YoungBlood Brass Band on Teaching Workshops, Tour Life

Tim Wenger | November 1, 2013 | 0 Comments

by Tim Wenger

YoungBlood Brass Band have been bringing fresh hip-hop infused jazz around the country since 1998 and they stopped in Denver for the first time in quite a while on October 16. In addition to their music, they run a label and do workshops for students, but Colorado Music Buzz was able to get band leader David Henzie Skogen to take a few minutes from his hectic schedule and fill us in on all that is going on in their world.

CMB: Give us the lowdown on the workshops you guys are doing at high schools and colleges.

DHS: We typically offer a performance/lecture that starts with a YBB song, then backs up 150 years and goes through the history of New Orleans music, the jazz funeral tradition, the mardi gras indians, the birth of R&B, the incorporation of Afro-Caribbean music, the influence of funk/soul/hip-hop, and eventually kind of gets us back to what Youngblood does. We intersperse musical examples with explanations of the evolution of the music. We also usually make a point to impress upon them that we started the band in high school, as teenagers, and we do a lot of encouraging them to find what moves them and then follow it as hard as possible. If it’s university-level musicians, we get more into the specifics of what’s going on with the instruments stylistically, or improvisation-wise. We try basically to cater to what the school wants, and still bring some history, some excitement, some noise, and if we’re lucky, a little inspiration.

CMB: Do you notice a big difference in the reaction you get from crowds at different types of festivals and shows? Does a hip hop crowd seem to react differently than a more contemporary jazz festival?

DHS: The crowds are different in every single city… it’s wild how completely different they can be town to town, festival to festival. Our typical demographics range from older jazz heads to young indie hip-hop kids and trombone-playing band geeks (a term I use endearingly, not disparagingly) and politically-motivated punks. But whatever ‘type’ of crowd we play to, the reaction tends to be the same. It’s usually quite animated and physical and visceral. At least, that’s the ideal. We sweat, they sweat.

CMB: You list Fugazi as an influence- is it because of the lyrics? Very different styles!

DHS: I think Fugazi is probably the best example of when a band is more than a band. It’s not just lyrics, or music, or notes, or rhythm… they gave everyone a completely different model for what it means to be a band that holds integrity above all else. They inspire on levels way beyond sound. It doesn’t hurt that they’re sonically creative as hell. Their willingness to experiment is what makes them amazing musicians to me, while somehow always being hooky.

CMB: What’s going on with your self-started label/studio project Layered Music? Anything big happening?

DHS: Nothing I would call ‘big’, but it’s a labor of love. We release music from artists between Madison and NYC, and we keep it eclectic, and we do what we can. The label is basically, like, me. I’m the label. And I obviously don’t have a ton of time or resources to invest, being on tour with YBB, or my other band Cougar, or teaching the high school drumline program that I direct when home. We have records from avant-aggro-jazzers The Inbetweens coming out, some alt-country from Madison, some electronic stuff from NYC, et cetera… we just try to keep it moving.

CMB: What are some of your favorite pastimes on the road?

DHS: Honestly, there’s no time for pastimes. Especially in America, a day goes like this: Drive 8 hours. Sound check. Find something to eat. Set up merch. Play gig. Sell merch. Pack up. Load out. Try to get at least 5 hours of sleep. Repeat 30 times… We go hard. Basically I’m just trying to drink enough water, not get sick, and sleep more. My pastimes include trying desperately to catch up on label emails, hoping to do laundry, and trying to eat more/better. I have 3 giant books I brought on tour: haven’t cracked them once. My favorite pastime is crushing a show, and that’s why we’re here.

CMB: How does Denver compare to other markets?

DHS: No idea actually… it’s been a few years since we’ve been here. It’s, uh, higher?

CMB: Any last words or shout outs?

DHS: Our sound engineer is a freaking hero and paragon of virtue.

CMB: Where can we find your music online?

DHS: iTunes, youtube, etchshop.co.uk, shop.layered.org, soundcloud.com/youngbloodbrassband, facebook.com/youngbloodbrassband … basically, just, you know, say ‘youngblood brass band’ 3 times, and we appear on your doorstep, ready to eat all your peanut butter.