM : No idea. The tracks aren't that dense though. I think we knew when to stop.
SL: Nope. Los count after 2 Heh Heh!!!!

List three main influences behind Celestial Electric.
AM : All the music I listen to, Shawn Lee's dope ass beats, cheap synths.
SL : Finders Keepers records label, my Tascam cassette 4 track machine & AM.

What will be the band on tour?
SL : I'll be playing mostly bass but swapping to guitar on a few songs & a smidge of percussions/drums and backing vocals. AM on guitar & lead vocals plus bass. We got Brett Bixby on drums & Pete McNeal. It's a fucking great 4 piece band!

@Shawn : what's your favourite AM album?
SL : "Future Sons & Daughters". There are some great songs on there.
@AM : what's your favourite Shawn Lee's album?
AM : It's hard to say. It's probably a tie between "Music and Rhythm" and "Voices and Choices".

@Shawn : name an AM quality you envy
SL : His great songwriting!
@AM : name a Shawn Lee quality you envy
AM : It's very rare that someone can capture a style of music so perfectly. Shawn has absolutely mastered re-creating old soundtrack, library, funk and soul records from the 60's and 70's. When I first heard his track on the radio I thought it was a lost gem from a soundtrack I hadn't heard yet. He understands the vocabulary both musically and as a producer. At the same time he brings something fresh and new to it. There's really no one I've played a Shawn Lee track to that doesn't' start bobbing their head. This becomes even more evident to me when I hear some other folks trying to re-create this genre and they just don't get it. Either the melody is no good or the tones are just way off. This is never the case with Shawn. And the bastard works at lightning speed! He's already loaded me up with 10 dope ass beats for the next AM & Shawn Lee album!

@Shawn : Three adjectives to define AM's musical style(s)
SL : taste, style and vibe
@AM : Three adjectives to define Shawn's musical style(s)
AM : Funky, greasy and tasteful.

List all the instruments you can play.
AM : Guitars (nylon, steel, electric), bass, synthesizers… and I can hack on the banjo, mandolin and ukulele.
SL : Drums, perc, guitars, bass, singing, keys, harmonica, melodica, vibes, marimba, xylophone, glockenspiel, various stringed instruments like banjo, mandolin, zithers, etc. Hell I'll give most things a go!

Is there a musical genre that you can't bear?
SL : Anything with heavily Auto-Tune vocals. Crapola!
AM : Modern day country music, I don't know what that stuff is.

@Shawn : name one important thing you've learned working with Jeff Buckley.
SL : Keep on moving to find your place and sound.
@AM : name one important thing you've learned touring with Caetano Veloso.
AM : Always be gracious.

Your favourite NOLA band/musician
AM : The Meters
SL : Allen Toussaint & The Meters, Earl Palmer.

Your 3 favourite albums from the Finders Keepers label.
SL : Selda, Ersen, Sitting Target Soundtrack. Amazing Label, Andy Votel is an inspiration.
AM : Selda, Ersen, Jean-Claude Vannier - L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches.

Your favourite records in French library and soundtrack.
SL : (Library) Nino Nardini & Roger Roger "Jungle Obsession" (OST) La Planète Sauvage by Alain Goraguer
AM : Spatial – Sauveur Mallia, Luke Vibert - Nuggets: Luke Vibert's Selection, AIR – Love 2

Your favourite records in Italian library and soundtrack.
SL : (Library) Stefano Torossi "Feelings". (OST) Vergogna Schifosi or The Sicilian Clan both by Ennio Morricone.
AM : Piero Umiliani – Il Corpo, Giani Safred – Futuribile: The Life To Come, Franco Micalizzi - Albert e L' Uomo Nero

Your favourite film director.
SL : Quentin Tarantino. A Modern Master…
AM : Stanley Kubrick.

The movies you'll bring with you on a desert island.
SL : Planet of the Apes, Pulp fiction, Rollerball, Usual Suspects, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Jackie Brown, This is Spinal Tap, escape from New York.
AM : Manhattan, Annie Hall, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Down By Law, The Friends Of Eddie Coyle, Night Of The Hunter, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Carnal Knowledge, The Last Detail, Superman (70's version), The Verdict, Electra Glide In Blue, High Plains Drifter, Play Misty For Me, Sunset Boulevard…as many as I could fit in the bag!

