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feature
Soulive:
Let The Melting Pot Simmer…
interview Page 1
Page 2 of interview
In 1947, a then little-known historian named Richard Hofstadter finished a book that would change academic America's view on the way our country's history should be presented. That book, The American Political Tradition: And The Men Who Made It, presented an unbiased perspective of the process of change in the U.S. Hofstadter developed his book around the concept of conflict and consensus history. Conflict history occurs when change is brought about through division of ideas, people, and religion, often times leading to wars or dissention among certain interest groups. The latter refers to change through the merging of ideas, people, or beliefs, causing new and creative developments. That sort of growth contributes to the ideal American dream and provides us a foundation on which to celebrate this country.
Conflict and consensus themes are found in every segment of our society. In music, the two opposing forces trade off positions in cycles. For example, the popular charts are currently dominated by polar opposite aesthetics. While highly-polished "boy bands" and "jiggy rap" acts chart regularly, competition emerges from the soul, indie rock, jam band, and underground hip-hop scenes in the form of rugged, less-produced music that thrives in the live setting. Somewhere in the middle, a medium may occur. Styles develop wherein people of all groups are able to find common ground.
One such group is New York-based improv trio Soulive. Musically, the organ-driven band uses resources from numerous places. The threesome cites a variety of influences, including old-school soul, funk, hip-hop, rock, and dub. Soulive manages, in its own way, to draw crowds of people who would not normally be so inclined. The group takes pride in its stance against discrimination toward any type of music—or person, for that matter. That positive energy is manifested in the band's playing, creating an inclusive and comfortable atmosphere for all.
Conflict and consensus aside, Soulive respects the fact that music can transcend all boundaries. The groove can be a universal language when presented in the right way. Soulive is on the rise and taking control of the neutral zone dividing American musical expression. musictoday.com was happy to sit down with brothers Alan and Neil Evans, and Eric Krasno of Soulive to discuss their unique stance in music and where it has taken them in the last few years. We covered everything from life on the road to the band's recent signing with legendary Blue Note Records. There is no conflict of interest amongst these guys, and the consensus…well, let's just say they do it for the love.
musictoday.com: What was the vibe like the first time you all sat down together to record a session?
Eric: After I sat in on a show with them (Neil and Alan) one night, I went down to the house the next day. We had a few ideas for tunes, and I think Alan had some stuff written, but we just recorded the session. Everything just clicked. I was on my way home listening to the tapes thinking, "This is more than just a rehearsal session."
Neil: No doubt!
Eric: I went out the next day and started telling my boys, "Yo, we got some serious s**t right here!
mt: How was that different than playing with the group you were already committed to?
Eric: I was with this group called Lettuce. We were kind of a funk fusion band, kind of party style with no vocals. We would have vocalists, sometimes. We had two guitar players, so our role in the group was more rhythm guitar playing. We opened for a lot of big-name acts, but never really made it out of the New York/Boston region. Stuff kind of worked itself out when I hooked up with these guys. It was strange. Our drummer got a gig with Average White Band, and our bassist moved because he got all of these session gigs out in L.A. In the course of a few weeks, the group just disbanded. It ended up working well for everybody. We still get together and do gigs, now and then.
mt: You all got your start as a group playing in New York. Are you from the New York area?
Alan: Neil and I are originally from Buffalo. I moved to New York in '92. I was there for about a year playing with a group. Things started getting a bit hectic toward the end of that year. To leave New York City at the beginning of a run and having to come back so far…that is when we decided to move up near Woodstock. It is really nice up there, but for the last few years, I have been bouncing around, playing different gigs, and living in different places. It is crazy.
mt: You and Neil are brothers and you are both very much musically inclined. I have two sisters and am still the only one in my family to do anything with music. How is it that you both found the same passion?
Neil: It was more of a hobby. It was just something that we did. There were drums in the house when we were growing up, so both ended up learning how to play drums. My dad played drums as a hobby. I started taking piano lessons when I was eight, too…
mt: But, you stuck with it?
