INTERVIEWS
Ross McGibbon has some questions for Leeds-based Deep Funkers, The New Mastersounds.
Fortunately I get to see the band three times soon when they play Jam In The Dam – a three night, indoor festival in Amsterdam – playing once a night alongside Les Claypool (Primus), Umphry’s McGee, Yonder Mountain String Band and others. www.jaminthedam.com Eddie Roberts, the guitarist, was good enough to make time to answer some questions for us about life on the road…….. I saw you supporting Dr Lonnie Smith at Sela Bar. What do you make of him? An amazing, charismatic, dry-humoured man who has an incredible affinity with his instrument, more than most musicians I’ve ever seen. I see you don’t get to play much in Leeds now. How do you find it, getting around so much? We tend to play Leeds maybe four times a year, mostly at Sela bar, which is a small basement bar owned by a very close friend of ours. This usually happens just before we embark on a tour, as Pete (bass) has to fly in from his home in Spain and it’s a nice way to meet up and prepare ourselves. From 1999 till 2002 we played in a club called Atrium every Friday night and some Saturdays, week in week out with only missing a couple of weeks in all those years! This was our stage education, and a reason why our communication on stage is so good. But we don’t miss it! Personally, I love to travel, it’s a perk of the job not the opposite, and the more successful we become the easier it is and the more enjoyable.
Purely by accident. When we came to the US first in 2004, we’d never even heard the phrase ‘jam band’. In UK, mainland Europe and Japan for years we’d had a profile in what is known as the ‘Deep funk’ scene, although the name of this scene has regularly changed over the years depending on the way the media perceives it. Essentially a scene based around dancing to vintage black music, more often than not played and championed by DJs, with some bands successfully emulating both the music and the DJ take on it. We were contacted via our website by an American fan, Dave Vandenburg, who, as well as being immensely into the US jam-band scene, had been collecting our music ever since he had discovered us a few years previously. He commented that we ‘should come to the US’ - something that we thought was impossible given the costs and lack of contacts etc. He announced that he would try and make it happen and we put it to the back of our mind thinking that it was highly unlikely. Within a few months Dave had been back in touch telling us that he’d secured an opening slot at Chicago’s House of Blues for the Greyboy Allstars, for whom I had opened at a gig in Leeds in 1996 with my previous group, The Three Deuces. Suddenly it seemed possible, especially as Dave was very generously offering to pay for our plane tickets and put us up in his house. The rest is history. What do you make of it, compared to your work in Britain? The biggest difference between the US and UK is that for our kind of music in the UK, the emphasis is still on the DJs rather than on the live bands. The opposite appears to be true in the US, something we find very refreshing! How do audiences differ in the UK / US / Europe? Audiences don’t differ hugely, but I would say that US audiences are a little more attentive of the subtleties of solos; but we have encountered good energy everywhere. What about the ‘norms’ for gigs in different places? In the US we tend to play for longer, often with a set break. Unlike in Europe, where there is almost always a DJ before and after a show, in the US there’s often an opening band, and the pre-gig and changeover music tends to be the random choice of the in-house sound engineer, rather than something that’s a deliberate part of the event.
This has indeed changed the way we play over the years. Before we became accustomed to the long sets in US, we would normally have played for 75 minutes. That’s quite normal for Europe, and doesn’t leave an awful lot of room for stretching out. Having been expected to play anything up to 4 hours in US, we’ve needed to stretch out tunes and consequently they have developed into new formats. Is there a pressure to conform to a certain style? Not really - we’ve never set out to conform to any specific genre. My concept for the NMS was always to develop a ‘band‘ sound; half the time we find it hard to explain to people who ask exactly what we are. How did Jam In The Dam come about for you? Over years of finding ourselves playing at the same festivals we’ve become good friends with Umphrey’s McGee. I remember their telling us about JITD, and we all agreed it would be great to do it together sometime. In 2009, we were playing in All Good festival, WV, and one of the promoters, Armand, introduced himself. Why did you say yes? We’re not in the habit of turning down good offers to play concerts that are going to be great fun! That would be stupid! Do you think it’ll be different to other jam events? Why? I’m interested to see whether it’ll be an exclusively US crowd, and/or how many Europeans will be there. I guess that will be a deciding factor on what the experience is like.
I’m looking forward to having some days off in Amsterdam - I’ve been many times before but never had any time off, just fly in, play, fly out. Anything you’re worried about? Americans moaning about the weather… haha Six hours is a lot of material and challenges quite a lot of bands to change how they do things. How about you? We actually have a long repertoire of tunes that we can call on at any moment while writing a set list, or even while on stage. We’re just flying back from Japan where we performed 2 nights at the same venue in Tokyo and played a total of 7 hours. Do you enjoy dropping guests into your set? It has happened quite a lot at JITD. Yes, we love what adding a guest can bring to the table; it keeps us on our toes, and audiences love to see the connections. What brings in the daily bread? CDs? Gigs? Merchandise? It’s definitely a combination of things - you need your fingers in lots of pies. Merch is probably at the bottom of the pile at this stage, although every little helps. Downloads work well for us in the US, (and CDs in Japan) as we own our own label (One Note Records). Publishing and licensing revenue has gradually become more significant, not least due to the sheer number of releases we have out there after ten years. What is a jam band? What’s a jazz band? We’re still trying to work that out, frankly! What are you most proud of in your work? I’m proud of headlining the Filmore, SF. Getting there without any major label, backing, marketing etc. but purely on hard work and honest music. It’s a great sense of achievement. What makes The New Mastersounds different? Where we’ve come from, musically as well as geographically; keeping it together for over ten years despite the fact it makes no business sense, (or sometimes personal sense!); the particular connection between four great friends who live and breath the same vision. Every time this happens something different will emerge. Further info on Jam In The Dam available at www.jaminthedam.com The New Mastersounds can be found at www.newmastersounds.com
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