Favourite actor and actress.
AM : Very difficult to pick one, but… Jack Nicholson and Shelley Winters.
SL : Jeff Bridges, Kate Winslet is pretty darn good!

Favourite writer/poet.
SL : Pierre Boulle. He wrote both Planet of The Apes and Bridge over the River Kwai.
AM : Woody Allen.

Favourite classic novel.
SL : Dracula by Bram Stoker. OG King of the Vamps.
AM : Ask The Dust (John Fante).

Favourite classical composer.
SL : Ravel. Bolero is a frickin' masterpiece…
AM : Chopin, but again, very difficult to pick one. I like Ravel too.

Favourite photographer.
Ton photographe préféré?
SL : Whoever shot for Playboy Magazine in the 70s! David Bailey was Dope.

Favourite philosopher.
SL : Philosophy bores me to be honest. People quoting Plato who love the sound of their own voices. I'm too busy living life to talk about the theories of living life – you know what I mean?
AM : Schopenhauer.

Favourite dish.
SL : I prefer bowls. The food doesn't spill over the sides too much! Haha!!!
AM : Spaghetti Bolognese.

Favourite witty quote.
SL : "Ray Charles said it, I believe it – that settles it!"
AM : "If you can't do, teach. If you can't teach, teach gym." (Woody Allen)

Your favourite heroes in real life.
SL : mes enfants Mela et Seela. Ils sont géniaux.
AM : Really anyone who's overcome insurmountable odds. Life is hard enough when things are going well.

What job would you love to do in another life?
SL : Be a rich musician Hahaha!!!
AM : Maybe something in the skilled trades. The only thing I know how to make is completely intangible. I'd be nice to know how to build a house.

In which animal would you like to be reincarnated?
SL : Great White Shark. Apex Predator Man!
AM : An owl. Mysterious creature of the night!

A very important thing you have to do before you die.
SL : live!
AM : There was one thing I wanted to do before I died, and I've done it. I just can't talk about it here.

Write you epitaph.
SL : Here lies Shawn Lee – father, husband, funkateer… RIP
AM : I thought other people were supposed to write that? You don't want to know what I think of myself.

Download the AM & Shawn Lee - Paris DJs Betamix :

Links :
AM and Shawn Lee : official | facebook | myspace
AM : official | discogs | facebook | myspace | soundcloud | youtube
Shawn Lee : official | discogs | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | twitter | youtube
ESL Music : official | facebook | myspace | soundcloud | parisdjs | twitter | youtube

Interview with Billy Martin (english version)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 01:50:00 +0200

Medeski, Martin & Wood - 20 years of friendship and chemistry
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - summer 2011)

The great Medeski Martin & Wood trio celebrates its 20 years of music with a series of shows (a very special one at Paris' Jazz à la Villette fest on September 11th), a bunch of singles releases and a double live album with John Scofield, awaited this fall. Billy Martin remembers the beginning of the group and tells us about his new projects.

1. MMW celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Can you remember how everything started?
It all started at my Brooklyn loft 1991. John and Chris were room mates on Avenue A East Village and I was living in Dumbo (Brooklyn). We all got together and started playing for the first time and what came out of it was our first song "Uncle Chubb" then a gig at the Village gate in NYC and the rest is .....? There was immediate chemistry and friendship that started it all. We still have the friendship and the chemistry going strong.

2. Now you are an old ménage à trois. How do explain that your trio has done and still does so well?
What we do best is communicate well and balance each-other's musical personality. What keeps us going is striving to expand our musical vocabulary together.

3. Was there any common musical philosophy between you, John and Chris at the very beginning of your story?
No philosophy or concept except that we didn't want to be side men any more in other bands. We wanted our own group with no leader. A collective. Medeski and I were in the Lounge Lizards and it was difficult for me to leave that band but I knew MMW was what I needed more. I miss the Lounge Lizards but it was the right choice.

4. You celebrate this anniversary releasing 2 tracks per month.
We are releasing 20 singles this year. This is our 20th anniversary year and the music is varied. By the end of this year we will have a complete record. The record is not intended to have an overall story in the musical sense. Just another fresh way of delivering new music.

A very good vidéo of one of the "20" tracks

5. What do you think of the evolution of music business during those last 20 years?
The music business has devolved as far as I can tell. The artists are leading the way to self-promotion, marketing and sales. This is how we started our band – self-promotion, networking and playing live, touring as much as possible...

