So as far as I know, these are the first ever commissions for this instrumentation of classical
musicians writing for the five-piece string band.
My goal with this project was to make music that's compelling and interesting and very
different.
Writing for Banjo, look, I've never written for Banjo, I've never written for Mandolin.
The idea that this group was something really different in some ways maybe was better because
it allows you to be really creative because you're in a whole other world that you're
not used to being in.
I had the same problem that I remember, almost like writing, you did that actually with one
and it sounded really great.
They put a banjo and a mandolin in my hand and that changed everything.
If I get the right sound in my head, which usually comes from the instrument, it's almost
like turning on a water faucet and just things just start to come out and flow.
Most exciting part of commissioning a new work is getting to work so closely with a
composer and seeing their process and have them bring it forward and what they want to
hear.
Immediately when Jake asked me, I'm all, oh, that sounds like a great idea, I want to do
that.
Somehow my music and string band music, what that intersection is, it wasn't like, oh,
I don't know if I can even write for this, it was just like, oh, I've got to figure
out where is that sweet spot.
How somebody who comes from a different kind of background with what they would create
for these instruments, I think that's really neat.
This new kind of juxtaposition of new music classical composers with parking lot trained
string band fiddle tune players, I think that's basically where I learned to play.
My name is Matt Flinner and I'm a mainly bluegrass mandolin player from Nashville, Tennessee.
So you've got these folk melodies or these bluegrass melodies, but let's not make them,
let's not just hang them up on the wall with this classical background, let's integrate
them together hopefully into, you know, the ideal is Bartok where you've got, to me, where
you've got folk melodies, but it doesn't sound like necessarily folk music that's like put
on display, it's an organic piece.
So I was just trying to write something that seemed to make sense, sounding not like bluegrass
exactly not sounding like modern classical music, but sounding like something in between.
Matt is so rooted in string band music, like he grew up playing banjo and mandolin and took
that and extrapolated that over 20 minutes of music.
Hopefully this will be a step towards, you know, more writing in that style.
So thank you, take chefs, where is he?
All the musicians, I feel so fortunate to play with these people who I consider my musical
heroes.
I feel like it's a, I'm asking them to do a lot more work to make music than they normally
do.
Like what we had last night, we had these amazing pizzas last night, which is all the
ingredients that go into this thing, and you put them all together, and then you take one
bite, it doesn't taste anything like the ingredients themselves, it's just a combination of the
garlic and the cheese and everything, it's just kind of combined in a magical way that
makes a whole another taste.
But that's what music is, you take a banjo, you take some violins, some harmonies and
then you put it all together and it's a whole another sound, it's like pizza.
People my age from North Carolina, they sound like they're from it, and just, they drank
the right water, and I drank some other kind of water.
Playing this out of tune, which is banjo, so it's mostly out of tune.
How did you guys meet each other, how did this collaboration start, you know?
Prison, I thought, yeah, we would be sure to sell, you know, good time, you know.
That gave you shivers.
