Need to work with those who are better than you! / Article / LSM.LV

Idea, different emotions, very natural doubts and long awaited satisfaction. In a conversation with Elza Rosenthal, we discuss the idea of ​​an album that goes from idea to recording.

How did the idea of ​​the album "Far Distant" appear and develop?

The idea of ​​the album came very fast, but the process itself was complicated – I started with my solo concert program, I created a much larger team of musicians stronger than me. My first solo program was mixed with folk songs and popular music, showing my different musical facets.

I told my musicians that I would like to continue to develop what we do with folk songs, but it soon became apparent that we did not want to organize existing folk songs. Before, the decoration of folk songs became a meditative and insidiously nostalgic music, as in most Latvian folk songs – the pleasure is relatively small and we did not want to play folk songs like crazy rides.

It turned out that the plans were going faster than the real understanding of how to build everything together, and what to start with, given the difference we all have. We were just familiar, so it took a long time to understand and feel more deeply – and try to keep going. The album is long and complicated, but from the bottom of the heart. The sketches of the song emerged one by one and the producer Gatis Zakis, by his presence in the album, gave more confidence.

Two years have pbaded and the album is ready! We wrote such music, which is certainly not easy or sticky, is not a mainstream, but at the same time, this music is original in its sound. We created it, four very different people.

From the original idea, we have kept the framework in which we work with texts of songs / folk fairy tales and do not use traditional folk instruments, but rather modern electronic functions.

When I released the first song – the messenger from the album "Dzelžu cilvēciņš" -, I had the feeling that there was no radio station in Latvia for which we would count the "format". This is the case now, because everything changes over time. Even so, for the first time in my life, I do not hear the little critic of my life. I am very proud of this album!

Let's talk about the musical influences that directly or indirectly sound that sound. Your voice has the expression of rock music and other musicians from "Bur me" seem to know the genre well. What is your relationship with rock music?

I have no relationship with rock music. There has never been such a thing. The only rock close to me is the dynamism and the voice that springs in me. I have never really listened to it. The only one of us – Kaspars Vizulis – started his musical performance in his childhood as a fan of heavy music with smooth hair. In addition, his instrument, the guitar, definitely gives that rock feeling.

Speaking of influences, my mother was a lover of Imants Kalnins. She gave me to listen to "Igal" and other postfolk artists who seemed to me to be the highest peaks of the time. It was very entertaining and educational, and later, when I was an adult, I also participated in the concerts of Radiohead and Muse, although some rock and roll bands have always been in me!

You taught your voice in both folk music and jazz.

Yes, the folklore camps are badociated with my growth. These camps were interesting – I learned the traditions, the folk songs, a game of different instruments and dances, which is more authentic than we used to see, for example, at the Song Festival . Everything has happened in a happy and positive atmosphere, that is to say that the child has a job and that parents can enjoy their free time. Thus, childhood was a great feast – with immense joy to sing in the choir whose repertoire included mainly sacred music – to winters or summers on the islands in the churches, or on tiptoe of Jesus, either on the balcony of the organ. I spent all the holidays not with the family, but with the choir on a trip.

I remember playing all over "Sounds of Music". I was a little Gretele (at the time I did not have a tooth). To make the performance more interesting, we also made cardboard dolls and went to Latvia. syllables – "dududibuda". Once in our childhood, we were on the recording studio on the radio. I do not want to cry.

The school disgusted me, but at the "musician", I was like a fish in the water (if I did not mean that I was still mourning in the dictatorships of music theory because I did not have it).

I was in a happy little time at the Jazz School, but that helped me understand my voice – how I can try to use it fully, to change and improvise. I also had a lovely girlfriend, Ieva, who invented a fictional improvisation for me, as a jazz singer. His ideas have worked and have really opened a new world.

Can you say that your music styles are changing because it's just interesting?

Yes, it's interesting! Yes, at the beginning, you go down and up, but you grow and find a new quality over time. You improve this information so that it is used in the present. In my childhood, I unconsciously started trying to copy voices. We had a lot of different records at home, I listened to them and sang.

Instead of just singing, I literally portray these voices. Therefore, dear parents, if the little shows singing features, suggest that you simply copy the voices! It can help! Always in jazz, at the beginning, everyone has to work on copy benches to sound like one on one. It's a beautiful school! The one – purely technical notes, the other – imitating different voices and features of instruments, can learn the nuances of different sounds and hundreds of other things.

Later, the question becomes: will you find your own sound, thanks to your copy? For some, this is not the case, they continue to copy. Part of the copy became aware of his powerful self. Do not mix your sound!

Developing your own sound is the result of a workout that accompanies music during the day. Of course, listening to the 10-year records now seems like a disaster, but with these records, I can evaluate my current growth. I know that when I listen to my child two years later, I will wish to grow up again. In any case, everyone has their own sound.

When do you conclude that the time has come to sit down and think about what has been done and the way forward?

There was no peace in me until I got my team together. Whatever we do, I sometimes feel "Bur me" on the quad. We also play other types of music together. Our opinions differ and I respect them.

The group members help me and support me. As in the old adage – you have to work with those who are better than you – it's a good prerequisite for personal growth. It must be admitted that I often refuse to take action because I feel that this cooperation will not lead to a bottom-up experience of my experience.

To return to the album "Far Distant", the recording of the demo has arrived in your campaign in the summer. How important is the environment, for example, isolation in rural households?

There was a good turning point in the campaign – there was a big group conflict, and from there it all started! Apparently, this hbadle was needed as oxygen. We feel that something is not good. The other seems to fail. The third is a moral hangover. The next day, sad after the survivors, in my century-old ancestral house, which we call "dibenistaba", I wrote a song "Sasildi", which never sounds as if the hbadle had not occurred. Small shades that are really huge in music and art. After this scab, productivity has quadrupled! And we also found time to sunbathe, swim and relax. This demonstration session in the countryside was exactly what we needed!

It is already said: accompany a person on a trip, know if you are on the road or not. Such a session is also a special trip. Also say – a recorded album, two already in mind, how do you feel?

I do not know, it's my first album. Our first album! Go see how it's going to be in the future I'm a little worried for the moment of the folk song – should we stay with this rule? I would like to go further, keeping the depth of the folk song and the essence of the message in the lyrics. I must admit that the selection of folk songs has not been easy for me, but these words are not just pressed by the Dainu cabinet. There, each line is composed of many different folk songs, creating a contemporary history.

For example, the song "Far Far" speaks of the sun and thunder, while the song speaks of modern families. Another good example is the song "Breaking the Rings", which is essentially a song about modern divorce. If people are not good at all, then do not be tormented.

Yes, these lyrics of folk songs are my interpretation that is related to the events of my life, but at the same time, all these songs can be related to my life.

These stories speak of human lust, peace and even space.

Today there is a direct and specific perception. Well, art, musicians go into the uro. If you do not understand the message for the first time, listen to it for the second and third time!

In my opinion, the listeners of the album "Far Far" will be a journey to the bottom of the inner world. This is not an album being played. It's an audible album for a real listener. I'm listening to my material for the first time and mouse from the bottom of my heart! Taste of minority – that means there will be more!