Interview with Chris Murray

Chris Murray at New York, 1996

          Chris Murray adalah salah satu dari sekian banyak musisi ska/rocksteady/reggae yang saya idolakan. Memulai karir di kisaran akhir tahun 80-an, mantan vokalis King Apparatus (band ini sekarang sudah bubar) tersebut kini ber-solo karir dan juga bermain dalam trio Chris Murray Combo. Ia juga pernah berkolaborasi dengan band-band seperti Firebug, sampai The Slackers. Gitar akustik, kadang bermain harmonika, serta suaranya yang khas menjadi ciri yang menonjol darinya.

          Beberapa waktu yang lalu, saya beruntung bisa berinteraksi dengannya. Berawal dari pesan yang saya kirim ke akun facebook pribadi Chris Murray, berisi ajakan untuk mengadakan sebuah interview yang akhirnya saya post di halaman blog ini. Awalnya, saya tak menyangka kalau pesan saya akan dibalas. Dan ia mengajak kontak lanjut via email. Lalu, saya kirim beberapa pertanyaan untuk Chris Murray, sekedar berisi tentang hal-hal yang saya ingin tahu. Cukup lama dan tak sabar saya menunggu balasan, tiap hari tak lupa saya membuka kotak masuk email, berharap balasan atas pertanyaan-pertanyaan saya tersebut telah dikirim. Setelah sekitar dua pekan, akhirnya dikirimlah balasan darinya. Banyak informasi yang saya dapat dari interview ini, mulai dari karir Chris Murray, scene ska di tempat ia tinggal, proyek yang sedang ia kerjakan, sampai tips membuat lagu. Chris Murray juga menyatakan keinginannya untuk bermain di Indonesia. Selamat menyimak interview saya dengan Chris Murray, semoga bermanfaat!

Who are the people or figure who inspire your musical career?
          I think the most important musical influences in my life have been my family.  My grandmother had a Hammond organ and a Leslie speaker. She would mostly play church music on her organ, and the sound of a Hammond with a Leslie speaker is something I have loved since being a very young child.

          My parents were both school teachers, but very musical. They both play piano and sang i choirs. My mother played violin and my father played guitar. When I grew up there was always music at home, and playing music has always been a natural part of my life.

          When I was a teenager I was a counselor at summer camp, and that's where I really got my earliest experiences standing on a small platform playing guitar and singing, and encouraging everyone to sing along. Really, this is exactly the same as what I do today, except that I am mostly singing songs I have written.

Why do you choose a solo career, just trio with your Combo band, and not making a full band like your previous band King Apparatus?

Chris Murray Combo

          When King Apparatus ended I had been in that band for about eight years, and it was a lot of work and responsibility making sure six people were making a living. So, when the band stopped working as a solo artist left me with a lot of freedom to do whatever I wanted to do, and whatever was right for me rather than what the band needed to do to keep working.

          Chris Murray Combo developed in a very casual way here in LA. I was performing regularly at Bluebeat Lounge as a solo act, then Ben Farrar started playing drums with me. It wasn't something we discussed, it just started to happen and has continued. A few months after Ben joined me, we asked Jef Roffredo (now in The Aggrolites) to play bass with us for one show, and he stayed with us for a year. When Jeff left to join Tiger Army for a tour, Chiquis joined the combo and has been with the group the last eight years.  Through all the time of the combo things seemed to happen on their own somewhat, and things that were working we kept doing.

          For me, Chris Murray Combo feels very much like a full band. I love other instruments, but what I love most is a good rhythm section and good vocal harmonies. Whenever we play it always feel very complete to me. Sometimes we will have a guest join us, and that's always cool, but when it's the three piece band I never find myself thinking there should be anything more. Having only three people in the group keeps it easy to organize. We all make our living fully from music, so fewer people makes that easier too.

You’ve played through the world. Someday, would you wanna play here in Indonesia? I think it would be awesome.
          I would love to play in Indonesia!!

Is there any requests from persons or event organizer who want to invite you to play in Indonesia?
          I've been talking to some people in the Indonesia ska scene on Facebook, and I know there is good interest there for me to come a perform. I think it will happen when the time is right. I am ready to come!

Where’s the place that you feel most memorable of your wold tour?
          This is a very hard question because I've been many very cool places. I love Japan and Brazil very much. I love England and Mexico. A couple of years ago I went to Australia and New Zealand, which is an especially beautiful country. I think I have never been to a place I didn't like.

