#vazesh

[sinceileftyoublog]

The Vampires Interview: A Life Outside the Usual

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Consider Nightjar (Earshift Music) a sharing of the baton. While The Necks remain better than ever, another experimental Australian band has stepped up right beside them, both figuratively and in terms of a series of literal collaborations. The Vampires, who have been playing and releasing music for almost two decades, are an improvisational jazz quartet from Sydney whose songs dabble in reggae and dub rhythms and are generally inspired by music of the African diaspora. Though one wouldn’t mistake a Vampires jam for The Necks’ creeping minimalism, it’s clear listening to them side-by-side that they share the same open-minded creative spirit. From the time saxophonist and composer Jeremy Rose first witnessed The Necks’ marathon live performances, he became enraptured with the band. 

Finally, over the last half decade, the elder statesmen have taken The Vampires under their wing, in a relationship Rose described to me over Zoom a couple months ago as a mentorship. Necks bassist Lloyd Swanton produced The Vampires’ 2017 record The Vampires meet Lionel Loueke. Two years ago, he and Rose released a collaborative album as Vazesh, while Necks drummer Tony Buck contributed to a record by Vampires trumpetist and composer Nick Garbett and multi-instrumentalist Mike Majkowski. Now, with Nightjar, The Vampires’ 7th record, Necks keyboard legend Chris Abrahams has joined Rose, Garbett, bassist Noel Mason, and drummer Alex Masso on the band’s most textured record yet. On the appropriately titled opener “Game Changers”, as if to refer to the epoch-making nature of this fruitful collaboration, Abrahams instantly begins on keys alongside the steady rhythm section, before the two Vampires composers enter on horns; Rose’s main solo and Abrahams’ two-hand, classical style jaunt mesh with the gentleness of the band’s grooves. “Khan Shatyr”’s horn refrain actually quotes The Necks’ “The World at War” from their second album Next. Garbett’s “Ortigara” and its interlude combine the spirit of the two bands, a sort of reggae minimalism, a warped tropicalia with clacking percussion. And “Waves”, “High Plains”, and closer “Sun Gazers” are comparatively muted and mournful, a newfound emotional subtlety I haven’t gleaned from any previous Vampires songs.

Below, read my conversation with Rose, edited for length and clarity, about The Vampires’ process and inspirations, both live and recorded, and their relationship with The Necks.

Since I Left You: Did you grow up listening to The Necks?

Jeremy Rose: I encountered The Necks when I was at music school in my early 20′s. It wasn’t until I got to hear them live that I got to experience what their music was all about. I really believe their music has to be heard live to understand the full impact of what they’re trying to do. [laughs] And to experience the durational quality of their music. I clearly remember coming across one of their live shows. It was sold out. I had to somehow sneak in. I had to sit on the floor. I couldn’t see them--I didn’t have a good visual on them. But it had a profound impact on me. I’ve been following them ever since. Over the last few years, it’s been a great honor to be able to work with Chris. I have a separate project with Lloyd Swanton called Vazesh. It’s really been great. Lloyd Swanton also produced our fifth record, The Vampires meet Lionel Loueke. We’ve had a bit of an ongoing mentorship with the group. Our trumpeter, Nick [Garbett], has worked with [Necks drummer] Tony [Buck] in one of his own projects. They made a record in Berlin not too long ago.

SILY: It seems that The Vampires has continued on the influence of The Necks but also done some things uniquely. A track like “Khan Shatyr” has some reggae in it, like much of the band’s earlier material. How do you go about delving into other genres or styles while still retaining that hypnotic quality of repetition and grooves?

JR: The interesting thing about The Necks is that they’re defined more by their process rather than their stylistic boundaries. In fact, I know they talk about what they do as a kind of game. They try to bring other styles into what The Necks do and see if they can force it, if you will, into their way of playing, which is a slowly evolving improvised minimalism. “Khan Shatyr” opens with a quote from one of their tracks, “The World At War”, off their album Next. The Vampires’ music has drawn inspiration from the grooves of the African diaspora, and we’ve played in various reggae bands over the years, so that has a particular flavor. Though we’re not trying to sound like a reggae band, it has references to that music.

