SAINT ABDULLAH & JASON NAZARY
Tehran-born brothers Saint Abdullah & Brooklyn-based drummer Jason Nazary open unique dialogue of electronics & live drums on 'Evicted In The Morning' - Born out of improvisational sessions in Brooklyn w/ contributions from Swedish bass player Petter Eldh
& vocalist Emilie Weibel- together they explore themes
of uncertainty, tragedy, survival & creative release.
ABOUT
Saint Abdullah consists of Tehran-born brothers Mohammad and Mehdi Mehrabani-Yeganeh, who have been exploring a diverse palette of sounds over their releases to date, including collaborations with Eomac on Nicolas Jaar’s Other People label, and Model Home on Purple Tape Pedigree, as well as their own duo album on Important Records.
Jason Nazary is a drummer and composer from Atlanta and based in Brooklyn. Fascinated by the intersection of acoustic and electronic music, Jason has been a force in New York's creative music scene for over a decade.
Tell us how did this collaboration come into being?
JN: I became aware of Saint Abdullah’s work through mutual friend and longtime bandmate Travis Laplante, who played on their record In God’s Image. I wore that record out, and contacted them to let them know how much I dug their music. We quickly realized we lived basically in the same neighborhood of Brooklyn, so it wasn’t long before we met up and started improvising together. I think these tracks [comprising the album ‘Evicted In The Morning’] were the result of those first sessions! We didn’t waste any time.
SA: It made it easier for us to connect with guys like Jason because Travis had been kind enough to take a chance. When we first met, we went for a walk around Prospect Park and just spoke about musical interests. We were aware of Jason and his work, and were so stoked to be speaking to him because we immediately recognized a quirk in him and his style that felt quite suitable for the direction we wanted to take things with our own music.
What are your greatest inspirations or influences?
SA: Our family story, our roots and heritage, our neighbors and our community, our reality, mossadegh. We often like to work with what's in front of us, out of necessity, or by chance. It's rarely directly musicians, although they matter to us a lot. These days, folks like Maria Chavez, Anthony Tabucchi, Fred Frith, Gerald Cleaver, Jerry Hunt, John Zorn, Iranian documentaries (anything we can get our hands on), Caltex records.
JN: It's an ever evolving & growing list. My musical community first & foremost. I've learned so much from improvising & building musical worlds in the bands I've worked with over the years. Working with Jaimie Branch especially - being comfortable jumping into the unknown every night & carving out a cohesive statement. I think I'm still processing how profound her influence has been on my own process, but her fearlessness is really something I try to carry into every musical situation.
What was the musical creative process like for this project?
SA: Pretty soon after that first meeting Jason invited us to his studio in Flatbush to jam. We've never really improvised live with someone else, so it was a tad daunting. Jason's studio space was perfect though, because there was no pretension about it. It's in the basement behind an alleyway that's usually very dark, inside a certain type of residential building you'd find in Brooklyn, like five floors, pre-war. Hint of Europe. So, I suppose that put me at ease. Like, okay, I can deal with this. If we were rocking up and the studio was perched on some hill, owned by Rick Rubin, then maybe it'd feel like more of a challenge! In so far as circumstances, there was a hunger from the outset. I had also just had a kid. And just wanted a release. I rocked up with some basic electronic gear, ready to make noise.
JN: I had the same set up for all the sessions: the acoustic drums plus my briefcase of synths, which has a couple of mono synths I trigger with the kick and snare, as well as a couple of semi modular joints that have built-in sequencers I dial in on the fly - nothing is tempo matched or anything. My set up is all about balancing these un-synced sonic movements, each one traveling on its own path with its own logic but given context with what I’m playing on the drums and how it’s relating to what Moh is doing.
SA: This is typically how we like to work anyway. Improvise for hours and then see what's up. I left the first session with hope that we could really be covering some interesting ground together. Then the second session, I remember that I couldn't hear myself at all, cuz the drums were so loud haha. I thought it was gonna be a total waste, except, it turned out to be the majority of the LP coming from that session! Maybe it was good I couldn't hear myself, cuz I could just press the keys and let fly without feeling out, oh that note missed, or yo that timing could've been better. It was like, let it out, keep up, or get out, cuz Jason's going. He's moving, and you gotta find a way to be in.
JN: Once the initial tracks were laid down, we invited a number of collaborators to contribute overdubs. They are some of my favorite sound creators! Each has the ability to clock the vibe of a track and contribute something that supports that vibe but also is unique to their voice. What they added to this music was completely surprising but also totally essential to the final composition. I couldn’t imagine any of those tracks without their part.
SA: Nappa we have history with. We aren't afraid to share with him. We know he can ride no matter, and that's dope. He's so damn flexible, and he's all heart. Petter Eldh and Emilie Weibel are absolutely wonderful. Petter brought ‘The Butchers’ Shop’ together, the groove was educational for me. Emilie also taught me something - her touch is so necessary, and so focused, just lifts the whole track.
We'd love to hear more about the NY experience and how that is conveyed through the music.
JN: To me it’s referring to that uncertainty we all deal with every day, not knowing what life’s gonna offer, but being brave despite that.
SA: It's about dealing with the inevitability of tragedy, and still finding a way to move. Around the time we were recording, and to a degree the whole time we’ve lived in NYC, there was just a lot of troubling feelings of not knowing what the hell we were going to wake up to. From the personal, like, I need to survive, how the hell is this going to work (especially with a young kid), to the more macro, societal challenges that also manifest in the personal. That uncertainty was gripping. And it's happening all over the place. The studio time we had together was a way of releasing that. The LP represents the letting go. Whatever happens happens.
Anything else you would like to share with us?
Consider these facts:
· In November 2022, there were 67,150 homeless people, including 21,089 homeless children, sleeping each night in New York City’s main municipal shelter system.
· A near-record 22,697 single adults slept in shelters each night in November 2022.
· The number of homeless New Yorkers sleeping each night in municipal shelters is now 37% higher than it was 10 years ago. The number of homeless single adults is 117% higher than it was 10 years ago.
LISTEN HERE: https://disciples.ffm.to/evictedinthemorning
Photos Ryan Easter
