An Interview with Medeski, Martin and Wood drummer Billy Martin
By Trevor Harden and Tom Crenshaw
The earth is populated with thousands upon thousands of musical acts who write, record and perform within their comfort zones, using the live stage to rehash their recorded music. Sparse are the bands willing to experiment, improvise and truly "play" in the playing of their music. Medeski, Martin and Wood, however, are one of those bands.
With as broad of a musical palette as any ensemble, MMW explores and experiments with sound, rhythm, and melody, unafraid to take chances or even to fall on their faces. But don't expect that often, as the group's well-honed skills and superb musicianship are the envy of musicians and fans worldwide.
Now in their eighteenth year together, MMW has completed a new series of albums entitled The Radiolarians Series (the last of which, Radiolarians III, was released on August 4th). The project itself was innovative in that it thwarted the tired, age-old pattern of touring in support of an already recorded album. Instead, they wrote the music on tour, performing (or even creating) fresh pieces for live audiences, only to return later to the studio to record the new pieces.
In this interview, drummer Billy Martin talks about the Radiolarians process, the band's openness to change, the "motherly" power in creating something new and tapping into higher dimensions through music.
RockOm: We recently spent some time with Brazilian vocalist Flora Purim and her percussionist husband Airto Moreira talking with them about their heritage, Brazilian rhythm and sound and how they’ve contributed to its evolution. Before becoming part of Medeski, Martin & Wood, you were a part of the NYC Brazilian scene in the 1980s. What led to your discovery and joining into that scene and why do you think the Brazilians seem to know something intrinsic about rhythm that the rest of the world envies?
Billy: The Brazilians have a unique rhythmic vocabulary unlike any other, which for me was very magical. When I was younger I discovered and fell in love with it so I dropped everything and for two years only played Brazilian music. It changed my life. It's a different way of being and a whole different world. I still love it and I learned a lot about African rhythms through Brazilian rhythms, really. The way I phrase and play drums is heavily influenced by that style. But once I learned to play Brazilian-style, I realized I couldn't only be a Brazilian drummer or percussionist. I had to take it my own way and reinterpret it.
RockOm: You’re also a visual artist with your printmaking, painting, pencil and pastel drawings, and other mediums. Do any of the creative attributes of visual artistry help with your creating musically?
Billy: Absolutely. It comes from the same place of exploration and experimentation. When I make art, it's usually through an improvising technique where I'm not sure what I'm going to end up with, which is the same way that I create music.
RockOm: Medeski, Martin & Wood has successfully experimented and reinvented itself many times over the years. What do you think has contributed to your being open for change - which seems to be a problem for many other bands?
Billy: I think it's just our personalities, where we're coming from and where we're going, and the chemistry we have. It's also the love we share for creating new things, keeping it fresh, being involved with growing and learning, and not being afraid to take chances. We all share that in this band. There's no real strong personality that says, "I just want to play the same thing every night. I don't want to be challenged. I just want to make the money. I just want to play the same thing and play the same little trick I do every night that makes people go 'Ooh, ahh!' Let's collect the check and play it safe." For us, that's like the fuckin' devil. It's just not the way we work.
RockOm: Many of your songs are thematic in that the song title and the composition or expressed feeling all seem to be communicating a certain theme. How much of your writing starts with a non-musical idea - where you want to write a song about a certain subject and then you put music to that idea - as opposed to just writing music and naming it later?
Billy: Only a very, very small percentage of anything is conceptual where we say, "Let's do something that's about this or let's take this title and create a piece of music." It's more that we want to communicate with sound and use our musical vocabulary to see what happens. We just get together and see what happens when we have a musical discussion. Then we will take notes on it, record it or just think about it. But there's only about 5% of our music that comes in [conceptually].
RockOm: Reflecting back now that the Radiolarians project is complete, would you say you and the group have accomplished your objectives with what you were aiming for in this collection of albums and tours?
Billy: Definitely. I think originally we were going for four different "seasons" but to me this is even better. I like the number three: we're a trio, three is a powerful number, and three volumes of music is perfect. It's asymmetrical; I like that. I am really happy with what happened. We didn't know where it was going to end up and each record evolved out of the previous one. And that was the whole point, that it was an evolving process of writing. That theme is in there: evolution, revolution, re-evolution.
RockOm: What would you say you learned most about the band or just in general through the Radiolarians process?
