John Medeski – HuffPost 4.15.13
Mike Ragogna: What advice do you have for new artists?
John Medeski: The only advice I would give, really, is that you really need to tap into your musical voice. I’m hearing a lot of stuff out there that’s very derivative, you know? There are only so many chords and notes, and we all rehash them in our own way, but I think it’s important for anyone that is an artist to have a connection to the notes, the rhythms and the language of music. It needs to be your own and you really need to dig deep to find that. One important thing is to slow down and absorb. If there is an artist that you love and that you want to learn from, then you really need to take a couple of things of theirs and really learn them, really absorb them, spend the month listening to those couple of songs over and over. The other thing is that you don’t need to be afraid to check other music out. If you have your own voice you’re not going to lose it.
MR: Who were some of the people that you checked out?
JM: There was so much. Everything, and anything. If I start naming anybody I’ll be leaving stuff out.
MR: What was the best advice that was given to you?
JM: The best advice given to me was when I was a kid, and I had just started getting into jazz. The advice I got was how to practice. Actually, there were two things–one was that before I started to work on whatever it is I wanted to learn, I was told that I should sit down and improvise, create something from nowhere. Do that, record it, and listen to it, and that was great advice because it really enables you to discover your connection, and how music expresses things for you. The other really good advice came from the same person, and that was that if anybody asks you to do a gig, say, “Yes.” You say yes, and if it’s something you don’t know how to do, learn it before you get to the gig.
MR: You know who you have that in common with? Rupert Holmes said that when people would sit down and ask, “Hey Rupert, can you…,” he immediately would answer, “Yes.”
JM: Yeah, that’s it.