5 Q&A With Zen Bunny Collective
How did everything come together?
After watching the antics of our government for the last few years, I got angry enough to say something, and wrote the song. I've been in the music business most of my adult life and had the skillset and the equipment to do this without an investment of a huge amount of energy and money. Just a lot of time. Once I had the concept, the song kind of wrote itself...just based on what I was seeing in the news every day.
What did you enjoy most about making "Funky America 9/38?"
Putting my feet back in the water of music. I had a pretty good Latin-Jazz band going until the pandemic kind of killed it. After that, I just didn't have much drive for music anymore. This kind of woke me up again.
How do you feel this single represents your artistic identity?
Interesting question. I kind of feel that artistic identity can't be separated from personal identity. That being said, as a songwriter you're always trying to inhabit a skin that's different from your own so you can speak for issues and people who don't have either the skill or the drive to write their own songs. To some degree, this is what all composers do as a part of the development of an idea.
How do you translate your inspirations into musical ideas and compositions?
I don't think I can explain how it happens. I've studied music my entire adult life and I still can't tell you where a melody comes from. Lyrics are a little different because you can work in phrases and pieces of phrases and develop it over time, but melodies kind of arrive out of the ether more or less whole.
Every composer has a unique style. How would you describe your musical "voice" or signature style? What sets your compositions apart?
I'm a big fan of music that has gone before...classical music, jazz, Blues, old folk music, R & B...Rock from the "Golden Era"...all kinds of things. I've never tried to be "cutting edge" or "contemporary"...just tried to be good at what I do because good music is, I feel, timeless. Here in "Funky America 9/38" you can hear echos of Creedence, Dylan, with an overlay of psychedelic guitar ala Hendrix...but I didn't consciously do any of it...just put in what the song seemed to need.
