“Artificial Horizon” by TaxiWars
An Interview with Tom Barman and Robin Verheyen
Jazz is by no means dead, it has evolved. In a silent way, to quote Miles Davis, without attracting too much hype it has created different types of synergy with other music genres while still representing the most credible soundtrack for the turbulent age we live in.
TaxiWars have been rightly described as a band that combines lyrics, poetry and jazz with a rock intensity. Their lineup consists of former dEUS frontman Tom Barman, saxophonist Robin Verheyen, Nicolas Thys on bass and drummer Antoine Pierre. Their sound is known as Cubist jazz, an appropriate label considering that even Miles Davis in “Blues for Pablo” recognized how much his music owed to Pablo Picasso’s style of painting.
Yes, it looks like TaxiWars graduated with honors at the university of Miles Davis who was a forerunner in breaking new ground in and removing boundaries between classic jazz and electronic, rock, pop music and eventually — towards the end of his career — hip hop. Other illustrious examples where jazz and rock/pop meet and flourish are provided by the collaboration between Joni Mitchell and Charles Mingus, the album “Small Change” by Tom Waits or the “Jazzmatazz” experiment in the Nineties — just to name a few.
In my opinion, TaxiWars belong to this movement of pioneers who need to overcome barriers. I saw dEUS perform live in Rome in 2005.There’s a song in their repertoire — “Instant Street” — with a guitar solo at the end that’s so captivating you wish it would never end. Listen to some of Robin Verheyen’s sax solos in any of the three TaxiWars albums, and you will probably feel the same way.
In the period when Nick Cave was releasing his “Grinderman” and “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!” records, Tom Barman had the opportunity to ask him more than a few questions during a sterling interview available on YouTube. On that occasion, Nick Cave revealed that having moved from piano to guitar unleashed an unexpected potential in his songwriting technique and allowed him to discover something new within himself. My impression is that this shift towards jazz and this partnership with Verheyen has allowed Barman to similarly reinvent himself.
Their discography already comprises “TaxiWars” (2015) and “Fever” (2016). Some new songs included in “Artificial Horizon” such as “They Tell You You’ve Changed” and “On Day Three” are perhaps more intimate and melodic, whereas others like “Drop Shot” or “Sharp Practice” are more direct and groovy. And yet there is consistency between the three albums.
One day perhaps they will be seen as a Trilogy.
Tom, I mentioned before your sterling interview with Nick Cave at the time when he was releasing “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!”. Do you think his songwriting during his “Grinderman” period has somehow influenced your approach to lyrics in the TaxiWars repertoire? One track in particular — “Go Tell The Women” — reminds me of both your lyrics in “Bridges” from the previous TaxiWars album and in “Safety in Numbers” from the new album.
Tom Barman: Nick Cave, just like Dylan, Beefheart, Will Oldham, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and many others have taught me that a particular kind of un-poetic word can be used to maximum effect in lyrics. At one point, after years of lyric writing you look for new ways to say things, to use humor too. Think of Dylan with his ‘tax deductible charity organization’ in Ballad Of A Thin Man! You may have heard the word Mathematician in a Cave lyric. But he wasn’t the first to use that word! And these songwriters, they are all influences. As are Flemish and Dutch writers like Hugo Camps, Gerard Reve and Thé Lau.
Some of your new songs in “Artificial Horizon” indicate an evolution towards a more sophisticated and intimate melodic format. “Irritated Love” seems to be the jazz equivalent of Nick Cave’s “Into My Arms”, though perhaps less romantic. Does jazz ever put you in a sentimental mood? Do you ever wish to deliver a classic jazz love song one day?
Tom Barman: What is a classic jazz love song? I just respond to the music I get. Every chord, every instrument leads me somewhere. It’s a simple action/reaction sort of thing that I don’t really want to analyse. Finding a melody is usually instant. It happens straight away, or it never happens. I don’t think in terms of labels or styles. I try hard to stay myself in all styles. I see it sometimes as problem fixing. I get a loose structure, and I mend it together with my voice, a feeling and an atmosphere. I fix the problem by singing.
Your former videos for dEUS such as the ones for “Quatre Mains” and “Sister Dew” highlight your attention to detail, a sort of perfectionism that somehow reveals your background as a filmmaker. Have you been nurturing any similar projects for TaxiWars?
Tom Barman: If only we had the budget! Of course I would like to make videos! I did not make the Sister Dew video however. That was a guy called Adam Berg.
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Robin, at a certain point during Tom’s interview Nick Cave says he misses Australia so much that he “can smell it” sometimes. But for some complicated reason he can’t go back. In your lifetime you have moved from your hometown Turnhout to Amsterdam, Paris and New York where you’ve been living since 2006. You have also been working with such jazz heavyweights as Marc Copland, Ravi Coltrane, Narcissus Quartet, Gary Peacock and Joey Baron. Do you feel the same way about Belgium, or do you have a less controversial relationship with your homeland?
Robin Verheyen: I can’t say I have ever really felt that way. I try to live in the moment and really immerse myself in the place where I am at that particular moment, whether that is at home in NYC, a small village in Senegal, Paris or Belgium. Of course my experiences growing up in Belgium will always be a part of me and I still remain in touch with my family in Belgium but I’m not a very nostalgic person.
Especially in the first two TaxiWars albums — in the tracks “Death Ride Through Wet Snow” or “Fever” for instance — I was reminded respectively of the following two influences: “Freedom Suite” by Sonny Rollins and “Damn If I Know” by Archie Shepp. Please tell me honestly if I’m mistaken. (by the way, Sonny Rollins didn’t shy away from performing in the Rolling Stones album “Tattoo You”.)
Robin Verheyen: Of course as a saxophone player and musician I have been heavily influenced by great musicians like Sonny Rollins and Archie Shepp. I love both of those albums. But I can’t say that they were a direct influence on these TaxiWars albums. In general in my process of writing the music I try to start from a blank slate and try to let my own voice speak. But I have internalized so many things during my formative years as a musician that those sounds are part of a larger musical database in the back of my mind.
Your experience with TaxiWars is a brilliant demonstration that so-called highbrow and lowbrow cultures can mix and shouldn’t be differentiated. After Stockholm’s bestowal of the Nobel prize on Bob Dylan, do you think we can finally say that maestros like Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk should be considered as the Bach and Beethoven of our time?
Robin Verheyen: I don’t know why that difference was ever there to begin with. I have never believed in categorizing art. A small village wine can be as great if not better sometimes then an expensive grand cru. The same thing goes for music. Indigenous African folk music is as valuable as classical western music or any other music form. There’s only two kinds of music, good and bad. And once something is a quality product, the classifications don’t matter.
