For
many artists, they cite a defining moment for themselves when they knew
they wanted to be a singer.For
many it was the appearance of Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show, to another
generation it was the Beatles’ appearance on Sullivan half a decade
later.Is there such a defining
moment for you
TOMAS: when I was 12 years old, I was watching a concert
program on television late one Saturday night. Larry Graham and Graham Central
Station were performing on the show.I
went into my parent’s bedroom, woke my mother up, and dragged her into the
living room to watch the show with me. It was at that moment that I realized
that I wanted to be a musician.
2. When you’re not creating music what are you listening
to?Who are some of your favorites?
TOMAS:The Idan Raichel Project,Method of Defiance,Steel
Pulse,Tcheka,Fela,of course
There’s always the classics-Marvin Gaye,James Brown,Albert
King.Chris Whitley has been a huge influence on me.I also happen to love Marla
Mase and Rod Clemmons-
Both of whom I have the pleasure of working closely with.
3. What would you say is your greatest moment so far as an
artist, either on record or live?
TOMAS:There have been so many magical moments,and I feel
very blessed to be able to say that.Last fall we performed in China for 8 days
in front of about 100,000 people.That
Was an amazing experience,As far as making records goes my
new CD “Power of the trinity” was a dream come true.I got to work with a few of
my heroes including Bill Laswell(Grammy Award winning producer/Bassist),Yusef
Komunyakaa(Pulitzer Prize winning poet),and Ethiopian R & B legend Selam
Woldermariam.I was in heaven the whole time!
4.Do you believe
music can change the world or is just something to listen to?How much can music influence current events?
TOMAS:Well,remember the song “I love music” by the
O’jays(written by Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff)? It says-“Music is the healing
force of the world”,and FELA
Said-“Music is the weapon of the future”.That pretty much
sums up how I feel about
The power of music.”You may say I’m a dreamer,but I’m not
the only one”
What if…
5. How has technology affected the music industry?How has technology affected your career as a
musician?
TOMAS:My creative process is still the same.It all starts
with a great song.All I need to
Start that process is an acoustic guitar and my voice.If it
doesn’t sound cool then,the
Technology won’t make any difference in the final
analysis.Perhaps that’s a bit “old school” but remember-The Beatles made Sgt.
Pepper on an 8 track machine.
It still sounds good to me.Of course the internet has made
it possible to reach a lot
People and expand your fan base,but it still starts with a
song.
Now
for my Barbara Walters question:If
you were a pair of shoes what type of shoes would you be?
TOMAS:A nice pair of Italian
leather dress shoes.Always comfortable,but always in style.
1. For many artists, they cite a defining moment for themselves when they knew they wanted to be a singer. For many it was the appearance of Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show, to another generation it was the Beatles’ appearance on Sullivan half a decade later. Is there such a defining moment for you?
My love for music in general really started out of my love for film, and film soundtracks. I think it was when i saw the film «Blade Runner» for the first time, i was just completely mesmerized and obsessed by the music, i’ve just experienced something i’ve never experienced before.
How could just a few notes create such an evocative panorama of powerful emotions and mental images ? I had to know.
That’s when i started learning how to compose music and creates new types of sounds through electronic instruments as well as modifying the sound of acoustic ones.
2. When you’re not creating music what are you listening to? Who are some of your favorites?
Actually my tastes are all over the place. I try to stay curious about all sorts of music. My interests range from various shapes of electronic music such as Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, Robert Rich , Massive Attack to jazz musicians such as Brad Mehldau , Erik Truffaz, Keith Jarrett, to contemporary classical like Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Ligeti , to all sorts of rock/pop such as U2 , Blonde Redhead, Chris Whitley, etc..
3. What would you say is your greatest moment so far as an artist, either on record or live?
I think the greatest moments are yet to come :-)
In fact , i find the whole process of making music to be a succession of magical moments !
4. Do you believe music can change the world or is just something to listen to? How much can music influence current events?
Music can be a powerful force, both directly and indirectly. It can drive a social movement , tackle social issues directly.
But it can also change things in us indirectly, in a very profound way. Music being probably the most abstract of arts, it can access your soul directly, bypassing the filter of rationnality. By making you feel diverse emotions in ways you might not have felt before, it opens your mind about looking at things around you in a different way. It can get you to see the world in more ways than you would have imagined.
In a way , it encourages you to consider other points of view, and notice that there are more common basic things in all of us, humans, than there are apparent differences.
So in that sense , yes in can change the world , indirectly , by linking all humans to each other through the common experience of this abstract thing called music.
