Saskia Laroo Interview

INTERVIEW WITH SASKIA LAROO FROM TheCelebrityCafe.com ARCHIVES

DM) You describe your music as "crossover" music. What exactly does that mean?

SL) For me, actually, music is crossover music all the time when people are making music together. The musicians communicate with each other and the audience by means of music. So exactly it's a crossing over of the musical personalities, each with different background and talent. The ingredients can be completely from one style, but-- just like a language-- music has so many dialects, and who's to say what defines a style? Okay, generally speaking, you could have bigger and smaller crossovers in music. For example, two country musicians from different states will already probably sound a lot different, especially among people that are familiar with this music. When I first heard bebop music, it all sounded the same to me. The same thing happened when I tried to "look for the fun" in hip-hop music. I couldn't listen to it too long. Now that I have gotten to know the artists, their music, and their audiences, I can 't get enough of it (like bebop and many other musical styles). When I fall in love with a new musical style, I want to share that with other musicians that I know from other scenes. I've learned that all musicians need to discover other musical styles in a tempo and in a way that suits them personally. But it used to make me feel quite lonely when I could move freely among scenes while most of my colleagues would stick with their own circle.

It can be quite nice and relaxing to stay within your own musical scene for a lot of musicians; that 's why they stick with a certain musical style. I am a very curious person, though, who loves to take great musical risks when performing, so I can appreciate different styles of music and see what they might have in common or might be able to benefit from. For this, I analyze bass lines, drum patterns, horn licks, and so on. For example, I like to analyze a musical style like salsa, jazz or hip-hop and try to play the phrasing and investigate the ingredients that I feel make the music swing and make it authentic for that style.

Besides that, I am always wondering when I hear music: "What's the thing that turns people on to this music?" As a child, I always was very conservative, I didn't really want to change. But after going through a couple of "growing up" changes, as everybody does, I learned to accept changes, and with music it's actually the same.

At first I didn't like drum 'n' bass music too much. Hip-hop music was too unfamiliar. I didn't understand the LP "Miles Live in Europe" because I didn't recognize the melody from the song "Autumn Leaves" on this album.

Now I am so happy that I learned to appreciate all this. I try to stay close to new developments in music, because it's a great feeling to stay close to the excitement of creation.

DM) How does the music scene differ in the Netherlands from what it is here in the United States?

SL) In the Netherlands, there is more contact between various music scenes, and that means more chances of meeting people from different musical backgrounds and getting a chance to play with each other. But the history of music in Netherlands is very different. A great deal of Dutch people like very much American-originated music styles, such as blues, rock, funk, soul and jazz, and we try to play it, to understand it, and to mix it with music from Africa, the Caribbean, South America, the Orient, and Russia, as well as classical and more.

Endless combinations:

Native-rooted Dutch music in the Dutch language is, at the moment, very popular, too. The music I make is a combination of dance music (house, hip-hop, funk, soul) and jazzy improvisations, horn lines and freestyle rap. I call it "Dance Jazz," "Dance Music with Jazz," or "Jazz Music" to dance to. The obvious difference between the Dutch and the American music scene is that everything in the USA is more and bigger. More musicians, more performances and bigger and different scenes. If you can play one style of music good enough to have a good life, why should you learn more styles? Over here in the Netherlands, people were always complaining that there weren't enough good musicians for the job. So the salsa bands had to look for straight ahead jazz horn players and deal with changing their "swing" phrasing into straight eighths. But the result was a big mix of all-around players from various backgrounds. I find in the USA the different music scenes in the same way accessible as in Netherlands. I didn't find exceptions in the rest of the world. But I haven 't been everywhere (yet).

DM) What motivated you to start Laroo Records?

