MUSIC INTERVIEW: AM

The Electronica Artist On The Importance of Philosophy & Realism Over Romanticism

By: Casey Thompson

June 11, 2009

(Filter US Recordings) An accomplished musician with two LPs and an EP of duets to his credit, Echo Park resident AM is someone you may not have heard of, but that’s soon to change. Chances are, if you’re a fan of KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, “Brothers and Sisters,” “Greek” or a myriad of other shows, you’ve probably already heard his music. Fusing simple, intelligent lyrics with pop melodies and international flavor, AM creates music for the casual and contemplative listener. At a recent Spaceland show in Silver Lake, California, he debuted some songs from his forthcoming album, Future Sons and Daughters. Prior to the show, he sat down with Buzzine over Pad Thai and cashew chicken to talk about his new musical direction.

Casey Thompson: Let’s talk about the new record, Future Sons and Daughters.

AM: I just finished it — produced by myself with a fellow named Charles Newman, who does a lot of Magnetic Fields’ records. We just wrapped it up and I’m super stoked about it. It’s definitely a lot more playful, I think, than previous records. It’s less serious and more fun.

CT: In terms of subject matter?

AM: Yeah, new ground in subject matter and new ground with musicianship. It’s a lot more groovy. I think the Brazilian influences are a lot more evident. There’s definitely a lot of percussion on the record and a grooviness about several of the songs that stems from late ‘60s Brazilian salsa and samba.

CT: Is there any particular reason you’ve decided to shy away from the traditional folk sound?

AM: Yeah, I never really felt like I was in the traditional folk world. I think if you listen back to most of my records, there’s sort of a pervasive pop element, but this record in particular is definitely…like I said, I guess wearing my influences more on my sleeve.

CT: Do you still use a lot of acoustic instrumentation?

AM: Acoustic guitar is still there, but there’s so much other percussion and groovy, trippy synthesizers and organs, and stuff around that. The acoustic is part of the mix, but by no means is it integral. And then there’s also a lot of nylon-stringed acoustic guitar, which is obviously equated with a lot of Brazilian music…and some ukulele too.

CT: Were you classically trained on guitar?

AM: No, absolutely not. I was a horrible student and I was a last-minute guy. The night before lessons, I was sweating it out. But I should mention that my bass player, Mark Getten, is taking lessons right now from the legendary Carol Kaye, who of course played on more than a handful of Motown records and is just a phenomenal bass player — probably one of the most groovy bass players still around.

CT: Are you still doing a lot of politically minded songs?

AM: That’s there, but I still don’t really draw much of a difference between when you’re talking about politics or you’re talking about personal relationships. The same fundamental rules, I think, can be applied to any situation. There are songs on the record that deal heavily with the issue of mercy, but that can be applied anywhere — that can be applied to age-old political battles that won’t rest, but it can also be applied to age-old personal grudges that people hold on to one another forever, sometimes without resolving those tensions. I think sometimes it is easier to make amends for people than you can imagine it being. You always feel like you may be acquiescing, but there’s a freedom that comes along with it.

CT: What about when it comes to the perpetrators of torture?

AM: Yeah, I’m not talking about that…

CT: Do you have any plans to revive the Duets series?

AM: Yeah, definitely. Since I put Volume 1 on the first one, I forced myself to produce more volumes. It’s sort of a built-in obligation, but yes, I am going to do another one. I’m hoping to do that this year.

CT: Do you have any particular artists in mind?

AM: I’ve got a few, but I’m going to stay quiet on that right now because I don’t want to jinx it. Some pretty cool stuff could be going down. Nothing’s set in stone, but I’ve been talking to a lot of people. The thing about the duets is it’s about me connecting with artists directly. It’s not about managers talking to managers; it’s about me personally reaching out to an artist or a friend and saying, “Do you want to be a part of this?” and just keeping it as real as I can.

CT: Does that have anything to do with the artistic community of the Hotel Café, where you got your start?

