New direction and a new chapter: Son Lux
A talk about the band’s new album, their old and future musical projects and most interestingly about Turkish Classical Music.
Interview by Aycan Taşyürek, Photo by Nicolas Jaubard
Son Lux started as a musical project of American musician Ryan Lott, then joined by the guitarist Rafiq Bhatia and the drummer Ian Chang. Son Lux has four full-length albums and two EPs. The band’s most recent album Bones is a stand out release of 2015. We were lucky enough to interview them before they took stage in Rock en Seine music festival, which took place in Paris between 28th-30th of August. We talked about their new album, their past and future musical projects and most interestingly about Turkish Classical Music.
You released your most recent album “Bones” in June and you’ve been touring for a while. How is the reaction by the audience so far?
Ryan: This is a fun moment for us because people are just discovering the music. Son Lux has been a long-term project of mine and in a lot of ways Bones represents a new direction and a new chapter. But it’s also a continuation of a longer story. Every chapter is different and the response to each album is different. It’s always exciting at the beginning of playing new album material because you have the opportunity to experience the reactions you’ve got from the people before they are familiar with the material. And performing live is exciting because it’s a mix of people recognizing new material and also recognizing the old as well. It’s a rare and specific moment when you can experience both you know the new music isn’t familiar yet and the old music isn’t old yet.
How long have you been playing with Ryan? Only since the last album am I right?
Ian: Since last January.
So you also recorded the last album or are you playing only in the live shows?
Rafiq: The last album was the first that three of us made together as a band.
How was the recording experience? Because he has been doing this project since 2008 and you‘ve joined him later. So, was it hard for you to find your place in the project?
Rafiq: It was pretty natural actually.
Ian: We got to know each other and gain trust and respect between the three of us. We’ve been touring. We toured Lanterns album all last year, which Rafiq did record on. I joined later. You get to know people better then you would when you have the chance to tour with them.
Rafiq: We started from really not knowing each other super well to have a few short rehearsals before going on tour for 10 weeks straight. You know, we started to spent a lot of time together. Then, music started to happen very organically.
You’ve composed for commercials quite a while. Do you still continue doing commercial projects?
Ryan: Yes when I can or when I have need to.
So it’s more about the financial need?
Ryan: Yeah. You know it’s like one of the ways if you are a composer and if you adapt electronic music and making music with computers; it’s a good way to make a living. For me, I spent many years doing it as a full time job so I have a lot of experience lean on to it. I have a lot of existing relationships in the industry. My goal of course is to do that less, to do Son Lux more, and I’m know at a point where I barely do advertising projects unless it’s a very special project and it has a lot of creative vibrancy to it. I don’t have to do things that I’m not interested in.
Doing commercial projects, does it change or affect your relationship with the music somehow? Do you become more distant to the music?
Ryan: That’s an interesting question. Because ultimately you have to put away your ego when you are making music that exists for to serve another medium. You have to lay down your own ego. At the same time, you have to hold on to your creative integrity. You can’t let go one and not hold on to the other. That requires a certain distance. You have to recognize that there are different purposes for different types of music you are making. If you can reconcile that –and not everyone can, not everyone should- but if you are a person that can it’s healthy to reconcile those two very different functions for music. Then, both can be rewarding.
About your project Sisyphus with Serengeti and Sufjan Stevens, how was it to work with two different musicians from two different disciplines? How was the creative process?
Ryan: It was a really fun project because we are all very different musicians. We are all friends so you know it was a really great opportunity to basically have fun, doing something that everyone does and everyone does in a very different way. So we all learned things from each other. There is a way in which Serengeti thinks about, the way he thinks about a story, the way he thinks about a sound is challenging for me. And the same with Sufjan… And the way I think about sound, about story is very different than does guys. Because we are all having fun, it was awesome.
Yes, in the end it became a very good combination.
Ryan: Exactly.
Do you have any new project with them?
Ryan: No. I mean it’s not really a project that we imagined having a future. But at the same time after we did our first EP –under then SSS that EP is called Beak & Claw, we didn’t really imagine a future. But then we ended up making a full-length record under different name Sisyphus. So, who knows? Again, we are all friends and we could easily wind up making some new things together in the future. A year from now, 10 years from now…
How do you feel about the Turkish music scene? Have you ever listened any Turkish musician?
Ryan: One of my best friends in music school was -and is- Turkish. He is one of the most incredible musicians I’ve ever encountered. He told me about his study, the way he grew up studying the music in Turkey. It’s insane.
What’s his name?
Ryan: His name is Hakan Toker. He is classical composer and he is just a total lunatic, he is amazing. So I’ve always had this incredible feeling about Turkey just knowing this guy and just cause he is such total genius and also crazy person. So, I have this funny vision of Turkish musicians in my head. He has taught me some about Turkish Classical Music. One of the things that’s interesting about Turkish traditional music is the way that harmonic series works. For us, in Western music you have what’s known as a “whole step” and a “half step” between two notes. In Turkish Classical Music you have nine microtone intervals in a whole step. So there are all these inflections that are specific notes not like colored notes. So, Hakan plays his string instrument (the qanun) has crazy frets all over and he just goes crazy playing it (he imitates the sound of a qanun). And you wonder like when they listen to our music and they hear a pitch it’s like slightly out of tune or whatever, they hear a different note, they think of it as a different note.
Are you planning to come to Turkey?
Ian: I’m open to it! In general we really enjoy playing in places we wouldn’t expect the music would take us to and experiencing the culture we don’t know. The less we know about it the most we are excited about it. We also love food. So let’s do it!
Rafiq: I’m actually coming to Istanbul with my family for travelling this September. That’s why I was very excited when you said you were from there. I’m excited to find out more about Turkish music scene.
Ian: Every night I play cymbals that are made in Istanbul. All my cymbals are made in Istanbul.
Rafiq: I’ve got to figure out where to go to get all the drums in Istanbul for all my drummer friends.
What was the most exciting and impressive album for you in 2015? Rafiq: I really dug Earl Sweatshirt’s album I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside. There were two rap albums I was really eagerly anticipating: the Kendrick Lamar album and the Earl Sweatshirt album. They both came out within a week of each other or something. I ended up really diving into Earl’s record. The way it flows along and the rawness of everything, like the rawness of the beats many of which he produced himself… It has this kind of lo-fi character that I rarely like but somehow it works. It’s really amazing. The evolution in his lyricism, it’s almost like a line in the sand. His unwillingness to do things that made him popular in a sense was very cool. It’s a cool record.
Ian: New Unknown Mortal Orchestra album. It’s a good record. You know the first two record, the first one is great, second one is cool, this one is like he kind of pushed his sides a little bit more but he did it in a really good way. He really has good melodies and he is a great guitar player.
Ryan: It’s an old record but it’s something I keep coming back to. (He finds and shows the album from his Spotify) It’s an Alice Coltrane record. It’s called Journey in Satchidananda.