Nevaris | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: How cool is that. I didn't even want to talk

0:02 Speaker 1: over the end of it. That is so cool. You

0:03 Speaker 1: can really groove to that. The track is called Ninth Sun.

0:06 Speaker 1: That is Nevaras, and or it might be Navarus. Let's see.

0:10 Speaker 1: I think we've got Augustin here with us. Augustin, are

0:12 Speaker 1: you there?

0:13 Speaker 2: Yes, I am, how are you good?

0:15 Speaker 1: Good? Welcome to the show. I'm excited to talk to

0:17 Speaker 1: you because I've been grooving to this. I've been grooving

0:19 Speaker 1: to this four track EP sound session. The whole thing

0:23 Speaker 1: is so good.

0:24 Speaker 2: Thank you man, I really appreciate that absolutely.

0:27 Speaker 1: So let's clear this up right off the bat. You

0:29 Speaker 1: how do you say the name?

0:30 Speaker 2: It's Nevarus. You know, it's an adaptation of my last

0:34 Speaker 2: name on my mother's side, which is Nevadas, which is

0:36 Speaker 2: like a proper Spanish name.

0:38 Speaker 1: But gotcha.

0:38 Speaker 2: I saw it misspelled on a piece of paper once

0:41 Speaker 2: and I needed to It's like my stage name was

0:44 Speaker 2: like Navarus. I just took it. I've had it ever since.

0:46 Speaker 1: Oh that's cool, that's cool, No, I dig it. I'm

0:49 Speaker 1: really curious about your recording process with this, So for

0:53 Speaker 1: people who are not familiar with you and how you

0:55 Speaker 1: recorded this EP, and I don't know if this is

0:57 Speaker 1: how you record everything, but your I mean, it's live.

1:01 Speaker 1: It's it's studio, it's it's it's like it's it's in studio,

1:04 Speaker 1: but it's also live in the sense that and I

1:06 Speaker 1: don't know how many people do this anymore, but you're

1:08 Speaker 1: all playing live at the same time. So there's no overdubs,

1:12 Speaker 1: there's no you know, it's not you know, one person's

1:15 Speaker 1: recording you know, guitar parts and then somebody else is

1:18 Speaker 1: doing the synth and all this. It's all live. I

1:21 Speaker 1: did watch the videos too, and I'm just I'm fascinated

1:25 Speaker 1: by that.

1:25 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it was all live, no you know, no

1:31 Speaker 2: click track, no headphones. Interestingly, really played Yeah, no headphones,

1:36 Speaker 2: so we had bleed, which kind of you're kind of

1:38 Speaker 2: married to keeping it live at that point because you

1:40 Speaker 2: can't you can't edit it. It's it's so no headphones

1:44 Speaker 2: through amps, we could all hear each other live in

1:46 Speaker 2: the space, and you know, that's hard work for James

1:50 Speaker 2: de la Tacoma, who is the engineer, and Michael Black

1:53 Speaker 2: was filming it. It was something that none of us

1:56 Speaker 2: had tried. Nine people, and it was definitely a sort

2:00 Speaker 2: of an experiment, and once we did it and I

2:04 Speaker 2: took it back, I listened to it. I was like, man,

2:06 Speaker 2: this sounds unlike any of the stuff I've done for

2:08 Speaker 2: years where you overdub and you lose something. For sure.

2:11 Speaker 1: Hm, that's incredible. So you've never done anything quite like

2:15 Speaker 1: this In terms of recording.

2:16 Speaker 2: I never have. No, I've recorded. I've got four records,

2:21 Speaker 2: and then working on the fifth, and then after that

2:24 Speaker 2: I already started on the sixth. All of them were

2:26 Speaker 2: done with some form of live, you know. I never

2:30 Speaker 2: did it like layer by layer. Often it would be

2:32 Speaker 2: like the drum set the base, you know, just like

2:35 Speaker 2: the core group, and then on top of that you're

2:37 Speaker 2: just adding and adding and adding building, Right, That's how

2:41 Speaker 2: I've always done it.

2:42 Speaker 1: Do you think that it's better to well, I mean

2:46 Speaker 1: I assume you think it's better because this is your approach,

2:47 Speaker 1: But do you prefer to get it as live as possible?