6. How do you see the future of MMW?
The future is bright but we are not touring as much as we used to. We will continue to make new music and try to concentrate on a better quality of life on and off the road.

7. John Medeski is a great wine amateur. Can you remember the best bottle you've ever drunk in his company?
1982 Guigal La Mouline - John and I had at a great truffle dinner in Paris with that wine. Also, Yves Gangloff's condrieu and côte-rôtie. He is a music fan and we have tasted his wine with him which was such a great experience.

8. Improvisation is a very important part of MMW's work. Do you see improvisation as a random art, an art of the accident?
Improvisation is not random. We create spontaneously in the moment. We do not toss a coin and let it tell us what to play in the moment. We listen carefully to what the moment needs. That requires heart-felt thought. Don't get me wrong because I love ‘chance' operations (John Cage!) and some of that may be a part of what happens out of our control.

9. Tell me about The Wicked Knee.
Wicked Knee is my new band. Brass and drums. Trumpet, trombone, tuba and drumset. Some of the best and most interesting personalities together for the first time. I think this band will have a big impact in the next few years around the world. I like that we do not have to use electricity to perform in general. A unique line up of instrumentation which lends itself to New Orleans, Soul, Funk, Africa and avant garde directions. check out our site http://wickedknee.tumblr.com/ or facebook for free downloads.

10. You are also an artist under the name of Illy B. Is there any connection between your art in painting/drawing and your art in drumming?
Yes. I like to improvise in both situations. I never know exactly what will be the result. Both magical process and both a way to communicate without words.

11. Do you find time to visit exhibitions where you're on tour?
Sometimes. Touring is a difficult job. There isn't much time to trip around outside of your initial job when touring. But, when there is a little time and I have energy - you will find me in a museum or restaurant or walking the city.

12. You wrote that Nature and fishing were important in your education and culture. Tell me more about this.
J.-Y. Cousteau was my hero in the seventies and I wanted to be like him travelling the oceans and seas diving and discovering things. I think it's more about the variety in nature that attracts me and that inspires me to go on and create art/music.

13. You share with John Lurie the love of music, art and maybe fishing. Do you have any other plans of doing music together in a near future?
We talk about it sometimes. He told me the best thing he ever did was the trio we had together: The John Lurie National Orchestra. I'm not sure with his health that it could happen. But I miss him and that connection we had.

Billy's favourite MMW albums :

Shackman : our classic hawaiian shack sessions
french review on djouls.com

Combustication : the beginning of our bluenote years and with DJ Logic and DJ Olive
french review on djouls.com

The Dropper : our punk rock fuck-you record

Let's Go Everywhere : for all the children
info on parisdjs.com

Zaebos : our first record playing someone else's music entirely and making it our own.
info on parisdjs.com

A few links :
mmw.net | billymartin.net/gallery/illybgallery.htm | wickedknee.tumblr.com | soundcloud.com/wickedknee | amuletrecords.com

Interview with Steven Bernstein (english version)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:30:00 +0200

An Interview with Steven Bernstein / The Millenial Territory Orchestra
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - summer 2011)

Trumpeter Steven Bernstein often presents himself as "one of the hardest working men in showbusiness". Beyond the ironical expression alluding to James Brown, nothing is more true. He's created a fantastic piece of music with its Diaspora quadrilogy, now a modern classic. He leads Sex Mob and The Millennial Territory Orchestra (MTO). But all this is just the tip of the iceberg, and the iceberg is huge as a planet. He's arranged, composed, produced or played with an incredible myriad of musicians in every genre possible, from Carla Bley to Elton John, from Levon Helm to John Lurie, from Medeski, Martin & Wood to Shivaree, from Antony and The Johnsons to Lee Scratch Perry...

With The Millennial Territory Orchestra, a spectacular nonet, Bernstein recreates a kind of big band that was very popular in the US in the 20s and the 30s, territory orchestras crossing the state to play in bars and dancehalls. The MTO hits the stage in Paris on September 11th (Jazz à la Villette Festival) to present their latest creation, a superb tribute to Sly And The Family Stone, followed, a few weeks later, by the release of the album MTO plays Sly (Royal Potato Family).

