Kristīne Komarovska: We got to know your project a couple of years ago, when you created interpretations for Imants Kalniņš and Ainars Mielavas’ album “About Things You Never Go With.” I didn’t expect you to meet again and release your own original music album.
Mikēlis Putniņš: We didn’t know for ourselves whether the second album would be made, because the project “Nepāriet” was really a project that met in the music of Imants Kalniņš, in a project initiated by Jānis Šipkēvics. We, the members of the ensemble, were already familiar, some more, some less, but in principle Jānis gathered us all in such an ensemble and thought that it would be interesting to interpret Imants Kalniņš’s music. This is how we got to know each other in a slow spirit in the summer of 2017. Through joint music making, music by Imants Kalniņš and later we also recorded an album. We started playing concerts.
The feeling was that I was very good together and didn’t want to put an end to the end of the first tour. It seems to me that we all felt that way, but John was the one who said it out loud.
How did you think of inviting Martha Pujata? His poetry is exactly what we hear in music.
Evija Webere: It is also the divine finger of John. It seems to me that they met already at the music school. They were classmates, and Marts traveled with us through John. At least for me, it was the first closer acquaintance with Marta’s work. That was very significant. We went to one of the last concerts to Liepaja, all by bus. It was a concert where we play for master Imants Kalniņš himself, which was very, very cool.
John pulled out a folder and said, “See where there are 12 poems, now we’re all reading, and everyone is choosing their own.” It happened very beautifully.
When we all went to Liepāja in silence, we read, naturally chose which poem to address. We talked about the date we would meet to hear what everyone would have written, how they would have dressed the texts. It was cool because those texts are like Michael said: “The more you read them, the more you find them. throw. ” But not because they are complicated. On the contrary. In that simplicity, you can change the spectrum you look at and take it somewhere.
Mikēlis Putniņš:
For me, March is a magical man whose lines of poetry fall out.
I remember we had one song, where musically there was a feeling that one verse was missing. When we made this album, Marts came to rehearsals from time to time, listening to how it all happens. Alice asked him, “Listen, Mart, maybe you could have another four in a row for this?” And he said, “Of course.” And the next day ready. For me, this is something absolutely amazing.
The author and artist of the album cover is Lāsma Pujāte.
Mikēlis Putniņš: That’s right, Martha’s sister.
Which of your big bands is the musical father? Who creates the most music in your big band?
Evija Webere: All together trying to find their place and what can be provided. Definitely want to highlight Matīsiņš – Matīss Čudars. Maybe it’s because he’s going to Yale now to study in September, which is really cool, that he’s going on, and then he’ll have to watch … Not that he’s telling us what to do, but he’s the ghost who’s there. in total.
Mikēlis Putniņš: I think Matisse has also worked a lot. It is often the case that the ideas we have brought through him are probably clearer than we are. What is also interesting about such a large composition is that there is really no dictator or a clear leader. There are ten songs in the album, we each wrote one song, Alice and Jānis two. We wrote them together so far as to have the basics of the song. March has already prepared the lyrics, and we each wrote melodies, chords or such things in our class. We did it all together throughout last summer. From time to time we met in creative camps, where we each worked on our idea, each presented.
It is, of course, a challenge to have eight composers on one album. It often doesn’t happen. There is a risk that everyone has their own handwriting, individual language and how they see and hear music.
The risk is probably that the end result is already too eclectic. It seems to me that we were very helped by the fact that we worked together with the magical husband Gati Zaķi, who was with us and who led us, so that it all really sounds together in the end. Evia and I are both subjective, but it seems that this album sounds like a band album, not eight people’s “where is my song and” where is my song “. It really sounds united, and I think that is very much Gata’s merit.
As Miķelis Putniņš became the director of the latest video of the project “Do not pass”4min
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Mikel, how did you discover the director’s gene in yourself?
Mikēlis Putniņš: I work with sound on a daily basis, I write music, sing, perform, play guitar, but I like something with their visual media. I like to photograph natural things, which may just seem interesting to me, but I do it a lot. I like to go somewhere and take pictures of things in the sand. I had once gone on a trip to the sea,
I listened to Matis’ song. The sea was very interesting, the snow was blowing, and he alternated with sand. I started running and filming it as I was running. It seemed abnormal to me… This is a video clip!
So I thought, how do I sell it to my group members? I said, “Hey, maybe we could each make a video?”
What does the artwork “Ness and Nesija” shot by Ansis Bērziņš, Roze Stiebra in 1991, express to our generation?
