Ahead of his show at the Hi-Dive in Denver and another set with Prorlolo at the Magic Rat in Fort Collins this Saturday, we caught up with Karl Blau for an interview. Strangely, I re-discovered, quite by chance, Karl’s version of “That’s How I Got to Memphis,” buried in my Spotify library:

 

 

Upon listening to the rest of his album, “Introducing Karl Blau,” I began to realize that we needed to at least talk about some of the strange influences that seem pervasive throughout his entire catalog of music. It just so happened that three days after my re-discovery of his music his show at the Magic Rat was announced. Too wild of a coincidence to ignore, we got in touch and after exchanging pleasantries and connecting the dots as to who in the live circuit we knew, we dove right in:

 

AC: So you live in a relatively small town in Washington state right now?

 

KB: Yeah, we are currently at about 20,000 people, if you count the outlying island. The city of Anacortes proper is probably 16,000 people.

 

AC: That’s great for songwriting? I mean, what do you think? Why there?

 

KB: I mean, I don’t know how much its come up on your radar, but definitely for that capacity, there are a couple dozen artists there that are active right now, in Anacortes. And they are creatively active, not just doing covers… I mean – I do covers, but … you know what I’m saying.

 

AC: Yeah, yeah.

 

KB: You know what I’m saying, like independently motivated songwriters. So that’s kind of odd. It’s a beautiful place so it just attracts a lot of people who are just like, “Wow, I really appreciate beauty.”

 

AC: That’s the interesting thing about this: for artists, the basic narrative is that you are supposed to move to a big city to be able to do your art.

 

KB: Sure, sure

 

AC: What really interests me is how the creative economy works there. Are these artists getting paid? How are they getting by in these small little towns?

 

KB: I mean, that’s just what the question is, that’s exactly the question I’m actually genuinely curious to see Colorado in a different light and see how you are doing things out there. I’m pretty active in the community here and it seems like there is more organization and structure to the whole system – You know what it boils down to, and the irony of this conversation and what I know and you don’t, is that I’m moving to Philadelphia actually.

 

AC: Well then, fair enough.

 

KB: I’ve been in Anacortes, on and off, for the better part of 20 years – Touring, of course, allows you to live anywhere you want and of course social media does too – so those are really the driving forces behind successful artists, and those would be the things I would put my money on for sure.

 

AC: Yeah, the advantage of a big city is that it allows you to play profitable gigs more often without saturating the market that you are in, which is a big problem in small towns – in Philly you are going to have so many different choices of places to play.

 

 

KB: Let alone New York which is right there as well. All in all, everything is kind of right there, not everything, but just a bunch of giant markets – yeah, so that’s a thing.

 

AC: Is that the main reason why you are moving?

 

KB: Well, my wife has been a really good sport living in the idyllic town that I wanted to live in. Her whole thing is clothing design. So the creative market for that is not really very large around there, whereas it’s really thriving in those parts of the country. I just went through Germantown on the last tour and kind of fell in love with that area.

 

AC: Tell me more about where your big influences lie. I can see some common threads with “Introducing Karl Blau”, but who did you grow up with, and who are you listening to right now?

 

KB: I mean that country stuff is a real departure, but on another hand, I grew up listening to that stuff – half my family was just like devout country listeners and if I’m around them we are listening to country music – it’s like – some Waylon Jennings and some others. It was kind of confusing as a kid, my dad listened to all kinds of eclectic jazz and weird stuff, it was all about the turntable in the 70’s and 80’s in our house. When cassettes came, I had a really big Van Halen trip. I think the Red Hot Chili Peppers actually got me out of Van Halen? We were kind of just spoon fed out here in the boonies, we just got whatever was on the radio station. When I finally could find my own music, then suddenly I’m just searching for information along the way. “What’s different?” or, “What’s unique?” After asking those questions, I stumbled across this underground Japanese music which just blew my mind.

 

AC: Be careful, that’s a rabbit hole.

 

KB: Yeah, suddenly I’m literally playing drums for the band that I was obsessed with, you know like the actual band, in Japan. It was crazy, I mean, talk about a rabbit hole. I guess, for me, it’s always “in the moment.” I’m kinda into something and then I kind of move through it into something else and so all of these different influences are coming and going.

 

AC: I mean I can personally relate to this, last summer I went on a deep dive though Brazilian jazz music –

 

KB: Yeah, oh yeah!

 

AC: You have probably gone down the Jorge Ben and João Donato rabbit hole

 

KB: Oh definitely, I’m still in there, man. All that stuff like Tom Zé and Milton Nascimento. Those are probably some of my favorite things. Definitely 70’s Tropicalia.

 

AC: It’s so good!

 

KB: The influences are so varied, there is classical influence in there, and jazz; it’s all over the place.

 

AC: To get back on topic, on this tour, you are sticking to primarily Waylon Jennings tunes?

 

KB: Yeah, actually I’m doing strictly Waylon Jennings songs – its sort of a challenge and I just really admire his simplicity and the phrasing he has going on. The subject matter is obviously very “I can’t believe you would ever fall for me” etc. But he’s a really steady masculine character, but then he flashes his soul for a second.

 

AC: And that’s hard to capture in a live setting.

 

KB: It’s brilliant. I identify with it and there are very musical phrases and melodies – I really think of it as a whole bunch of sing-along tunes. I just picture singing them in the room and a lot of people who probably know a lot of the lyrics. Whether they are singing along or not doesn’t really matter. It should be a whole lot of fun regardless.

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