Troy Heidtmann Sits Down for an Interview with San Fermin’s Founder Ellis Ludwig-Leone for a brief, but intimate interview at Boston Calling.
A short while back I had the privilege of talking with San Fermin’s founder Ellis Ludwig-Leone. Sitting in what appeared to be a back ally of Boston City Hall with Boston Calling in full effect in the distance, I got to know Ludwig-Leone very well in the 10 minutes we spent together.
Ludwig-Leone is a composer and songwriter from Brooklyn. He spent his high school years rocking out in a hard rock trio. Only to drop it all to study classical composition at Yale where he exceeded greatly and was the apprentice to composer/arranger Nico Muhly. From there, San Fermin was born.
I would like to start by getting a feel of your culture association… let me give you a scenario and you give me the first thing that comes to mind.
You turn to the top 40 radio station where you live what song do you hope is playing?
It is what a pop song should be. The lyrics are actually good, formally, it is a little more interesting than just verse and chorus. The vocal performance is unreal.
So you’re feeling a little nostalgic, you throw on an album from your child hood. What album?
Abbey Road, Beetles. It is the first record I ever remember listening to. Still one of my favorites. It reminds me of my dads studio when I was young.
You get invited back to Yale to teach a music class, what is the focus?
I would be interested in teaching a harmony class. I think it is easy to get caught up in the restrictions of formal harmony when your learning. Putting numbers to certain chords and all of that is important, but I would like to teach about harmony in a more abstract way.
So, lets start from the beginning, you study at Yale then end up writing pop music on a whim, was popular music always an interest of yours?
Yeah, for sure. It was actually the first thing I did musically in high school. I joined a rock band as a freshman; we were just terrible. Probably the worst thing that has ever played music together. 3 dudes not listening to each other. But it really sparked an interest in playing rock music. Once in college, however, it all sort of went away because I was busy with classical music. It felt like a return in a way when I got back into it.
Your first album, some of the arrangements are really complex. Bar is one of my favorites. Could you walk us through the creative process for that piece.
So I actually wrote all of the songs fairly quickly. I would then go in and adjust them later on. Over a course of two weeks I would write the skeleton of a song each day. Because of that, I do not actually remember writing bar. It is all a haze due to writing so quick, but once I stated editing it I wanted it to be the most story like song and it is the only song on the record where you can follow him as he’s recounting what he did. I also was thinking about how I wanted something where there was a consistent piano line all the way through. I think that was the backbone of the song. I then settled the harmony at the beginning with strings being played open fifth and the sax playing a ninth above that. That was interesting enough sound to get us into the song.
So, it sounds like the creative process is pretty consistent through out your record.
Well it is interesting because I am working on a second record now and I have tried to vary it more on this record on how I write. Rather than generate it all at once I have written quite a few songs after the fact. Because On the last record, I think, I wrote one or two songs much later and that ended up being Sonsick that ended up being the record deal.
So additonally there is an array of instruments on the album acoustic guitars, strings, horns, a fine sampling of everything; What is your favorite instrument to write for?
(laughs) Well I have to say, what we tour with now, all 8 I chose because those are all my favorite to write for. On the record their are 20. If I had to choose one, it would be the bari sax. I love writing for that. It is a weird mixture of low and powerful, but also kind of nimble. I like it a lot. I do love a big trumpet line. I am best at strings, it was interesting adapting this album for live because the entire quartet had to be played by one player. That was a challenge.
Have you heard of Capital Cities? Their trumpet players, one of the best.
Yeah, yeah they are great. I think our trumpet player and theirs have met a festival or two. That line man, that line has made them a lot of money.
For sure, I actually work with Live Nation on the side doing production, so I traveling with Capital Cities for a bit when they were doing Katy Perry’s gig. They are quite the band.
I haven’t seen them live yet, they played Bumbershoot with us, but I missed it.
Yeah, so how many instruments have you mastered yourself?
haha, none. I mean I can play the keyboard real well. When I was younger I took that very seriously. But, besides that I am in an interesting position because I actually rely on other people to make these things come to life. So I can’t be too much of a dick I guess.
Fair way to put it. So what is your vision for the band 3-5 years from now?
I would like to put out a couple more records. I feel like as long as you feel like you are growing, that is what keeps a band going. You have got to feel like the band is moving forward. The next logical step for us is to be playing bigger rooms, we just announced a tour in october where we will be playing some pretty big rooms. We will build off of that and you know the dream is you reach as many people as you can while staying true to what you want to say.
As far as going on tour, do you take such an in depth stance in the creative side of putting together a show?
Yeah, we are just at the point now where we can think about that type of stuff. I had a conversation with our manager and our artistic director that we are working with just talking about the concepts of the next record and once you figure out what that is you can sort of astrapulate from there.
It is cool man, I love it. Music videos too. You get to make this world. It’s crazy, I am all about it.
Do you feel like a show should tell a story?
I mean right now, people bought it as a story. So we try to play album order. But, no I think it’s nice that you can feel a back and fourth between the singers, and I’d hesitate to put many male or female songs in a row. As long as there is a flow, I am happy.
So give us a little insight on the bands name.
Well San Fermin was a initially the name of interlude on the record. I may have even cut those, I don’t remember. It is the name of the running of the bulls festival. I was looking for a name that would bring to mind a certain kind of intensity. I think what is cool about the running of the bulls is the idea of putting yourself in danger for no reason. It is comparable to what performing is.
Source: npr.com
