Interview with Teis Semey

It’s hard to know if I describe what I want it to be or what it really is. I want it to be intuitive, brave and passionate, and that is how I try to feel as well. And I hope that comes across!

I play in so many different circumstances, so it’s hard to keep any rituals. I always try to spend some alone time together with the group that I am playing with before going on stage, and not talking to other people right before going on. That way I feel more that we are in a group, and that we are a team. I also always try to play a bit on my instrument before going up. It makes me feel more connected to my instrument.

I don’t use any AI at all, and I am not interested in it either. I really think art (and communication) should be an extension of sharing lived human experience. AI subverts connection into instrumental information sharing, and I find it pretty vulgar. I would personally rather make mistakes, spell poorly and work slowly. That way I think my music, and my writing, is more me. And that’s what I want to share. Not a generated medium of existing work, but whatever I am.

That being said, I do use a lot of electronics. I really like electronic music, and find the sonic options extremely exciting. I use a lot of sampling, drum synths, FX synths, keyboards and pedals, and I find that it “forces” me into new waters. To me, the most important factor is to know your tools so you can be use it to truly tell your own story from a new perspective. I don’t find it interesting to just re-use the same effect for the purpose of the effect. But if it can play a supporting role as opposed to a leading role, then I really think that electronics can add a new dimension to music.

Both yes and no. I grew up in Denmark but moved to Sweden as a teenager, and then to the Netherlands. To that extent, I undoubtedly missed a lot of later “indoctrination” into musical traditions. With that being said, I think the cultural bond of local folk music is very weak anyhow, and even if I stayed in Denmark, I would probably still listen to more Kendrick Lamar than to folk music.

On the other hand, as a child in school, every day the whole school had to meet it the gym hall at seven thirty, pray to god and then sing two traditional psalms together. Those songs always meant a lot to me. I recorded some of them on my album Midnight Mess. It was only later in my development that I started looking back into Danish folk music. Searching for my roots in way, but also with a wish to engage with it in my own way. Show the music from my perspective. That is why I chose not to include the lyrics in the Midnight Mess. For me it was always the harmony and the melody. That, and then of course, the singers don’t speak Danish either. Happy coincidence.

I honestly can’t recall where I have said that! I do sometimes feel that the tradition of jazz is stretched thin in jazz business. It sometimes feels difficult to know what our music is really about any more. A really important aspect of jazz is to study the pioneers of the music. The “elders” as some call them, although I think that’s a bit of a silly mystifying term. In any case, my own idols, Coltrane, Mingus, Dolphy, Miles, Monk, Bud Powell, Elvin Jones etc., were all black and victims of racism in the US. Some fought more publicly against it than others, but I do think blackness and being a racialised minority plays a big role in the tradition of the music. As a white man, I can’t really partake in that identity. That partly led me to search for my own musical roots, as I don’t feel inclined to cosplay as someone else’s identity, and also to reckon with the anti-racist core of my music.

This is where that quote might come from. If jazz was anti-racist, then jazz should still be antiracist. If it somehow in it’s core is about the black experience in the US, then to me, it’s about the crimes of slavery and colonialism. And I don’t see why jazz should stop spreading that message. To me, in the hunger for creating commercial success, a lot of the “industry” seems to have forgotten about that tradition. Decolonisation and anti-racism most urgently apply to Palestine and non-european immigration, as well as national level fight against the far-right. It’s not that I have or want the authority to order everyone to make this their prime message. But I do feel that it has been too forgotten. To me, as I was realising this, I realised that my own story of music, my jazz so to speak, has to include this sentiment too.

That being said, I am not a “traditionalist”, but I think there are important lessons to learn from tradition, and it is a constant source for musical and ontological discovery.

My music is always composed specifically for allowing, and encouraging, improvisation. It was only in the earliest part of my career that I experimented with writing real “pieces”. I have found that my own story of music needs to include collectivism. Improvising, making decisions together, elevating the musicians and letting the musicians elevate the music in any way they deem the best. That freedom is something I love myself, and it’s a freedom I want to give to the people I play with!

In that sense, a lot of my music is less compositions than sonic instructions for improvisation. I experiment with how much, and which freedom I give, at any moment, but I would venture to say that there is never zero freedom, and at all points I prefer my co-musicians to be encouraged to take ownership of the music and elevate it in their own personal way rather than follow my instructions.

In a way, you could say, that I don’t feel like writing the music down gives me authority to control how any given musician vibrates with it when playing it. Controlling other peoples expression creates an uncomfortable hierarchy of “the boss” and “the performer” that I don’t enjoy very much. That being said, of course I have visions and ideas with my pieces, but I think that I leave enough space in them to only guide and not order.

I look mainly for musicians who have acquired a high level of freedom on their instrument. You could call it skill as well, but I say freedom because to me it’s not only technical skill but also sensitivity, fluency and intuition. I get very inspired by musicians who express themselves freely on a high level, are warm, and have something to say and the passion and courage to say it.

To be honest, anything. I really want people to enjoy it, and experience the magic as I experience it. The energy, the honesty, the passion. Freedom. Joy, anger, love. Harmony, groove, energy. And if even one of these things shine through, then I am happy.

Haha, that’s hard to say. I really look forward to coming to Saalfelden this year. I’ve gotten the unbelievable chance to organise four different concerts this year, and I am working hard to not disappoint the fans and the music lovers that travel long distances and pay their own hard earned money to come and hear the music. It’s a gift that I don’t take for granted, and I am filled with determination to give the best concerts of my life to you all. See you soon!