A Conversation with The Sway Machinery’s Jeremiah Lockwood – HuffPost 3.9.11

Mike Ragogna: What’s behind the title of your new album, House Of Friendly Ghosts?

Jeremiah Lockwood: The “ghosts” are supposed to be the spirits of ancestors I am invoking with my music. The hope is that I will be able to draw strength from them to create something new and beautiful.

MR: Your debut album, Hidden Melodies Revealed, seemed more aligned with the Cantorial tradition than your latest release, House Of Friendly Ghosts. Is this a natural evolution of the band’s music or was it intentional?

JL: I feel like it is a natural evolution. The new record continues to draw on Cantorial music: there are many musical allusions and borrowings from the tradition. In my new songs, I am trying to hit more specifically personal places with the lyrics I wrote. And clearly, we followed even more intensely with the African inspiration which was already a major force in the music of The Sway Machinery.

MR: A song like “Skin To Skin” can be interpreted many ways, and with its world flavor, it seems to have global implications. Can you go into the story behind the song?

JL: Any way you can interpret it would probably be at least partially right…the song goes to a lot of different places. It tries to position an exploration of mystical themes inside a sexual love song. Musically, the song grabs from many places: the chorus is inspired by an aria from my Dad’s opera The Dybbuk, which is based on an old Yiddish play that tells the tragic story of a young woman possessed by the spirit of her dead lover. There are also themes in it that are from the Jewish prayer modes for the pilgrimage festivals–these specific modes are something I drew on a lot while I was writing the music for this album.

MR: “Women Singing In Timbuktu” was obviously recorded during your stay there. “Pilgrimage” basically heralds your visit, but can you share some band and personal experiences of the period?

JL: We met many beautiful people in Timbuktu and throughout our stay in Mali. At the Festival of the Desert, we met a young man who was stricken with polio in childhood. He was a strikingly beautiful man despite the fact that his legs were twisted and paralyzed. He told us a beautiful story. He was in love with a young woman from a neighboring village, the love was mutual, and the couple decided that they would marry. He went to her father to ask for her hand and to offer the traditional bride price. The father looked unkindly at the offer because the young man was crippled and so he asked for three times the usual price. Undeterred, the young man went back to his village and told his story to everyone. The villagers emptied their purses and gave him what he needed. He returned to his beloved’s village with the money the same night and they were able to marry.

MR: “All The People” seems like one of your strongest tracks. How was it composed?

JL: Glad you like it! All the People was the last new song I wrote before we left for Mali. It was inspired by a conversation I had with my uncle at my younger son’s circumcision. I was talking about the way your family and the people who surround you from birth form a kind of lens through which you see life and that for the rest of your life you see their faces and their ways in the way you view the world and in all the people you meet wherever you go. He suggested I try to put that sentiment into a song. It took me a while, but eventually I did.

MR: Your songs are more message-oriented than most other bands’. Do you see the band as serving some greater purpose beyond releasing music and touring, maybe as a cultural unifier of sorts?

JL: I was trying to be true to my feelings and to tell true stories in my new songs. I hope that the music will help draw people together, mostly in the love of music, but also in the grander scheme of us having lived a story of wonderful connection between seemingly disparate parts of the world.

MR: Is the reconciliation of Afrobeat horns and blues and folk a difficult balance to maintain? And what are your own musical influences?

JL: I love many different styles of music and have studied extensively in certain fields of music that for various reasons my life has drawn me into. Ultimately, I don’t care that much about genre specificity in the music I am making. My hope is that everything I love will come out in the music.

MR: What was it like being the first Jewish band to play Festival Of The Desert in Mali?

JL: People were incredibly supportive. Really we only had positive interactions. People said we were the best received Western act to play at the Festival.

MR: What was your relationship with your grandfather Cantor Jacob Konigsberg like as well as your mentor, Carolina Slim?

JL: These were two important relationships that helped me get my start as a musician. Both my grandfather and Carolina Slim were quite tough and exacting as teachers, which was good for me as a young person and helped me develop high standards for myself.

MR: Who is singing with the band on “Gawad Teriamou” and throughout many of the tracks?

JL: Khaira Arby, one of the greatest musicians in Mali and the reigning queen of the Timbuktu music scene. We were very fortunate to get to work with Khaira extensively during our recording sessions making the record.

MR: How did you record the regional snippets?

JL: Mostly with a hand held tape recorder.

MR: Do you see your amalgam as something that will emulated by others in the future, or is it a musical trend that’s already taking shape?

JL: I think many artists in the West are starting to take note of the incredible music scene in Mali, and in north Mali especially. I don’t know of another project with the same scope and goals as what we have done, so far…

MR: What is your advice for new artists?

JL: Measure intensity with patience.