Neil: I gave it up for a while but picked up again later.
mt: You mention so many styles as the inspiration for the type of music you do, from hip-hop to soul to funk to jazz. How is it that you were drawn to do the type of music that you are playing now?
Eric: Basically, we wanted to do all of those things, and more. Sometimes, we act as a backing band—we have people sit in with us all the time. In some cases, there will be an MC with a song, and we will be that person's backing band live. When that MC isn't there, we will still play the song, but we might add a melody line to it.
Neil: We are an expandable rhythm section.
Eric: We are a rhythm section that you can mold to whatever.
Alan: Yeah, it really doesn't matter the music.
Eric: We will play hip-hop, soul, funk, whatever. Not just that, but the instrumentation—I think Neil has been playing the organ for about five years—that instrumentation is what we had. Some cats may get together and have a concept, but with us we just got together and played. We never really talked about it. It was just music that we dug. We all had the same kind of thing going on. We listened to similar stuff.
mt: So, as you are traveling together to different places, how do you find that the response to your music varies from region to region?
Neil: We were just talking about how the last time we played, people were yelling out the names to our tunes and we had never even played there before.
Eric: That happens a lot of places we go. I mean, the Internet has revolutionized music in that way.
Neil: We did a round out in California and they loved the stuff out there. People already knew us before we showed up!
Eric: A lot of the tape trading and traders have really helped by spreading the music out there. That whole movement of being into live bands and live music is really making a difference right now.
mt: What factors do you think attribute to the mass movement into the live music arena?
Eric: I think that people don't have anything to do.
Neil: [laughs]
Eric: A lot of kids are following different bands around because they want that live feeling. A lot of things in society in general are so automated and inhuman that it is rare that people have a live experience with something. People are craving that raw, unpolished music. In the last twenty years, there has been so much pop that it has separated people from the live element. People want something different now. They want that live energy, that feeling. It has been here all along, but we are seeing more than just the hippie crowd who follow bands around, we are seeing all kinds of people coming out. I mean, we played hip-hop shows to nothing but black people, or funk shows where there are blacks and whites and older people checking us out. So, now when we play, there are all types of people coming out to our shows. That is our whole vibe. We are tying to bring all of that together.
mt: How does the vibe on stage change, depending on the crowd?
Neil: The vibe changes, but you just got to bring it! I mean, we bring it to them, every night! People will be sitting down, but when we get on stage, we bring it and by the end of the night, they are going nuts!
Eric: We went to Africa this summer and people were sitting down at the beginning of sets, but then the audience starting going nuts.
Neil: It was so wild that we didn't get used to it until the last night. But, that last night we went off!
Eric: We have seen a lot of different situations, but we always play hard regardless of the situation, and I think that comes through.
mt: Jazz and improv music caught a lot of flack many decades ago as the focus became more commercial oriented—in this country, meaning it had to appeal to a white audience. Consequently, it lost much support in the black community. Do you see your style of fusion, derived from hip-hop and other styles of African-American-rooted music, bringing blacks back into improv-based tunes?
Neil: In New York, you definitely see it. You see the mixture especially with us, because we have played in front of so many different types of people. I mean, we have a huge Asian following that comes out to our shows. The best thing is that half the time, you look out to the audience and you can't place were the people are from. You can't point at this person and say, "Oh, she's this, or he is down with that." You can't label the people. I remember, at this show we did at the Bowery Ballroom, looking at the crowd thinking, "These people just look cool!"
Eric: In New York, the crowd is always mixed.
mt: Do you find that consistent wherever you go?
Eric: No. Definitely not…but, New York and…
Neil: …Boston, it is pretty mixed in Boston.
Eric: …a lot of those places where there is a college scene or something.
Neil: But, in New York, you just have everything, all types of people right there. San Francisco is like that, too.
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