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Christian Scott on Tavis 
Tavis: Did you feel much pressure on the second? Scott: And you know what's funny? I did, but you know what made me overcome the pressure is because lots of the subject matter on the CD is, like, deals with sociopolitical things, and my experiences in New Orleans and life and love. So I became a bit more fortified than I think most artists, because there was a direct aim and context to affecting as much change as possible through the means of music. So, lots of those things I didn't really intellectualize just because I knew that. I had to make an album that spoke from my people, from my generation, for this time period. And it was bigger than me selling a whole bunch of records. I wanted it to be something that even if one person got it, they could feel like there was a personal anthem for them, and that if that changed something about their day, no matter how my (unintelligible) [myopic], that may seem to most artists, that's something that I place a value on. Tavis: You know what's amazing to me is not only have you navigated successfully this second CD, but you give something difficult on this CD than on the first one. A lot of times, people get to that second album, they are really afraid to try something a little different, because the first one really hit. And you ended up being Grammy-nominated for it. They don't want to really swim too far away from the shore, but this is radically different from the first one. Scott: Yeah, it is different. It's funny, because the concept for the first album is something that I came up with the guitar player, Matthew Stevens, and we tried to build something that was more or less this strange relationship between the very hard guitar sound and a very minimalistic, airy trumpet sound. Now with this album, it's an extension of that, but it became a bit more in-depth just because the musicians and I spent more time together, and we wrote more music together. I wrote a song with a saxophone player named Louis Fouche, and so we tried to - the band concept got a bit more tight, and the influences became more specific. As opposed to just rock, we listen to more indy rock and neo soul and jazz and then some western classical music - Eric (unintelligible) [Satie] and Ravel and these different things. You can hear all types of influences in the album. Tavis: Yeah, you can still learn. How do you think your writing's going to be different 20 years from now? Scott: You know what's funny, man? People always ask me, what's the next record going to sound like in 10 years? I have no idea. Tavis: No idea, yeah. Scott: I have no idea. Well, because conceptually, I never think of my music in those terms. Like, this is what I want to do forever, and it's going to sound like that. Like, there could be something that I hear today on the streets walking around, or in the studio that might pique my interest. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= You can listen to the complete interview or watch a segment here: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/ It was interesting hearing him adapt the composition Litany Against Fear for the show's instrumentation of trumpet, guitar, acoustic bass & drums. I saw him perform this live 2 weeks ago with his full band. (trumpet, alto, tenor, guitar, piano, bass & drums)  Interesting relationship between trumpet & electric guitar.
tA  Tribal Disorder
http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431 "Ya see, we're not interested in what you know...but what you are willing to learn. C'mon y'all." | |
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theAudience said:
Tavis: Did you feel much pressure on the second? Scott: And you know what's funny? I did, but you know what made me overcome the pressure is because lots of the subject matter on the CD is, like, deals with sociopolitical things, and my experiences in New Orleans and life and love. So I became a bit more fortified than I think most artists, because there was a direct aim and context to affecting as much change as possible through the means of music. So, lots of those things I didn't really intellectualize just because I knew that. I had to make an album that spoke from my people, from my generation, for this time period. And it was bigger than me selling a whole bunch of records. I wanted it to be something that even if one person got it, they could feel like there was a personal anthem for them, and that if that changed something about their day, no matter how my (unintelligible) [myopic], that may seem to most artists, that's something that I place a value on. Tavis: You know what's amazing to me is not only have you navigated successfully this second CD, but you give something difficult on this CD than on the first one. A lot of times, people get to that second album, they are really afraid to try something a little different, because the first one really hit. And you ended up being Grammy-nominated for it. They don't want to really swim too far away from the shore, but this is radically different from the first one. Scott: Yeah, it is different. It's funny, because the concept for the first album is something that I came up with the guitar player, Matthew Stevens, and we tried to build something that was more or less this strange relationship between the very hard guitar sound and a very minimalistic, airy trumpet sound. Now with this album, it's an extension of that, but it became a bit more in-depth just because the musicians and I spent more time together, and we wrote more music together. I wrote a song with a saxophone player named Louis Fouche, and so we tried to - the band concept got a bit more tight, and the influences became more specific. As opposed to just rock, we listen to more indy rock and neo soul and jazz and then some western classical music - Eric (unintelligible) [Satie] and Ravel and these different things. You can hear all types of influences in the album. Tavis: Yeah, you can still learn. How do you think your writing's going to be different 20 years from now? Scott: You know what's funny, man? People always ask me, what's the next record going to sound like in 10 years? I have no idea. Tavis: No idea, yeah. Scott: I have no idea. Well, because conceptually, I never think of my music in those terms. Like, this is what I want to do forever, and it's going to sound like that. Like, there could be something that I hear today on the streets walking around, or in the studio that might pique my interest. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= You can listen to the complete interview or watch a segment here: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/ It was interesting hearing him adapt the composition Litany Against Fear for the show's instrumentation of trumpet, guitar, acoustic bass & drums. I saw him perform this live 2 weeks ago with his full band. (trumpet, alto, tenor, guitar, piano, bass & drums) Interesting relationship between trumpet & electric guitar.
Kool! BTW, I really like his guitarist, Matt Stevens--I was checking out some of Matt's compositions on his Myspace page.... ... " I've got six things on my mind --you're no longer one of them." - Paddy McAloon, Prefab Sprout | |
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paligap said: Kool! BTW, I really like his guitarist, Matt Stevens--I was checking out some of Matt's compositions on his Myspace page.... ... I sat right in front of Matt at the show. He's got the chops alright. tA Tribal Disorder
http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431 "Ya see, we're not interested in what you know...but what you are willing to learn. C'mon y'all." | |
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