5. How has technology affected the music industry? How has technology affected your career as a musician?
That’s a very complex issue. I think it affected it in both good and bad ways. Right now everything is more or less in a chaotic state, in a transition mode. Technology has been giving musicians more control over their destiny , and yet making it even harder for them to make a living. The «music industry» is taking different shapes, the new tech companies have been replacing the old record companies, but they are not acting necessarily in the benefit of musicians, more in their own benefit. We’ll see how all of this turns out.
One other thing , is that we should get rid of this prevalent concept of talking about «technology» as if it was a real person , capable of thinking on its own. I think it's a trap.. All there is , is a set of tools created by us , humans. Therefore, it’s up to us to decide how these set of tools should be used.
We tend , strangely , to become passive victims of technology, to let loose of all responsability in controling it. I often read on the web comments like « well , that’s how technology is shaping things right now, we should just get adjusted to it». Thats’ profoundly absurd.
It’s up to us to make sure that technology is benefiting us, and is enhancing our common happiness. It's up to us to drive technology in the right direction, not the opposite with technology driving us in whatever random direction. It’s not our predetermined destiny to become passive slaves to it. ( and that’s actually pretty much the theme of my present album)
The nature of my music being mostly electronically based, i'm very much at ease with all kinds of technology and always looking for new interesting stuff. But i never forget that they are just tools, and i always keep some form of critical distance towards it.
6. Now for my Barbara Walters question: If you were a pair of shoes what type of shoes would you be?
1. For many artists, they cite a defining moment for themselves when they knew they wanted to be a singer. For many it was the appearance of Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show, to another generation it was the Beatles’ appearance on Sullivan half a decade later. Is there such a defining moment for you?
a: My family has a mountain house in Virginia, on a former apple orchard. Every Saturday in summertime since my great-grandparents first built up there, we take a haywagon up to the top, build a fire, cook out, and then usually there's music. When I was a kid I was lucky enough to have some bluegrass-playing uncles and cousins. The greatest of these is Peter Stanley, who's technically not my uncle but I always called him that. He played Harvard Clubs with Joan Baez and Pete Seeger; he was and is a badass player with a deep leathery baritone; in his spare time, when he was younger, he climbed Mount McKinley and canoed all over Canada. So I'd eat as many smores as I could get away with before some adult noticed and stopped me, then I'd wrap up in a blanket and listen to guitars and fiddles and banjos and mandolins and voices singing together, under bright stars...and I wanted to make music just like that. I'm lucky that I can still revisit the place where it began for me, and that I still sometimes get to play with Uncle Peter.
2. When you’re not creating music what are you listening to? Who are some of your favorites?
a: If I'm writing a lot, I don't actually listen to much music - I need to keep that space for the music that's emerging. My favorite band ever is The Replacements. Right up there are The Album Leaf, Suzanne Vega, REM up to but not after 'Green,' Gillian Welch, Chris Whitley...it's tempting to go on, and on, and on with that list. I listen to a lot of classical music, and in New Orleans we have an amazing radio station, WWOZ, and I listen to that a lot.
3. What would you say is your greatest moment so far as an artist, either on record or live?
a: Playing Bonnaroo in 2005 was pretty amazing, especially as I didn't even have a manager, or a clue, and I nonetheless got myself booked there. Right after that I got badly injured & have had a series of surgeries that make walking hard, and of course Katrina happened soon after, all of which derailed my music career greatly - so I think there are greater moments to come. Honestly, though, every time I write something I love, or record something I love, I think 'this is the best I've ever felt' - and then the next song comes, and I feel that way again. I think that feeling, that lift of exaltation to feel music coming through me, is what I play for.
4. Do you believe music can change the world or is just something to listen to? How much can music influence current events?
a: I don't know how music can influence current events, but I know it influences people. After Katrina it was amazing and humbling how many people wrote and told me they'd had one of my records on repeat, and that the music had helped. There are songs I can't hear without remembering how that song saved my life - made me cry, made me dance, freed me to feel something I needed to feel but couldn't let out on my own. I believe everything we do changes the world, especially the small things like smiling at a stranger or choosing not to litter, so of course I believe music changes the world. Just look at the crowd of people at a good show: they're united, for that moment, and anytime people add their power together, amazing things happen.
