Kumbaya in A Minor is a unique take on rebel rock. Megalomania, vanity, greed, oppression, hubris, and apathy are some of the themes it tackles, and it wraps them up in a musical presentation that is subtly effective and well-rounded. In Henderson, Nevada, Kumbaya in A Minor was recorded, incorporating a wide range of musical styles and influences. Check out the exclusive interview below:
1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how it all got started?
TEH END: I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was a spoiled existence insomuch as the vibrancy and opportunities the music scene has always provided there. World-class orchestras, jazz artists, and popular musicians are around every corner and so much of the most famous music you heard then and hear today comes from that part of the world. I was lucky enough to grow up chatting with Tony Williams and Carlos Santana or studying with members of the San Francisco Symphony and Opera. I once served Steve Perry at a Kentucky Fried Chicken drive-thru, in his yellow Datsun 280Z.
2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?
TEH END: I started out playing electric bass when I was thirteen, and I took lessons for years, played with bands, and developed my ear playing along with a lot of different styles of music. I picked up the double bass when I started college, and ended up with an undergraduate degree in Music. Along with playing jazz, classical, and rock, I was also composing and conducting orchestral music. I’m kind of an advocate for both paths, as each has its merits. Teaching yourself helps develop your ability to listen and forces you to figure things out. Formal training, however, opens up so much that you may never stumble upon yourself. More than anything, formal training like reading music, is the method of communication amongst musicians. It becomes exponentially easier to traverse a lot more musical ground when you have the tools to communicate not only with other musicians, but with different styles of music.
3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘TEH END’?
TEH END: teh end came from one of my first art projects as a pre-schooler. I thought I was so advanced and pompous that I could read and write so young, that I plastered the words on a fired dinner plate. It sort of reminds me that the pursuit of perfection really never ends, and that there will always be fuckups along the way. My first musical influences were what I heard on the radio back in the ‘70s and ‘80s…everything from Air Supply to Kiss to Styx to Black Sabbath. I became a lifelong music fan very early. My strongest influences are probably Dmitri Shostakovich, Nine Inch Nails, and Count Basie. There’s a point where art and craft converge to create something transcendent, and these people hit on that. But my influences are so diverse. I listened to Horace Silver for two years straight. Right now, I’m revisiting a lot of music by Brazilian artist Tom Ze. Really all over the place. When I find stuff I like, I tend to really dig into it and live with it.
4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
TEH END: If Roger Waters, Trent Reznor, Dmitri Shostakovich, Beck, and Living Color got together for a jam session to explore the Seven Deadly Sins, I’d like to think it’d sound something like “Kumbaya in A Minor.” Maybe throw in some Rage Against the Machine for context as well. The key elements would be an eclectic blend of influences, a cohesive theme (rather than a bunch of unrelated tracks), and a dialogue with music and society past and present. The album takes on themes like greed, apathy, corruption, and megalomania. It’s not background music. It’s active listening music that has a hopefully understandable message, and a hopefully accessible sound.
5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as ROCK?
TEH END: I had toyed with the idea of making an album full of covers, as my re-engagement with music after a long hiatus was via my own noodling arrangements of others’ songs I love. I was doing my own solo guitar versions of Joni Mitchell and T-Rex and Bobby Bland and Alice in Chains and tons of others, and, once I had the tools to start recording, the time was right to delve into original material. Music is so much about emulation and appropriation, and pretending otherwise is naïve. It’s supposed to be about artistic communication, so without embracing that, you’re not really participating in the dialogue. The challenging part is finding your own voice in that dialogue. I have trouble describing what my music is like because, to me, it sounds like a collection of influences rather than anyone specific. I don’t aspire to sound like someone else, so it’d probably be easier for other people to say “oh, it sounds like x, y, or z.”
6. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?
TEH END: Remarkably, I have always thought myself in the second camp. I tended to be less interested in the lyrical elements of music, regardless of the genre, and more interested in the instrumental. This project changed a lot of that, as I felt like a lot needed to be said in words. This album turned out to be a coherent attack ad on a lot of the things I see affecting our cultures, politics, and societies in general. It’s a protest album. Take for example “Two Strips,” the fourth track on Kumbaya in A Minor. I wanted to compare and contrast two of the most famous “strips” that are worlds apart from one another: the Gaza Strip and the Las Vegas Strip. I liked the idea of contrasting the lights of air raids and casinos. Of contrasting greed and excess with poverty and desperation. In such a relatively short song, I crammed in so many musical conventions underneath the lyrical content: a 12-tone bass solo; serial melodic string cells; a reggae/trap feel; a purposefully jagged rap.
7. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?
TEH END: I don’t have a fixed process. I usually have a ton of ideas floating around and start something with a kernel of one of those ideas. It could be a melody, a chorus, a lyric, a beat. And then I start building around that. I try to give myself a form, style, and structure as guidance. I know the rules, so it’s much easier to break them while creating. I’m not terribly good at puking ideas out and then going back and editing afterwards. I tend to edit as I go, which makes the process slower and more laborious probably, but it’s just habit, I guess.
8. With social media having a heavy impact on our lives and the music business in general, how do you handle criticism, haters, and/or naysayers in general? Is it something you pay attention to, or simply ignore?
TEH END: Despite social media making connectivity so much easier than it’s ever been, I still feel it’s become more difficult to wade through to find valuable criticism. In the past, your criticism was localized, defined, given to you face-to-face. If someone criticizes my music with legitimate critique, technical, creative, or otherwise, that’s valuable. If you can’t tell me why it’s not good, your criticism is simply an opinion and not particularly interesting. I can tell you why a piece of music is bad, but I could still really love it. They’re really kind of two different things.
9. Creative work in a studio or home environment, or interaction with a live audience? Which of these two options excites you most, and why?
TEH END: That’s a tough one. The two are completely different, and they both have their draws. One of my favorite things about live music is that in its performance, it’s fleeting. Once you’ve played a note, it’s gone. I have to say, I have no interest in shows that use canned music, or lip-syncing, or dummy tracks in lieu of real performing. Seeking perfection in live performance is not only boring, but disingenuous. The excitement about live performance is that anything can happen, that you’re laid bare before an audience, that your mistakes are public and unreclaimable, and that, ideally, your audience is there for exactly those reasons.
10. Do you think is it important for fans of your music to understand the real story and message driving each of your songs, or do you think everyone should be free to interpret your songs in their own personal way?
TEH END: I think it’s important that listeners pay attention to the message an artist is trying to convey. I think it’s equally important that listeners engage in and make their own interpretations. I’m a huge fan of critical thinking and the dialogue that art has historically invited in its creation and reception. I fear we’re in the throes of a cultural and societal sea change where education is primarily an indoctrinating exercise who’s endgame is to turn out compliant, productive cogs. My hope is that people will continue to sit with a piece of music or a book, and really dig into it, discover its complexities, engage with it, find personal meaning. There’s plenty of entertainment if that’s all you want. But surely that can’t be all we’re here for?
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