In&OutJazz: Hi, hello Anaïs!

Anaïs Drago: How are you?

Fine and you, nice to meet you again.

Nice to meet you too again.

He’s Jose Cabello the translator.

Okay nice to meet you.

I also know how to speak Italian but for this interview let’s just keep it in English. It’s a pleasure to have you.

Likewise.

Great. So how are you? How are you feeling?

Fine, I’m in Florence at the moment.  And yeah, yeah, I was looking forward for this interview. It’s been a long time since our concert in Münster Jazz Festival.

Ah yeah yeah yeah yeah. Okay we have about six questions, they’re quick questions so feel free to answer whatever you want and extend your answers to wherever you want.  

Okay.

So yeah first of all we’re super happy to have you. Know that. It’s always great to talk musicians like you, people that are doing new things, and we feel like are very interesting in the music world and in general. So, it’s really a pleasure to have you.

Thank you, thank you very much.

You’re welcome. Okay so first question, quick. What comes first? You as a composer, you as a performer or you as a multi-instrumentalist? In your evolution what comes first?

Okay, I would say, the first would be, violin player. So yeah interpreter and performer, everything that involves the fact that I have a violin with me on stage. Yeah, then I’d say composer, but actually my composing activity is only for what I’m going to play, I mean I don’t compose music for others.

Okay interesting.

Yeah, I like composing but um if it’s related to my own live performance.

Yeah, your own project.

And then, it’s interesting that you say multi-instrumentalist because actually I cannot play anything else but the violin. But what I have been doing in these years is trying to play the violin in as many possibilities as you can. So I really  had a deep practice in trying to  play the violin as it was a piano, or a guitar, or a drum set. So yeah, I kind of try to be multi-instrumentalist but only playing one instrument which is the instrument I’ve been playing since I was little. Sometimes I feel a bit sorry that I cannot play other instruments so many times in my life the idea of “ok, now you practice piano, you really have to do that” came in my mind but then at the same time I said to myself “first of all you are not going to play the piano as good as you play the violin because…”

It’s obvious.

 “You cannot reach that kind of practice on another instrument now”, and second of all I always ask myself “do I really need to play the piano to be a composer?”, and I say “no, because I compose for my instrument for my projects”. That’s why I try to take inspiration from other instruments and then to recreate the same kind of mental mood on my instrument.

Yeah, I think that definitely provides like a personal voice to your music. Because I think it’s a real, like really difficult trying to sound like other instruments but at the same time it’s like an effort that you put that gives yeah like a lot of like original mood to your compositions, and also, I feel like the creative path goes through that road. Because learning new instruments, I think like we all could do that. I mean you know the music and it’s only to learn the technique, right? But I mean it’s always cool in order to know how each instrument is made and how it sounds and stuff. But I think the path that you took is really more interesting and less easy but at the same time a lot of creativeness goes along with that road.

Yes that’s right. Of course, you don’t get violin play like a piano or like a guitar, but you try to have that kind of approach.

Yeah, definitely.

And what you get is for sure something new, at least to yourself maybe it’s not new in general. For example, a couple years ago, I started using some elements, putting them on the, sticking them on the strings and what I got was really similar to John Cage’s prepared piano which is something that is quite old because it’s you know, from 60’s and 70’s. But for me seemed new and I was happy because it was something that I that I got to not because I read books or watched videos but because it was just “okay let’s try to do this and let’s see and let’s hear how it sounds”, “wow seems like John Cage”. But it was my own personal path that led me there. But it was because of the will of trying new solutions and of course you get to something new and more original.

Yeah, definitely it’s way more interesting what you what you talk about. So, another question. How do you approach…, it’s a really general question, how do you approach improvisation in your music? How? Give us a brief answer or whatever you want.  

