1. What are your main musical influences and what steered you towards jazz?
It's hard to pinpoint just a few because there were periods when I listened to some artists too much and then not at all. I take a significant amount of inspiration from groups such as Weather Report and Rush. Whenever I think of music I enjoyed listening to, and which motivated me to dissect and understand what was going musically a lot better, these are the bands that come to mind.
I grew up in the Caribbean where my parents listened to a lot of salsa and merengue. My dad in particular also listened to a lot of nueva trova and what is known in Catalan as nova cançó. Names such as Juan Luis Guerra, Silvio Rodriguez, and of course the inspiration for my name, Joan Manuel Serrat, were common in my household. I loved that music but as I got older I had an urge to find music that was ‘mine.’ The first album I bought was The Offspring’s ‘Americana.’ I know every song on that album, and don’t regret the purchase. Suffice it to say there was a period of my life when the rebellious, chaotic pre-teen had a love for bands like The Offspring, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, and Blink-182. Through exploring and getting recommendations, I found other bands like Guns N Roses, Iron Maiden, Queen, Boston, Stone Temple Pilots, The Clash, Metallica, and eventually Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, and Rush. That was my big prog and metal era. Through exploring that music I found out about their crazy influences and heard about guys like Jaco Pastorius, Miles Davis, Pat Metheny, John Coltrane, Genesis, Chick Corea, and Dizzy Gillespie.
Music was harder for me to digest at 13 without guidance or context of what was going on. I started taking lessons in harmony, theory, and all things jazz to try to understand this so I could eventually write like this. This was probably my most studious era and lasted into my early twenties. My studies were not exclusively jazz though it did take a big chunk of my time. I stumbled upon the music of Stu Hamm, Billy Sheehan, Stanley Clarke, Victor Wooten, Michael Manring, and Ron Carter. I was also curious about other music and composers such as Stravinsky, Debussy, Piazzolla, Mozart, and Henry Mancini. I played covers here and there, so I listened to Puerto Rico-based artists like Puya and Skapulario as well as Latin America ones such as Los Rabanes and Caramelos de Cianuro. I started playing reggae, so I started checking out The Wailers, Los Cafres, and Cultura Profética. I played in a few salsa, merengue, and plena orchestras. All the while I was discovering artists like Muse and Big Wreck, as well as music from video games or anime that stood out to me.
I think what these artists have in common is a lot of musicality and a big attitude when making music. They were innovators and weren’t afraid to make the music they wanted to, regardless of whether it fit with the rest of their cohort. I think that’s what I was craving for and what I heard when I found these artists. Whether I intend it to or not, their influence reverberates through my music to this day.
2. How did the ideas for ‘Embrace Form’ come about?
I picked the music from multiple ideas I collected between 2019 and 2021. I often record voice memos of me playing or singing ideas and transcribe them. The way I picked the ideas out is another story. An interesting thing to note about this album is that originally, it wasn’t about embracing form, but about abandoning it. My rebellious teens were coming out again!
3. The music takes a different line from your previous albums. Why is this do you think?
I had originally intended for this album to be about there being no form at all. It sounded like the crazier iteration to follow up our previous album, ‘Revolution.’ However, because of the pandemic, I had a bit of a change of heart for multiple reasons. One was that the isolation of the Covid pandemic made me think that we all needed more comfort and healing than chaos, so it was better to shift my thinking. A second reason which is somewhat weirder has to do with something I read when I was very young. The phrase ‘ritual is the husk of true faith, the beginning of chaos’ (a phrase from Tao Te Ching, attributed to the ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi) was odd. Something about it didn’t make sense, so I kept thinking about it for years. At some point, it got simplified in my head to ‘ritual begets chaos.’ That phrase has had many meanings over the years for me, but during the pandemic, I thought of it this way. Everything must’ve been chaos at some point. If everything is chaos, then nothing is chaotic. Once we gave things form, shape, and order we then also made it easier to distinguish what’s chaotic. So chaos is only chaos, because form is around, meaning if I wanted to make a truly formless album I needed one that had form initially. The third and final reason I decided to shift has to do with the fact that the band’s name is All Is Fused. Fusing is not about rejecting, but about embracing ideas. Those three reasons sealed the deal. I was to ‘Embrace Form’ instead of abandoning it, which meant I would shift my focus to making an album of familiar musical forms, but with the All Is Fused modifier. That way, I hoped to give listeners the best of both worlds - the familiar with the unexpected.
With this philosophy in mind, I decided which out of over one hundred collected ideas I had spoke to me, the most emotive ones, or that I could easily visualize completed. I had to feel excited about them first and then figure out how to fit them into a ‘traditional form’ which had become the core requirement for this album.
I gave a lot of thought to the context in which the album would be released. I like to design a bit of a narrative arc to each album, but when I thought of all the craziness that had been happening since 2020 I thought people might need a palate cleanser or something to reset and prime them for that narrative within the album. The idea of including two improvised pieces arose from that. One at the very beginning of the album and one about halfway through. And so ‘Cotati Reset’ became the opener – a reboot to the system to stop worrying about everything and focus on the present moment and the music that’s about to unleash. It was named after the city of Cotati, CA where the studios we recorded at are located.
