It’s not every day that you find an artist who manages their own Twitter feed, never-mind reads and responds to their direct messages. I’m sure you can imagine my surprise when I was able to set up an interview with one of the hottest names in contemporary jazz by sending a message that I’m fairly confident may have contained a smiley face.<\/p>\n
Meet Darren Rahn- contemporary jazz artist, writer, producer, and all-around nice guy. He’s best known for his work with the late Wayman Tisdale, and several of their collaborations have made it to the top of the Billboard charts. Though he was brought to the forefront of the scene with his productions skills, Darren Rahn still maintains that playing and being an artist is still his number one love.<\/p>\n Rahn is unique not only for his accomplishments and technical abilities, but also because he earned a Master’s Degree in Jazz from the University of Northern Colorado. I was honored to have the chance to sit down and ask him a few questions about what he has coming up, what we can expect from his show tonight with Grammy Award winner Paul Brown, and how he balances his wealth of technical musical knowledge with his creative side.<\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> So let’s dive right into it. I just read on your website this week that you’re in the studio working on a new record. Tell me about it! What are we going to see with this? DR:<\/strong> Well, for starters, it’s been great. I’ve still got a few months left of recording in the studio, but so far we’re looking at a single in February, and the record release in March 2012. Without saying too much or giving too many details, it’s going to be a really fun record. And actually, Paul Brown is working on his new record too, so we’re both having a lot of fun with this.<\/em><\/p>\n CP: <\/strong>Will we be seeing Paul Brown on this latest record?<\/em><\/p>\n DR:<\/strong> I don’t want to say too much, but there may be a little collaboration coming up. <\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Well that’s incredibly exciting. I’ll steer away from that one so I don’t force you to say things you’re not supposed to. Tell me a little about playing with Paul, and what our audience here at Anthology can expect to see at your show?<\/em><\/p>\n DR:<\/strong> Paul is great. We’ve got a really great band, and we’re playing a little bit of everything. Because Paul and I are both producers, it’s so nice to step out and work on our own stuff as artists. And actually, we’ll be playing one of the tunes from my new record at the show. <\/em><\/p>\n CP: <\/strong>Sounds like we’re in for a great show! <\/em><\/p>\n DR:<\/strong> We’ve worked hard to put together a great set, and it’s been a really fun process.<\/em><\/p>\n CP: <\/strong>So, I’ve got a burning question that I think every music student battles with at some point- at least I know I have. Maybe this is just a selfish question that personally I’m dying to ask, but I’ll go for it. You have something that’s really unique in this business, a Master’s degree in jazz. Was it difficult for you to come out of school and still create as an artist after being filled with so much technical knowledge?<\/em><\/p>\n DR:<\/strong> Wow. You know, it was a little tough. I went straight through school- high school, college, grad school, and I was actually one year away from my doctorate when I left school to play. There’s so much that I do that they just can’t teach in school. It’s geared for technical achievement, and that’s great, but there was a point where I realized that I needed to play and write for the heart and soul of it. The theory has certainly been useful, especially as a producer, but as an artist, I really had to let go of a lot of brain things. I have to focus on the heart, ear, and passion of music. Someone very important told me once, “If you don’t have your own voice, you’re not worthy of the discussion,” so I had to make sure that I found my own voice. <\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Absolutely. I think that’s something that so many kids out of school struggle with. They can play all the notes, but sometimes it’s tough to remember that there’s a creative part of you that makes you an artist.<\/em><\/p>\n DR: <\/strong>Yes, and we all have to take that time to figure it out. The beauty though is that I always have my theory to draw from. Once I established my voice, what I had learned became far more useful. It’s really enabled me as a producer when I’m writing a song or arranging horns. <\/em><\/p>\n CP: <\/strong>Speaking of you as a producer, I read that you actually learned to produce after recording your first record, and you commented that you weren’t happy with it because it didn’t sound like you had imagined. Is that accurate?<\/em><\/p>\n DR: <\/strong>Yes, it was my final year of grad school, and I was recording a fusion record. That was really the point where I realized that having great players wasn’t enough. There wasn’t really an experienced producer, and it just didn’t sound like what I heard in my head. After that, I just learned that if I wanted to make music the way I heard it, I’d have to learn to produce. I really enjoy it now. Obviously being an artist was my first passion, and I still love it, but producing keeps me fresh.<\/em><\/p>\n CP: <\/strong>Tell me a little bit about your production style. Are you really tight with arrangements, or more organic and laid back?<\/em><\/p>\n DR:<\/strong> I’ve always tried to choose the right people to use and then just let them do their thing. When they made records in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, they used people for their sound- their style. I try to lay down a solid foundation, and just let the musicians do what they do best. Get good guys, and cut ’em loose.<\/em><\/p>\n Be sure to take a listen to our Darren Rahn Favorites playlist, and come out to see him and Paul Brown tonight! Use special promo code “TENOFF” for $10 off your tickets!<\/p>\n Darren Rahn Spotify Playlist<\/a><\/p>\n WHAT: <\/em>The Producers:<\/strong> Paul Brown & Darren Rahn<\/strong> An Interview with Darren Rahn by: Casey Pukl It’s not every day that you find an artist who manages their own Twitter feed, never-mind reads and responds to their direct messages. I’m sure you can imagine my surprise when I was able to set up an interview with one of the hottest names in contemporary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1442],"tags":[11512],"class_list":["post-3767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","tag-artist-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32985,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3767\/revisions\/32985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Darren](\"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/the-producers-darren-rahn-e1317150618667.jpeg\" "\\"the-producers-darren-rahn-e1317150618667\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n
\nWHEN: <\/span>Wednesday, October 26th, 2011, 7:30pm <\/strong>
\nTICKETS: $10-$44 <\/span>Buy Tickets<\/a><\/strong>
\nMORE INFO: <\/span>Artist Profile<\/a><\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"