{"id":3974,"date":"2022-02-15T21:51:33","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T03:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=3974"},"modified":"2022-02-15T21:54:40","modified_gmt":"2022-02-16T03:54:40","slug":"bridging-space-flood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/bridging-space-flood\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridging the Space Between: A Conversation with Alexander Flood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One can summarize much of the COVID-19 pandemic in one word: isolation. Travel restrictions made walls between countries seem higher. Shutdowns and social distancing only further underscored divides within local communities. And quarantine itself was the direct removal of individuals from those around them. With this backdrop, South Australian drummer Alexander Flood’s latest, The Space Between<\/em> (Stretch Music\/Ropeadope, 2022) is a breath of fresh air. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of emphasizing divisions, The Space Between <\/em>hones in on our commonalities by using music as a cross-cultural means of communication. While HEARTBEAT <\/em>(Stretch Music\/Ropeadope, 2020) touched on these themes, this new release goes deeper. Modern dance music and traditional sounds from the Middle East, North Africa, West Africa, India, and Southeast Asia are treated less as segmented categories and more like different colors in a sunset. One fades imperceptibly into another. While you can tell there is beauty present, you can’t always clearly distinguish a specific hue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We caught up with Flood to discuss the new album, how it came together, and how it compares to its predecessor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PostGenre: When we last spoke, <\/a>you were planning to go on tour to promote HEARTBEAT<\/em>. With the pandemic and everything else, did you end up touring?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexander Flood: I was able to do a few shows in Australia and have a couple more Australian dates scheduled for later this year. But I want to take my music overseas. Taking this music abroad is something I\u2019m working towards, specifically Europe, then hopefully the US at some stage too. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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PG: Would your performances be more like the music on HEARTBEAT<\/em>,  The Space Between<\/em>, or something else entirely? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AF: A lot of the tunes on HEARTBEAT <\/em>came from jams and more open-form riffs, so presenting that music live was in some ways a little more complicated. The new songs are more adaptable to live playing because they\u2019re more structured compositions and arranged in a way that is more easily reproducible in the moment but still flexible and open for changing things up. The instrumentation of this new record also works in favor of live performance, as the core of a lot of it is drums, Rhodes, bass, and percussion. I\u2019m starting to write new music now too, so this will be fun to try out in a show.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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PG: Is that what you feel most sets The Space Between <\/em>apart from Heartbeat<\/em>, that it is more structured?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AF: HEARTBEAT <\/em>was more of an experiment. At times I threw together ideas to see what came of them. This led to some super-diverse approaches throughout that album. With The Space Between<\/em>, I think I\u2019m finally finding my voice as a composer and a bandleader. To me, The Space Between<\/em> feels more musically cohesive, structured, and more thoroughly arranged. The songs are meticulously pieced together. This was a much bigger album to work on, and I\u2019ve grown, as has my music. <\/p>

I think both projects are very different documents of music and not something that you can easily compare.  But the songs on The Space Between<\/em> flow together stylistically and complement one another. On the first album, there was a lot of movement between tracks. You had a more Afrobeat-influenced track, followed by one inspired by Hindustani classical music or electronic music.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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PG: The music on HEARTBEAT <\/em>was, to some extent, more compartmentalized. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AF: Exactly. Whereas this new album is a bit more integrated. The influences are more woven together. And part of that comes from how meticulously I built the compositions. A lot of my composing before this album has been jam-like, with everything established loosely around a central riff. But with this project, I wanted more concrete songs that could stand up on their own. I wanted a bit more substance and variety between sections. I wanted music that felt more fully fleshed out and arranged; music that I could write down and make sense of as a chart.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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