In an interview with axs.com, Will Ackerman and Lawrence Blatt talk about FLOW’s debut album and the recent announcement of their two nominations for the 14th Annual Zone Music Awards; Album of the Year and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.
The interview starts like this:
AXS: What makes the four of you such a good fit together? And how would you describe your collaboration?
Will Ackerman: We bring four different musical sensibilities and three different instruments to the group which offers a remarkable and unique richness in range that the group can offer. The process was genuinely collaborative and the group took on an identity and sound of its own. I think that the fit has to do with the security we all feel in our musical identities. Knowing who you are allows you to be more experimental and capable of embracing challenge as fun.
Lawrence Blatt: The origins of our friendship stem from a deep love of instrumental music and a true caring for each other as individuals. We all come from diverse backgrounds of musical training and I feel that is the basis for the synergy that emerges from our ensemble. As we came together to form a group, we realized that we needed to change our playing styles that we have evolved as solo artists.
AXS: Tell me about your different personalities and what you’ve learned from each other in working together.
WA: My relationship with Jeff, Fiona and Lawrence each began as my being their producer for their own projects. To suddenly be in a group where I now needed to be both producer and musician was sometimes a challenge. Tom Eaton, who was the engineer on FLOW, is also my co-producer on most projects I produce these days. It was clear that I could concentrate on finding the essence of the music as a performer while letting Tom let me know when I’d achieved what I needed to as an artist. We left egos at the doors and had fun. Four kids in a sandbox. None of this was scripted at all. It happened as it wanted to happen and I think we were all very supportive of each other.
Read the complete interview here.