5. How has technology affected the music industry? How has technology affected your career as a musician?
a: Well, I've had to learn a lot of things that maybe I wouldn't have learned on my own, and that's probably character-building. Right now, I feel like technology's on my side. I'm not physically able to tour anymore, and I don't know if I ever will be again, but with a computer and a webcam and the willingness to mess with websites and things, an artist can build a career these days, one that doesn't necessarily require hours on the road and a carbon footprint the size of the former Soviet Union. I'm continually inspired by how Amanda Palmer uses new media to support her art. Technology has broken the big labels, and I think that will ultimately be a good thing for artists.
6. Now for my Barbara Walters question: If you were a pair of shoes what type of shoes would you be?
Brian Stoltz is a singer/songerwriter from New Orleans. He has worked with such artists as Bob Dyaln, Neville Brothers, Dr. John, the Meters and Aaron Neville. He has released three solo albums on his own.
1) For many artists, they cite a defining moment for themselves when they knew they wanted to be a singer. For many it was the appearance of Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show, to another generation it was The Beatles’ appearance on Sullivan half a decade later. Is there such a defining moment for you?
It was 1963. I was eight years old when I first heard The Beatles sing "She Loves You" on WTIX-AM in New Orleans. I was launched into a transcendent, joyous state. I had entered a whole new paradigm. The world made more sense. Around the same time, the radio was also playing "I Want To Hold Your Hand". That’s when music changed for me. Until then the radio was just something in the background. I listened to my mother’s records like the "Sheik Of Arabi" and some old Fats Domino records. I was attracted to music – interested in hearing new sounds – but hearing The Beatles for the first time was a powerful, emotional experience. By the time they appeared on Ed Sullivan’s Sunday night television show I was, in my mind, a musician. There was never a time in my life when I thought otherwise. Providence just handed it to me. In September 1964, The Beatles came to New Orleans to play City Park Stadium. I begged my mother to take me, but she would have none of it. Looking back, she was probably in fear of getting crushed by the manic crowd, but being refused, I was very upset. Things calmed down when on the day of the show she came home from work with a copy of "Meet The Beatles" for me. I was ecstatic! This was my initiation into the art of album-listening. I was nine years old telling people that I was going to be a musician like The Beatles. They would laugh and say, “You are? What instrument do you play?” They would laugh even harder when I told them, “I don’t play anything - but I will”. There have been many defining moments like when I first heard Hendrix - and when I got Dylan for the first time. But hearing The Beatles on the radio for the first time is the all time defining moment.
2)When you are not creating music what are you listening to? Who are some of your favorites?
Currently, I am listening to a few new things - The Raconteurs CD, "Consolers Of The Lonely", Radiohead’s "Rainbows" and probably my favorite new release, Drive By Truckers', "Brighter Than Creation’s Dark". I saw them on one of the late night shows. They did a song called "Two Daughters And A Beautiful Wife" - one of the most beautiful songs that I’ve heard in a long time. I bought the record and found that there are a lot of good songs on there. I am also listening to the latest Neil Young record, "Chrome Dreams 2", a Chris Whitley "Anthology 1991 – 2001" and a Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions "Anthology 1961-1977". I am still listening to Tom Waits’ "Orphans" and his "Real Gone" albums. There are a lot of records that have held up over the years that I keep in rotation like the entire Dylan catalog, most of the Hendrix releases, including many bootlegs that I have, the Beatles catalog and an assortment of old local records like "Best of Lee Dorsey", Earl King (The Imperial Years), Dr. John’s "Desitively Bonnaroo" and assorted Allen Toussaint.
3)What would you say is your greatest moment so far as an artist, either on record or live?
There have been so many great moments like finding myself on The Rolling Stones’ "Tattoo You" tour with The Neville Brothers, after being out of work for six months recovering from carpel tunnel surgery. Another tour that I hold fond memories of was the first Amnesty International “Conspiracy Of Hope” tour. We were on the road with U2, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, The Police and a host of luminaries, raising awareness of the plight of political prisoners around the world. But the memories that remain the clearest are of being in the studio with Bob Dylan, working on his "Oh Mercy" album (1989). The producer, Dan Lanois, set up the recording gear in an old house in uptown New Orleans. This was a quiet, but intense time. I was open to taking in as much as possible from the situation. Having the opportunity to watch Bob work was a real education and inspiration for me. There was no pomp or real pressure to perform – just a few guys sitting around in a tight circle playing real music. These more quiet moments are burned into my memory with more intensity than any of the hoopla that accompanies big tours.
4)Do you believe music can change the world or is just something to listen to? How can music influence current events?