          What I like most about touring, beyond sharing my music with people, is seeing how life is in different places, how it is different and how it is the same. More and more the world has become one place for me.

I thought you belong to any ska scenes, tell me the differences about it between Canada and LA!
          Because Canada and Britain are very closely connected culturally (even more when I was growing up than now), when Two Tone hit it made a big impression in Toronto, the largest English speaking city in Canada, where I grew up.

          When I first started coming to LA in 1993, the traditional ska/rock steady scene had started and I was amazed to see it, and knew it was something very special that I wanted to be part of. I had toured all around North America and never seen bands trying to re-create the original sound the way many bands were doing in LA. Even though King Apparatus was mostly playing modern ska, I had already started writing in a more roots style and the band was playing songs like Rock Steady and So Many Roads that I still play at most shows today.

          Although the authentic sound has now spread around the world, the biggest scene I know for that music has always been in LA, and that is a big part of the ska scene here still, although there truly are several ska scenes in southern California, which sometimes mix and sometimes keep separate.

          As the roots sound has spread through the ska world, it has also become a big part of the Canada ska scene, although I think the influence of Two Tone and third wave ska it still very strong there. Canada is a huge country with not so many people and big distances between major cities, so I find that in Canada people in the ska scene are more connected with the national scene because there are not so many bands as there are in some countries with bigger population. And bands playing different styles of ska play shows together much more than happens in LA.

I love the way you wrote song lyrics. Any tips for create a good lyric?
          Thanks! To me, the most important part of writing songs is to say something honest and true that I feel personally and that can relate to everyone's lives. I try to write songs that are general in theme so that people can interpret the message and how it relates to their own lives in their own personal ways.

          The best songs for me are ones that communicate a truth that anyone will feel no matter who they are or what they think about politics, no matter what their culture. Everyone loves freedom and happiness. Everyone needs love. Everyone feels joy and sadness. Everyone wants to feel hope for a better tomorrow.

          As far as actual lyric writing, I try to keep the words simple even when the ideas are more complicated. Sometimes the less that is said, the more that is said. When I'm writing a song there will come a time when a lyric and melody stick in my head, and this is when I know the song can stay in the mind of another listener.

What’s your latest musical project? Record a new album? Tell me a lil strory ‘bout it!
          For the last year Chris Murray Combo has been making our second album in a 16 track analog home studio I created last summer. Because I travel a lot and the other band members also have busy lives, it has taken a while to finish our album, but I think this has been the best way for us to work on this album, without feeling pressure of deadlines, making music that we think sounds cool and spending the time we feel is needed to get good results.

          For this album we decided to record all new original material, which has also made recording slower because we are learning the songs as we record. When we made Why So Rude we knew we didn't have much time to record so we chose songs that were working well on stage at the time that we knew we could make good versions of quickly. With the new album we have been writing bass parts after the drums have been recorded, and we figure out the vocal arrangements after the instruments are recorded.

          As well, I have become much better with operating the studio equipment. It has been a learning experience every step of the way. Once we have fully completed making this album I know we will understand how to make great tracks much more quickly than we have been doing right now.

          I'm very happy with how the album is sounding. I think we will have one more singing session this week and then all the vocals for the album will be finished!

          We've already shot two videos with a Russian film director, who is a fan. He has started to edit the videos, and I think they will be ready by the time we're ready to release out album.  The videos are going to look very cool!

Recommend me some music albums or releases that you currently listened!  Also include non-ska/other Jamaican music that you love to listen!
          Here are some Jamaican albums that I really love. If I could only listen to three albums for the rest of my life, these would be my picks!

1. The Upsetters - Super Ape

2. The Skatalites - Stretching Out

3. The Ethiopians - The Original Reggae Hitsound

          As I grew up I listened to many styles of music, but roots music has always been a favorite for me so, although mostly I listen to old Jamaican recordings these days, I still enjoy listening to old blues and folk recordings. I love the sound of a great band making music live, and older recordings have this quality much more than modern studio recordings tend to have.

Any last words for your fans in Indonesia also ska fans around the world?
          It is always exciting to me to learn about a ska scene that is very active in a place where I did not know there was a ska scene at all. In the last two or three years I have learned about the Indonesia ska scene, and it seems to be very exciting. That people in places I have never been are enjoying music I make really makes me happy, and especially to see clips of bands playing their versions of my songs to crowds who know the songs and are happy to hear them live. I am very excited to come to Indonesia to perform whenever it happens!

Hi, thanks for the interview. I hope to meet you in Indonesia one day!!

Peace,

Chris