Drift - The geometry of the sublime

A California-based quartet of guitar/double bass/trumpet/drums devoted to a personal hybrid of jazz/ambient/post-rock, The Drift have just released their second album “Memory Drawings” on the renowned label Temporary Residence. Guitarist Danny Grody, formerly of Tristeza, answered a few questions via email.

Are you full-time musicians? How do you manage to… make a living?

More or less, we all have other jobs besides music. Living in San Francisco is pricey… It's a great city, but it's both a blessing and a curse in some ways. On one hand, there's an incredibly active music and art community, and on the other, the cost of living is outrageous and it's very hard to make a decent living from music alone.

I work as an art installer: I set up exhibitions at fine art museums around the city. It's a good job, very flexible. I really can't complain.

Safa plays in a jazz duo, but he also has an office job. Jeff works as a cook, while Rich grinds away in construction and works on various audio-video creations.

What do you consider a fundamental influence on your musical approach? Other artists, books, people…

Definitely all of those. Art in general, whether it's music, literature or film. Certainly the people around us also have a profound influence. We share ideas, music, experiences, and all of that always finds a way to seep into the writing process.

I also consider the city I live in a major influence. It's relatively small geographically: seven square miles (18 km², ed.), but there's an enormous variety of landscapes and people. By the end of the day you've taken in so many stimuli that it's impossible not to absorb some of them and be influenced.

Are there any contemporary bands or artists you particularly love or feel close to?

In the most immediate sense, a lot of friends, like our labelmates MONO and Explosions In The Sky, visual artists Colter Jacobsen and Donal Mosher, our tried-and-true sound engineer Jay Pellicci: they're among the most pleasant and talented people I know.

But the list goes on with plenty of other artists and musicians. I'm crazy about folk and traditional music from all over the world. Afrobeat, dub, the kora and whatever Toumani Diabate' manages to do with it… I love John Fahey and everyone who has in some way carried on his path. I'm really into The Necks, Circle, The Budos Band, James Blackshaw, Phosphorescent, The Oscillation, Etran Finatawa, Konono No. 1 and so on.

And then the films of Tarkovsky, Kenneth Anger, Herzog, Chris Marker…

In particular, what's your relationship with classical music and jazz, both as musicians and as listeners?

As far as I'm concerned, I have no formal training in jazz or classical. I'm a self-taught guitarist and what I know I've mostly learned by playing with other people. I'm an avid fan of both jazz and classical disciplines, both in their purest forms and in the many combinations and crossovers that have emerged from both. The others all have some kind of theoretical and practical background: Rich in Eastern music, Safa in jazz, Jeff in both jazz and classical.

As an instrumental band, how do you connect your music to the titles you choose?

Our titles are often loosely based on abstract ideas… much like our music, in many respects. We pick something that seems to fit the mood of the song or album well, but that doesn't burden you with deep meanings. In some cases we also choose more specific titles: "Uncanny Valley", from our new album, is for instance a term used to describe that strange mix of dread and curiosity you get when machines replicate nature in an uncannily convincing way. But we've drawn on a bit of everything: from Calvino's "Invisible Cities" to Brian Eno's "Oblique Strategies" with "Gardening, Not Architecture".

Does your music depict specific episodes, feelings, well-defined atmospheres?

Yes, I do think it evokes feelings and atmospheres. A lot of that, though, comes about naturally, more from the physical act of playing based on certain ideas than in any premeditated way. I've always loved listening to music that can drift between different tones and emotions while still remaining open to interpretation. That way you find yourself "playing your own part" as a listener, assigning the music your own personal meaning. I hope our music can be read the same way!

Do you feel some kind of spirit behind your band? How would you describe it? Would you call it more jazz, pop… or none of the above?

Well, the word "spirit" carries a lot of connotations: I'd say there's something shared between us as a group of people that makes us understand each other intuitively, and that ends up producing this "sum of the parts" which is essentially our spirit – playing something deeper than the typical verse/chorus/verse formula, a process where you can always find something surprising.

As for being pigeonholed into styles like "jazz" and so on, we don't worry about it much: I think there are a lot of influences combining – jazz, contemporary music, dub, experimentation and so on – and it's not easy to sum it up with a single word or style.

What's the dominant element in your approach? Is it based more on emotions, technical "challenges", abstract ideas, experimentation…

I'd lean mostly towards the abstract, as a personal influence, but all the elements you mentioned play a part in what we do. Sometimes Rich and Safa will come up with some asymmetrical rhythm, other times it's a sound or a texture that inspires us. And sometimes things seem to materialize out of thin air as if by magic: essentially, the dominant element varies from one day to the next.

Honestly, I think it's a bit of both. Keeping everything in 4/4 and totally "straight" doesn't strike us as very interesting, especially when you're dealing with music built around long durations. The risk would be becoming repetitive, or worse, boring.

Rich, our drummer, loves adding color to things and making one thing seem to happen while another is going on, but to me it really seems like a natural tendency of his rather than a forced one. I don't think he's even aware of it half the time: even when he's playing a fairly straightforward beat, there's always something slightly "out of place" that gives it character and makes it memorable, distinctive. The same goes for Safa: he plays all over the neck and often off the beat, filling the spaces in interesting ways, but then he can switch to a solid groove without missing a beat, depending on how he's feeling.

I think contrast is an extremely effective tool in music. Whether it's a melodic theme that repeats itself or a passage so quiet you could hear a pin drop – both aspects are important elements that should coexist and make the whole thing more dynamic overall. Silence wouldn't be so silent if it didn't come from a full space, and the same goes for the opposite.

What's changed over time in your approach as a band? Do you think your new LP explores different territory compared to "Noumena"?

I think a lot has changed compared to "Noumena". Especially in terms of the relationship between the more atmospheric parts and the more melodic, structured ones. On our first full-length, the ratio was roughly 1:1 – there were a lot of diluted, meandering builds that took their time before anything materialized in the song. On "Memory Drawings" we kept that same kind of relationship, but tried not to drift so far up into the stratosphere. The focus went more towards developing melodies and structured passages, or at least towards getting there a bit faster.

The touring experience was another major factor of change. Playing those songs for about three years made us tighter as a band and greatly increased our desire to write new material.

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