Interview Podcast – Echoes

AN INTERVIEW WITH DEMANIA: Demania is an acronym for the three musicians in the band, finger style virtuoso Alex De Grassi, electric bass demon Michael Manring and tabla player Chris Garcia. On their own, each musician can create an ensemble of sound. Together, they play a world fusion that harkens back to John McLaughlin's Shakti. We talk to them about their eclectic approach to improvised world fusion.

AN INTERVIEW WITH SHULMAN: Shulman is an electronic duo mixing sounds from the middle east into the circuitry of their laptop computers. Israel is more war zone than chill zone, but Shulman finds an inner serenity.

AN INTERVIEW WITH ULRICH SCHNAUSS: Ulrich Schnauss is a German electronic artist who takes his forbears like Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk and keys that sound into contemporary electro rhythms, a bit of new wave shoegazer romanticism, and melodies that have the infinite, never-ending sound of a Pachelbel Canon. Ulrich Schnauss steps into the darkness of the Echoes Chamber to comment on the sources of his sound.

AN INTERVIEW WITH DEVA PREMAL AND MITEN: Deva Premal is one of the original modern chant Divas. She intones Hindu chants in her silken, air brushed voice over the trans-Indian arrangements of her longtime partner, Miten. We talk with them about chant in the modern world.

AN INTERVIEW WITH MELANIE HUTTON AND MARSHALL LEFFERTS: Melanie Hutton and Marshall Lefferts work in a slipstream of global fusion that includes Dead Can Dance, Vas and Peter Gabriel. Hammered dulcimer player Hutton sings in a personal glossolalia, Lefferts is a guitarist with a penchant for Frank Zappa and eastern exotica. They got together on the album, Mystery of Souls.

AN INTERVIEW WITH NUCULTURES: AVANT-ROCKERS IN AN AMBIENT LOUNGE Nucultures is a band put together by veteran Philadelphia avant-rocker and guitarist, Tim Motzer. With his wife, singer Ellie Perez and bassist Barry Meehan, they've created a sophisticated and intoxicating take on electro-lounge music. In their basement studio, NuCultures reveal the quirk and work behind their debut album, Butterflies, Zebras and Moonbeams.

AN INTERVIEW WITH QNTAL: MEDIEVAL ROCK FROM GERMANY Old German hurdy gurdys and a statuesque medieval singer collide with synthesizers and grooves with Qntal. Principals Michael Popp and Sigrid Hausen also perform in the more traditional early music group Estampie. They talk about their medieval and modern worlds.

AN INTERVIEW WITH JAPANCAKES - AMBIENT COUNTRY ROCK Japancakes are a band from Athens, Georgia that mixes electric guitar with pedal steel guitar, classical strings with synthesizers and emerges with a sound that's got country airs strung out in classical refrains. We interview three of the central figures in this band that expands the alternative Athens tradition.

AN INTERVIEW WITH MICKEY HART and ZAKIR HUSSAIN - PLANET DRUM KEEPS BEATING. In 1976, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and Indian tabla wizard Zakir Hussain created the Diga Rhythm Band. In 1991 that morphed into Planet Drum and now they return with the Global Drum Project. We gather the two percussionists to talk about creating their 21st century global percussion orchestra.

AN INTERVIEW WITH JEFF OSTER: BUILT TO LOOP. Jeff Oster grew up as a traditional trumpet player, blowing Tower of Power horn lines. Now he's reinvented himself, transforming into a digital designer. Finding collaborators and sounds on-line, he's just crafted his second CD of ambient horn music, TRUE. It was our Echoes CD of the Month in September. We talk with Jeff Oster and Will Ackerman about the looping logic of TRUE.