Da Capo Conversations 2.0 with Nicolás Lell Benavides and Sea Novaa

For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 177: Da Capo Conversations 2.0 with Nicolás Lell Benavides and Sea Novaa

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Today we revisit Nicolás Lell Benavides’ and Sea Novaa’s perspectives on their artistic process. If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more about Nicolás Lell Benavides and Sea Novaa, check them out here and here. Parts of this episode originally premiered in September 2022, click here, and in August 2022, 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.
Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1903729/episodes/17998870

Co-Producer, Host, and E4TT co-founder: Nanette McGuinness
Co-Producer and Audio Engineer: Stephanie M. Neumann
Podcast Cover Art: Brennan Stokes
Interns: Renata Volchinskaya, Sam Mason

Chapters

• 0:31 Today we revisit Nicolás Lell Benavides' and Sea Novaa's perspectives on their artistic process. Here's what Nicolás Lell Benavides had to say.
• 2:18 Here's what Sea Novaa had to say.

Transcript

Nanette McGuinness  00:00

[INTRO MUSIC] Welcome to For Good Measure, an interview series celebrating diverse composers and other creative artists, sponsored by a 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 Da Capo Conversations, a mini series where we'll be giving familiar segments a topical twist. [INTRO MUSIC ENDS] Today we revisit Nicolás Lell Benavides' and Sea Novaa's perspectives on their artistic process. Here's what Nicolás Lell Benavides had to say.

Nicolás Lell Benavides  00:42

With respect to branching out, I think there is an artistic answer and then there's probably a realistic answer. The artistic answer would probably be something along the lines of, I just feel so creative and I want to do so much. And that's true, I guess. But realistically, like most composers, I generally do things when people ask me to do them. So I think a lot of that branching out, which is, which is half a joke, but actually half seriously, has to do a lot with the collaborative process between composers and performers. You know, I think when I'm asked to do something like an opera, which is actually something that I've always wanted to do anyway. I've always been trying to build towards it. I write for those performers and what they want. When I'm asked to write or play jazz with ex jazz performers, I kind of bring the previous knowledge that I had from writing opera back to jazz, and then when I'm inadvertently asked to write electronic music, as any modern artist is generally asked to write at some point or another, I'm kind of bringing all the baggage of writing acoustic music. I think this comes from I didn't study classical music growing up. I studied rancheras and folk music, and I studied jazz in the high school jazz bands, and I never really played in orchestras. I could read music and I could solo. But for me, it just happened to be what I was doing at the time. When I got to school, I realized, like, Oh, I could just as easily practice funk music as I can practice opera, you know. And so for me, it's just, I feel like I'm the same person. It's just different tools that I'm reaching for when I go for different mediums.

Nanette McGuinness  02:17

Here's what Sea Novaa had to say.

Sea Novaa  02:20

I would say my path isn't... it's different from the litany of composers, in a sense, where I am not classically trained and I haven't... I was, I would say the honest truth is forced. But I really enjoyed it. I was forced to watch films from my mom's child. So I watched a lot of films from the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, and basically stopped at the 60s. And from that, I took in a lot of music. I remember the very first time I fell in love with Herrmann, Bernard's piece love... Scene D'Amour for "Vertigo." And I just remember these moments from listening to punk music, 60s music, all these music. I was like, I was, I, like my dad and I were jazz heads, you know, we go to the jazz club and we're the one to bop in our heads, you know, to every rhythm The drum is doing, right? So, with that said, I feel like I've been studying music all my life, honestly. And I, take these influences I feel, and I I bring them along with me. And so the I would say, like with the Dallas perspective, it's really about um, being one with the creative process, being fully present when creating, and also allowing contrast to come very, Very easily when it comes to, like the Dallas perspective, or kind of this meditative quality of sound, I feel like I pick up influences from Tōru Takemitsu because first learned of him through his book, and later after that, discovered his sound, which was incredible, which is incredible, yeah, but what I love about him is he wrote about this, but he also put in the practice his use of silence. To me, it's so profound how he does it. And I. Also feel like the absence of sound is I don't know if it's something that's more used in an Eastern lifestyle, but to me, it was a refreshing difference from kind of the music I grew up with, which was from classic rock to disco. But it's about sound. It's not about allowing a rest to linger. You know, it's Yeah. So I would say it's just for me, not sure I'm answering your question correctly, but these people that really spoke to me, and I guess these influences, are my favorite composers, particularly Harold bud Alice Coltrane. I remember, I discovered Alice Coltrane, her work rather recently, I'd never been into her jazz work. I mean, I like her jazz, but it's pretty traditional, and that period right after John Coltrane's death, when she was experimenting with harp and jazz, I think that's cool, but to me, that's not the meat and potatoes. To me, it's when we go further, where she's really doing her own thing, and you could tell that she's just so free and and doesn't care about fitting into a particular group or genre, even I was reading the album notes for one of my favorite songs called Raheem Cheyenne, and I saw that I think she had, like seven, seven violins, like two cellos and like maybe 111, viola, something completely very unusual combination of strings. But you could also hear that you can hear this kind of interesting, high pitched sound. And the beautiful thing about it was that it was purposeful. And, you know, in contrast that to me learning all these theory books about, you know, the balance between instruments and all these things that are also important. But to really see people go out and find their their own way of expression and to be unafraid of that needs, it's a very fascinating, yeah, I just feel like my influences, honestly, they come from everything I've, I've, I've picked up so far and particularly like handle i i love handle the most out of composers from that era, and from him, I really love the way he his intervals. He'll go up a fourth and then come down, you know, a minor or major second. And I just like like that. He's he skips like that. Or he'll go up a six and then come down a second or third, or something like that. And it's just like these things, I don't know, you pick it up and you all, you know, eventually you have your own sound but, but you know, if it's about who, who am I, and how am I going to really express myself in the most authentic way. You know, I'm still, I feel like I'm still chiseling out the sculpture of who I am, and being inspired and emboldened by my other composers, particularly, I listened to a Meredith Monk thing because she inspires me. And then I started just listening to her discography on Spotify. And I'm kind of like Rothko. I have some, like, a couple favorite pieces, which I love. But for the most part, Rothko, I don't get the blue with the black colors, you know, but um, but he has some really nice pieces. And I felt like, for her, it's like, um, she had some pieces that really spoke to me. And there's some pieces that were, um, intriguing, creative, but not really of my interest. But those pieces are the ones that said, wow, Shannon, look at how Meredith found her voice by having these odd vocal ranges and sounds and tones. And what if you could do something like this in your way? So it would not be with using voice in that way, but it's the idea that she found something that was hers and something connected with and that admires me so much.

Nanette McGuinness  10:07

[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure's Da Capo Conversations, and a special thank you to our guests 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, or 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 design by Brennan Stokes, with special thanks to Co-producer and Audio Engineer Stephanie M. Neumann. Remember to keep supporting equity in the arts and tune in next week “for good measure.” [OUTRO MUSIC ENDS]