Since the very early days of her remarkable journey into the evolution and expansion of Contemporary Jazz, it was very apparent to music lovers and the music press worldwide that the talent and vision of the Japanese Piano and Keyboard Maestro Hiromi Uehara, universally known solely as Hiromi, would have made through the years an enormous impact in the world of modern music.
The Grammy Winner artist from Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, since her debut album Another Mind released in 2003, has enchanted crowds all over the world through not only high-energy and legendary live performances, but also for the Japanese composer's capacity and vision to unify layers of Jazz, Funk, Electronica, Classical and Fusion and fusing them together in an electrifying, imaginative and exuberant free-form style.
With a new album out now called Out There, the 13th studio album of Hiromi’s impressive music career, an album where Hiromi also surrounds herself once again by the Sonicwonder band made by Hadrien Feraud on bass, Gene Coye on drums, and Adam O’Farrill on trumpet, the Japanese Composer has graciously agreed to talk to our website about the making of Out There and what music means to her.
BR - Hi Hiromi, thank you so much for finding the time to talk to us at Bluebird Reviews, about your new studio album called Out There. How pleased are you with the end result of another new and truly sonically pyrotechnic record?
Hiromi = I am really really happy about it. I have been playing with Sonicwonder for almost two years now and we have some very special musical chemistry. It's a great thing about being able to record the second album in a row with the same band, you know, like the working band. We really understand each other and, from a writer point of view, I get to understand how they play, what their strengths are, how I want them to play.. In this way, it's much clearer to me how to write for myself and for them, rather than writing for unknown musicians that I never played with. It makes so much fun to me in the whole writing process.
BR - Given how long the tour in support of Sonicwonderland, your previous studio album has been going on for, how challenging has it been for you to find the right time to write and record your new compositions?
Hiromi = No, not really challenging, to be honest. I find very inspiring to be On The Road with this band, they really get me going and motivate me to write more music for them, therefore it wasn't really a problem or a challenge, for me.
BR - What amazes the most to us, at Bluebird Reviews, about Out There, is the pitch perfect cohesion and interplay that you keep on strengthening between your incredible playing style and that of the Sonicwonder Band. How instrumental have been, in that respect, the last two years spent recording and touring the world with the band to reach such an outstanding level of musical expression?
Hiromi = I think that one of our biggest secrets, is that of listening carefully to each other, as musicians. We have developed this way to respond very quickly to one another and somehow, it becomes almost like a little game, among us, about who is the quickest to respond sonically to who, in a way that reminds me of the Tom & Jerry's cartoons, when Tom tries to catch Jerry (smiles). That happens a lot, during a show and we really enjoy so much playing that way.
BR - The opening piece of Out There is XYZ, a composition that goes back to your very first album that you have here revisited in the typical Hiromi boombastic style. Was there any particular reason on why you chose specifically that piece to be kind of re-imagined, on your new record?
Hiromi = This is a piece that I have been revisiting with all the different band projects I have worked with through the years, actually. My second band project, for instance, it was called Sonicbloom and we revisited that piece in the album called Beyond Standard (2008), calling it XYG, instead of XYZ, because there was a guitar player in it, hence the "G". I didn't re-record the song with the Trio Project in studio, but we played that tune live a lot. To record or play this song with different band projects, it's always very interesting to me, because it allows me to see certain characteristics of the band I am playing with. This is the Sonicwonder version of XYZ and I just love it (smiles).
BR - The four-parts suite of Out There is, undoubtedly, the central core of your new album. Appreciating that improvisations and free-form often take artists to different and unexpected, sometimes, musical tangents, was your initial plan to structure sonically the suite in that fabulous way or extra, improvised fragments of music were added while recording the suite with the band?
Hiromi = I wanted to have space enough for improvisations, during that suite and it all happened very naturally and organically, to have all those different parts. I just wanted to explore how far we could push improvisations and for how long we could keep it interesting. It was fundamentally a matter of letting it flow in a free-form style and keeping it lively and interesting every step of the way.