Evija Webere: Some warm feeling. When I saw that cartoon, and Michael said – I somehow see this – and he sent us a snippet … It’s such a warm feeling. Something that has already been forgotten a bit, but the character of that cartoon is so dear, is rooted in some way.
Mikēlis Putniņš: March has taken Ness and Nessia as a metaphor for two lovers. It is clear who these images are, and everyone immediately thinks about the cartoon.
You have not been too far from Imants Kalniņš’s brother Vika (Viktora Kalniņa), who is the author of “Big Day of the Underwater Herd”.
Mikēlis Putniņš: I learned from Rose that he was the one who created Nese. Nessie is a borrowed image from Lohnes’ monster, but Ness is just us. Many thanks to Vik for that. It was interesting that from the very beginning, when we were in the studio, I was already thinking about the fact that this cartoon could be together with the album at one point, somehow visualizing it. The time came when we started working on those videos.
And since you are now a director…
Mikēlis Putniņš: And since I’m a big director now, I think I’d love to direct a clip for my song as well. Then I realized that I needed to get to know Rozi and Annis, ask for their permission, advice. It was fantastic. They are both wonderful people. Rose is so generous in her personality, and how she shares her experiences, stories! It was so interesting to listen. We once spoke over the phone for an hour.
She told me about how Ness and Nessia became. It was barricade time, and the actors went from work in the studio to barricades and from barricades back to work.
Between the stages of the recording, they discussed what will happen at all, what will happen. Probably, it also came to me from the love and freedom of “Ness and Nessia”… And the fact that it came out in 1991 … In fact, many of the members of “Do Not Go” “came out” in 1991. I included.
You are a very different team. Each of their own musical association. Why such a composition? Why don’t you have Don, for example?
Evija Vēbere: When we filmed about this, we thought not about why Don isn’t, but whether John has deliberately chosen three little girls of the same length. When he thought about composition, did he think, “How much do you have? You have about 1.64 cm? ” This is John [ziņā]. We have not asked why. I find it very cool that we are super diverse. We seemed to have read it, but the beautiful reason for this album is precisely because we met in that world of Imants Kalniņš. And there’s something like that in our Latvian DNA, even though we’re different …
Playing the music of Imants Kalniņš, we realized that maybe we are not so different either.
We all have a love for melodies that we feel warm, that we feel close, that sound. It is something unifying. I think that’s why this is the second album. Through this experience, we realized that we can be together and want to be together, even though we are so different.
Mikēlis Putniņš: Our acquaintance was so expanded. The first summer, when we met and created their first concert program, and then for a while we did nothing more. Then we slowly, slowly … between the first dates we had a lot of time to think about everything crosswise and meet again, feel…
Miķeli, you also worked in the music group “Ezeri”, you also worked with Linda Leen, you also worked in cabaret. And you, Evij, in both electronic music and jazz. What is closest to you in music?
Mikēlis Putniņš: It would be impossible for me to name a certain genre, because I have not been able to think about music in genres for the last ten years. I appreciate the quality of music that is universal, that goes beyond the genre. I love rock music, I love jazz music, academic music, and I also love pop. I am not surprised – the more I do, the more I find, I find that my relationship with music does not seem to change. With each project I participate in, I find something new for myself, because each collaboration requires a new edge of yours. I really like that life has allowed and given me such opportunities that I was able to get to know myself through projects, to find features in myself that I would probably not find if I only had my project “Lakes”.
Music in itself is a very powerful phenomenon, but she works most effectively, interacting with both the people you work with and, of course, the listeners.
Do you have anything to do with the world of mysticism, because when you listen, at times you feel like you know more and try to tell us if it is?
Evija Webere: No it’s not. Sometimes we seem to express all those feelings about genres, about music, immediately you automatically speak esoteric, but something magical is inside. Miķelis said about the qualities that go beyond those genre boxes, there you can no longer say in one word that “it is in this”, and I appreciate it in music. There’s so much out there, it’s such a thread, it’s such a fragility, it’s also about people.
Mikēlis Putniņš: When it comes to mysticism, I don’t think we have a pre-rehearsal ritual. Everyday life is very normal for us, we play basketball, we order a lot of “Wolt”, we think what we will order today. For us, life is very family simple. When we are together, I have a feeling that I am among people who understand me, where I feel comfortable and easy to be.
I think the magic of this composition is that all people consider music to be something magical. We all feel about it as an incredible phenomenon that has been given to us in life.
I can make music for a long time and I still feel like something like that at all – like songs, guitars – sounds?
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