I think it’s really a working progress process because I started working on improvisation after my bachelor’s degree in classical music so I had never faced improvisation before till that moment and I really jumped into jazz improvisation. So the first years were all about trying to get the jazz language, playing over chord structure, the changes yeah and the modes and the scales and also developing a rhythmical approach that is quite, maybe the most difficult thing for a string player also coming from classical music. And in the last period I’ve been working more on the rhythm, so I’m trying to get some new skills about, overlaying of grooves and rhythms and trying to develop a improvisation that keeps this polyrhythmic atmosphere in my mind, and then I’ve developed a personal way of playing out of the chords for example, which is not related to a particular scale or mode but it’s all related to the fingering on the fretboard, so I’ve developed this kind of technique that  makes me play out of the chords which sounds dodecaphonic, atonal mood. And so, I’m trying to combine all these elements with the rhythm and in the last years also with some attention to the to the timbre which was something that when I started playing jazz I kind of forgot about the quality of sound because I was really into learning harmony and so I forgot to think about “how does it sound?” in terms of the quality of the sound.  And in these last years I have been attending many workshops and artistic residencies, also with contemporary music professors who gave me you know many inputs regarding the quality of the sound and the concept of improvisation in a more concrete mode rather than abstract mode, so it’s not related to harmony or chords progressions but only to the quality of sound and timbres and the reaction when you play in a free impro situation with other instrumentalists. These are the elements I’m trying to combine in my practice.

Yeah it also makes sense according to what you were answering in the first question, the fact that you’re trying to approach your instrument from different points of view as if you were playing the piano, or playing the drums and stuff…, it also gives another taste to your music that when it comes also to gather along with all this rhythm aspects you were talking about and stuff, it’s definitely a nice  view of your approach to improvisation, which is super interesting really. So another question that we had by listening to your music is how do you organize your ideas when you compose? First question. And another second question which is super related is: what aspects from your compositions you feel are like a new contribution to music? I guess you feel like all your music is new, and of course that’s how it is, your music is about a whole. But yeah like what aspects from your compositions you think are most new? That contribute to the music world.

So, I think this second question should be answered by critiques or other musicians, maybe in a like in 20 years, not now…

Yeah, I see you go for the humble answer…

But yeah I can tell you how usually my composing process is. Generally I start from a very little cell, like a looping cell that can be rhythmical or melodic. And then I’m trying to combine it with most of all with melodic lines because of course I still play the violin which is still a melodic instrument so yeah. I’m trying to combine these two elements, especially in the trio we played in the concert with. I’m trying to combine more rhythmical aspects and melodic lines that can be really free in terms of structure. So there are just melodic lines that go on and don’t necessarily come back to the beginning at one point. And then some of the compositions are based on really simple ideas which take life and become, I hope, interesting because of the interplay we create with the other musicians. So for example there’s a piece that we played in Münster which is just actually a groove of four bars with some odd rhythms in the middle which makes it sound interesting but it’s all about the fact that I’m playing the violin as a guitar, so I’m strumming like and acoustic guitar, and I also use some electronic devices that modulate the sound and it’s all about the clarinet solo so I just told Federico Calcagno “you play whatever you want” and it’s also one of the songs the audience most appreciates in the concerts. And in other times there are more complex structures, especially melodic structures. So yeah, I’d say, if I had to make a list as for the first question you did, there’s melody, rhythm, timber and then harmony in last place.

And then putting it together with the band members. The interaction.

Yeah, before growing up this trio, I’ve been performing for a couple of years mainly with a solo project which was a solo but with acoustic and electric violin and electronics and pedalboard and I was using live loopings and so it was a solo but combined with many elements. So I really felt after two years of solo performing that I needed to find back an interplay with other musicians, but yes of course in the in the way I compose the solo approach still remains a lot because all the pieces I compose start from the violin which is again not an harmonic instrument so I like over overlapping, looping…

The overdub system…yeah…

Yeah, and also some of the composers I’ve been listening a lot in these last years come from the minimalist side of America so Philip Glass, Steve Reich and the concept of looping is quite close to their way of making music.