2:50 Speaker 1: Or again, in this case, in terms of the EP,

2:52 Speaker 1: this is all done live, like truly live. But do

2:55 Speaker 1: you think it's it's good to get either either do

2:58 Speaker 1: that or get as close to that as possible, because

3:00 Speaker 1: then you capture something that maybe you don't capture if

3:03 Speaker 1: you're doing it the way most bands do it now,

3:06 Speaker 1: where you are just doing one thing at a time

3:09 Speaker 1: and sort of building the track because and part of

3:11 Speaker 1: why I'm curious about this is I know bands that

3:15 Speaker 1: you know, they they're really good live, but then you

3:18 Speaker 1: listen to their studio work and maybe it's not quite

3:21 Speaker 1: capturing the magic or the energy of the band's live performance,

3:26 Speaker 1: and you go, I wish these studio records really kind

3:30 Speaker 1: of captured that. I mean, how do you feel about that?

3:33 Speaker 1: And do you think you lose something if you do it,

3:35 Speaker 1: you know, just one thing at a time.

3:38 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I've always tried, and you know I did.

3:40 Speaker 2: I've done a record since doing sound Session that is

3:43 Speaker 2: very close to being finished, and we did it shortly

3:46 Speaker 2: after sound session. We didn't fully go back to everybody

3:49 Speaker 2: live in the studio, but four of us got together,

3:52 Speaker 2: so Locatronto and drums, Jonathan Maren, Bill Bernard and I

3:56 Speaker 2: got together and put down the whole basis of it.

4:00 Speaker 2: And in general, I do at least rhythm section plus

4:03 Speaker 2: and a lotic instruments, you know, a core live in

4:06 Speaker 2: the studio. I never do. If you go back too far,

4:09 Speaker 2: you're gonna lose all the spirit of it, you know,

4:13 Speaker 2: right right?

4:14 Speaker 1: And can you tell us too about working with Bill

4:16 Speaker 1: Bill Laswell, legendary producer and bassist on this and these songs.

4:22 Speaker 1: I mean he actually co wrote these with you, correct.

4:25 Speaker 2: He did. We so originally were we did an album

4:29 Speaker 2: called Reverberations, which is out there for people to check

4:33 Speaker 2: out if you want, and that we did where he

4:36 Speaker 2: wrote all these amazing bass lines, and then we had

4:38 Speaker 2: a lot of stuff that didn't make it on the record,

4:41 Speaker 2: and we had done two records before that, so I've

4:43 Speaker 2: done three records with Bill playing bass wow, And there

4:47 Speaker 2: was just a lot of material. And so my idea

4:50 Speaker 2: was originally to get in the studio with Bill and

4:52 Speaker 2: everybody and film it and document it. And then Bill's

4:56 Speaker 2: health has you know, he's been dealing with a lot

4:58 Speaker 2: of challenges. He hasn't really back to the studio, and

5:05 Speaker 2: Peter Applebaum, the sax player, suggested Jonathan Marron could come

5:09 Speaker 2: in and he basically learned a lot of Bill's basslines

5:12 Speaker 2: no for note wow, but then he improvised on top

5:15 Speaker 2: of that. So I say, like the first part of

5:17 Speaker 2: every one of these songs is a straight Bill Laswell

5:20 Speaker 2: bassline and then he took it where it needs to go.

5:22 Speaker 2: So there was a lot of Jonathan involved as well.

5:26 Speaker 1: In terms of him coming in and doing that. Did

5:28 Speaker 1: you sort of guide him and say, you know, at

5:30 Speaker 1: least for the start of it, try to do what

5:33 Speaker 1: Bill was doing? Or I mean, how much latitude did

5:35 Speaker 1: you give him, I guess is what I'm really asking.

5:37 Speaker 1: Or did you tell him, you know, go crazy, do

5:38 Speaker 1: what you want and we'll see what happens, or how

5:41 Speaker 1: did you approach that?

5:42 Speaker 2: Yeah? I sent him a bunch of recorded music, and

5:45 Speaker 2: you know, Jonathan Maren is just one of the best

5:48 Speaker 2: bass players I've ever worked with. It's a super talented guy,

5:52 Speaker 2: and he learned everything, and he came with, you know,

5:56 Speaker 2: like an ipaddy and everything kind of ready to go

5:59 Speaker 2: exactly like on the recording, and I was like, don't

6:02 Speaker 2: don't worry about that. None of us are going to

6:04 Speaker 2: play the track accurately. We're going to start. All of

6:08 Speaker 2: this will be out the window within two minutes. But

6:10 Speaker 2: like you know, for Nights on that baseline in the beginning,

6:13 Speaker 2: that's that's Bill's baseline, you know, okay, pretty much, that's

6:16 Speaker 2: that's his baseline. And Bill has a vocabulary, baselines, and

6:21 Speaker 2: you know, he has just all this work that he's created.

