Sons of Kemet are some of the biggest rising stars of the modern day, and so we jumped at the opportunity to chat with one of the members of the group Shabaka Hutchings - clarinetist, saxophonist and composer.
How was it that you got into the music industry?
I did a degree in classical clarinet performance at the Guildhall School of Music and from there more or less started working professionally in various bands.
How did you find that process?
It's been both a pleasure and a struggle. I'm constantly trying to figure out what to do as there are no clear cut guidelines and nothing can prepare you for entering a life of music other than living it. In the end though, being open to enjoying the process of creating music and finding new ways of expressing myself keeps everything in context.
What do you go through when you're creating a piece of music, or a compilation of tracks?
I generally do lots of research, listening to all kinds of stuff that has any sort of distant relationship to the music i'm going to produce. After that I like to free write and spill out as many ideas as I can with no thought as to their relevance. This can be facilitated by anything from writing ideas on scaps of paper while waiting for the bus, to programming beats on my iPad. Then the hard part comes in the construction of the music which I see as a type of architecture once enough raw musical material has been found, the editing of ideas, seeing what works, whats superfluous, or what needs to be developed upon.
You won 'Best Jazz Act' at the MOBOs this past weekend - how did that feel?
That felt amazing. My life is quite hectic at the moment in balancing a few bands which are taking off (Sons Of Kemet, Melt Yourself Down, Hello Skinny) with composing and practicing and general life stuff, so the reality of the MOBO nomination didn't really sink in until I was actually there at the ceremony. I completely didn't expect to win and hadn't prepared any sort of speech so it was a major shock.
What did you think of the 18th MOBO Awards as a whole?
I thought it was a great and diverse celebration of current music unified by the diasporic legacy. It's always good to see music presented in such pomp and glamour.
Your latest video is for 'Inner Babylon' - how did you find the making of that video?
It's more or less a concept video. I wanted to contextualise the song within the setting of ravers dancing around a fire and get the feeling of almost paganistic abandon and earth worship. I see the sound of Sons Of Kemet as being something harking back to something old, a ritualistic sort of music so the video had to express this. I'm always fascinated by interlinked ideologies, expressing one thing by way of another less obvious source so juxtaposing imagery associated with pre-christian European religious practices with music heavily influenced by the african diaspora got me going. We found a director from Poland whose work we really liked, Czlowiek Kamera, and gave him the brief of what we wanted. He shot the video in poland and we felt confident to leave him to the construction of this work as he's an artist in his own right and we're really happy with the result.
You're performing at the Barbican on November 21 as part of the London Jazz Festival - what can fans expect?
All our gigs are different. I think the exciting element of the band is that its direction can be moulded by the environment, audience, vibe, or just how we're feeling on the day. The one thing which is guaranteed though is energy. We physically give as much as we can in performances.
What can we expect from you in the next few months that you can share details about?
There should be a vinyl release of the album just before Christmas and some European touring, details of which are on our website.
Sons of Kemet support Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana: Mehliana at the Barbican on 21st November as part of the London Jazz Festival.