Name: Kalia Vandever
Occupation: Trombonist, composer
Nationality: American
Current release: Kalia Vandever's We Fell In Turn is out via AKP.
Recommendations: Album: Fatigue - L’Rain; Book: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong

If you enjoyed this Kalia Vandever interview and would like to know more about her music, visit her official website. She is also on Instagram, and Facebook.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

I started playing the trombone when I was 8 years old after hearing Delfeayo Marsalis on “The Marsalis Family: A Jazz Celebration”. My dad always played jazz around the house and that certainly brought me to my love of the instrument and improvisation.

I grew up listening to a lot of jazz vocalists, namely Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, and Billie Holiday. Immersing myself in the styles of aforementioned vocalists influenced the way I approach melody and tone on the trombone.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

I don’t necessarily visualize shapes or objects when I’m playing, but I’ll often lean into any emotion or memory that comes up and be open to the shifts that happen in the music.

The process of playing with other people versus playing solo is drastically different, so that inevitably influences the way I approach creativity in the moment. Playing with other people almost feels like an entirely different art form because you’re reacting to a new world of ideas.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

It was a long journey in finding my own voice on the instrument because the trombone can be a limiting instrument in a lot of ways. While the limitations can be frustrating, I’ve always found the challenges to motivate me.

I was transcribing a lot of saxophonists in high school, including Coltrane and Dexter Gordon, attempting to find ways of comfortably playing the material on my instrument and while I’ve always enjoyed transcribing, I ultimately wanted to develop my own sound and approach to improvisation.

The last six years have brought me to a sound that feels honest and distinctive.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

My musical identity is defined by the music that first moved me to play the instrument, the songs I heard growing up, and the music that challenges my sense of melody. I grew up listening to a lot of singers, mostly in the jazz idiom, but I still listen to a lot of singers today, mostly outside of jazz.

I’ve always been interested in drawing parallels between the human voice and the trombone. The middle to high register on the trombone mirrors my vocal range, so I’m often thinking about melodies that I would sing and how I would phrase them if I were vocalizing.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

Community, honesty, vulnerability, and nostalgia.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

As someone who has firm roots in jazz, both in my musical upbringing and formal training, I am certainly breaking away from conventional forms of composition and frameworks of improvisation. I’ll always love the music that brought me into this career, but I’m focused on creating work that feels like an honest representation of all of my influences.

The music that inspires me is the work that is difficult to define or typify. I believe that’s the direction we’re moving in and I’m thinking about that with my own work.
 
Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

I would say the most important tool if I had to qualify it as such would be daily practice. This includes having a practice routine on the instrument that is strongly routed in fundamentals.

Playing a brass instrument can be turbulent, especially if you’re traveling and touring a lot. It’s rare to find time to practice while on the road, but I’ve developed a warmup routine that keeps me grounded while away from home.

I’m quite routine oriented in general, which helps me find stability in an otherwise chaotic life.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

So I wake up and immediately make coffee. I’ll generally put on music when starting my day and this week it’s been Carmen Q Rothwell’s “Don’t Get Comfy / Nowhere.” I try to stay away from my computer / answering emails until the afternoon and instead, journal and read.

Most of my meetings and rehearsals are scheduled in the afternoon, so I’ll start working around 1pm. If I have a gig that night, I’ll need to arrive anywhere between 5-7pm for soundcheck, usually with the gig starting anywhere between 8-10pm.

If I have energy after the gig I’ll grab a drink with a friend, but I’m usually wiped so I’ll go home and sleep!

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

I’ll talk about my creative process on We Fell In Turn because most of the work was improvised.

This was a dream record for me since improvisation is heavily ingrained in my practice and compositional approach. Playing in a solo context is incredibly freeing, especially because I’m interacting, manipulating, and shaping my own sound and the trajectory of a piece.

I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to compose going into the weekend of recording, but most of the material that ended up on the record came from improvisation.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

It’s really difficult to say whether I have a preference in terms of solitary versus communal listening because both are so important.

I would say solitary listening takes up most of my time, but I really enjoy sharing a listening space with friends. It’s one of my favorite things to do when I’m hanging out with other people.

Creating and collaborating with other people will forever hold a special place in my heart, even though I love playing solo shows. There’s only so much I can manifest as one person, so having the opportunity to create with other people always brings a newfound excitement to making music.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

I believe my role as a musician and creator and the role of music in general is to gather and hold space for healing. I’m driven and inspired by my community and so much of it surrounds making music and listening to music.

Music has carried me through the darkest of times and I’m comforted knowing that it provides solace for so many others.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

We Fell In Turn is heavily inspired by my earliest conceptions of love, loss and pain and the way they’ve evolved over time. Music has been the main source of healing when dealing with grief because it’s such an indescribable feeling that changes with time and distance.

It’s often hard for me to dictate how loss affects me, but I feel closer to the person or memory when I play music.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?  

I was thinking about this connection a lot towards the end of my grandfather’s life because he was afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease and I noticed that memories would come back to him when he was listening to music or talking about music. When it became difficult to have conversations towards the end of his life, we could always listen to music and feel connected to one another.

I haven’t done thorough research about the role music plays with folks living with Alzheimer’s, but in my relationship with my grandfather, I noticed it was one of the few things that remained consistent in his memory.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I don’t spend too much time perfecting a cup of coffee, so I would say writing and performing a piece of music feels very different.

I’m intentional about daily tasks, but those feel more like necessities than passions.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

I’ve never been able to explain the feeling of being overtaken by a song or a note to the point of tears because it’s so dependent on the day, mood, or circumstance.

My goal as an artist is to offer a message that might resonate with some people, but not everyone. It’s impossible for me to create work that will garner the same reaction from everyone, but that’s the exciting thing about performing.