Friday 1 November 2013

Arthur Nasson Q&A

Your name:
Arthur Nasson.

Where are you from?
Boston, Mass. USA.

Who else is in your band?
It's been a solo project for years where I play all the instruments [no machines]. Though recently my young sons Graham and Colin have joined in. Graham played drums on the entire last album West Cambridge Cowboys and Colin has been adding synthesizers, sonically treated guitars and percussion to a couple of tracks. My friend Paul Curcio is involved as well, we go way back meeting as teenagers at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York - he joins us on bass guitar.

How would you describe yourselves?
In the seven albums released so far, they seem to occupy two mind sets. Those that are very structured, song-oriented rock recordings, and those that attempt to eschew cultural confines and break down and eliminate structure.
Sometimes these two disparate worlds spill over into one another. I love when that happens. I always like music that pushes forward to new places while having reverence and a depth of understanding of what's been.

 Who are your main influences musically?
 There are many so I'll try to be brief and categorize.
 In rock - Beatles,Todd Rundgren,Steely Dan, Frank Zappa,Little Richard,Jimi Hendrix.
 In jazz - Thelonious Monk,Sun Ra,John Coltrane.
 In classical - Bach,Stravinsk.
 In blues - Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf.
 In electronic music - Morton Subotnick, Karlheinz Stockhausen.
 In boogie piano - Meade Lux Lewis, Professor LongHair, Champion Jack Dupree.

What do you hope to achieve in music?
Global domination as well as finally having my own fragrance placed in department stores, because this will bring happiness to all.

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why?
I have been very lucky to have received many highlights so far. Recently I have taken up filmmaking and my videos are being picked up by TV stations in many countries around the world. I find this surprising as well as charming.

And what’s the moment you want to forget?
Moment? There have been many but for the most part positive. I have interacted with various characters here and there over the years, and have found, that it's just like any other business.

If you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why?
While there are many, I will go with She Was Never Really There. It takes elements of classical harmony, diminished chords, thirds in the bass, an unusual piano figure, adds some jazz harmony, of course rock, the lyrics work well it has a good story line, and a  multi-tracked vocal breakdown in the middle that I still find absolutely stunning. Very proud of this one.

Where can we listen to it?
http://youtu.be/F29iKlDmL5s




Where can we find out more about your music?
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/arthur-nasson/id4391911
www.arthurnasson.com
https://twitter.com/ArthurNasson
https://www.facebook.com/arthurnasson

Anything else you’d like to say about your band/music that I forgot to ask?
Did I mention a fragrance?

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