For Good Measure

Darian Donovan Thomas - Part 2

October 31, 2022 Darian Donovan Thomas Episode 22
For Good Measure
Darian Donovan Thomas - Part 2
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For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 22: Darian Donovan Thomas (part 2)

Looking for a way to listen to diverse creators and to support equity in the arts? Tune in weekly to For Good Measure!

In this week’s episode, we talk to Darian Donovan Thomas about how growing up in a musical family has shaped his improvisational skills and compositional process. If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more about Darian Donovan Thomas, check him out here: darianthomas.myportfolio.com . Parts of this episode originally premiered on December  2021, found on Youtube, click here.

This podcast is made possible in part by a grant from the California Arts Council and generous donors, like you. Want to support For Good Measure and E4TT? Make a tax-deductible donation or sign up for our newsletter, and subscribe to the podcast!


Intro music: “Trifolium” by Gabriela Ortiz, performed by E4TT (Ilana Blumberg, violin; Abigail Monroe, cello; Margaret Halbig, piano),  as part of “Below the Surface: Music by Women Composers,” January 29, 2022
Outro music: “Lake Turkana” by Marcus Norris, performed by E4TT (Margaret Halbig, piano), as part of “Alchemy,” October 15, 2021

Transcription courtesy of Otter.ai.

Producer, Host, and E4TT co-founder: Nanette McGuinness
Audio Engineer: Stephanie M. Neumann
Podcast Cover Art: Brennan Stokes
Interns: Roziht Edwards and Merve Tokar

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Nanette McGuinness:

[INTRO MUSIC] Welcome to For Good Measure, an interview series celebrating diverse composers and other creative artists sponsored by grant from the California Arts Council. I'm Nanette McGuinness, artistic executive director of Ensemble For These Times. In this week's episode, we continue our conversation with by Darian Donovan Thomas, who we spoke to in November 2021. [INTRO MUSIC ENDS]. Could you tell us about your path to becoming a composer and musician?

Darian Donovan Thomas:

Since I was a little kid, there was always music happening in the house. As I said before, my parents had a small label, and my dad was a producer. And so I just I remember, being in elementary school and hearing my dad mix on like, his speaker is right next door to my room. Or having nights where I was in a studio probably way too late, but also like, it really prepared me for an artist lifestyle, and then having to go to school the next day. So music was kind of just always there, and art was always there. And I knew it would always be something I would do. And I tried a couple of different things. I was in choir for a while I was in a gospel choir for a while it was in ballet. And then finally, in middle school, there was this weird loophole where, if you like to the Fine Arts elicited, you didn't have to take tea. And I was like, that's obviously, obviously what I'm going to do. And serendipitously, at the same time, I was watching red violin with my mom. Like, I had the chorus card in my hand. And I was like, what, which, which elective is the violin? And she's like, I think that's orchestra. I was like, great, that's fine. And then kind of very serendipitously worked out. And then I don't know, it, just like once I had an instrument in my hands, I started improvising a lot. And it kind of just never occurred to me. But composing was something I couldn't do. Because my dad would do it all the time. You know? Like, oh, yeah, you just like make a song. You just, that's just the thing you can do. And I started doing it. And I think I got super serious about music sometime in early high school. When I discovered like, I did a real deep dive on Tchaikovsky, and got really obsessive and, like, learned all of it learn. Like the reasons he wrote a symphony, he's learned about the violin concerto being gifted as one of the students that he was in love with land development, touched upon neck, learned about the patients, the conspiracy theories about his death, him seeing his mother die of cholera, like how sad that whole circle is his queerness at that time, and also like, him being a part of really creating the Russian sound by basically doing what the new people in what Angelica does, like integrating the pop music of his time, like folk music into this classical scene, and therefore creating the sound of Russia right, along with the other artists who were doing the time. And I was like, oh, yeah, I think I want to be serious about this, like researching this being obsessed with this feels really natural. And so I want to do this. And then later on, as I was getting closer to college auditions and stuff, I realized there was a really brilliant violinist at my high school, Nancy's owl. Last Name ch o EU. She's amazing. She's still amazing. She's still performing with everyone. But by that time, junior year in high school, she'd already performed with Beijing as an orchestra. She'd already soloed with lots of orchestras around the world participate in the smelliest competition between hausky competition, kind of intense. And I was like, Okay, if that's my competition, I would much rather do composition instead. Because I think I'm more willing to fight for composition than for violin. Also, like, I could kind of tell her like, if I major in violin, like, I think I might end up hating the instrument. So I need to not do that to myself. And I think I could handle like people giving me really heavy critique on my writing, and that making it better. Whereas I think I want to sound more like myself on violin instead. So did that go into school? Wrote way too much while I was in school, and have kind of continued that where I still feel like I probably write too much. Voice too busy. But at least now it's balanced out with touring with a lot of them and stuff like that, too.

Nanette McGuinness:

Can you talk about your compositional process?

Darian Donovan Thomas:

Yeah, totally. It kind of varies. I noticed that well, there's a couple of things, I guess. The reason is it really taught me how important like, everything before the first note going down on paper is. I had a bit of a breakthrough, maybe two years ago, where I realized that I was really trying to merge the process of conceptualizing and writing. And that was ruinous for me. Because then you just end up at this place where like, you no longer know what you're writing. And there's like all this technical stuff happening. I don't know. And it just, it doesn't flow anywhere, it's really forced. But if I take the time to really conceptualize something, like just stare at it in my head for months, before even putting a note down, then it's much easier to write the piece because I already know the pieces, all I have to do is document it. And then also, the type of piece it becomes changes a lot depending on where I start, like if I start from violin, the piece is going to sound a certain way, versus if I started piano, versus if I start MMI, when plugged in to my effects versus if I start just in spelaeus or just on paper. So knowing that those sounds are different, and knowing that they're all available to me, also becomes an important part of the process of like, so where should I start for this idea that I want to do. But once again, the idea needs to be fully formed. And I need to have a concept of what the piece sounds like before putting it down, I think it's not as useful to me unless I'm recording like an improvisation, in which case because everything's like a TV Active Time Battle, then I can actually just press record and just do it. But if I'm notating, something that's very much not the way that I need to work.

Nanette McGuinness:

[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure, and a special thank you to our guest, Darian Donovan Thomas for joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our podcast by clicking on the subscribe button and support us by sharing it with your friends, posting about it on social media and leaving us a rating and a review. To learn more about E4TT Our concert season online and in the Bay Area where to make a tax deductible donation, please visit us at www.E4TT.org. This podcast is made possible in part by a grant from the California Arts Council and generous donors like you. "For Good Measure" is produced by Nanette McGuinness and Ensemble for These Times, and designed by Brennan Stokes. With special thanks to audio engineer extraordinaire Stephanie Neumann. Remember to keep supporting equity in the arts and tune in next week "for good measure." [OUTRO MUSIC ENDS]

Could you tell us about your path to becoming a composer and musician?
Can you talk about your compositional process?