Aside from DJ mixing and production, I'm also a recent addition to the band, Black Mahal: an eclectic blend of Soul, Hip-hop, Drum and Bass, and Bhangra music. My role is providing scratching and other live electronic audio elements to the mix. On Sunday night, we had a practice session over at Lennon Studios during which we had one of our standard freestyle jam sessions.
Black Mahal practice session, pre-Jay Slim
When I'm making music by myself, I usually have an idea fully laid out in my head. I know how I want the melody to be. I know how the drums are supposed to hit. I know how the overall sound should feel. All I have to do is turn on my toys and translate all that to the tracks.
With Black Mahal, it can be completely different. Freestyle improvisation is a huge part of Black Mahal. You’ll never see the same exact performance twice, because we don’t follow a strict song structure. We don’t know exactly what everyone else is going to do, or at what time they’re gonna do it. We just say F’ it, do our thing, and somehow out of all that unplanned chaos, good music is born.
It's not the most efficient way of making music, but it makes the music that much more exciting. As you’re playing, you’re listening to your bandmates and adjusting to their play at the same time on the fly. It’s like going to a show and being in the audience and on stage simultaneously. Most of the time, you’re listening to how everything’s changing, you can see the direction it’s going, and you move in that direction at the right moment. But once in a while, you get these freak psychic occurrences where nothing is said, nothing is indicated, and everyone just changes it up in the EXACT same way at the EXACT same time. That’s when you smile, you look around and see the rest of your band smiling, and you just keep on going without a single word spoken.
Black Mahal practice session, pre-Jay Slim
When I'm making music by myself, I usually have an idea fully laid out in my head. I know how I want the melody to be. I know how the drums are supposed to hit. I know how the overall sound should feel. All I have to do is turn on my toys and translate all that to the tracks.
With Black Mahal, it can be completely different. Freestyle improvisation is a huge part of Black Mahal. You’ll never see the same exact performance twice, because we don’t follow a strict song structure. We don’t know exactly what everyone else is going to do, or at what time they’re gonna do it. We just say F’ it, do our thing, and somehow out of all that unplanned chaos, good music is born.
It's not the most efficient way of making music, but it makes the music that much more exciting. As you’re playing, you’re listening to your bandmates and adjusting to their play at the same time on the fly. It’s like going to a show and being in the audience and on stage simultaneously. Most of the time, you’re listening to how everything’s changing, you can see the direction it’s going, and you move in that direction at the right moment. But once in a while, you get these freak psychic occurrences where nothing is said, nothing is indicated, and everyone just changes it up in the EXACT same way at the EXACT same time. That’s when you smile, you look around and see the rest of your band smiling, and you just keep on going without a single word spoken.
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