Jazz Australia talks to Casey Golden on the eve of his CD launch for Minatures and his East Coast tour.
JK: What was the inspiration for this album?
CG: From before we even started playing this music, I think that the three of us in the trio were all keen to try something new. The trio (with Bill Williams and Ed Rodrigues) has been together for over six years and we had been playing together for a long time before we decided to release our first album, ‘Outliers’, in 2015. That album really felt like we had captured what we had been doing in the years prior to that so we were eager to move on. This is a pretty common feeling among musicians I’m sure, and we wanted to make it as clear as possible that the next thing we did was different to what we’d done in the past.
I’d been working on writing some longer pieces, so I wrote something for the trio and we started playing it. The idea to record the piece as an EP came pretty quickly and I think the ‘concept album’ idea fits the vibe of this music nicely.
JK: Tell us about how you used extended composition on this album
CG: ‘Miniature’ is a single piece of music in four parts and is based around two central themes. I tend impose very specific limits on myself when I’m writing music so it was very satisfying and challenging trying to come up 25 or so minutes of unified music based around just two simple melodies.
There are some progressive rock and minimalism inspirations for the piece but the music really became what it is now as the trio started to learn the music and play it at gigs. There is a lot of through-composed material but I think Bill and Ed managed to play the heavily-written sections while still bringing their own personalities to the music.
JK: How will this influence your playing into the future?
CG: Now that the EP is out, I’m looking forward to moving on to something different again. As I mentioned, there is a lot of through-composed material on the EP so the next thing we do will probably depart from this kind of writing. That being said, I’m far more confident writing music like this than I was when we started this project so I’m sure that working with longer forms will become a regular part of what I do in the future. I’ve been working on several longer pieces since writing ‘Miniature’ and have a few ideas bubbling away.
We also recorded a few keyboard and guitar overdubs (w/special guest Daniel Walsh) and generally spent more time in the studio than we have in the past. This is something I haven’t done before with a jazz recording and it was a great way to work so I’ll definitely be thinking about taking this approach with future projects.
‘MINIATURE’ will be released on July 15. The trio is Casey Golden on piano, Bill Williams on bass and Ed Rodrigues on drums. The EP consists entirely of a single piece in three parts.
The EP launch tour includes dates in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Newcastle and the Sydney launch will be on July 20 at Lazybones Lounge in Marrickville.
‘MINIATURE’ will be available on July 15 on Bandcamp, iTunes and CD Baby.
This seems to be two interviews. I started reading about Casey Golden and Miniature, and then suddenly there’s an interview with KW? Who is KW? It’s very jarring to see this, as both artists sound really interesting, but we don’t get the full picture. Plus you have misspelled the word ‘Miniature’ in the heading.
Hi Ella
thanks so much for the comment. I corrected the article. Thanks