AM: That has something to do with the first [Duets], though there were a couple of artists on the first one that really had nothing to do with Hotel Café. They were, in fact, from different countries. But that’s where I saw a lot of friends and a lot of very talented people. I started with my immediate friends.

CT: You’ve played on the Hotel Café Tour before, which features a lot of collaboration between artists.

AM: Absolutely. It’s a really cool thing and definitely geared toward community.

CT: Do you have any interest in doing the Hotel Café Tour again?

AM: I’m totally always interested, but we’ll have to see when it happens and what’s going on… It’s all about scheduling.

CT: The Hotel Café has helped launch the careers of several talented artists.

AM: Absolutely. It’s exciting also because I’m starting to foray over into another section of Los Angeles — I’d probably say a more band-oriented section of town -– which is Silver Lake and Echo Park. The Echo and Spaceland have their own thing going too. That’s the cool thing about Los Angeles: there are so many different pockets and there’s stuff going on. I go down to this place in Fullerton called the Continental Club, and I see a lot of Boogaloo and Latin music out there, and there’s a whole different thing happening in other sections of town. That’s what’s so cool about living here — that you have places like the Hotel Café, you have places like The Echo and Spaceland, and you have places like The Mint that cater more towards, like, worldly stuff.

CT: Is playing with a full band new to you?

AM: I’ve always had a band; I could just never afford to take them on the road. I never wanted to be the lone folk guy, but it just kind of happened out of necessity. To go across the world, sometimes you have to make concessions.

CT: Your press release describes your band as more of a symphony than a rock band.

AM: Basically, what we meant by that is it’s not your traditional rock band. It’s key[board]s, bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar…but I think you’ll see at the show that it’s all carefully arranged. Everything is in its right place and it’s not “all systems go.” It’s kind of like you’d see in a classic ‘70s band with all these different people doing their thing. Case in point is a lot of Brazilian stuff. It’s less about what you’re actually playing and more about how you’re playing it. There’s a lot of space — a chamber ensemble, that’s the word.

In the second part of AM’s interview with Buzzine, he discusses Brazilian music, Nietzschean philosophy, the inner workings of his songwriting technique and, of course, the legendary Carole Kaye.

CT: What kind of music are you listening to right now?

AM: Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Italian soundtrack stuff, a lot of Brazilian music…and then of course some ‘60s music, R & B, Patti Drew, Aretha Franklin, and then venturing into the Turkish side of things. New artists (new to me) like Felta, and another crazy guy, Mustafa Ozkent. Basically, I’ve been looking around the world and what was going on in the ‘60s and ‘70s in every other country but the U.S. I’m kind of investigating because, to me, the best music was created between ‘65 and ‘75 –- some of my favorite music, I should say -– so it’s interesting to see what was going on in different parts of the world during that time.

CT: What American and British music do you like from that time period?

AM: The Byrds…of course The Beatles, Beach Boys; David Axelrod — another sort of fusion-oriented jazz — was credited with being ostensibly the first guy to invent fusion music. Carole Kaye actually played on a lot of those sessions, which brings us back to the fact that my bass player is taking lessons [from Carole Kaye]. It’s still unbelievable to me.

CT: I notice there aren’t any singer/songwriters on your list.

AM: No, that’s a mischaracterization [about me]. It’s definitely going to become more of a mischaracterization as time goes on too. I’ve always loved the classic singer/songwriters: Cat Stevens, James Taylor…of course I love all that stuff. It’s undeniably great, but musically, for me, I’m just at a place where I want to have a little more fun. I find groove music tends to just be more fun.

CT: Do you play multiple instruments?

AM: No, I don’t. I’m mostly just a guitar-player and singer. I’m an amateur bass player and an amateur keyboard player in the sense that I can come up with cool sounds and play very simple lines. I can’t play piano. I’m a writer and a singer and a guitar player first and foremost. There are so many amazing musicians out there that have been doing this for so long. I want them to come in and add their thing. There’s nothing like playing with a great bass player. Why would I want to play the bass when there are so many guys that have dedicated their lives to being great bass players? I think it’s best when everybody just focuses on what they do best. I think that’s when the best work is created.

