{"id":5006,"date":"2022-08-24T20:14:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T01:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=5006"},"modified":"2022-08-24T20:41:33","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T01:41:33","slug":"xaybu-lehman-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/xaybu-lehman-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Continuum: A Conversation with Steve Lehman on S\u00e9l\u00e9b\u00e9yone (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We continue our conversation with Steve Lehman (part one here<\/a>) with a heavy focus on his writing for the distinctive ensemble, S\u00e9l\u00e9b\u00e9yone. We discuss his compositional process, spectralism – writing with an eye to the acoustic properties of sound- and the deeper meaning behind sophomore release, Xaybu: The Unseen <\/em>(Pi, 2022).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PostGenre: What was the compositional process for Xaybu<\/em>? Did the music come first and the rap and poetry later, or was the music fit around pre-existing lyrics?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve Lehman: It varied with each piece. I composed half of the pieces on the record, and the other half were instrumental structures written by Maciek Lasserre, who also plays saxophone on the album. I don\u2019t want to speak for Maciek too much but, with my compositions, there are two main categories. <\/p>

With the first, I conceived of the structure of a composition, usually as I sat at my computer. I worked in some rhythmic structure or set of ideas about samples or electronic sounds. I also tried to think of how to make the composition conducive to a rap being placed over it or engaging with it in some way. If all of us were in the same place at that time, I played what I have for [rappers] Gaston [Bandimic] and [High] Priest [AKA H Prizm]. If we were not all together, I emailed it to them. The goal was to find something they could connect to and use on their own terms. <\/p>

For the other category of compositions, I got the lyrics first. There are a few pieces where I received an a cappella recording of vocal tracks ahead of time and then composed music around them. When I was composing pieces in this way, I tried to highlight what is rhythmically or tonally distinctive about the vocal tracks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PG: Was the compositional process on Xaybu<\/em> similar to that on the prior S\u00e9l\u00e9b\u00e9yone album (Pi, 2016)?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SL: Well, with the first album, we were in more uncharted territory in some ways. When we did the first one, we had not yet performed on stage and were trying to figure out a way towards doing so. After it came out, we did quite a bit of touring for the first record. In the process of touring, we discovered several strategies to help with executing things on stage. These also proved beneficial for composing. With Xaybu<\/em>, we mostly composed what we wanted to hear or envisioned compositionally and then worked from there to put the pieces together in a way that allows us to perform the piece together. I don\u2019t know if that is distinctly different from how we approached writing the music for the first album but, to me, it felt like a real transition or evolution of the compositional process to focus first on the idea and then on how to make it work instead of the reverse.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n