Emil de Waal+ - presse

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"My music isn't all that strange"

The interview by Martin Kongstad is freely available and may be copied in whole or in part

Drummer Emil de Waal has been a professional musician since he was a teenager. His breakthrough at the Danish music scene was with the fusion band Bagdad Dagblad, and he became one of the most sought-after Danish session musicians, greatly admired for his sophisticated technique and infectious beat. In 2004 he decided to enter unknown territory with the creation of the band Emil de Waal+.

The group’s debut album was a mixture of electronica, avant-garde jazz and everything else, generating international contacts outside Denmark. Rave reviews in the prestigious British music magazine The Wire and connections to the New York avant-garde scene paved the way for the Emil de Waal+ spring 2006 tour of the US. And now he has made his second album - Emil de Waal live+ - which is an attempt to develop a whole new way of creating music.

How was the new album created?

The idea was to make a live album in a completely new way. First, I composed new pieces of melodies and grooves at home on my computer, then, in the course of five concerts, we put them through totally free interpretations. The only given thing in the individual composition was key and pace, and we didn’t play the themes until I started them on the computer, so the trick for me was often to wait. When we had played and recorded the five concerts, we had five different versions of the individual compositions and were able to freely edit them and put one concert on top of another, so the trio could expand to become a sextet or nonet. Many of the compositions included in the final recording were created during those free passages. For me as an old control freak it is of course tremendously anxiety-provoking to enter the stage without having a firm structure to rely on, because that’s the way I’ve always played. When I started to play in earnest in the 1980es, it was all about being in control and playing well and not just following one’s intuition. Now, I try to follow that intuition rather than suppressing it. On my new album I have tried to play what happens, not just to play it well – in the old-fashioned sense of the word.

Both on your first album and the new album you work with people from the US avant-garde scene. Do they have a different attitude towards your music?

They are less prejudiced in relation to what is and what is not allowed in music, but audiences attending our concerts in Denmark have now also increased. People react positively to the energy and drive of the music, and the most successful outcome is when they do not come to listen specifically to jazz or rock, but just to music. We are all a product of what we have heard and played, and as long as we are open to that fact, we may end up in a thousand different places.

Your second album is also produced by Andy Green. Who is he?

He has been a producer for John Cale and Velvet Underground, and he doesn’t call it ‘producing’. It’s editing, he says. I met him through Erik Sanko, a thoroughbred avant-garde musician from New York who has played with Lounge Lizards, John Cale and Yoko Ono; he was also on my first album. Actually, Andy lives by producing sound designs for the advertising agency J. Walther Thompson - almost all American artists have day-time jobs - but when he works with music he is totally dedicated to what he does, and also totally unpredictable – to me, at least. He has no preconceived notions. When we had recorded the five concerts, he came to Copenhagen and listened to it all with me. Together we selected four hours, and then he went back home and started editing, cutting and dubbing. When he was well into it, I went to New York and sat with him in his house and finished it, which meant that, in practice, he was working and I was saying yes or no.

How do traditional jazz audiences react to your music?

Mature audiences are quite alarmed and think this is really weird. To me, jazz is improvised, rhythmic music and, as such, my music falls within that definition, but without the usual jazz rhythm. I have completely broken away from the very square and rigid structures of many forms of jazz – theme-solo etc. Maybe at some point during a composition a theme will appear, but it is not certain that it will be repeated. Maybe a new one will appear instead. When we are out playing, many people – especially younger people – like the varying form. The easiest thing for me is to start playing a groove; then I feel confident. So therefore it has been part of the exercise to wait with that groove. And my music isn’t all that strange; it contains both melody and groove. It is just not the same story that’s being told all throughout the album.