Billy: It's hard to say; we've been together for eighteen years. Musically, we're changing all the time and so as far as what we learn, it's almost hard to put words to it. I guess patience, learning how to be patient and how not to repeat ourselves. But that's an ongoing theme. On a more technical level, I'd say we're learning about making records and releasing them ourselves. We're learning how to be a record company. The things we've dreamt about are becoming true now because we've been involved with other labels and this is now our own thing. We're also learning to do more with less, financially. With Blue Note, Capitol or Indirecto there was some money there. I mean it wasn't our money... but then we didn't own the end product. It was our music but physically the recording wasn't ours and that kind of sucked. The trade-off was investing in ourselves and taking the money out of our own pockets and all the sudden you get more serious about it in a way, because now it's our responsibility to package this thing and get it out there. We've become a little more careful how much time we've spent on recording, mastering, editing or whatever.
RockOm: There’s a freedom inherent in music as well as a long history of cutting edge, innovative jazz that touches on or hints at a higher dimension in music besides the norm. What’s your experience with sound as a vehicle to higher dimensions, or higher levels of consciousness, and would you describe MMW’s music as a means to reaching those states?
Billy: Yes, it's the quickest way for me to "get there," as far as reaching another level of communication. I'm not very good with words and I've developed my own way of making music and using sound that is my own. It's been an inspirational and spiritual self-discovery that I've gone through. There's magic in there; it's real magic. Sometimes I'm doing it and I don't take it so seriously. I mean I'm always focused and trying to do my best but there's times when I don't take myself so seriously that I say, "Check me out, I'm a master and you're going to learn from me." I don't do that unless I'm teaching. I'm only going to say, "This is who I am when I'm being sincere. I'm going to do some stuff - some of it is going to work and some of it isn't - and I'm not going to be so serious about myself." But then people come up to me and they say, "Oh my God, you changed my life." To me that's the magic, the power of that stuff. Sometimes maybe when I'm not witnessing this spiritual thing that's happening, other people may be getting it. It's really cool in that way. Sometimes I'm conscious of what I'm doing and what's happening and other times other people see it.
RockOm: Do you notice those magical or mystical moments when improvising with your bandmates and you lock into a groove that seems to have come from beyond yourself?
Billy: Yes and a lot of it comes through the improvising when we make these discoveries. We look at each other like, "Oh my God, how in the hell did we just decide to do that? We didn't plan this; it just happened." We look at each other with our mouths open sometimes and that's the beautiful thing about it. Just being creative and not repeating yourself note for note is probably one of the greatest things you can do because you're creating something that hasn't been done before. When you're doing that you're creating a new thing and putting a new thing into the world; it's very powerful. Not powerful in a warrior way, more in a motherly way of creating a new being. That's a spiritual thing.
RockOm: Camp MMW has wrapped it's 2nd year. Tell us about the camp and what you've learned in working with musicians of varying levels.
Billy: We do it upstate New York in the Catskills which is in this area called the Full Moon Resort. It's a beautiful spot on hundreds of acres and the way it's set up is just perfect. We have the barn for master classes where we show films and there's other spaces in which we teach. John, Chris and I will have workshops at the same time so some of the student body comes to my thing because I'm going to do Afro-Brazilian rhythms or I'm going to talk about improvising and soloing or they'll go to John's where he's going to talk about his keyboard setup or what it means to improvise. It's a very intimate setting where we're getting hands on with the students, we're creating ensembles and they're getting to play with people they've never played with before under our direction. They also get their own time to do jam sessions at night with other people and cross-pollinate. We give them the juice and the ideas or concepts they can use and we end up having a really good time. It's only our second year but I'm confident that it's something we'll keep going.
RockOm: You're about to embark on a new string of fall tour dates. What are you anticipating about this coming tour?
Billy: We're always into writing new music but now that we have all three volumes of Radiolarians, we'll throw those out. We'll sprinkle the set with Radiolarians tunes and improvise on that and then we'll start experimenting with some new ideas. We may even get into a little more visual stuff too - video that relates to the Radiolarians - if it works out. But basically it's going to be the same guys up there trying to do some new shit. [laughs]
Thanks to Myles Grosovsky and Sneak Attack Media
Tags: Billy Martin, Brazilian, Camp MMW, creation, Drums, experimentation, exploration, Improvisation, innovative, Interview, Magical, Medeski Martin and Wood, Mystical, Percussion, Power, Radiolarians, Sneak Attack Media, Spiritual
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