Esbjörn Svensson: "Estamos desejosos de tocar em Lisboa"



A poucos dias da estreia do grupo e.s.t. em Lisboa, onde actua no próximo dia 22 de Julho, no Centro Cultural de Belém, JNPDI! falou com Esbjörn Svensson, o pianista deste trio que se assume como uma unidade coesa e se situa sonoramente entre o Jazz e a Pop. O tempo (ou a falta dele) dita a transcrição da entrevista em Inglês...

JNPDI!: What do you think people feel when they listen to your songs? I am thinking about one in particular, from the new CD: “Tuesday wonderland”. But I could also mention “The goldhearted miner”…

Esbjörn Svensson: I don’t know… People are so different, it’s impossible to know what they will feel and I don’t even think about it. We try to create the music together, the three of us, and we also include our sound engineer, so actually four of us. We try to do music that we like and what people think about it it’s not really something we can control or actually care about too much.



JNPDI!: Is there anything you would like them to feel when they listen to your music?

E.S.: No, there is nothing in particular. The thing with music is that it’s not concrete. We try to create music that we like and how it will be received by the people it’s impossible for us to know and that is also the most fascinating thing with music, that it’s out of our control, out of our reach and it’s something between the listener and the music. In that sense we are just an instrument for the music to touch the listener.

JNPDI!: By the way, how do you choose the titles to the tunes? Just looking at your new CD – Tuesday wonderland – we have songs like “Brewery of beggars”, “Dolores in a shoestand” or “Eighthundred streets by feet”.

E.S.: The titles are made by Magnus Öström, the drummer in the band. I don’t know exactly how he does it. I think he is sitting down listening to the music and trying to figure out what he feels and what kind of picture is coming up in his head while hearing the music. I would say he is a little bit of a poet. He likes very much to play with words and working on titles. When he has a couple of suggestions we discuss them to see how Dan [Berglund] and I feel about the titles and we discuss what different titles could mean to us.

JNPDI!: e.s.t. has been credited as a pop band that plays Jazz. Do you acknowledge any influence by bands like Pink Floyd, for instance in the sonority of “Fading maid preludium”?

E.S.: Yes, absolutely. There might be something of Pink Floyd in our music. Many people told us that before. I am not a big Pink Floyd fan but I know the other guys in the band are and they are very, very important in Pop history, so I would say that it’s possibly true.

JNPDI!: I would dare to go even further… What would you say to people who might say e.s.t. sounds like an instrumental version of a band like R.E.M.? And that’s a compliment, by the way!

E.S.: Wow! Ok. It’s the same again. I am not that updated; I know the band, I heard a few songs but I don’t know very much about that band so it’s impossible for me to say…

JNPDI!: So what bands do really influence your playing?

E.S.: To be honest, for myself, for the last 10 years it has been mainly classical music that influenced me, but for the other guys in the band I think they have been listening to all kinds of music, including R.E.M and Pink Floyd. As I said we are three of us making the music. I compose the music but everybody uses their own freedom and inspiration to contribute. What comes out is from all three of us.



JNPDI!: How hard was for E.S.T. coming from Sweden and breaking through the Jazz world until the point of being the first European jazz band ever to figure in the cover of Downbeat? This must have tasted like selling caviar to the Russians…

E.S.: It depends on how you see it. If I knew when we started what we were going through I probably would have done it anyway… but we never really thought about breaking through or creating new markets and so on. We have been very concentrated on the music and also to find the right people to work with that were able to help us break new markets. Those people have done a great work and probably the music has worked as well and I hope that’s why we are where we are today. It’s been hard but it’s been fun. It’s been a fantastic journey. It’s been great, a great lesson.

JNPDI!: What can the audience at CCB expect from e.s.t.?

E.S.: They can expect to hear e.s.t. hopefully with lots of energy, lots of nice melodies, interesting rhythm, groovy rhythms, lots of exciting sounds and a spectacular light show. We are looking forward to come to Lisbon. It’s gonna be our first time and therefore we are really excited. I spend lots of time in Lisbon for private reasons. My wife’s sister lives in Lisbon.

JNPDI!: So you know the city well…

E.S.: I can say I know the city well, I’ve been there a lot, but most of the time we just came to Lisbon and then we went to Algarve or North, travelling around in Portugal to find good beaches.

JNPDI!: And did you find them?

E.S.: Absolutely! Two summers ago we rented a house in Algarve and it was amazing. We also spent lots of time in Porto and Viana do Castelo.

JNPDI!: Too cold…

E.S.: Yeah, but I like cold waters, so I’m fine!