SILY: In your collaboration with Chris, did you find the process at all different depending on whether you or Nick composed the track?

JR: Rather than there being a difference between each of our compositions, I’ve found that our live performances are moving towards an expansive, longer durational style of play. Working with Chris has really led us into musical areas that are often different to what the composer’s original intention was. That’s the magic of improvised music, isn’t it? To discover something that wasn’t originally planned but is often just as interesting if not more so than the original composition.

SILY: Is “Khan Shatyr” named after the building of the same name?

JR: Yeah, it’s named after a Neofuturist tent in [Astana,] the capital of Kazakhstan. It’s designed by the renowned architect Norman Foster, who did “the gherkin” in London. I was really intrigued by the contrast of [the city] and this hypermodern interior complete with a cocktail bar.

SILY: What about the title track made you want to name the album after it?

JR: I don’t know if there was anything particularly deep and meaningful on that. I just kind of like the name “nightjar” and the connotation of a night bird. It’s kind of mysterious and has a life outside the usual day.

SILY: Have you been able to perform these tracks?

JR: We’ve been performing these tracks live with Chris for 2-3 years now. This project, like many others, has experienced a bit of delay in recording due to the pandemic. It was nice to give the project a bit of space and [time for] the ideas to develop and the concept to mature.

SILY: I imagine that they’ll take on new shapes as you play them.

JR: That’s the beauty of this music. The melodies and structures are loosely defined by our compositions, and we try to approach them in a way that they can be really opened up in live performance. Our live versions of these tunes are getting longer and longer. What can happen during that period is really left open to the groupthink on the day.

SILY: Much like The Necks, do The Vampires have a defined process for making music, where you try to apply that process to different styles, or do you let the styles in and see whether they mesh with the process?

JR: It’s not quite possible to be as wide, due to the nature of the music being fully improvised. It gives a set of other open parameters to being able to bring in any style, for that matter. Our music is half on the original composer to shape and define and the rest on the band to expand and workshop on those ideas. We try to be as open as possible during performance, and things can take different directions, particularly in the spaces between pieces, where we might have open sessions for people to take it in those directions.

SILY: Do you have a favorite song on here, or at least a favorite song to perform?

JR: I love playing “Khan Shatyr” because I love the way that track builds in momentum and expands on some of the ideas I’ve been talking about. The use of repetition and groove to create those immersive states that I so enjoy when I listen to The Necks.

SILY: Was there any song on Nightjar particularly challenging to nail down?

JR: No, I think for The Vampires, the main challenge is trying to get the grooves and the music to be settled before we record it. Often, we’ll try to jam, let the rhythm section play for a while, and really settle in to the groove before we hit record. That helps the music to feel more at ease and in the pocket.

SILY: Do you do the same thing when playing live, where the rhythm section starts out first?

JR: It depends what track we’re playing. Some start with the sax and trumpet, which is a feature of the group, too, open sections for the two frontline to explore cadenzas and the use of effects and space. It’s important to have a bit of a rest for the rhythm section every now and then. [laughs]

SILY: What’s the story behind the cover art of the record?

JR: That is a painting by an old friend of mine, Mia Taninaka, whose artwork explores various symbiology. I really thought that artwork stood out and was particularly striking, so I thought it was a good match for our music. I think it’s one of her older images now. We were stoked we could use it.

SILY: Do you ever have a visual element to your live sets?

JR: We haven’t worked with A/V or a live artist before, but that’s a really great idea. [laughs] Some of my largest scale projects have worked with video artists in the past. It can be really fun and add another dimension to the music.

