It’s only been a few hours since Melt Trio, the Berlin jazz band comprising Peter Meyer (guitar), Bernhard Meyer (bass) and Moritz Baumgartner (drums) landed in the city for their performance at the Sailing Club (organised by Goethe Zentrum, Hyderabad). Bound by a tight schedule, they plan to do some shopping and sightseeing in a couple of hours, before they zip in for a sound check at the Club. As they gear up for a long day ahead, MetroPlus sneaks in for a chat on their first trip to India.
They’re called the Melt Trio for a reason, Moritz informs. “We all studied in the same music school; I was a junior to the two in Berlin. Our first record was in 2010, it was called ‘melt’. We wanted to have a short, simple and an accessible name and that’s how we sound as a band too - our harmonies and melodies melt together. Another reason behind our name being, the similar pronunciation in both German and English.”
Bernhard joins the conversation and gives us a glimpse of how he composes music. “I am a bass player but I start composing on a piano, picking either five or six notes, the chords, the A section and start stringing together a melody. Sometimes, I write a long melody and stay open to several possibilities. The opportunity to perform music live keeps me going. Nature might throw me ideas but it’s in the jamming room that things actually shape up. It’s work at the end of the day and can be a very slow process.”
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Keeping note of the influences that surround them is an integral part of their music making. The trio reveals that they work really hard to get into a natural flow. “We really take care of what we play and rehearse.
Seeing different places, meeting people and travelling, all contribute to our music vocabulary, be it in the short-term or long term. It’s about music, emotion and release. Getting rid of the structure and improvising is what it takes.
Like a famous musician once said, ‘jazz isn't a genre but a musical source that connects people,’ Moritz adds.
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Back in Germany, when they started out, things weren’t easy for jazz musicians with the government known to back and fund classical music. “It's very hard to establish oneself but it's possible; the fact that we've come a long way says it. An important aspect here is to keep a tab on where we perform, it’s definitely not for a wedding or a birthday.”
Like their global counterparts, they are used to getting fatigued and bouncing back with a renewed energy on the stage. Moritz tells us more, “The trick lies in organising your free time well. You learn it the hard way, you are fatigued, feel lost and discipline yourself only later.
You need to take good care of yourself to produce good music too. A lot of unexpected things may happen, but you need to be ready for it.”
Bernhard has a rather academic approach to this topic. “It's a part and parcel of the job to feel tired, but something in you needs to keep you and the music awake. That’s the way life goes.”