6:23 Speaker 2: He's it's so it's very distinctly his composition. But then

6:28 Speaker 2: you know, Jonathan certainly and the rest of the band

6:30 Speaker 2: certainly took it wherever it needed to go in the moment,

6:33 Speaker 2: and everything else I'd say was fully one hundred percent

6:35 Speaker 2: improvos except for the baseline. Really no kidding.

6:38 Speaker 1: Wow, that's incredible. Yeah, tell us who about working with

6:42 Speaker 1: DJ Logic on turntables.

6:44 Speaker 2: He's the best.

6:45 Speaker 1: Yeah, he's the best.

6:48 Speaker 2: He's the best. I met him through the great Bernie

6:50 Speaker 2: Warrel many years ago. Yeah, I had the honor of

6:55 Speaker 2: working with Bernie a number of times, which will always

6:58 Speaker 2: be the highlight experience. May he rest in peace. And

7:03 Speaker 2: we did a show and he just brought DJ Logic

7:06 Speaker 2: along to hang out and just and Logic gave me

7:09 Speaker 2: his number on a napkin with the marker He's like,

7:11 Speaker 2: this is dope, man, here's And then after that, for

7:14 Speaker 2: a long time we tried to figure out how to

7:15 Speaker 2: get together, and then once we were in the studio

7:18 Speaker 2: the first time we've been in the studio fair amount,

7:20 Speaker 2: and man, I love that awesome human beings just great

7:24 Speaker 2: person and phenomenal talent obviously.

7:27 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, clearly and everything. I mean, you know, you

7:30 Speaker 1: sit right in with what you were doing, that's for sure.

7:32 Speaker 1: Oh yeah. So now what's what is the live situation

7:38 Speaker 1: with this project? Are you playing these songs out live?

7:40 Speaker 1: Or will you be? And I'm curious about that.

7:44 Speaker 2: I've been doing I have been doing some shows. I

7:47 Speaker 2: think I have you know, four or five shows coming

7:51 Speaker 2: up this summer. I'm playing different tracks from sort of

7:54 Speaker 2: the full catalog of everything I've ever put out. And

7:59 Speaker 2: you know, there's a sort of iteration of the band

8:01 Speaker 2: that's that's been out there working a little bit, and

8:04 Speaker 2: we do have quite a lot coming up. Yeah, yeah,

8:08 Speaker 2: we're doing it.

8:08 Speaker 1: Oh outstanding, outstanding. And you're also the co founder of

8:11 Speaker 1: Knowledge Records. Is that correct?

8:13 Speaker 2: Yeah? My brother and I started Knowledge Records a long

8:16 Speaker 2: time ago. It it you know, it doesn't do much

8:19 Speaker 2: except just uh, put out stuff that I work on. OK,

8:23 Speaker 2: someday there I'd love to do more. I'd love to

8:26 Speaker 2: figure out how to you know, there's so many talented

8:28 Speaker 2: artists around people that I know that I you know,

8:32 Speaker 2: it's I'd love to find some you know, wealthy billionaire

8:38 Speaker 2: that's like there, just take all this money and make

8:40 Speaker 2: as many records as you want.

8:42 Speaker 1: No doubt. And you're in an epicenter of music, right,

8:46 Speaker 1: I mean you're in New York, is that correct?

8:48 Speaker 2: You know, I'm based out of New York. My wife

8:50 Speaker 2: is working for Penn State University. You know, I'm born

8:53 Speaker 2: and raised in New York. So I'm sort of doing

8:56 Speaker 2: a lot of back and forth on Route eighty right now.

8:59 Speaker 2: Oh nokidding, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, all the musicians

9:03 Speaker 2: are based out of New York. And you know, my family,

9:05 Speaker 2: we still have our apartment in New York where I

9:07 Speaker 2: grew up. But yeah, I've been spending more time outside

9:11 Speaker 2: of the city and I found that people are really

9:14 Speaker 2: there's a really great listener base when you get out

9:17 Speaker 2: of the city, and I'm trying to work with that more.

9:20 Speaker 2: You know, take the music where people are hungry to

9:23 Speaker 2: hear it.

9:24 Speaker 1: Right right, which is everywhere.

9:26 Speaker 2: So that's everywhere.

9:27 Speaker 1: So that's good, you know. And of course, obviously, you know,

9:29 Speaker 1: we live in a time because of the Internet where

9:30 Speaker 1: you can you know, you can reach people anywhere, which

9:34 Speaker 1: is wonderful. Yeah, and tell us about loud. You also

9:38 Speaker 1: have a project called loud Apartment.