01. You've been involved in hundreds of projects for more than twenty years and you don't seem to slow down. Where do you find the energy to achieve all this?
This is what I do... just like people go to work 5 days a week... except I work 7 days a week... everyday I practice my horns, and most days (and nights) I write music... It's pretty easy given the alternative. it's important to get enough rest, eat well, and make sure your caffeine intake is correct. Coffee is only for the morning... then espresso! Also, I work with my friends, so my work environment is relatively stress free...

02. Now you release "MTO plays Sly". You've done Sly covers with Sex Mob in the past. So why the big band formula for this tribute, instead of Sex Mob?
This was conceived as a Millennial Territory Orchestra project, the producer who asked me to do the original concert (Jay Weismann at 'River to River' fest) is a big fan of MTO, and thought that using the MTO version of "Darling Nikki" was a good starting point, so I took it from there. The first concert was part of a woodstock 40th anniversary tribute (By The Way l also played at the 40th anniversary Woodstock concert with Levon Helm).

03. Why is Sly's music special to you?
I think I'll send CD's liner notes... that explains my long history with, and love of Sly's music. the short version is that I grew up in Berkeley in the 60's and this music was always there. I bought Slys greatest its when I was 17, already a jazzed and playing jazz gigs, and the music really opened my ears, hem I got to NewYork and the lower east side in 1979... the early 80's "punk funk scene" was in full bloom... I bought «Fresh» and "There's a Riot Goin On"and it made total sense in that environment. Sly has continued to inspire me all this time... the Family Stone was the perfect combination of individuality and precision..they made a 7 piece band sound huge... orchestrationally, socially, musically. Sly was ahead of it all... his music is the perfect blend of science and mystery.

04. What is your favourite Sly album?
Impossible to answer... different every day I guess... I love em ALL!

05. Sly releases his first record for years just a few weeks before yours. Have you listened to this album and if so, what is your opinion?
Have not heard it. Interesting that it has a lot of the same songs as MTO Plays Sly. I know he has completed other cds of new music and never put them out.

06. Tell me about the colour of "MTO plays Sly" and the instruments you chose for the record. For instance, banjo and violin?
Well the idea was to combine MTO , which is based on the early territory bands and New Orleans Orchestras....(brass, violin, clarinet, 2 saxes) with Hammond B 3...kind of like a ancient futurist version of Basie andJimmy McGriff, but using Bernie Worrell and his special magic. The banjo was a last minute decision, just told the guitar to bring it... being playing lots of Americana festivals with Levon Helm's band, and that sound was just in my head, decided I'd see what would happen...its some of my favorite moments on the CD.

07. How did you cast the singers?
It came pretty naturally... Dean and Sandra were my 1st choice as the main singers, they are friends and have a strong connection to Sly and to Sly's roots which is church music.... I thought Antony would be perfect for Family Affair, and Martha for Que Sera. I had this all in my head at the 1st meeting about the show. Shilpa Ray was brought to me by Jay Weismann. She really brings something different.

08. Bringing Antony Hegarty is a bright idea. His singing on Family Affair is amazing.
I agree. Have you heard the arrangement I made for him on "If It be Your Will" on the Leonard Cohen tribute? we have a mutual admiration... I plan to do more with Antony, he is an incredible artist.

09. You've played in Walter Thompson's orchestra. Do you use soundpainting on stage to conduct the MTO?
You can call it soundpainting, conduction... whatever. I've developed my own way of conducting the band that incorporates all these elements.

10. A word on your most recent band, The Wicked Knee with Billy Martin.
This is not my band, but I helped billy with the arrangements, were all excited about this project...a real 21st century pocket brass band, we've only played a few gigs, but the musics been incredible AND people were dancing!

11. One of my favourite records in your discography is Baby Loves Jazz. Was it a commercial success?
Not as much as it could have been, we recorded it independently, Verve put it out, but wasn't quite sure how to get into the kids market.... I think a great kids CD with Sharon Jones and John Medeski should be selling forever!!!!!

12. With Sex Mob you did a cover of la Macarena and other popular hits. Who's the next chosen one? Lady Gaga or Katy Perry? Or maybe Miley Cyrus?
Did a little Lady Gaga recently.

