Words by David C. Obenour
Adam Schatz suggests that, “this whole dance is a numbers game”. Meaning that every opportunity you don’t take is by definition missed, so if you aren’t spending your time seeking and following them – what even are you doing? Some don’t work out but for those that did you had to first show up.
Luckily, composer and improviser, Adam Schatz (Neko Case, Japanese Breakfast) showed up when his friend, Seth Paris of Power Station studio asked him to come play for the newer staff learning to record. With little more advance thought than that, Schatz enlisted bassist, Carmen Quill and percussionist, Qasim Naqvi to join him. Entering a room set up with the meticulousness of intentional instruction, all that was left for them to do was create spontaneous magic.
Off Shelf: This project had its genesis when you were invited to participate as part of a live tutorial for staff at Power Station studio. Can you talk a little more about how that happened and what it felt like going into?
Adam Schatz: My friend, Seth Paris is the tech there and the younger members of staff needed a demo for how to use the 24″ Studer tape machine. He asked me to throw a band together for the affair, so I hit up two pals and that was it! I can’t stress enough how the goal here was not to walk out with a finished recording. It was just a good excuse to play with some friends who I hadn’t played with in a long while and kept meaning to make more music with.
Since 2021 I’ve been touring fairly constantly with Japanese Breakfast and now with Neko Case as well. Last year, in fact had both artists on the road for the majority of the year. This session happened right before that all kicked off, which is interesting because once that starting gun went off for touring I really didn’t have a moment to come up for air. Something like this could only have happened right when it did.
OS: How was it like and not alike to previous recording sessions that you’ve been involved with?
AS: No plan, no goal, not even calling it “recording session”, really. No one’s finances were on the line. Seth had all the microphones in place before we rolled up, because we had to be fast. Qasim was only around for the first hour and then he had to jet to an appointment! That speed meant that there also was very little discussion. People showed up, we started playing, and left by the afternoon. Other sessions by design are ripe for a bit more trial and error, possibly even second guessing or at least a conversation about making sure certain decisions are the right ones. This time the process and circumstance rendered all that moot.
OS: I was drawn to your characterization of how this origin being so unassuming led to it turning out as well as it did. Can you go deeper into that?
AS: Well, that’s kind of the magic of improvisation in general! Studying it and engaging in it, it’s like you’re training for a marathon that will never exist. There’s so much theoretical cosmic potential that you can’t plan for. Because this whole encounter was unplanned – even at the level of no one ever saying, “Hey, let’s make a record” or “Hey, we are making a record,” – it’s funny that that’s of course the scenario that led to a record. And one that is good and that I like!
OS: Presented with this opportunity, the people you contacted were Carmen Quill and Qasim Naqvi – why them? How did they live into this scenario as you expected and how did they surprise you?
AS: They did as I expected because they surprised me. Gotcha! (laughs) That’s the magic of improvisational collaborators. The more you do it the more you can anticipate each other’s moves, and then both lean into that and match them, or do the unexpected and let that be a stimulus to the other players. This rarely gets actively talked about, but I feel it happening. So much of improvisation is about the power of choice. A crazy strong choice in an improvisation is to lay out and give silence. Another is to limit yourself to a very specific task as that can create a constant color for others to play off of. Now keep thinking along those lines and we could make a list of one hundred admirable choices. I love the way Qasim and Carmen choose, and the way I choose when I’m around them.
OS: Experimenting with sounds, techniques, and real time manipulation, can you point to instances from the recording that stand out to you? Sparks of inspiration discovered along with the staff in training.
AS: Hmm… this one is tricky. The staff were separate from us in the control room, and they were more or less attuned to how the tape machine was functioning and making sure the levels were good. I think anyway, (laughs) I was more worried about what I was doin’.
My sound processing on the record all happens in real time with my pedalboard rig, which lets me run the piano & saxophone through my pedals, as well as Carmen’s bass when I wanted to manipulate that as well. In other albums I might do some processing after the fact but in this case every sound that happened was live and in the moment. So if a loop occurs, I’m looping it on the spot, if a delay happens, I’m throwing the instrument to a delay – that sort of thing.
OS: I have to imagine that going into such an unassuming improvisational scenario that there were thoughts and inspirations living in the back of your mind that found themselves coming out. Things you’d wanted to try or hadn’t found a home for yet. Can you think of any instances like that and explain where they came from?
AS: On the contrary, the joy of this is you just go in hoping you do a good job. I can throw back to what I said earlier about training for a marathon that will never exist. As someone who’s decidedly un-athletic it’s fun to throw around athletic isms here. Uh… if you stay ready you don’t have to get ready? Is that one? (laughs) But I find the music can really come to life if sometimes you have zero notion for what the music is supposed to be. We all have habits, and unconscious tactics and things we might be really doing that month that we don’t do quite as much any other month, and maybe that’s what a pure improvised record can capture. I am also a fan of preparation, but in this case my love of happy accidents is what led the charge.
OS: How much editing or mixing was done on the recordings after the initial recordings? Coming to the realization that there was something there, was it tempting to go back into the studio, make it more an involved process?
AS: The tape got dumped into the computer and then I took the session files with me when I went on tour. I mixed the album on my laptop, then sent it to my friend John Dieterich from Deerhoof to master the thing. Which means make all the track volumes and overall EQ agreeable for the public’s various listening environments – earbuds, laptop speakers, car, bike, trike, etc.
If you are ever given the chance to not overthink something, you have to seize it and never let it go. That was the gift here. The album started to feel like an album and I just nudged some beginnings and endings until it felt right. Some of the tracks likely kept going after we ended them, and maybe some intros don’t exist that were played live, but I don’t believe any mid-song cuts were made.
OS: What do you think you’ve taken from this experience that will live beyond the album? Do you think it’s given you more confidence or permission to indulge experimentation?
AS: I think I already have been a longtime student of that confidence and permission. If anything this experience reaffirms my belief that ultimately this whole dance is a numbers game. Sometimes you get together and nothing good comes out. Sometimes it’s magic. Luckily, Seth pressed record on a magic day.
OS: Having performed these songs live, how are they different now? What hits and sticks from them in the context of a performance?
AS: Well, that’s the thing. These “songs” have names but will never be performed ever again. They lived and died in the moment. When I perform Civil Engineering live, it’s new improvisations in the spirit of generation that created this first batch. As more volumes with different players come out, it will be in service of that intention. But ultimately it’s as simple as how can we have fun with each other and make listenable music.
OS: Can you talk to me about the cover and the album title? Where they came from and how you feel they both provide a good introduction to the music?
AS: I sent Rob Jones from Jealous Butcher a handful of film photos I’d taken to choose from for the album art. I might have nudged him towards the hammock snowman because it was one I really liked. The hammock is outside my house in Vermont, and two winters ago I worked pretty hard to make that snowman look nice and at home in the hammock. He lived there for most of the winter so as snow fell and melted he kept changing, which I thought was funny. The photo is from an Olympus Pen camera, which is a half frame, meaning there are two consecutive photos that can fit on one sheet. The actual developed film looks like two photos with a black like down the middle, but Rob nudged the focus so we see one side, and then just a little bit of the other side. The half frame is fun because you forget what photos were taken in what order so once developed there are lots of surprises when you see the pairings. In this case of course it’s the same snowman twice, but you can see by the tree they are two different photos.
Civil Engineering is a project name I’ve used for a long time now to refer to improvising ensembles and it felt like time to just slap it on a record already. I don’t overthink naming or imagery too much, I just want it to pop and be satisfying, rather than “connect” to the music. If other people wanna take a swing at connecting things though I’ll never begrudge them!