The second improvised tune was ‘Caribbean Mountains.’ I felt it was important to have something that reminded me of the gatherings back home where people sing and dance together with no prior plans. Lyrics are often improvised and then a group of people repeats a part of them to signal that, ‘we heard you and we’re here partying with you.’ I thought both of these improvised tunes could add to the healing aspect of the record.
4. The musicians you play with have been long-term collaborators. How did you get together and what is it about these musicians that makes it work?
We grew up in music together. I brought All Is Fused together in late 2011, but I’ve known some of them from as far back as 2004. I think we ended up together because each of us has an element of discipline and love for the craft that we all know means we won’t let the music falter, and on top of that we’re also, in our own ways, a bit unhinged (laughs). I mean this in a positive way!
5. Your music was probably a shock to some when you first began. How have you got around those who expected a certain format of music?
While we were young it was common for some people to discourage us from daring to have big goals. People often didn’t think past the borders of the island of Puerto Rico, where we met and grew up. I got the impression that my All Is Fused siblings had goals and dreams that extended beyond what many thought possible even back then. These are wide-reaching and long-term dreams. They were open-minded about music as well as their goals. They’re in this for good. So I thought, “Those are the people I’m going to call to help breathe life into my music.” And here we are more than a decade later. I might lead this group, but that shared experience, open-mindedness, and daring attitude among the six of us is what makes it work.
6. Your music is nuanced with different style references. How do you feel this works in terms of audience and listeners?
Well, this is easily the hardest question to answer! I would say that our music has a lot of influences, but it comes together in a way that is first and foremost about the music. I sometimes think that the term ‘fusion’ implies that we take existing ideas and purposefully add them together, rather than that things flow together naturally into their own form. The latter is really how I picture it. Creating music in that way is more nuanced and it is what makes the music uniquely ours. That said, it can be easy to lose oneself in a bit of a self-indulgent territory and forget about the big picture that includes the listeners. If we don’t lose track of that we can make music that speaks to audiences regardless of their musical preferences. People want an experience that feels natural and enjoyable, not one that feels like the equivalent of changing channels rapidly on a TV or getting nonstop ‘jump scares’ to shock the audience. Sure we have a lot of spices and flavours in our mix, but our focus on its cohesiveness and musicality makes it digestible. We’ve had shows where people come to us afterward and say, “I didn’t know what fusion sounded like until tonight, but I think I love fusion!” Those are the responses we like! We want to ensure anyone can enjoy our shows and albums, regardless of how dense or… ‘musically-deviant’ they might be. Ideally, our albums feed the fusion fans as much as the music fans generally.
7. ‘Embrace Form', like a lot of your music, features a mix of styles but where does your heart lie musically?
I would say somewhere in the patch of spacetime between prog-metal and jazz fusion. The reasons for that haven’t been constant over the years, but I keep coming back to those. Some of it has to be that it was so meaningful to find this music during my formative years. However, I also think some of it is because I am wired to crave expressive freedom. Both those genres have people letting loose and going all out in some way. Either fully improvised (which is the ethos of jazz) or well-planned. I love it when I hear people who write prog metal like they’re making a statement about how they can play anything under the sun, but they also have deep emotions and a bit of humor, and they’re being somewhat sarcastic about it. It just feels so human to me. Similarly, some jazz players tend to play insane things that accidentally warp reality around them and then they nonchalantly move on to the next tune to figure out what to do there. The amount of skill and freedom is astounding. Jazz fusion, or ‘jazz plus’ as I tend to call the music of All Is Fused, can be a bit of both. Highly technical, very cinematic, with a lot of attitude but also willing to surrender to the ‘unexpectations’ of the present moment where what’s going on is improvised.
8. What next, for you and All is Fused?
Touring and new music! I want to focus on touring more. I think All Is Fused is hungry for it and we’ve got notes from fans asking, “When are you coming to my city?” so now we have to make sure we figure out a way to deliver. I recently returned from Asia as part of another tour, and I would love to take All Is Fused to Asia and beyond! If anyone has ideas to make it happen then reach out!
9. Have you worked on other recent projects?
I’ve worked on a lot of new music during these past few years of empty stages. Some of it has been with other groups and musicians, and some has been solo bass. Aside from All Is Fused, I’ve released music with Venezuelan Guitarist Felix Martin, three singles with prog metal trio, The Wrong Sides, a full album with four-piece San Francisco band 6 Speed Supernova, and I am working on new music with Oakland-based Zimbabwe singer Piwai. Felix Martin’s album was released in March, and we already had an Asia tour and will be announcing a US tour soon. The Wrong Sides is also gearing up for a new album and more live performances. 6 Speed Supernova and Piwai are working on new music as well, so there's going to be a lot of music-making and performing in the coming months. I’m feeling blessed and excited for all of the opportunities.
10. What is your ultimate dream for your work?
I want to make a more conscious effort to work on other areas I’ve talked about for ages but haven’t been able to work on as much. This includes scoring for shorts, films, or video games, finishing a more formal solo bass project, and teaching or mentoring more, particularly in ways that could help people unlock their expressive freedom. Music can be a safe space, but the industry part can lead to so much self-doubt, self-censoring, impostor syndrome, and many emotional ups and downs. It would be great to have the resources to help us navigate these challenges and learn more about how to take care of our mental well-being as artists. That is key to a career in art. I don’t know for certain what shape any of that will take, but I’m saying it out loud, so I keep myself accountable!
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