After several years performing with Brand New Heavies, Zero 7 and his own Fragile State, Neil Cowley turned his back on the dance and chill-out scene, and formed the acoustic Neil Cowley Trio to great acclaim. Their debut album, 2006’s Displaced, won Best Album at the BBC Jazz Awards, while more recently Cowley was crowned Artist of The Year at the 2013 Jazz FM Awards.
His latest release is Spacebound Apes, a cross-platform sci-fi themed project. The book, blog, illustrations (by DC artist Sergio Sandoval) and 11-track instrumental album trace the story of Lincoln, a character whose search for love leads him to an experimental new drug, and new possibilities for humankind …
You've said that you've been working towards Spacebound Apes for some time; when did the idea first start to germinate?
As always when I’m thinking about making an album I was searching for inspiration. Like so many other people I was having a Stanley Kubrick phase and pondered on the possibility of injecting science fiction elements into an album project. I was also feeling something of a mid-life crisis going on in my head and wondered if I might combine the two? Having wandered down to the local bookshop, I stumbled on The City And The Stars, a novel by Arthur C Clarke… writer and scriptwriter for 2001 Space Odyssey. In the book Alvin, the main character, visits a solar system where each planet has been taken over by one or other natural element. So, for instance, one planet is submerged in foliage. He thinks this is a peaceful place, but soon realises that there a kind of long protracted war going on. When a branch reaches out above the canopy, other branches grow towards it to bring it back down.
I likened the notion to what it feels like to be on stage performing our music. Sometimes you are consumed by a single emotion and you begin to reach malfunction point. I wondered what it would be like if there was a solar system where planets had been taken over by one or other emotion. I also wondered how long it would take for a place consumed by love, or duty or hubris to work in on itself. And so Lincoln, the half man/half ape going through a mid-life crisis was born. The album title was simply to say that, however advanced we think we are, we are not much more than simply space bound apes. In the universal scheme of things, little more than that.
It's an ambitious project - did you ever wonder if it might not even be possible to complete?
Just about every day I had my doubts. Looking back at the 2 years of work putting it together it really is a wonder I survived with my marbles intact. Maybe I didn’t! I set myself some quite ridiculous targets and would not let up until they had been achieved. Quite often to the detriment of my health. I hope it’s all been worth it! Like all things in life that are worth anything, you have to start alone with the idea and then eventually convey it to others. That is often the hardest bit.
As a session player, you’ve worked with artists such as Stereophonics, Birdy, Adele (on 19 and 21) … and also Emeli Sandé.
I played on [Sandé’s] Next to Me. She’s miming to my piano part in the video!
Any good anecdotes about playing with her?
I was called in as they had an Aretha Franklin sample in place for that song - the intro to a track called Don’t Play That Song For Me. If you listen to it you can hear the link between the two tracks. They wanted to replace the sample with a real piano part. The producers were a couple of little hood wearing dudes from Essex as far as I could make out. They asked me to play it ‘more gangsta’…. In musical terms I translated that as being more repetitive and more staccato! Whatever I did seemed to work for them… as I definitely saw at least one of them remove his hood.
You’re known as a jazz artist, but your work clearly transcends that genre. How restricting have you found that 'jazz' tag?
I won’t lie. VERY. It’s my own fault. I started a band with the word ‘trio’ in the title. We even look like a Jazz trio. I associate the word Jazz with the great swinging piano trios of the 40’s and 50’s, but there we are. I think what we do needs a new word, but I’m certainly not the one to think of it. The main problem with it is that so many people have an aversion to the word and the genre. It’s a syndrome I sympathise with. Jazz has, more than most, had its moments in history where it has disappeared up its own backside!
Neil Cowley Trio play CBSO Centre, Birmingham on Saturday 4 March.
After several years performing with Brand New Heavies, Zero 7 and his own Fragile State, Neil Cowley turned his back on the dance and chill-out scene, and formed the acoustic Neil Cowley Trio to great acclaim. Their debut album, 2006’s Displaced, won Best Album at the BBC Jazz Awards, while more recently Cowley was crowned Artist of The Year at the 2013 Jazz FM Awards.
His latest release is Spacebound Apes, a cross-platform sci-fi themed project. The book, blog, illustrations (by DC artist Sergio Sandoval) and 11-track instrumental album trace the story of Lincoln, a character whose search for love leads him to an experimental new drug, and new possibilities for humankind …
You've said that you've been working towards Spacebound Apes for some time; when did the idea first start to germinate?
As always when I’m thinking about making an album I was searching for inspiration. Like so many other people I was having a Stanley Kubrick phase and pondered on the possibility of injecting science fiction elements into an album project. I was also feeling something of a mid-life crisis going on in my head and wondered if I might combine the two? Having wandered down to the local bookshop, I stumbled on The City And The Stars, a novel by Arthur C Clarke… writer and scriptwriter for 2001 Space Odyssey. In the book Alvin, the main character, visits a solar system where each planet has been taken over by one or other natural element. So, for instance, one planet is submerged in foliage. He thinks this is a peaceful place, but soon realises that there a kind of long protracted war going on. When a branch reaches out above the canopy, other branches grow towards it to bring it back down.
I likened the notion to what it feels like to be on stage performing our music. Sometimes you are consumed by a single emotion and you begin to reach malfunction point. I wondered what it would be like if there was a solar system where planets had been taken over by one or other emotion. I also wondered how long it would take for a place consumed by love, or duty or hubris to work in on itself. And so Lincoln, the half man/half ape going through a mid-life crisis was born. The album title was simply to say that, however advanced we think we are, we are not much more than simply space bound apes. In the universal scheme of things, little more than that.
It's an ambitious project - did you ever wonder if it might not even be possible to complete?
Just about every day I had my doubts. Looking back at the 2 years of work putting it together it really is a wonder I survived with my marbles intact. Maybe I didn’t! I set myself some quite ridiculous targets and would not let up until they had been achieved. Quite often to the detriment of my health. I hope it’s all been worth it! Like all things in life that are worth anything, you have to start alone with the idea and then eventually convey it to others. That is often the hardest bit.
As a session player, you’ve worked with artists such as Stereophonics, Birdy, Adele (on 19 and 21) … and also Emeli Sandé.
I played on [Sandé’s] Next to Me. She’s miming to my piano part in the video!
Any good anecdotes about playing with her?
I was called in as they had an Aretha Franklin sample in place for that song - the intro to a track called Don’t Play That Song For Me. If you listen to it you can hear the link between the two tracks. They wanted to replace the sample with a real piano part. The producers were a couple of little hood wearing dudes from Essex as far as I could make out. They asked me to play it ‘more gangsta’…. In musical terms I translated that as being more repetitive and more staccato! Whatever I did seemed to work for them… as I definitely saw at least one of them remove his hood.
You’re known as a jazz artist, but your work clearly transcends that genre. How restricting have you found that 'jazz' tag?
I won’t lie. VERY. It’s my own fault. I started a band with the word ‘trio’ in the title. We even look like a Jazz trio. I associate the word Jazz with the great swinging piano trios of the 40’s and 50’s, but there we are. I think what we do needs a new word, but I’m certainly not the one to think of it. The main problem with it is that so many people have an aversion to the word and the genre. It’s a syndrome I sympathise with. Jazz has, more than most, had its moments in history where it has disappeared up its own backside!
Neil Cowley Trio play CBSO Centre, Birmingham on Saturday 4 March.
Tickets available HERE