CT: If you could play with any musicians that have ever lived, what would your dream band be?

AM: Probably Earl Palmer and Carole Kaye holding down the rhythm section; keys: Richard Wright from Pink Floyd; guitar –- that’s really hard… Guitar would just have to be me. [Laughs] No, I’m just at a loss.

CT: What other styles of music would you like to explore now?

AM: I would really love to make an orchestral groove instrumental record. I kind of toyed with it on [Future Sons and Daughters]. There’s a track which is sort of a Brazilian groove, bass instrumental, trippy track. I’d love to do a whole record of stuff like that, but I just don’t know who would buy it.

CT: What is your songwriting style?

AM: It happens in different ways. Sometimes a lyric will pop into my head, sometimes a melody will pop into my head… I’d say more often than not, a melody just comes to mind and I start building from there — putting chords behind it, putting lyrics to it…most of the time. Every now and then, it starts with a cool line, a lyric, but mostly I’m starting with melodies and moving toward lyrics rather than the other way around.

CT: Since you start with the melodies, does the international influence come later in the songwriting process?

AM: You can color a song however you want. A melody’s a melody, no matter what culture or country of music you’re dealing with. In terms of adding depth, the flavor — say a Brazilian flavor or an African-type flavor -– it would be something that would come more on the production side of it, although there are certain cultures, especially Eastern cultures like Turkish and Indian, that have a scale system that’s different than ours. Their sense of resolve is also different. What sounds high-tension to us could sound very resolving to them, so that would affect how you write music. Unfortunately, I’m not ensconced enough in Turkish or Indian music to actually be able to melodically write from their perspective, but that would be a great thing to strive for.

CT: Your Bachelor’s degree is in philosophy, but have you taken any music courses?

AM: No, I didn’t take any music courses in college, except for one music production course, which I was terrible at, and one classical appreciation class, which I actually quite liked.

CT: How do you think the philosophy degree has affected your music?

AM: Quite a lot, actually, because it taught me to question things at a very early age. I think that’s a big part of songwriting — looking at something you may not want to look at, be it a personal thing or political thing or what have you. That’s what real philosophy is all about — it’s about questioning. It was very intense. [Laughs] I didn’t play a lot of music in college because my head was kind of wrapped up in that.

CT: What were your career plans at that time?

AM: I wanted to play music. I knew I was going to play music, but I just knew that, while I was in college, if I was going to get through it, I needed to do something that interested me, and that was the only thing I was interested in. I started out majoring in communications and I was like, “Wow, this is total bullshit. I’m not learning anything. I’m not getting turned on to anything.” I think that unless you have a specific trade that you’re training for, if you’re a creative person and you want to enter into the creative realm, liberal arts is the way to go.

CT: Are there any philosophers that particularly interested you?

AM: Nietzsche for sure, Schopenhauer for sure. I think I did read Genealogy of Morals by Nietzsche in the last year. Each year that goes by, you’re able to read it in such a different way, just like any great novel or poem. You’re going to respond to different elements of it.

CT: If your music is any indication, wouldn’t you find Nietzsche a little misanthropic?

AM: I don’t know. I saw him as kind of a realist. I mean, he definitely wasn’t a romantic. I think I am more on the side of realism, in my life and the way I go about things, because romanticism always leads to disappointment. It just doesn’t get you anywhere. I equate it with being 15. I think it was Wayne Coyne who said… I don’t want to misquote him, I like him too much. But basically, being a spiritual person in life is contrary to nature. I think that’s what he was getting at. You have to be very realistic if you want to do the right thing in life. If you get caught up in your own thing, you’re going to forget about other people, and that’s really what it’s all about. I definitely don’t agree with everything he [Nietzsche] was saying, because there were some things in his philosophy that I don’t necessarily agree with.

CT: Is there anything else you wanted to add?

AM: I’m a huge film fan.