There are various issues to consider, [though]. [Are you going] to be inspired as you’re playing, to play off the A/V material, or are you just adding another dimension for the audience to experience the music? It can also be a challenge to navigate the balance between the visuals taking away focus from the music. You don’t want people to be watching a movie with a soundtrack. It needs to be more than that.

SILY: What else is next for The Vampires?

JR: We’re touring Australia later this year. We’ll consider what’s next after that. We never try to push anything with this group. We try to let it come naturally and see where the wind takes us.

SILY: Are you always sitting down and composing, or do you have to devote a set time period to do so?

JR: These days, I’m really busy in my life, so if I have a particular project I’m working on, I’ll make sure to set aside time. I try to allow space for creative play and to really improvise on my instrument, whether that’s the saxophone or piano. I predominantly compose on the piano. I try to allow my space without any predetermined objectives and see where that can take me. Often, that’s where you can come up with some of your most original ideas.

SILY: It seems like a microcosm of a band’s improvisational process.

JR: For sure.

SILY: Is there anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately that you’ve enjoyed?

JR: I’m reading Brad Mehldau’s book called [Formation: Building a Personal Canon, Part 1 his first book.] It led to some great insight into the formation of his musical conception. It’s been an interesting exploration of him as an artist. Musically, I’m pretty occupied with getting through all my releases from my record label, Earshift Music, and I have a bunch of other projects I’m finishing off mixing and mastering. After getting through all that, sometimes, it’s good to have a bit of downtime. I’ve been loving and returning to shakuhachi music, the music of Riley Lee, who is my shakuhachi teacher. I’ve been intimately studying it for a few years now. It’s great for me to listen to his music; his control of breath and phrasing is quite staggering.

[burlveneer-music]

The Vampires - Nightjar - dub-flavored soul-jazz, though a few tracks sound like The Necks (which is to be expected as that group's keyboardist Chris Abrahams is on here)

Twenty years ago, composers on Nightjar, Jeremy Rose and Nick Garbett were surfers, housemates, bandmates. A surfer vibe infuses their music: being at ease and alert, sitting in the swell of a magnificent immense natural force, until the wave comes. Ride it as gracefully and as far as possible. The Vampires have been hot-housed in Sydney. Expanses get in our bloodstream, they are visceral. It’s in the music. Think of the 35 year long reverberations of The Necks. The Vampires grew into their own music listening intently to The Necks. Individual members of The Vampires play with individual Necks: Tony Buck on Nick Garbett’s 2019 The Glider; and Lloyd Swanton with Jeremy Rose and Hamed Sadeghi in the improvising trio Vazesh. Chris Abrahams was a compelling collaborator to make music with – which is now Nightjar. The Vampires, here in lush vamping form, meet the singular acute bright and tender touch of Chris Abrahams. Jeremy Rose tenor sax, bass clarinet Nick Garbett trumpet Noel Mason bass Alex Masso drums Chris Abrahams piano, organ, prophet, super 6, quantum, rhodes artwork: Mia Taninaka layout: Pat Harris Recorded 22-23 November 2021 at Free Energy Device by Richard Belkner. Mixed by Richard Belkner. Mastered by Michael Lynch Together since 2005, The Vampires have forged their sound from their travels and musical lives in jazz, improvisation free-diving and the vibrant cultural bleed of bands driven by Caribbean, Persian, Indian, South Korean, West African and Latin beats. The compositions have always been postcards to other Vampires from wherever they were, but have gradually shifted from the early jazz soloing into longer stretches building texture and tone, buoyed on irresistible riffs. Nightjar is The Vampires 7th album, following 2019 Pacifica and 2017 The Vampires Meet Lionel Loueke. It gives a clear nod to a cherished inheritance. The horn refrain opening Track 2 Khan Shatyr quotes The Necks’ The World at War on their 2nd album Next 1990.

[the-i-can-dig-destiel]

#graduation و ديگر هيچ... :)) @parhammaleki2 akhe in che vazeshe baradare man!:)))) P.S. No Im not really graduated yet!:)) my class' graduation was held anyways!:))