Name: The Saxophones
Members: Alexi Erenkov (vocals, guitar, synthesizer, woodwinds), Alison Alderdice (drums, vocals)
Interviewee: Alexi Erenkov
Nationality: American  
Current release: Earlier in 2023, The Saxophones released their third album To be a Cloud. Now, they're back with All there is, an EP with alternative versions of selected tracks from the full-length.
Recommendations: It’s a popular book, but I absolutely loved reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. I like to demystify the human experience and reflect on what I’m doing in a non-spiritual lens. That book really tells like it is. Everything is myth, and some myths are more destructive than others.  
Musically, I really got into Leonard Cohen’s album I’m Your Man. It’s such a goofy sounding record, but it just tickles me. I’m just very happy it exists.

If you enjoyed this The Saxophones interview and would like to keep up to date with the band and their music, visit the duo on Instagram, twitter, and Facebook. They are also currently on tour and will perform in Berlin's Prachtwerk on November 12th, and at Hamburg's Aalhaus on November 14th 2023.



For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

I don’t have much sense of what the finished work will look like at all, but I do have a plan I tend to follow. I start with lyrics, add chords, add woodwind parts, then drums and bass. Each song reveals itself as I add those layers.  

If I follow those steps and don’t move on until each part of the process feels honest to me, I’m generally satisfied with the result.  

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

We have two children now, a 4 and 5-year-old, and that has made routine and ritual a bit tricky over the past few years.

To be honest, there is a lot of routine, but not of the creative or spiritual nature. It’s more like: It’s 8 o’clock and the kids are in bed so that means I have 2 hours to write music as fast as I can before I have to wash all the dishes and then go to bed!

When I was in my 20s and had all the time in the world to be creative, I was very ineffective. Now that my time is limited, I take it more seriously and focus. Kids have been helpful in getting me to shift my priorities and spend time on the most important things in my life.

When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

I always start with lyrics. When I’m in the process of making a new record, I write in my journal daily. I’ll start by writing about very mundane and real things in my head. Usually this means typical stressors like money, exercise, diet, success. Really, really, boring ego-centered stuff.

After I get that out of the way, I’ll start writing lines that come into my mind without editing anything. Frequently these lyrics are about the mundane things I started my journal entry with, they’re just slightly veiled!

After a few lines I tend to get into a rhythm. If I write a couplet that I like, I might try to sing it with my guitar, usually bouncing back and forth between two chords. That’s the point at which a melody might come to me. If I have a couplet and a melody I’m excited about, I can usually just start writing with that melodic and rhythmic idea in my head and generate a lot more.

An obvious example of this process is our song “In My Defense,” off our new record, To Be a Cloud. That song started with the line “In my defense/I tend to get these things wrong.”



I found that line to be very pleasing as it spoke to a defensiveness I can have in arguments about emotional topics. Sometimes I think, “Hey! You can’t be mad at me for saying that. I’m not good at this!” It’s not a very good defense, but it feels true.

After I lock into a lyrical idea that feels true to me, I can usually get into flow of writing more in that meter. Some of them touch on the same topic, “I broke the silence too soon/I spoke of feeling as truth,” but as my writing progresses, I start to let in any themes that present themselves.

By the middle of the song, I’m speaking about the fires we’ve been experiencing in California, whilst reflecting on the ultimate warming and freezing of our planet. By the end of the song, I’m singing “I don’t want to be a cloud/It bored me then, it will bore me again,” which is a reflection on my fear of death and inability to let go of my ego and ultimately become the album title.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?

I think I just like to hear something original; something that surprises me. For me, the lyrics are very integral to the song. I honestly consider the songs done when I’ve come up with guitar chords and lyrics for the whole composition. All the additional parts (saxophones, flutes, drums, bass) are just there to make things a little more interesting or pleasant for the listener.

At the end of the day these are just journal entries that I’ve dressed up!

“Savanna” is an example off our new record that I was completely satisfied with in its acoustic form; it went on to have a much bigger life after we arranged it, but it felt complete to me even in its earliest form.



To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

Oh, it definitely feels like discovery. I’m just searching blindly for some sound or word that resonates, and when I find it, I feel relief.
 
From your experience, are there things you're doing differently than most or many other artists when it comes to writing music?

I think my focus on lyrics is unusual. I’m sure a lot of people do it, but most of the musicians I know are much more drawn to sounds.

Sound and musical ideas are a distant second to me.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

That’s true for me. I don’t usually tend to like songs with a strong narrative so I’m happy to give up control in that regard.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

I wish that were a problem I had. I frequently finish a song with two chords in it and have no desire to add a chorus or a bridge but feel like I really should to make it more interesting.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

I’m happy to say that I quickly can determine if I like or dislike something in the moment. As a result, I don’t tend to listen back later with shame!

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? In terms of what they contribute to a song, what is the balance between the composition and the arrangement (performance)?  

Mixing is so important to me. We’ve been lucky enough to work with Cameron Spies on Songs of The Saxophones and To Be a Cloud and Noah Georgeson on Eternity Bay. Their work has helped the music so much.



Since I’m so focused on the bare bones structure of the songs, I find it very helpful to lean on a producer for ideas that might bring a bit more musical interest to the project.

Left to my own devices, I would probably make very rough recordings of guitar, voice and a few woodwinds to an 8-track tape machine … something I am considering doing, but that’s a different story!

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

Yes, I can relate to that. I usually must take a long break before making a record, but by the time we’ve toured the album and met people on the road that are listening to the songs in real life, I’m inspired to do it again.

People’s direct feedback really encourages me to keep doing it.

Music is a language, but like any language, it can lead to misunderstandings. In which way has your own work – or perhaps the work of artists you like or admire - been misunderstood? How do you deal with this?

Alison (my wife and drummer) talks about this all the time with my lyrics. A lot of my lyrics are steeped in irony, and she worries that people will misinterpret them. We have a song on our new album called “The Mist” in which I sing, “Maybe tonight we’ll grasp the infinite/between chants of U-S-A.”



In that song I’m singing about the January 6th insurrection in our country and the aggressive nationalism that is so toxic right now, and I chant U-S-A in the song. It seemed hilarious to me at the time to put a nationalistic chant into one of my songs, but I suppose someone might listen and have no grasp of the irony.

I don’t think there’s much I can do about it.