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Dave Kane and Alex Bonney Interview

Dave Kane and Alex Bonney Interview - Page 2

Wednesday, 08 April 2009 13:01

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Dave Kane and Alex Bonney Interview
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It seems however, that this sense of challenge served to positively infuse their music with a tension and energy rather than stultifying it with anxiety, “I have huge respect for them but it’s not like a fear thing,” said Kane. Perhaps this tension led to a heightened sense of creativity. Equally, their respect entailed that the encouragement they received from Ken Vandermark gave them the inspiration and confidence to excel in the project, “All of the best musicians, I think they always seem to be very supportive of maybe less experienced musicians” said Bonney. Kane concurred, “They’re very giving these people, to welcome us into the fold. You just learn from them in the sense of seeing them and the amount of years of experience that they have.” It seems then that the Ken Vandermark tour focused their energy. It possibly explains why their album is so tight musically. Their delivery is focused with crystalline clarity on the expression of their musical ideas and it provides the energy which propels them beyond the traditional roles of their respective instruments.

The album is released on the new, Mini-Loop label, an off-shoot from Loop Records. Alex Bonney explained the rationale behind this derivative, “(it’s) designed for smaller scale things like this, like live recordings, things that wouldn’t justify spending thousands of pounds putting out... This Mini-Loop thing is part of this whole culture of realising in these financial times it makes more sense for us to cut the costs at the production stage. We’re still delivering a quality product. The music’s always happening, the sound is always good but we’re just trying to make the figures add up a bit better for us.” Do labels like this point the way for recorded jazz music to survive as commercially viable projects? “I think for our kind of music we’re never going to sell records in shops.”

This implies that any revenue from recorded music comes principally from sales at gigs, “having a box of (C.D.’s) at the gig to sell is the way forward for our kind of music because I don’t really think it works with downloads either.” This dependency on securing optimal commercial benefit from an audience’s interest proves the practical advantages to membership of the collective. Kane argued, “for the sort of music that lots of people that are involved in this festival this weekend are doing, it’s quite a specialised thing so the people that are going to buy it want to buy it,” that is, the people who are going to buy such music are the same people that are going to see the gigs. The collective becomes a brand, a guarantee of a certain standard and attitude towards musical expression which makes the production and sale of recorded music a more viable commercial project.

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