A former member of Norwegian supergroup Jaga, trumpeter Mathias Eick brings his quintet to Turner Sims for the first time to perform music from his most recent ECM release Ravensburg on Friday 25 October.
Turner Sims Marketing Assistant Rosie Sewell talks to Mathias ahead of his gig…
RS: How would you describe your sound to an audience member who has never heard you before?
ME: It’s an airy emotional sound with a lot of personality in it. The music is lyrical, energetic and speaks to you in a new way. That’s at least our goal!
RS: The Guardian says that Norwegian jazz is some of the world’s ‘most animated and productive’. How much do Norwegian traditions have an influence on your music? Or are there other key influences on your musical life?
ME: To me, life itself has the biggest influence on my music. Becoming a father, growing into adulthood, experiencing many facets of life is the emotions I’m trying to communicate through my music. That said, on Midwest, our album from 2015, I dug into the folk music scene in Norway to find inspiration, and it worked. To this day, I still have a violin player in the band thanks to that.
RS: How did your most recent album, Ravensburg, come about?
ME: The music on Ravensburg is all about the close relationships in life, family, children and friends. It all started with a poem I was asked to write some music to, and it became the first song I composed for the album, For my Grandmothers. One of my grandmothers lived for many years in Ravensburg in south Germany, and I always got these large jigsaw puzzles when I was a kid. After that song, I started composing music out of an emotional perspective, bringing the theme of the album home in a way.
RS: When making an album, do you always have a specific narrative in mind that you want to explore, or is it more of a collection of lots of different ideas?
ME: I really try having concepts for each album I make. It’s kind of easier to create in that way, when I have a direction emotionally. So I tend to use a lot of time figuring out narratives, I’m there right now actually!
RS: And finally, what is your dream day off?
ME: I guess a hotel close to Nürbürgring in Germany, so that I could go racing cars for a few hours. I’m going to make it happen!
Book here to catch Mathias Eick live with his quintet on Saturday 25 October.
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