That’s so cool in fact you talked a lot about the electronic world and, in your career what do you think that it brings to your music? Like, what aspects or what elements or how do you also bring it into your music? How do you use it? What approach do you give to your to the electronics?

I guess that and I think timber in general both in the electric side and but also in the acoustic side work as colors for a painter. I mean, they suggest me a specific mood or landscape or sightseeing of something, I will explain myself better. Most of the compositions I wrote both my solo and trio are usually inspired by literature, something like poetry or novels most of all or from some artworks like sculptures paintings and the link between what I’m reading or seeing, and the music is made by the timber and not about the kind of melody or the kind of groove I put. It’s only about the timber. And in the past when I had when I just got this pedalboard that I’m using which is a guitar pedalboard really high performative one, I used to spend hours playing with that, playing in the sense of kids playing with objects, it was just pressing buttons and things, you know, just randomly. And when I was finding something that I really liked I was starting playing something and most of my compositions really come out this way which I know is really a naive way of proceeding, it’s not academic, it’s not serious, it’s not…

But it’s the most interesting, I mean if we don’t…

It’s the way it works for me so yeah, if it works, it’s fine. Then if in 10 years I will get bored of it or I will see it’s not working anymore I will change it. But for the moment it was really a moment of pure joy for me to stay in my room and just try “oh this sounds cool”. And most of the times what happens is that many things sound cool and then after five minutes they are boring so then you have to understand which ones of the 10 really cool stuff you found. Then you just take one because the other nine are just fancy for five minutes and then…

So there’s a cool process going there, it’s cool. I tell you I’d rather have music that comes from pure joy and that is somehow naive but it’s always truthful, than a sober academic music which sounds great and it’s well produced but doesn’t have that truthfulness to it you know. So this is personal opinion but I think this music, the music that you make touches people’s hearts more often than the other one so…, you should know that from our part at least.

I got you, thank you!

¡ Cool, so, we’re getting to the end. I’ll give you three more questions they’re brief. First one it’s a little curiosity. How was playing with Enrico Rava? How was it?

I would just say to you, because now one year and a half has passed from that experience and I would say I can’t wait to do it again.

Nice!

Because it was the first experience of that kind that I was having and I wasn’t prepared at all for that so now I’m prepared because I did it just already once, and I have to say that it’s an experience that made me grow so much in terms of music, but also in terms of person who plays music, in a more 360…

Yeah, yeah, great!

He is amazing he is pure joy again, since we used this term before, and it’s amazing how…, I mean everyone who knows him, young musicians I think would love to become his age and having this joy in playing and in playing with young people, so he’s really an enthusiast, and joyful and yeah and this was amazing because he was looking at me and he was smiling and he was happy about playing with me. And of course I at the same moment I was happy but   also frightened because for me it was like “oh my god I’m playing with Enrico” so that’s why I’m telling you I would like to do it again cause I would come to it more ready.

Yeah, so cool. I guess this musical and personal and human encounters in life are the very the very best, the most interesting. They make you grow as a human being and that also includes musically, right? So, it’s so cool what would you just told, so cool…

And it’s also funny that most of the experiences in life, I think to everyone, come in a moment in which you are not actually ready for that but the day after you are ready, it’s crazy.

Yeah, it’s cool, how there is a smooth evolution in ourselves that keeps us always somehow frightened to what’s coming but then also proud of what we just did and, I don’t know, it’s cool…, humans after all, it’s awesome. Okay last question, a little bit bigger. So what would you say or how would you describe your evolution in your music career also considering where you’re focusing right now, like at the moment, and the projects you’re having right now. Like, how is your evolution and how is it that you are right now in the point where you’re and tell us where you are at. Tell us what projects you have and where are you focusing right now and yeah…   

