Interview: Andrew Block

My first trip ever to France was inspired by my curiosity to experience a culture through a music festival. And so this curiosity brought me to the Festival Décibulles in rolling hills of northeast France one hour's drive from Strasbourg -- a border town between France and Germany.  My motivation for doing this wasn't just to get rowdy with a bunch of frenchies for the first time - it was also to be at the main stage alongside a culture who has grown to appreciate Gramatik on a mass scale -- much like my home country has.

I've lent an attentive ear and eye to the musical project of slovenian-born Denis Jašarević the past years, even chatting with some of the musicians he's brought on tour with him following the concert dates held in Berlin the past two years. This is how I met Mr. Andrew Block -- a funk guitarist whose New Orleans sound has contributed to the ever-evolving Gramatik live show over the past three years.  Having kept in touch with Andrew, I proposed the idea to meet up at Festival Décibulles and have yet another chat about what he's been up to and where he's going.

Following our re-introduction, I got to hear about his experience so far on the EU festival tour in France and even lend some of my own enthusiastic impressions.  One thing we undoubtedly agree on: France parties harder. But that's not what I was there to talk about.  I started off with something important to us at Stereofox - Lowtemp Music - we love the music and the message they generate. And so I had the privilege of the next half hour of my life. What was to be an interview turned out to be a fulfilling conversation about navigating life, musicianship, goals, dreams, and the Lowtemp Music record label.

Something I respect about Lowtemp is the “eff the system” attitude with their “free music by making music free” slogan.  Do you feel like maybe your perspective on the music industry changed after you got involved with the Lowtemp label?

Yeah, the thing that those guys did, and have really been successful is, for example, when you’re going to give your music away for free: you’re basically saying is that we’re going to make our money on the touring side. We’re going to put together dope shows and we’re going to rely on that connection with the fans… the personal connection… not just through your CD or your Spotify, but at the show.  That’s where we’re going to connect with people. It’s just different.  It’s not that one way is better than the other, it’s just different, I guess.

That makes sense -- it seems to be a new paradigm.  As you said, it’s a different era with a different set of assumptions.

Yeah, it is a different set of assumptions.

And the whole operation of curating your own brand and the connection with the fans, how did that come together for you at the sold out Red Rocks show with Gramatik? What was going through your head during that?

Oh, man.  Red Rocks was like… okay, so obviously I was a fan before I was a professional musician... and there are certain gigs that are like what you dream about. I mean, you go to fuckin’ sleep dreaming about gigs. Red Rocks was at the top of the list.  We just played Montreux Jazz Festival…I have like 30-40 albums that are like “so and so” live at Montreaux Jazz Festival. But fuckin’ Red Rocks? Phew.  Jesus, man. That was like: it was one of those experiences that felt like I was elevated above my body, like, watching myself play… like “no way”… I mean, the whole time, I’m just like “no wayyy, man”, ha. And it really didn’t hit me until after the show.  Like, I am facing the crowd and it looked incredible..  seeing the crowd, the two rocks coming from the sides… it’s a dream come true, man.  Then when I saw the videos that different friends  had taken in the crowd from these different vantage points and saw the enormity of how the show looked, it was just like: “I can’t believe that”.  It’s incredible and truly hard to put into words.

From moving to New Orleans in his early twenties to a full release on Lowtemp to a sold out Red Rocks show in June 2016, Andrew Block has been a travelling musician in multiple funk bands from Georgia to New Orleans and back.  His recent release entitled You Can Only Go Up From Here lead him through collaborative musical creation between himself and musicians like Ryan Zoidis of Lettuce as well as Ivan Neville of Dumpstaphunk, to name a few.

 

What was ultimately pushing you to pursue musicianship?

Yeah, I didn’t really ever planned on doing it – I mean, I played guitar since I was 11 – I was playing in church when I was 13. I’ve always loved playing and loved playing in front of people. I guess it didn’t really hit me that I could really make a thing out of it until I moved to New Orleans when I was 24 years old, which is kind of a late start for a musician.  You know, a lot of cats are like 19 or 20.  Once I made the decision, I was all in. Like, if it works out, cool, but if it doesn’t then I’ll go back to waiting tables… whatever. But, it’s worked out luckily.