13. What can we expect from the unpredictable Steven Bernstein in a near future?
I want to record my new project MTO Plays the Early Blues with Henry Butler, Dean and Sandra (WC Handy, Jelly Roll, Bessie Smith, Fats Waller and Basie), also want to make a record with guitars only, and it would be great to make a Levon Helm instrumental CD... we recorded Levon Helm band with Mavis Staples live in Woodstock (I wrote 4 horn arrangements). I still want to make Sexmob plays Nino Rota.... just need some time (and $)... Ars Nova in Philly has a great Spanish Fly set from a few years back they are threatening to release as part of an archival series.Also did a recent Sexmob concert "1971". Might be nice to do a series like that, all music from one year only. Been making nice collaborations in Italy as well (Brass Bang with Paulo Fresu, Gianluca Petrella, and Marcus Rojas, quartet with Riccardo Fassi, playing Bitches Brew with Funky Football). For my 50th birthday well have a special Sexmob concert with Roswell Rudd and Medeski in upstate NY...

black & white photo by Ziga Kortinik, color photos by Greg Aiello

Links :
Exclusive mix part 1 | part 2
Interview : in English or in French
New album out sept 27th : MTO plays Sly
Live in Paris sept 11th : Sly Stone tribute show
Steven Bernstein's Millenial Territory Orchestra : official | flickr | myspace | parisdjs | wikipedia | youtube

Interview of Mike Rivard / Club d'Elf (english)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 08:26:00 +0200

An Interview with Mike Rivard / Club d'Elf

01. Is Electric Moroccoland your declaration of love to sintir and oud?
More or less it's a musical love letter to Morocco, and the sintir and the oud are featured. Since those instruments are connected with North African music they are the primary mediums in which we pay tribute to the Moroccan music styles that we love, such as gnawa, Berber music, and specifically the music of the great rais Hadj Belaid ("Ambib") & Nass El Ghiwane ("Ghir Khoudouni").

02. Will you bring Club d'Elf to Morocco?
Inshallah! We hope to perform at the Gnaoua Festival in Essaouira next June and tour to other areas of the country as well. We have been performing a lot lately with Hassan Hakmoun and the idea is to go over with him and do some performances. I'm currently applying for a grant to travel there so we'll see what happens!

03. Is there an european tour planned?
If we can find promoters who are adventurous enough to bring us there we would love to tour Europe. Unfortunately, with the economic climate it's hard to get people to take a chance on a band such as ours, which is hard to categorize. I think the European audiences would really embrace the music and we hope to bring it there someday.

04 The artcover of the album is gorgeous. Who signed the art?
Doug Sirois, who also did the cover art for Now I Understand. He is an amazingly talented guy and does a lot of fantasy book illustrations. He really gets the essence of Club d'Elf and his art is the perfect complement (www.dougsirois.com).

05. Can you explain briefly the origins of the band's name?
We have a somewhat twisted sense of humor, and if the name is pronounced a certain way, it sounds like "clubbed elf", which is an image that appealed to us at the time. In addition, it's a tribute to Terence McKenna whose writings were a big influence on me personally, as well as on the music itself. He wrote at length about his experiences w/ psychedelics and of these "self-transforming machine elves" he encountered while in trance. The clincher was when I ran the name by Mark Sandman and he approved, so I figured it was worth going with.

06. What was the idea behind the double disc?
There was some thought about releasing two separate discs, but we decided a double disc would better showcase the diversity of the band's music. It made sense to have each disc linked thematically, with Electric Moroccolandrepresenting the Moroccan trance side, and So Below the more electronica/DJ/psychedelic dub side. There's a lot of dovetailing between the two discs stylistically, but in general you can break it down to those divisions. In addition, it's kind of insane to put out a double CD these days, and if there's one thing Club d'Elf is, it's insane.

07. Were the tracks with Mark Sandman demos at the beginning on which you add the rest?
Not demos, but songs that were begun and put on ice for a long time until the proper moment came to complete them. There was a lot of Mark's energy coming into my life in the last year or so through dreams and such, as well as the documentary about him being produced, and as I delved deeper into playing the sintir, the full extent of his influence on me became more apparent. I decided to complete the tracks that we had begun with him in ‘99 as a tribute and also covered "Rope on Fire", which is one of my favorite songs he wrote. "Sand" was written with him in mind as well.

