Innerviews, Music Without Borders (Book Review)
Written Feb 9, 2011
Innerviews, Music Without Borders by Anil Prasad.
Foreword by: Victor Wooten
"Extraordinary Conversations with Extraordinary Musicians"
Innterviews is an online music magazine featuring interviews from many very inspiring artist that helped shaped music into what it is today with their originality and bringing new concepts to music. Anil Prasad brings us something that is rarely seen when it comes to press, quality in-depth interviews that don't just ask what's your favorite band or what kind of guitar do you use. He breaks the interview boundaries and really get a solid, Heartfelt, quality innerview! Anil has been part of the music industry for quite some time, not just starting Innterviewers but writing for Guitar Player, Bass Player, Frets, JazzTimes, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), and TVOntario (TVO). Whjat Anil has done here and why I'm writing this review is because he has taken some of his best and extraordinary interviews and decided to publish them on paper. Sometimes great interviews like these just need to be a physical copy to hold in your own hand where online interviews can sometimes be lost in the worlds web.
The first interview is with Jon Anderson, Titled Harmonic Engagement. Jon was in a band called "YES" for a period of time playing guitar and writing songs. "His soaring alto-tenor vocals and lyrics steep in mysticism and myriad spiritual traditions are defining elements of his work with progressive rock Goliath's Yes and his storied solo career" this being the second sentence in the first interview you know right off the bat that Jon and Anil will take us on a trip and before you know it your buckled in and right next to Jon for this interview. truly a gifted guitarist, Jon also is a extremely creative song writer not just using a pen & paper at a nice quiet coffee shop but rather lets ideas come to him when he jamming out or will write things down and come back to them years later and use them. I think we could get an entire interview from Jon just with his creative song writing and how his concepts are found and how he puts them together.
Another interview that Anil did was with Bjork and she talks about Channeling Thunderstorms takes us into the beginning of Bjork with her as a child singing on her way home to one of her first bands "The Sugar cubes" all the way to present day. She is a very creative song writer that can take anything that you throw at her and use it to write a song or at least let it inspire it into something. A question that Anvil asked "Early in your career you said "Writing a song is like organizing an accident" Does that still hold true?" this interview helped me feel closer to her music and now hearing a song it feels more in depth.
Jon Anderson & Bjork are just two of the many, many amazing artists interviewed in Innerviews. Exceptional in-depth interviews with Bill Bruford, Drummer of so many bands its hard to name them all but Genesis, Yes & Earthworks and is a world renowned drummer. Also including guitarist Martin Carthy, Stanley Clarke a jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar, Chuck D a major influential person to rap music and was in Public Enemy, Ani DiFranco, Béla Fleck known for his Bluegrass & Banjo playing, Michael Hedges, Jonas Hellborg, Leo Kottke, Bill, Laswell, John McLaughlin & Zakir Hassain, Noa, David Sylvain, Tangerine Dream, David Torn, Raulph Towner, McCoy Tyner, Eberhard Weber, Chris Whitley, Victor Wooten and Joe Zawinul. "Extraordinary Conversations with Extraordinary Musicians" is almost an understatement, every single one of these interviews are great wholesome music knowledge.
Anil takes these artists and breaks down their music into little bite size pieces that you eat up and easily digest. When reading any interview the band wants to be heard, of course, but even more than being heard is being understood and Anil portrays what the bands are saying, how they are feeling without ever assuming what they're thinking, letting the artist be who they are. If you like music in any form from being in a band to listening to music on the weekends, Anil Prasad's Innterviewer is a book I'd recommend. Not only just to learn music history from majorly influential musicians but to learn of the diversity in songwriting that differs from person to person and where and how bands get original styles and how someone is thinking and feeling when they make music. Great book, even better read. www.innerviews.org/