So, I’ve always…, so I started practicing improvisation and we can say I switched from the classical academical path 11 years ago, so I was 20, now I’m 31. And in these 11 years um of course I did some, I did a master’s degree in a conservatoire, I did a lot of things, but you know, everything was kind of coming in the path, I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to do but I was just welcoming what came from the sides and these sides led me to where I am which, at the end, sounds to me quite linear…, curvy but linear. And it’s amazing because I’m really happy of the path that I did, even if it was really, not by chance but I was leaving things to come in a very natural way and I was…, these years I have been always playing and I have, it’s some…, maybe it’s a detail but I think it’s important: I’ve always   earned money enough to make my own living without I mean aside from my apartment.  And this now means playing in the festivals in the clubs and beautiful places, but for most of these 11 years meant playing at wedding parties and country parties so I really played a lot of kind of music different genres in different very different situations and I’m really happy about that because this gave me really a panoramic view of what music is, and also I’m really happy that my studies, even if they were a bit random I mean I was studying jazz fusion “oh I love Allan Holdsworth, I want to play like him”, and then “oh wow Steve Reich wow so…” and then “oh my god…” so it’s all like that. My life is yeah, I get passionate of what I cannot do or what I don’t know and I really jump into it and yeah in a sort of like a childish way but yeah and then I’m trying to convey all these in what I do, so again, it’s really spontaneous and maybe some a bit naïve, but it’s fine. And I’m happy that   the projects I’m working on are satisfying me in a personal and artistic way. This trio is the main focus of the moment of course so I’m trying to make it play as much as possible and we would like yeah…, I’ve been playing a lot in in Italy in these last years and I would like to start playing somewhere in Europe at least.

We would be delighted.

Yeah and then what’s more? I have many other projects, I’ve just recorded an album with um classical double bass player and a countertenor. It’s a project dedicated to Frank Zappa.   Yeah it’s really a crazy project. Then I have another really nice project with a viola da gamba player and we play Bach’s two voices inventions and then from that we go to other   contemporary music repertoires. I still have my solo project which I would like to renovate somehow I mean I would like to have another solo project the one i had till now was really based on the minotaur, the Greek ancient myth of the minotaur and, because I like having inputs from the literature, from the ancient Greek myth and now I would like to work on some other issues but we’ll see. Because in the middle what I also do is just playing the violin as a normal violinist for other people like a side musician so at the moment I’m in Florence because I’m involved in a theater production right. We have a tour of 72 shows in all Italy, the one of today would be the 19^th, so we still have more than 50 to come. So yeah and it’s fine because I don’t have any teaching activity which is fine, but at the same time you know experimental music is not the easiest way of touring and having concerts, so I’m working also in the theater and I’ve been working with a pop artist for a lot of time and I’ve been playing in stadiums with him so it’s all experience and it’s fine.

Yeah definitely, I mean it’s so cool to know that you’re up to as many things as you can and even more so it’s cool to feel your energy and also how you approach things in that humble way that is also perceived in your music you know. I think the human that produces his or her music in that production in that in that same music he or she is producing, that’s like a testimony you know that’s definitely a cool contribution after all. So we were before asking you what contribution…, I guess throughout the whole interview we got a nice view of how you contribute to the world in general. So it was so cool to listen to you and to get to know you better.

Thank you thank you very much.

We’re really happy of having had you and I don’t know we’ll keep up with you if we can and we’ll have to to see what you’re up to and to see if we can meet you again at some point   whenever in Europe or we’re trying to go…, or in Spain, of course!

And also I have to tell you something which is important I tell you now because it’s otherwise it would be it would be a problem, you know the name of the trio we played with in Münster, is was Terre Ballerine, you know Bega, of course because you were there. So actually, there was a change in the name. I won’t explain you the reasons because it’s a long story and anyway, with my press agents we were thinking that maybe an international name was maybe easier to pronounce and had a better impact so after a long brainstorming we found out that the new name of this trio, is just the name that changes, everything remains the same but the name is Relevé which is you know the classical ballet movement…

Yeah, ok, beautiful choice, good to know. Thank you so much Anaïs, we are in touch. It’s been a pleasure.

been a pleasure for me too, thank you. See you soon!

See you soon, good afternoon!!!