Yeah, man.  It seems like it has worked out pretty well.  How do you keep yourself grounded about the whole thing? In this pursuit, what were some mentalities you had to have to make things happen for yourself?

The main thing, I think, is being able to be honest with yourself about what you are trying to get out of music.  If you are trying to play music for yourself 100% -- you wanna just sit in your room and make music for yourself and don’t care if anybody hears it.  That the upmost self-reflective art is when you don’t give a shit what other people think about it. Once you start asking people to pay money to come see you, which is what we do – we all gotta pay our bills and this is how we decided to do it – once you decide to do that, then it’s important to connect with the audience that you’re trying to get with. So you really have to be honest with yourself about the level of individuality you’re trying to keep in your music versus, you know, who you’re playing for, what kind of music you’re trying to play.  Not only in that, but also being able to say, like, something I am doing is good – not really good or bad in that sense, but really: “Am I at a level now where I can speak my mind the way I want to?”.

For example, I play a little bit of jazz every now and then – I’m not like a jazz guitar player (and any jazz guitar player who heard me describe myself as a jazz guitar player would laugh their ass off). In that  regard: If I’m an up-and-coming guitar player and I want to jam with some cats – just jump in head first with the jazz cats on Giantsteps -- it’s gonna knock you back a peg or two, because you’re not there yet. And so you need to be able to have those moments of brutal self-awareness and honesty and say “this is what I need to work on to get to this level” or “if I want to be a jazz musician, what do I need to learn to really be able to speak that language”? In a way that’s yourself and not just being like George Benson or trying to do what Miles Davis did.  So it takes an honesty with yourself on so many levels – and that’s something that you really see as you start doing bigger shows and moving up that ladder: the more professional cats that are really doing what we all strive to be doing are all extremely honest with themselves and aware of where they are and on how they need to improve and invest.  It’s just a huge target to reach, haha.

That even sounds like something that kind of essential to progressing as a human.

Yeah, exactly.. as a human.  I mean, it’s basic human shit.  In any job you have to do this.

True, but it’s not just simply a human that got called to record with Pretty Lights or got called up to play with Gramatik. What were some fundamentals you had to have in place?

For example, I moved to New Orleans because I like funk music. Because with Funk Music, there’s a teamsmanship that doesn’t exist in other genres of music. Blues, jazz, rock’n’roll, especially as a guitar player or soloist, it can be like: “how awesome can I be” or “how much can I shred”.  Even with the jazz cats, it’s like ”I’ma go cut that dude… he ain’t playin’ shit, I’ma go cut that dude”.  And with funk, it’s all about the team. You know, if everyone’s playing at 100% of their capability, it sounds like shit, man – it sounds like everyone's playing on top of each other…. If you have that team mentality, always the best team wins and in funk music that should be the mindset and if that’s not your mindset playing funk music, then you’re fuckin’ up – you’re not funky and your shit is whack.  Guarenteed. If your shit is not team-oriented, your shit is whack, man.

Andrew got involved with Lowtemp Music after Blake, Gramatik's tour manager, passed Andrew’s EP on to Denis himself. These events earned Lowtemp it's first old-school funk album release and Andrew a spot as the live guitarist for Gramatik for three years.  Along with Russ Liquid, a former contributor to the live instrumentals of Gramatik, Andrew will now be dedicating himself full-time to a project with the multi-instrumentalist.

I guess now you’re doing a project now with Russ Liquid – the Russ Liquid Test

Yeah, that’s coming along really well.  We got a single that’s about to come out with this young and talented producer known as Carneyval -- William Carney -- featuring Emily Nichols, who's a great singer from Chicago. And we also have an EP that we’re about to drop on All Good.

Keep up with Andrew Block as he makes moves with The Russ Liquid Test and more via his Soundcloud and Facebook.

All photo credit goes to midg_view. Check out his Instagram and Facebook pages... amazing work!