Everything affects every thing. I don’t feel that music by itself can change much, but the ideas in songs can make a difference. The thoughts we have and the things we say can make a difference. Every thing affects everything. We are living in an age where it is important for us to explore the things we have in common – the things that link us as human. It is time to forgive shortcomings and differences and face life in a fearless manner. Music can influence current events when artists speak fearlessly – and we are living in a time where we just can’t fake it. Songs can inspire individuals to change, but it is individuals who must bring about change.
5)How has technology affected the music industry? How has technology affected your career as a musician?
Technology has certainly changed things – some for the better, some for the worse. I have mixed feelings about it all since I am a bit challenged in the technical department. I am still trying to master e-mail. But on the upside I think it is great that, with good quality recording gear becoming more affordable, songwriters and musicians can pull up a drum loop and instantly have a foundation to create over - or that they can lay down that 3 o’clock in the morning idea in an instant. In this regard, it saves time and money. Digital editing has also given us some time-saving features when you compare it to the old days when tape was spliced with a razor blade. But the question is “does all this technology really save us time in the long run?” No, because we now have too many options – and it is within boundaries and limitation that creativity occurs. Having so many options has watered down the creative process. There is a lot of the same crap out there. There was a time when an artist had to perform because a mic was placed before him and his performance was simply captured. The engineer used his ear to find the sweet spot and then placed his mic. It was about capturing sounds in a way that did not require much manipulation after the fact. Of course there are still many artists and engineers who record this way in the digital world, but it seems to me that as the technological bar gets raised it takes more of an effort to make things sound good because of the range of options. My recording engineer George Cureau and I recently experienced this when George installed Pro Tools in his studio. We were already recording with an automated digital console and a 24 track HD recorder. This system is functionally old school. It allows us to record in an analog fashion, but with the time saving feature of not having to rewind tape. The console has good EQ’s in it so he can tweak sounds fast. When we transfered songs to Pro Tools to mix we discovered that the overall sound was wider and more expanded, but with no punch – and it lacked depth. It takes more plug-ins to get the same effect that we used to get with a quick adjustment on the board. So in this regard it is not faster. I find some of the music recorded today unlistenable. My ears get fatigued listening to some CD’s. A lot of new releases are just mastered too hot. Some CD’s, even at a moderate listening level, hurt to the point that I have to turn it off. I can rarely get through a whole CD. When I listen to older records on vinyl or on cassette, the music even at a loud level, just washes over me. It is easy to be absorbed by the music. When I listen to some CD’s I feel like I am being attacked and I have to listen at a lower level. Neil Young summed it up nicely when he said that “Digital could be weaponized.” The albums that I own on CD do not sound as musical as those same records I have on vinyl or cassette. And now we listen to mp3’s which sounds smaller to me than any of those other formats. So, it’s not really getting better in quality. And people don’t care. I recently read a story about a record that Trent Reznor did. Inspired by Radiohead’s decision to let fans pay what they want for the record, Trent decided to give away a lo-fi mp3 version of the music, and I believe charge full price for the good quality, full CD version. A lot of the freebies got downloaded, but he did not sell many quality versions. Sadly, I don’t think many people know the difference anymore. In the download age, the CD stores have become extinct. I guess this is good for the environment, but I like to hold the record (or CD) in my hand. I like to read the credits. What about the artwork and the lyrics on the inside? Sure you can download that too, but it seems that people have lost interest in that, or they don’t have time for it any more. And we are back to the days of the single. A lot of people just buy the song they want to hear as opposed to the whole album. This could be good as it forces artists to be more discriminative and write better songs, but what about the album-oriented artist who’s in-between songs are just as important as the hits that stand out? Also, recording analog on magnetic tape allows more mystery and magic to occur. Digital recording is cleaner, but there is such a thing as too clean. That’s why they have tape saturation plug-ins to dirty things up to sound like tape. It doesn’t really, and the whole concept doesn’t make much sense to me. With things so clean, it’s harder to get sounds to mesh. The colors do not blend like they used to. The lines are too clear-cut. Not just in the music world either. Video doesn’t look better than film. Digital photos do not look better than film. When you look at concert footage shot today, it has no mystery to it. Old performances shot on film have a mystique and magical quality that lacks in today’s digital world. But like everything else in our consumer-driven age, we are slaves to the drive to produce, with little regard for what lies in essence or for the future.
6)Now for my Barbara Walters question: If you were a pair of shoes what type of shoes would you be?
Well, if I had to be shoes, I’d like to be a pair of Prada boots (which I happen to own). They are not for everybody. Some may find them pretentious, but fact is, they are very comfortable, the older they get the better they look and they are very well made and will last me the rest of my life. A true classic!