BR - Whilst we, at the website, hugely appreciate the whole of your new album, Hiromi, we must confess that we have a soft spot for a particular piece called Yes! Ramen!!, a wonderfully kaleidoscopic and wild nest of different tempos that inebriated us from the getgo of the piece. Besides yours and the band's common love for Ramen (Japanese noodle dish), could you please reveal to us from where it came the idea to compose that piece in such swaggering and wildly fascinating fashion?
Hiromi = The piece is inspired by my favourite dish in the world and, as you can imagine, there are so many different types of Ramen and there is always a philosophy attached to it. To me, Ramen is not only something that I truly love to eat, but it is also an inspirational source to write music. I must confess that I have always wanted to write music for Ramen and with this record, I just felt that this was the right time. You know, a great thing for me as well, right now, is that I can find Ramen not only in Japan, but it's now widely available internationally. A lot of people that I know seem to like Ramen and it is such a luxury for me, while we are on tour, to find some really well made Ramen in many parts of the world, something that makes me really happy (smiles).
BR - Hiromi, besides the individual talent that Hadrien, Gene and Adam from Sonicwonder display on every possible opportunity, how much have you enjoyed to witness the band's musical growth, since you started working on a permanent basis?
Hiromi = We just seem to understand, musically speaking, each other much more on every passing live performance or studio recording. Listening to each other's playing, is the key to everything. We listen to each other, we understand each other, sometimes we surprise each other and I feel that we are all growing musically all together, hand in hand.
BR - We read once a statement from the great hip-hop rapper KRS-One saying that "Knowing where you come from helps to show you where you are going". In that respect, we were wondering whether do you ever find the time to listen to any of your past records, so to appreciate even more the extraordinary musical journey you have embarked, as a solo artist, since 2003 and your constant growth and development as an artist.
Hiromi = I don't really listen to my past albums, you know, unless I am at a radio station (giggles)! Sometimes they might play material from my older records and that would be pretty much the only time I get to listen to my past material. And you know, it is funny that, when that happens, I enjoy that very much and I am thinking "Wow, that's a great recording"! There's far too many records to listen to, you know, of other artists and I am always hungry to learn something new from records of artists that I have not heard yet. Also, as a music fan, I want to try and catch up with new releases and, in my case, when you like more than one genre, it's even harder, because you have to go through so many records to keep yourself up-to-dated, with all the music styles I love.
BR - Let's talk about touring live the new album, Hiromi. Judging by what can be found on your official website, you will be hugely busy throughout the next three months bringing Out There around the world, to then start touring again around Fall and Winter time. Will you be touring solely with the Sonicwonder Band or have you planned to have Special Guests joining you on stage, at some point, during the Tour?
Hiromi = I shall be solely be touring with the Sonicwonder Band and we haven't planned Special Guests to join us on stage, therefore, hey, it's just going to be us! (Smiles)
BR - Hiromi, music, as an art form, enables artists to unleash not only their freedom of expression but sometimes, also sides of their personality they were unaware to have. Is there any part of yourself, as a human being, that music has helped you to discover, during your amazing musical journey?
Hiromi = One thing that music does to me, for sure, is that of making me feel very energetic. I never get tired of performing on a stage. I still remember my very first concert, as a professional, in 2002, in Italy. It was just before the release of my first album and I was so excited to be able to perform, finally, in public, exactly as I am excited right now, when I set foot on a stage. Every time that I know I am going to perform live, later that day, I feel so energised and most definitely at my happiest. Often, when travelling across countries for touring purposes, embarking very long journeys, I may feel super exhausted but the second I hit the stage, it kind of recharges me the idea of playing live. People always ask me, at the end of a show, whether I feel or not exhausted for the amount of effort I put in my performances and I always say that I am not, because, while I am giving so much to the audience while performing, I get so much love and appreciation in return from the crowd enough to recharge any tiredness that I might have accumulated whilst travelling or performing. It's just a beautiful strange thing that I couldn't possibly explain, it just happens.. I guess that playing music just makes me feel so alive, it's something that I enjoy so much doing and makes me feel very appreciative of the fact that I am allowed to express myself as an artist.
