SAINT ABDULLAH & JASON NAZARY
Tehran-born brothers Saint Abdullah and Brooklyn-based drummer Jason Nazary open a unique dialogue of electronics and live drums on Evicted In The Morning. Born out of improvisational sessions in Flatbush, with contributions from Swedish bassist Petter Eldh and vocalist Emilie Weibel, together they explore uncertainty, tragedy, survival, and creative release.
Saint Abdullah · Jason Nazary
Brooklyn, New York
Saint Abdullah consists of Tehran-born brothers Mohammad and Mehdi Mehrabani-Yeganeh, who have been exploring a diverse palette of sounds over their releases to date, including collaborations with Eomac on Nicolas Jaar's Other People label, and Model Home on Purple Tape Pedigree, as well as their own duo album on Important Records.
Jason Nazary is a drummer and composer from Atlanta, based in Brooklyn. Fascinated by the intersection of acoustic and electronic music, Jason has been a force in New York's creative music scene for over a decade.
JN I became aware of Saint Abdullah's work through mutual friend and longtime bandmate Travis Laplante, who played on their record In God's Image. I wore that record out, and contacted them to let them know how much I dug their music. We quickly realized we lived basically in the same neighborhood of Brooklyn, so it wasn't long before we met up and started improvising together. I think these tracks were the result of those first sessions. We didn't waste any time.
SA It made it easier for us to connect with guys like Jason because Travis had been kind enough to take a chance. When we first met, we went for a walk around Prospect Park and just spoke about musical interests. We immediately recognized a quirk in Jason and his style that felt quite suitable for the direction we wanted to take things with our own music.
SA Our family story, our roots and heritage, our neighbors and our community, our reality, Mossadegh. We often like to work with what's in front of us, out of necessity, or by chance. It's rarely directly musicians, although they matter to us a lot. These days: Maria Chavez, Anthony Tabucchi, Fred Frith, Gerald Cleaver, Jerry Hunt, John Zorn, Iranian documentaries, Caltex records.
JN It's an ever evolving and growing list. My musical community first and foremost. Working with Jaimie Branch especially, being comfortable jumping into the unknown every night and carving out a cohesive statement. I think I'm still processing how profound her influence has been on my own process, but her fearlessness is really something I try to carry into every musical situation.
Evicted In The Morning
Saint Abdullah · Jason Nazary
SA Pretty soon after that first meeting Jason invited us to his studio in Flatbush to jam. We've never really improvised live with someone else, so it was a tad daunting. Jason's studio space was perfect though, because there was no pretension about it. It's in the basement behind an alleyway that's usually very dark, inside a certain type of residential building you'd find in Brooklyn, like five floors, pre-war. Hint of Europe. So, I suppose that put me at ease. I had also just had a kid. And just wanted a release. I rocked up with some basic electronic gear, ready to make noise.
JN I had the same set up for all the sessions: the acoustic drums plus my briefcase of synths, which has a couple of mono synths I trigger with the kick and snare, as well as a couple of semi modular joints that have built-in sequencers I dial in on the fly. Nothing is tempo matched. My set up is all about balancing these un-synced sonic movements, each one traveling on its own path with its own logic but given context with what I'm playing on the drums.
"I couldn't hear myself at all, cuz the drums were so loud. I thought it was gonna be a total waste, except it turned out to be the majority of the LP coming from that session. Maybe it was good I couldn't hear myself."
SA Once the initial tracks were laid down, we invited collaborators to contribute overdubs. Petter Eldh brought 'The Butchers' Shop' together, the groove was educational for me. Emilie Weibel also taught me something, her touch is so necessary, and so focused, just lifts the whole track.
JN To me it's referring to that uncertainty we all deal with every day, not knowing what life's gonna offer, but being brave despite that.
SA It's about dealing with the inevitability of tragedy, and still finding a way to move. Around the time we were recording, there was just a lot of troubling feelings of not knowing what the hell we were going to wake up to. From the personal, like, I need to survive, how the hell is this going to work, especially with a young kid, to the more macro, societal challenges that also manifest in the personal. That uncertainty was gripping. The studio time we had together was a way of releasing that. The LP represents the letting go. Whatever happens happens.
Photos Ryan Easter