SL) It all started in 1992 when I performed for a major record company in the Netherlands with my former Caribbean Party band at the times. It was for the manufacturing department. They offered to print some CD's for me as a fee. I had to supply the recordings (which I did two years later), and that was the beginning of Laroo Records. Right away I got a lot of sales and media attention. I was totally overwhelmed by then, because what I knew from fellow musicians was that mainly what happens when an underground or jazz musician makes a CD is that you just can sell them on gigs or to give away as presents, and if you are very lucky, you'll find a distributor. I expected to sell my 1,000 CD's in one year and was so surprised they were sold in one week and had to do a re-order. All of a sudden there was this hype around me and my music, and I found myself in business.

DM) You've described Miles Davis as your hero. When did you first start listening to him?

SL) The first time I heard jazz music was when I was sixteen. This was in my high school where they funded a big band which I joined. I probably had heard some jazz on the radio by that time. But playing that music made me want to hear recordings. So a friend of my parents gave me a tape with a Miles Davis recording on it; the song was "Someday My Prince Will Come." I tried to play along with that tape. Two years after that I borrowed an old record from a friend, which I never returned: "L'ascenseur Pour L'echafaud." He recently gave it to me which made me very pleased, because it 's my favorite Miles Davis record.

DM) What do you do for fun when you're not touring?

SL) Roller-skating in the park, going out dancing in clubs, checking out the newest CD releases, reading, working in my garden, playing and practicing my musical instruments, experimenting in my studio, bicycle riding in Amsterdam, shopping for "performance outfits" in the latest fashion, going to the beach to swim or windsurf, or rent a sailing boat (can 't sail by myself). Also, I like to follow politics and science developments and other arts developments. Last but not least, besides composing music, I like to figure out other kinds of "structures" that I run across in life.

DM) On your album "Bodymusic," you played with another TheCelebrityCafe.com interview subject, Candy Dulfer. How would you describe that experience?

SL) That was really fantastic. The song she 's been playing, a great inspiring solo, is the title song from the album. The singer is Georgia, USA-originated saxophonist Rosa King. Candy and I started our performing career as part of a female horn section in her band called "Upside Down." This was19 years ago and went on for more than 5 years. Candy was twelve when it all started (I was twenty two and felt VERY OLD), and she played like a professional musician right away. The song "Bodymusic" was meant to be a reunion between the three of us, reminiscing about those times. We all are old friends and like to contribute to each other's music when opportunities like this occur. I like Candy 's music very much, and she appreciates mine, too. She immediately said "yes" when I asked her to record for my second album. I wanted her to react "fresh" on the backing track, so she didn't hear it in advance. I always like first reactions from musicians when hearing and improvising on music they haven 't heard before. Some really special things happen then, and so it was with Candy in the studio. It was so great, she played a couple of tracks that we had to do some more with the material. We made a short remix of a part of her solo and put her horn through some effects. It sounds really special, very agreeable.

DM) If you weren't a musician, what career path do you think you'd follow?

SL) That 's a difficult question, because I like many things. I started out studying mathematics at University after high school before I knew I could be a musician. I like to create all sorts of things. Maybe I would be into the entertainment field in another way, as a deejay on hip parties or a studio-owner. Otherwise, I would probably be into science or computers. But, at the moment, in music I can express myself for a great deal.

DM) Do you prefer touring or recording?

SL) I like both very much; however, performing live, in front of an audience, is for me the ultimate kick.

DM) If you could spend a lunch with your hero, Miles Davis, what would you ask him?

SL) I think I wouldn't ask him much, I just would have liked to be in his presence and hope he would accept me around him. I understand very much that he was trying to be so distant to so many people, and it would be really special if he would give his time and energy to me for a short while. If he'd let me, I would try just to be there without asking much from him, but at the same time not forgetting about myself and trying to be myself. This is the way he communicates in his playing, and I like that very much and try to do it in the same way to the musicians in my band. Since he is an authority, I would "let him have the lead" and not be "pushy" or trying to "show off." However, I would not force myself in any kind of unwanted direction. And I think he would appreciate that more than otherwise. And if we are lucky, we can share some moments of communication in the best possible way.