Interview with Robert Mitchell


Q: Please tell me something about your musical influences. What was the spark for you to pursue a career as musician?

Robert Mitchell: My influences consist of anyone who has a marked effect on me. Oscar Peterson, Cecil Taylor, Gerri Allen, Rachmaninov (both composing, and performing), Mcoy Tyner, Marilyn Crispell, Norma Winstone, Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Vladimir Horovitz, Scarlatti, Handel, Anthony Braxton, Aka Moon, Mark and Mike Mondesir, Courtney Pine, Rzewski, Sorabji.Squarepusher, IG Culture, Autechre, Annette Peacock, Anita Baker, Chucho Valdez, Keith Tippet, Jason Rebello, Herbie H (esp. electric), Magik Malik, Arve Henriksen, Keith Jarret, Don Pullen, Bheki Mseleku, Cassandra Wilson, Betty Carter, Rachelle Ferrelle, Butch Morris, and too many others but also of course all the longer term bands I have been in - Quite Sane, Jlife, Keith Waithe, Ntoumos, Tomorrow's Warriors etc.
My spark was a mixture of many fuels! My family was musical (father sang profesionally - and my first teacher - classical piano - is still going at 92 years of age!), I heard Oscar Peterson on the radio at a time when it suddenly made sense, discovering my fathers lyrics and thinking i could write a great song! Being involved in some bands before I left university really did come in usefull - esp. a mini tour in 1992 with Greg Osby. My eyes have been wide open - stunned with the effects music can have on people - ever since.

Q: Where do you see your progress as musician from your start to your days with Quite Sane, Tomorrow's Warrior or J-Life to you Panacea project.

Robert Mitchell: Well - hopefully it is precisely that - a progression! Every group I have been in has revealed moments of joy, struggle and an enduring adherence to improve on all fronts. It is allied personally to a wish to completely be at one with my creativity and my instrument - and to be as singular as my fingerprints in that realisation! These same things will in turn influence the future projects soon to be represented in performance and on CD - duo with Cuban violinist Omar Puente, plus a solo piano suite - Equinox, and a couple of special things I wont go into yet !

Q: Trust is your second album under the Panacea moniker. What musical vision do you have and what do you want to achieve with Panacea?

Robert Mitchell: I would love the sound of Panacea to be instantly recognisable - but also constantly evolving. The use of electronics will grow and become more natural. I am looking to have interesting guests on forthcoming recordings/performances. I am also for a more fluid approach to our live conception - and for us to be a long term band (which at nearly 6 years means - we aint started yet!). My inspirations (esp. bands) have tended to be long lasting groups. Once you find the right people - and our strengths and weaknesses are properly acknowledged - you get a glimpse of the true meaning of the phrase - Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts - etc! There are other specifically musical things - but these are to be revealed ! Eventually!

Q: Why are you no longer with Dune Records?

Robert Mitchell: I will leave you to fill in that blank! I am extremely proud of Voyager (debut CD - out on Dune 2001), as I am even more so of Trust. A big clue will also lie in the way the industry and technology have changed so drastically in the last 5 years. If you beleive an idea is good - there are many more possibilities at your fingertips to help that turn into a film, CD, book, play, design etc. The same goes for informing/getting the idea out to - the public.

Q: Why did you replace some of the musicians with whom you've recorded Voyager?

Robert Mitchell: It was simply a question of consistency. This is a band - not a situation for multiple depping all the time! Maybe that is unfashionable these days - and quite probably extremely hard to sustain. But it wasnt a recent decision - it was high on my wish list from before the group existed. Then of course there are the things you can expect - people get busy with careers of their own - have families- move on and live in other countries - and life has to be reorganised.

Q: Please tell me how you've met Deborah Jordan and why did she sing most of the songs on Trust?

Robert Mitchell: I met Deborah at University more or less (oh no it cant be ...) 15 years ago. Lost touch for half of that time, and then met at a gig (strangely enough - the launch gig of my first album Voyager!). Er, she sung most of the songs as she is the vocalist for Panacea! I knew there was something unique there - even in those student days. It seems timely that the Silhouette Brown record has really started to reveal to the world what has always been there - and it can now be properly appreciated and supported. Her debut album is on the way.

Q: In 2003 you've performed live with Norma Winstone and other musicians on a celebration of Wayne Shorters music (Shorter Stories). Did you and Norma decided then to record a song together or how did it happen?

Robert Mitchell: The project came about in an interesting way. I had played with her son - Leo (a great drummer) one time. He had said even then that she was into the first album. Panacea then performed at a festival in the UK, and a good friend of hers - Olwen Richards - also a promoter - saw the performance. They obviously talked - as the first I knew of any kind of project - was a message left directly by Norma herself. It's one of the reasons you get a mobile phone - so someone u never believe will call - does! Anyhow a band, and tour was put together. It was very enjoyable - and a challenge - as I was asked to arrange Wayne Shorters' music. Norma wrote some lyrics - and they are stunning. It would be great to do that project again - and a recording will happen one day. I did however plan to record this CD no matter what - and with the best guests I could get. I then simply asked Norma to do what I regard as my most melodically tricky song. The fact she said yes, and did such fantastic job speaks for itself. Her artistry - the sound, control, and clarity and purity of tone and articulation, added to her ease with so many different improvisatory challenges - makes every moment I play with her a music lesson.

Q: What is it that attracts you as an instrumentalist to lyrics? Why do most of your songs feature lyrics?