08. Regarding Mark Sandman, have you participated to the documentary (on him?
No, I wasn't asked to be part of it, but I saw it when it premiered in Boston and thought it was quite good. Mark lived such a complex and full life that it would be hard to capture it all in an hour and a half documentary. I was happy to contribute to the Kickstarter campaign and am glad to hear that they will be releasing it to a wider audience. More people need to know about him, and if I can inspire listeners to check his music out through his presence on the new album then that's the least I can do in return for the huge impact he had upon on me.

09. What are your projects in a near future? Any new instrument to learn?
I plan to go deeper into my study of the sintir and hopefully get a grant to go to Morocco to work with some of the master musicians there. I'm currently working on a video about my relationship with the instrument and bringing it into places it has not normally been used, such as Peruvian shamanism. I would also love to learn to play another Moroccan instrument, the rebab, which is a one stringed instrument played with a bow. I've been trying to incorporate the sound of that instrument into my arco bass playing for some time now and it would be really cool to play the real thing. I play with a group called Grand Fatilla that does a lot of folk music from around the world - Bulgarian, Brazilian, Turkish, Italian, tangos from Argentina - and another band called Natraj (which also features D'Elf tabla player Jerry Leake) and look forward to more work with them as well as Club d'Elf.

10. A word on John Medeski. How would you describe his unique sound and kind of playing?
John and I first met in the late 80s when we were both in the Either/Orchestra. We became friends and would generally end up rooming together on the tours that we did. We bonded over our mutual love for the movies of John Waters, schlocky horror films and and interest in macrobiotics & Hoshino therapy. Over the years our relationship has deepened, especially with both of us becoming more involved in Shipibo shamanism. John is without a doubt one of the most amazing musicians on the planet whose sound is instantly identifiable. He is able to channel energies in his playing that borders on the wizardly, and it's always an amazing experience to have him play with the band.

About "Cure For Pain : The Mark Sandman Story" : http://www.gatlingpictures.com/
Interview made and translated at the end of June 2011 by Nicolas Ragonneau for Paris DJs.

Club d'Elf Links :
official | audio archive | bandcamp | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | soundcloud | twitter | vimeo | wordpress | youtube

Interview of Stanton Moore (english version)

Nicolas Ragonneau — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:00:00 +0100

Stanton Moore - Drums, foie gras & Pinot noir
(Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau, for Paris DJs - early 2011)

One of the greatest and most powerful drummers is a tireless man. Not only is he drumming for Galactic, the hottest New Orleans band, but he also finds time to run side projects with his trio, jazz-psych-punk-progressive band Garage à Trois or Midnite Disturbers - to name just a few. He’s also played for young Diane Birch, Joss Stone or timeless Doctors legends Dr. John and Dr. Lonnie Smith, not to mention his collaborations for drums magazines… We’ve added one more job in his demented schedule with this interview. So… thanks, Stanton.

1. You were born in NOLA. Was music important in your family?
Yes very much. My mom loved Mardi Gras parades and brought me to all the parades from the age of 8 months, so I'd hear the drums coming down the street. I got very excited by the drums from an early age. I'd go back home and hit on pots and pans and boxes and my dad would be listening to all the Mardi Gras music which consisted of Professor Long Hair, Dr. John, The Meters and the Wild Magnolia Mardi Gras Indians.

2. What were your favorite musicians and band when you were a teenager?
In my early teens it was Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, then later, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, the Meters and James Brown.

3. What brought you to the drums?
Hearing them in the Parades and in the streets. Then seeing a drumset at my parents friends' house. Their son had one and I thought it was the most holy thing I had ever seen. Also seeing kids playing the drums at my grade school. I knew wanted to do that.

4. What makes NOLA's music so special according to you?
New Orleans was the only city in America that allowed African slaves to play their music on American Soil. This happened in legendary Congo Square (now Louis, Armstrong Park). So, many African rhythms, music and culture were kept alive in the square and eventually mingled with all the European instruments and music. It's this cross pollination of African and European rhythms, music and culture that eventually developed into the unique forms of music that we know to have come from New Orleans.

5. 'Ya-Ka-May' displays a very powerful and innovative sound I guess, very different from the previous records.
Thank you, we wanted to make a "new" New Orleans record, where we invited some of the legends as well as some of the current new comers and put our own unique spin on it all.

