Iska Dhaaf Interview: Poet Recommendations and Making Music as a Two Piece Band

I first discovered Iska Dhaaf when I heard them practicing in Cafe Vita’s storage area walking down Pike Street, Seattle. The band was good enough to catch my attention as I walked and thought I heard what seemed to sound like a 4 piece band. When I walked in there were only two members playing among large bags of coffee beens, and after doing research I came to find that much of Seattle has their eyes on these guys as they were on the line ups for Capitol Hill Block Party, Bumbershoot, and Sasquatch. They strive to create lyrically meaningful and honest work. I am glad I had the opportunity to sit down with Benjamin and Nate!
image
How did you manage to end up on the line ups of Capitol Hill Block Party, Bumbershoot, and Sasquatch?
Benjamin: Its been cool people have been really supportive in the city, We didn’t play shows until we were ready. And we concentrated our effort to like when we came out we wanted to have stuff that we were really proud of and it sounded like the way we wanted it. So I think that- we both have been in bands in the past- so we definitely have been a part of the community and so when we brought it we brought something we were really proud of and I think the reaction has been really cool so far
What can people expect from the live shows and how have they been?
Nate: The vibe is different right now, because most of the time its people hearing it for the first time, and they’re still trying to digest it, but every once and while people let their bodies and minds go for a little bit and its really fun to watch because the music is made for that. So people can let go.
Benjamin: But yeah these shows have been really positive. Especially the seattle shows. Like everybody knows: There are enough people singing in the crowd to where its very clear that a lot of people are paying attention and coming to be apart of it. So its definitely cool to see it growing outside of seattle too. We’ve done one tour and its cool to see people in other cities, so its pretty cool, but the reaction has been mostly amazing.
image
It appears you guys have an emphasis on lyricism and poetry. What poets have you been reading lately?
Nate: Kabir Ecstatic
Benjamin: Rumi was a big one, when we were starting the band we were reading a lot of Sufi poetry, like Omar and Rumi. I’ve been reading a lot of Rudaki.
Benjamin: Philip Larkin
Nate: Jimmy Santiago Baca inspired some thoughts on the record. TS elliot inspired some songs
Benjamin: Stanley Kunitz, I’ve been reading lately. And yeah TS Elliot is a big one I always go back to. Theres a lot of them.
Nate: I just finished a book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. We are always reading and trying to feed our brains. Words are extremely important to us. Basically a daily ritual is to get some reading in and a little bit of writing hopefully Just to connect with ourselves.
The first record was a three year process. Do you want to discuss what that was like?
Nate: A lot of it was the fact that I didn’t know how to play any instruments before this project. So it was a lot of learning for me and Benjamin. He never had played the drums and keys at the same time. He was playing guitar in his last project primarily. A lot of this was trying to figure out how we wanted to do this, and what we wanted to create. We wrote a ton. We have a ton of material that we haven’t recorded yet, but yeah we were just trying to create something that we were really proud of and that just takes a long time. And to figure out how to pull it off with just two people, but to not compromise the sound. Or get a bunch of other people together….
Benjamin: We always say its not a minimalist project. Like A lot of two pieces its like this minimal thing, but we actually like having all of what you’d call voices filling the range.Its important to us. Or having the arrangements feel more than just a two piece band. Its always reassuring when people say like we sound like more than a two piece band. We got vocal harmonies going on, there’s bass, there’s the drum, there’s keys, and multiple parts. As far as the shifts, landscapes, and dynamics we don’t want it to feel one dimensional. Not what we’re really going for.
Nate: We recorded the first record on tape to capture the sound like a one live take, and build off that. So we can capture the spirit of the songs. We also had to be able to play our songs well enough live to our taste.
When you write songs do you keep in mind that your’e going to play it live or do you create the song first?
Nate: We always think about playing the song live. We don’t want to be a band that just makes stuff in the studio. Lately we have been experimenting with electronic production, and want to have an element of it in our music, but we don’t want to play to a bunch of backing tracks. We’re figuring out how to use it as a writing tool, more as like a template. We want to pull it off so its live music.
image
Whats next for the band! What can we expect?
Benjamin: We actually don’t know. For us its really intuitive. We try to follow what we feel like doing at the time. We take it day by day when we show up to practice. There are certain songs that we develop intuitively and so I guess at this point I think our only hope is that our songs are honest and sincere and that we keep following it until we know that its done, rather than following the industry and saying “We’re going to give you a new record because thats the product.” Its more like we want to look at our work in 10 years time thinking that was beautiful rather than following music trends of today. We’re not really interested in that.
Nate: This next record will have a different feel than the last, and so will the one after that. I am hoping that the audience that we build does not identify us with one sound, but is on a journey with us altogether. We are just going to keep exploring, because that is what interests us.
-Joe Manuel/ Lampshade Painter / KSUB Reporter
(NOTE: THIS PARTICULAR POST IS RE-POSTED FROM JOE MANUEL’S PERSONAL BLOG. NO EDITS WERE MADE TO KEEP CONTENT INTACT)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

*

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,