Interview with drummer Emil Brandqvist. An interview by email in writing.

JazzBluesNews.com: – First, let’s start out with where you grew up, and what got you interested in music. How exactly did your adventure take off? When did you realize that this was a passion you could make a living out of?

Emil Brandqvist։ – I grew up in a small village in the south of Sweden called Harplinge. It was a lot of music in my home both my father and my two brothers where working with there music. My oldest brother is also a drummer and had a drum kit in the basement of the house, and there i started to play.

OUR US/EU Jazz and Blues Festivals 2023

JBN: – How has your sound evolved over time? What have you been doing to find and develop your own sound?

EB: – I also like to make different arrangements when working in the studio adding different colors to the sound.

JBN: – What routine practices or exercises have you developed to maintain and improve your current musical proficiency, in terms of both rhythm and harmony?

EB: – As a drummer I practice off course my technic, I’m also working on sounds with the drums trying different cymbals, gear and tuning on my drums to find a sound i like.

There could be talk or advertising about your CD

JBN: – In your opinion, what’s the balance in music between intellect and soul?

EB: – I work a lot with the soul in my composing, searching for things I like, and if i like them then i think its good even if i don’t look on it to much with my intellect. When rehearsing i think the intellect is more there but when on stage it’s the soul that works with the tools it has to hand.

JBN: – There’s a two-way relationship between audience and artist; are you okay with delivering people the emoFon they long for?

EB: – I hope i could do that! I think that happens from time to time but of course there must be times i fale but hopefully they could then enjoy the concert.

JBN: – How can we get young people interested in jazz when most of standard tunes are half a century old?

EB: – I think the social aspect of playing together and making your specific sound and music never gets old, and the wonderful feeling of being in a group that are improvising together will continue to abstract people to play improvised music. I think that music will change and evolve and people will compose new music that are in the field of improvised music. I also think that good songs could live for many centuries.

JBN: – If you could change one single thing in the musical world and that would become reality, what would that be?

EB: – That a hard question, maybe more money to the culture sector as its in my view a very important field in our society. So that more musicians could do new great music.

OUR US/EU Jazz and Blues Association 2023

JBN: – Whom do you find yourself listening to these days?

EB: – I listen to a lot of different music hard to pick one!

JBN: – Do You like our questions? So far, it’s been me asking you questions, now may I have a question from yourself…

EB: – Yes thank you, its good and interesting questions! And I wonder what makes you inspired in the music world these days?

JBN: – I didn’t even suspect that an empty-headed person like you would not understand what the organizer of festivals and concerts in 15 capitals of Europe does. I’ll elaborate specifically for the morons, I play the role of a sanitation worker and clean the Jazz field from worms like you. And if you really understood what jazz music is, you wouldn’t have asked such a stupid question.

 

By editorial։ Since its inception in 2012, JazzBluesNews.com has become the leading Jazz and Blues platform in Europe, United States, Asia, Latin America, Australia, Nordic countries, Afro – Eurasia.

An archive of more than 5500 + quality articles and new content published every day, our website continues to create a sustainable legacy. Our extensive, readership is passionate about music and Blues and Jazz in particular.

Every day more than 68,000 visitors log on to JazzBluesNews.com for their daily dose of jazz generating 1,000,000+ page views per month.

In addition, JazzBluesNews.com has a strong social media footprint with an post followers of over 62,000 on Facebook Jazz & Blues Group – JazzSimonBlues.

We manage a number of Twitter, LinkedIn accounts which total over 42,000 followers and our content consistently achieves over 325,000 impressions per month.

Interview by Simon Sarg