6. The whole album is quite provocative and iconoclast: while the hip-hop planet is mainly homophobic, you choose to invite trans bounce stars like Big Freedia or Katey...
Yes, we wanted to do things a bit differently and shake things up a bit. We wanted to put our spin on what we thought was cool about the music scene in New Orleans today. We felt like the sissy rappers in the bounce world were doing some very interesting things, so we wanted to include them in the record and we felt like it would make for an interesting combination.

7. In Ya-Ka-May there's a sample of Kocani Orkestar. There's also a crazy nice track you play on stage called "Balkan Wedding". Do Galactic musicians listen to gipsy music or Brass bands from Balkan and Central Europe?
Yes absolutely. Our saxophone player and producer, Ben Ellman is very into gipsy and Balkan music (especially the brass bands). Ben and I have also been involved with the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, so we've been into music from central and eastern Europe for a while.

8. Do you think there's a chance to see Ya-Ka-May's tour in Paris in 2011?
We certainly hope so.

9. There's Galactic, but there's also The Stanton Moore Trio going on with Will Bernard and Robert Walter. What do you like doing with the trio?
The trio allows me to interact with the band and improvise and solo a bit more. Galactic is like driving a large Cadillac, whereas the trio is more like driving a small sports car. Both are fun to drive, but they handle differently.

10. What's your definition of "Groove Alchemy"?
Creating new "golden" grooves by using certain creative processes that consist of combining and altering existing grooves and rhythmic elements.

11. Tell me about "Power Patriot", the last Garage à Trois album. There's an incredible and apocalyptic sound on this album.
The sound of the band evolved naturally after playing together and discovering what we sound like as a unit when we all come together as individuals. It took a few months of playing and working together for us to discover what our "sound" was, but once we all started writing together and putting the record together, we were all very happy with the results. We go in the studio to make a new record this month.

12. Galactic made a cameo in the new David Simon's series TREME (HBO). What do you think of the series?
We like the series and we feel like it is good for the city. It is bringing a "TV" version of New Orleans culture into the living rooms of millions of people. We hope that's a good thing.

13. Do you think the series could help the people and city of NOLA in a way?
We hope that it will increase the interest in New Orleans music and culture and will increase tourism. That would be helpful to the economy of NOLA.

14. There will be a second Treme season. Any chance to see you and Galactic in this following?
Yes, we have already filmed a big scene for the first episode of the second season.

15. Would you like to make a solo album one day - the kind Billy Martin did solo?
I've considered it.

16. What's the most funny/weird/pathetic thing you've ever experienced on stage?
The most pathetic thing would be... Galactic was playing the song "Big Chief" at Tipitina's, Bo Dollis, the Big Chief of the Wild Magnolia Mardi Gras Indians dug it and came up on stage to sing. He is one of our favorite vocalists of all time. He got up on stage, the crowd went wild, he went to belt the opening lines of the song and the sound guy hadn't turned his mic on! The amazing thing is that I could still hear him, that's how powerful he is.

17. You played on one Rachid Taha's album... How did this happen?
He and his producers wanted to come to New Orleans and record a funky New Olreans band for the record. We got recommended and they came down and recorded us.

18. Which young musicians from the NO new generation you would recommend to follow?
Trombone Shorty.

19. What you do on stage is physically-demanding... do you have particular exercise to keep you in form?
I've done P90X off and on. I need to get back to it.

20. Do you find time to have a hobby to do something else than playing music in your terrible schedule?
Yes, Hanging out with my wife and daughter, going to the beach, swimming, watching movies, riding my bike, practicing jazz drumming and brushes, reading about music history.

21. Food is very important for NOLA people. What's your favorite restaurant?
Right now, Restaurant August.

22. Name your favorite dish, the one you would die for?
Foie Gras.

23. Let's have a glass of wine from your side of the Atlantic and mine. What do you fancy?
Pinot Noir!

Interview by Nicolas Ragonneau
Photos by Allison Murphy

Links :
Stanton Moore : officiel | discogs | facebook | myspace | soundcloud | twitter | wikipedia | youtube
Galactic : official | discogs | djouls | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | twitter | wikipedia | youtube
Garage A Trois : official | discogs | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | soundcloud | wikipedia
Stanton Moore's favorite restaurant : restaurantaugust

Download the Paris DJs Soundsystem presents Stanton Moore mix :