When the "indie-classical" quintet Build performs at UC San Diego on Dec. 2, it will be a homecoming of sorts.
Three of the five members of the Brooklyn-based ensemble are San Diego natives, including Carlsbad native Matt McBane, 30, who founded the Carlsbad Music Festival seven years ago.
In an interview via e-mail last week, Build founder McBane ---- a composer/violinist who still spends about a third of each year in Carlsbad ---- talked about his group, the reason for his group's current California tour and news about the next Carlsbad festival.
Q: Tell me about the history of Build?
A: The concept for Build took a few years of thinking and experimenting to come up with, but is an organic fusion of many of the most important musical influences to me: minimalist chamber music (think Steve Reich, Kronos Quartet), art rock and modal jazz (think Miles Davis, John Coltrane). The instrumentation (violin, cello, piano, bass and drums) has elements of all of these genres and the backgrounds of the players in the group also reflect these influences.
I started writing the music for Build's first album while living in L.A. and had the first rehearsal within a few weeks of moving to New York in the Fall of 2006. I found the musicians of Build upon arriving in New York through recommendations from mutual friends.
Both Mike Cassedy (piano) and Ben Campbell (bass) are originally from San Diego and were the same year as me at the University of Southern California, but remarkably, I did not meet them until I moved to New York. Apparently Mike and I were even in the same group violin class at UCSD as little kids.
They are primarily jazz musicians, but have backgrounds in classical music and play in all kinds of different bands in New York now. Andrea Lee (cello) has a traditional classical training and the precision and beautiful tone to prove it. Adam Gold (drums) was a classical percussionist until his early 20s and then put that aside to focus on the drums.
Q: You call Build "indie-classical." What does that mean?
A: When I started the group I decided that I needed to have a shorthand genre name for it so I didn't have to write a paragraph every time this question is asked, so I came up with "indie-classical" (as in the kind of movies I like are indie films, the kind of rock I like is indie-rock, the kind of classical music I like is ...). It has actually caught on quite a bit. Our record label (New Amsterdam Records) started using it, then Time Out New York, then the New York Times. It's almost like a real genre now.
So, shorthand is "indie-classical," longhand is "a mix of minimalist chamber music, art rock and modal jazz."
Q: Where did you get the name Build?
A: It took a long time to think of, but aside from the practical consideration of being short (in response to all these years of typing "Carlsbad Music Festival"), it was pretty much just that it felt right: creative and architectural, and it looks good on paper.
Q: What's the reason for the current tour (which starts Nov. 30 in San Francisco and concludes Dec. 4 in L.A.)?
A: We're celebrating the re-release of our 2008 self-titled debut album with distribution from Naxos, which is the world's largest classical music distributor. I'm really excited to see what that leads to. The album was originally released in 2008 on New Amsterdam Records and since then tracks have been regularly used as musical interludes on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." And Build's performance at the 2009 Bang on a Can Marathon in New York was selected as a highlight for broadcast on WNYC's "New Sounds by John Schaeffer."
Q: What's it like coming "home" to San Diego to perform?
A: It's great to get out of New York in the winter and to have our friends and family at the shows. For me, it is really cool to have friends I grew up with and who know all the wildly different kinds of music I listened to and played as a kid and teenager see how that diversity of interests has led to my current project.
Q: What's on the bill for Wednesday's concert?
A: We're playing stuff from our album and a bunch of new stuff that will be on the next album.
Q: What excites you about the direction of modern music?
A: It's really cool how everyone is rethinking everything now: live performance, recordings, and the separation of genres are all being rethought from the top down and bottom up.
In New York, this scene of indie-classical music in clubs has really exploded and is forcing all kinds of people to re-evaluate the status that classical music has occupied as a genre that is somehow separate from others.
Q: Has the economy affected the market for new music?
A: It seems like more so in bigger organizations. There have been some grants that I applied for that ended up losing their funding, but for Build, we are new group, so even in a bad economy we are still growing.
Q: What's next for Build?
A: Directly after this tour, I am going to do a two-month residency at Monalvo Arts Center in Saratoga (with a nice fellowship from the Irvine Foundation), where I will be writing the rest of the next Build album. We'll be recording it in June.
Q: How about the Carlsbad Music Festival? Will it be back next year?
A: Yes, the CMF will be back next year at the end of September. We're looking at ways we can be even more creative in presenting the music and engaging the community. We've also co-commissioned a string quartet for the Calder Quartet from Nathan Davis for next year with the MATA Festival in New York (a festival of music by young composers started by Philip Glass). We'll announce the rest of the artists in the coming months.
Build
When: 8 p.m. Dec. 2
Where: The Loft, second floor of Price Center East, UC San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla
Tickets: $16
Info: 858-534-8497 or artpwr.com
Web: mattmcbane.com