Robert Mitchell: I love songs. Whether sung by John Legend or Annette Peacock! My first gigs were with my father (a singer). Voice and piano. With my growing confidence purely writing music, allied with the discovery of his lyric writing - I gave songwriting a go - and enjoy it the more I do it. However with both a violin/piano duo CD, and a solo piano CD on the way - it is not the complete range of what I do. The lyric challenge I take as seriously as the music - and will happily spend months changing things around until I feel I can not improve on them. I would love those little words to stand on their own as poetic expression - I beleive I have a long way to go. I have had a 12 year headstart with purely playing the piano - and am determined to close the gap. I am most proud of Our Dream Mile and, July For The Smile, A heart (Full Of U), and If These Walls Could Speak Out as SONGS. I am usually deeply proud of the music before it is put forward for performance/playing. But lyrically - I simply need more breadth and depth of expression. But, it is a craft like any other - and has to take the time it takes!

Q: Some of the titles of your songs are quite different from what other musicians offer. Please tell me what you had in mind when writing songs like Cotopaxi, Breath On The Mirror, The Thief Of Dimensions or Ocean (In A Small Hand)

Robert Mitchell: I love the fact that you could be writing a song about literally anything - depending on events, observations and so on. I do my best to allow inspiration to take me anywhere it wishes- I have not yet done a particular project that revolves around one central theme (but it is coming soon!). I am preparing a page on the lyric background to all the tunes on Trust ( this will be at myspace.com/robertmitchellmusic). Here is an excerpt - just for the tune Cotopaxi.

Cotopaxi
(© 2003 by R.P.Mitchell)
This song arose out of a trip to Peru - on another musical journey (or tour as they are normally called!). On a rare day off - we went a few 400 metres up the beginnings of a mountain. There was a panoramic view of rain forest and the atmosphere and quality of air was suddenly like being on another planet - or a purer one anyhow. This was combined with flying between gigs and seeing the great tip of Cotopaxi (Peru's finest) peaking through the clouds from below. No tune can capture the way all my senses were somehow sharpened, my imagination set free to imagine a great civilisation past living far more in tune with such a vibrant nature - but here goes:

[1]
The mist is so still,
The air holds no thrill,
All millenia left their stories here, from times' own birth
Some became the truth, others hibernate, inside this earth.

The winds here demand a few words of description beyond my powers - they were frightening in their ability to make all of us there feel very small and insignificant. At the same time they made me feel as large as the mountain we were standing at the bottom of. Made me wonder what secrets may have been buried beneath there - either simply by the passage of time of perhaps - deliberately - so we will come to understand them in time - once we are using all our perceptive powers.

[2]
This hand touches sky
Each step cant be shy
From a distant bird, comes a song I have not heard before
Then the horse that sighs, warning of the things we should not explore

Our passage even a few hundred feet up is full of wonder and trepidation - depending on which direction you are looking (up is better!). Where as in a city, the cries of certain animals blends in to a general soundscape, that possibly wouldn't alarm - unless it was an escaped Lynx or something, - here every cry or slightly nerve-awakening sound seems to have gained many times more importance. Like the warning of a storm ,or the approach of something more sinister on foot.

[Chorus]
Can you hear forever sing
Can you hold onto its wing
Can you see its smile, its grin
Knows the love within all things.

But when the rhythm of all these sounds (and feelings) - seemed to combine in a more friendly way - it made all the thoughts I have seem invisible - you are only aware of the power of your surroundings - and not being superior to any other creature - simply part of the same universal...narrative! There was also a glimpse of something that depended on perception only - to grant an immense feeling of - good.

Coda (piano solo backing)
To never know this
Is truly to miss

Pretty obvious - but it isn't simply a reference to living in a place (namely a city) - that would make this kind of experience - er, tricky. It is also partly a nod to being shown something by nature itself. So much about our 'modern' lives tend to lessen its importance - or portray that we can somehow rule or or even worse direct all of the above. It might only have taken 2 minutes to observe (with all my senses - or with that one sense of touch - depending on your viewpoint!) but should you always be forced to take those minutes away from the ususal worries - by being in a very different enviroment - and so to glimpse this natural, powerful, and friendly thread.

Breadth On The Mirror- is about change - its absolute consistency and (hopefully) acceptance of it. The Thief Of Dimensions is about being swept off your feet - the love thang! And Ocean (In A Small Hand) - is a bit of a lullaby indeed. Many friends are now having beautiful babies ,and I wanted to contribute in any way possible. Gurdeep had the perfect, playful, and singular vocal talents to realise this - and it has caused a few tears already.

Q: You are a part of F-ire, a collective of musicians, dancers and visual artists. Please tell me more about F-ire, the motivation behind it and in which way does it help and influence you as a artist.

Robert Mitchell: The motivations behind F-ire are not exclusive to London - but have begun to be addressed with the best resources we can muster up (London style). It has come about through a mixture of frustration,lack of community, and lack of opportunity for some fantastic and very creative sounds coming out of London. It has evolved into a modern landmark on the UK creative music scene - and in a short time has picked up a BBC Award (for Innovation 2004) and has done a CMN tour (the highest profile type tour for creative music in the UK) as well as good press and the odd bit of TV. One of the main ways it has helped me - is the distribution of this very album (in the UK, and in Europe soon!). There is also performance opportunities - and of course - the very unique energy that surrounds a group of people - in far from ideal circumstances - squeezing out a little bit more of their unadultertated creativity into the world.

For more infos visit robertmitchellmusic.com, f-ire.com, myspace.com/robertmitchellmusic and read my review of Trust.