Uri Sharlin has been dubbed an accordion virtuoso. Having worked with Natalie Merchant, Flight of the Conchords as well as countless symphony orchestras he has a forward thinking improvisational vision. With his band DogCat, Uri can be seen at Lincoln Center on Thursday, September 26th at 7:30pm. His blend of classical and jazz is an experience not to be missed.
TIMES SQUARE (TS): How did you start playing accordion?
URI SHARLIN (US): I started studying piano at the age of seven. Around high school I started playing jazz. I was strictly classical music; I would not do anything but that. I picked up the accordion much later when I was living in New York it was definitely influenced by my love of world music. A lot of meringue and Spanish music. The accordion is a unique instrument that you can really find in any country in any kind of band. Through that I learned a lot about different cultures. North Africa, South America, Eastern Europe-pretty much everywhere there's an accordion with the exception of Asia.... everywhere else. It was a very cool instrument. I went to City College, which is a really diverse. There were people who could recommend very different bands, very different things. I could play the accordion so they would teach me and that's really how the whole thing started.
TS: What specifically excites you about improvisational music?
US: For me, as a pianist-I get to also play solo performances sometimes which is exciting but the thing that really attracted me to improvisational music is it's basically like making up a language. Learning a language and then developing your own words and you really learn how to communicate in a nonverbal way through music. Improvised music, it was a little easier for me to do that. With improvised music you can really make up stuff on the spot-real time composing on the spot.
TS: What is your songwriting process like?
US: The way I wrote this music was very special. I learned a lot about how I would like to keep writing music. About three years ago a friend of mine left me their house to watch their dog for two weeks. I decided to do my own little retreat. I went there-I left Maya, my wife, went there with an accordion a computer and a couple of keyboards. There was a snowstorm, I didn't really leave the house....my goal was to write a whole album. I knew that that's what I wanted to do. I had the goal, I had the people to write the music for which is really important. Pretty much all the music I had written until now for specific musicians. I hear the specific sounds of this group. I really know their playing so I write something for them. It went for about ten or twelve days of writing nonstop. Waking up, recording, and then later on listening back and trying to figure out if it's really going to be a song or not. Sometimes you realize there's a little jewel and you try to develop it and try to see what else you can do with it. Later on, when I came back to New York-I arranged it. All of the melodies and ideas came from me waking up in the morning in this house and trying to put on the tape the first thing I have in my mind. I love to make music. It's really complicated now because I have a kid now but I still try to follow my instincts because you just have to trust that there's something in there and the fact that you can go back to it. You don't have to memorize it right away. Go back to it the next day because you get a fresh perspective after hours or just having breakfast. I just recorded everything I could think of and then sorted through and found what was worth developing.
TS: What do we have to look forward to from DogCat's new album?
US: I really wanted to write something that had electric guitar and electric bass and more of the rock instruments. I won't say that I'm a rock musician for sure but I've definitely had my share of playing with singer/songwriters and I really enjoy doing that. I enjoy doing it on the accordion, keyboards, and on the other hand I really get into orchestral music and I do it on the flute and bass clarinet. Looking back, the repertoire was very influenced by the world music scene so some of those songs are really influenced by some of the bands that I work with.
TS: Tell me about the show at Lincoln Center on Thursday, September 26th, at 7:30pm?
US: Yeah, the show-everybody that's on the album is going to be there. There's a video artist that we have collaborated with. Yeah, it's a nice band-it's a full orchestra.
TS: What does music mean to you?
US: I had mentioned that I have a kid now and she's five months old and I learn a lot about musical things and that's really one of the main things she's exposed to.....music. I can see the influence of music on her and I can see that it's exactly the same on me. It's a way to communicate something that we don't have a name for. It's kind of another language for the rest of the world that we don't have to really-I see the way she smiles when I play accordion or drums with her and I think that's what it is. There's something really pure about it that you don't really have to do anything-it's already within you. That's the magic. You can really touch the magic without apologies. It's there; I don't think I could really define it in that way until recently. I would say that music is pretty much a great escape from anything else and it's very personal if you want it to be or you can share it with everybody. If you sit by yourself and play the piano.... it's enough. It definitely has a spiritual element to it. People made music long before they ever had language.
For more Times Square articles like: Uri Sharlin; The Language of Music By; Megan Lohne, please visit the Music Interviews Section of TimesSquare.com |