9:41 Speaker 2: Yeah, that was the first kind of project name that

9:45 Speaker 2: I had because I never wanted it to be my

9:47 Speaker 2: own name. It's kind of Bill's fault that it ended

9:49 Speaker 2: up being my name again. And he was when he

9:51 Speaker 2: did reverberations. He was like, no, that's a cool name.

9:54 Speaker 2: You know, it's it's like Santana. It's a good reference point.

9:57 Speaker 2: Now you should use that, And I don't know, kind

10:00 Speaker 2: of was like, okay, but I liked I used a

10:03 Speaker 2: loud Apartment for a while, put out three records and

10:06 Speaker 2: did a bunch of playing us loud Apartment. But really

10:08 Speaker 2: it's the same, just project name for whatever I'm working on.

10:12 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a cool name. I like it. Loud Apartment.

10:15 Speaker 2: Thanks.

10:15 Speaker 1: Cool name. So so Bill's one convince you to use Navarus.

10:18 Speaker 1: I mean he's not wrong. I mean it is a

10:21 Speaker 1: cool name. It is evocative of Santana. I like it. Yeah.

10:27 Speaker 2: He's very involved in all aspects of a project, from

10:31 Speaker 2: the art to the song order. It's really cool. Like

10:34 Speaker 2: it was an absolute honor to work with Bill over

10:37 Speaker 2: the years, and that's one of the things I loved

10:39 Speaker 2: about working with him is it was never just one

10:42 Speaker 2: part of it. He kind of understands how to make

10:44 Speaker 2: a record from start to finish and all the different

10:47 Speaker 2: parts involved.

10:48 Speaker 1: How did that you might have touched on it, forgive

10:50 Speaker 1: me if I'm forgetting, but how did how did that

10:52 Speaker 1: come about? Where you first began working with Bill Laslow

10:55 Speaker 1: Bill Laswell.

10:57 Speaker 2: Through a singer named Garrett Hawk ak Hawkman reggae singer,

11:02 Speaker 2: great singer, most known for Blowback with Tricky, all the

11:06 Speaker 2: reggae stuff on that. But he's he's been out there

11:09 Speaker 2: for a long time and he's one of my best friends.

11:13 Speaker 2: And he was working with Bill, and I got hired

11:17 Speaker 2: to produce the track for one of his records and

11:20 Speaker 2: Bill mixed it and when I got the mill, when

11:22 Speaker 2: I got the mix back, I was like, oh man,

11:25 Speaker 2: this is this is who I need to work with

11:27 Speaker 2: and was very persistent in trying to figure out how

11:30 Speaker 2: to make that happen more consistently.

11:32 Speaker 1: Yeah. Well and apparently you succeeded. So that's that's wonderful, outstanding.

11:37 Speaker 1: So what's what's next for this project? Do you intend

11:41 Speaker 1: to you know, obviously, I mean the Sound Sessions EP

11:44 Speaker 1: is great. Do you uh, is there going to be

11:46 Speaker 1: a follow up to this with the same sort of

11:48 Speaker 1: configuration and approach to doing it.

11:51 Speaker 2: I think so, I think I would like to do

11:54 Speaker 2: it again, maybe the exact same configuration. It's it's fun

11:57 Speaker 2: sometimes to repeat things, you know, identically, same room, be like, hey,

12:02 Speaker 2: let's let's try this one more time. Maybe play a

12:04 Speaker 2: little longer, put something together. In the meantime, I have

12:08 Speaker 2: a record coming out called mind Funk, which has a

12:11 Speaker 2: lot of the same guys. That's almost done and uh yeah,

12:15 Speaker 2: there's some very exciting surprise guests on that then talking

12:21 Speaker 2: about yet one of them is Booty Collins. I'll tell

12:23 Speaker 2: you that.

12:24 Speaker 1: Really that's awesome playing.

12:26 Speaker 2: Yeah, he's playing bass on two of the tracks. I

12:28 Speaker 2: haven't really announced that yet, but yeah, he's he's going

12:31 Speaker 2: to be on it. So I am very excited to

12:33 Speaker 2: put this out and just I'm just trying to keep moving, man. Yeah,

12:37 Speaker 2: keep it moving.

12:38 Speaker 1: That's what you gotta do. That's what you gotta do.

12:40 Speaker 1: Booty Collins, boy, talk about a legend. That's amazing.

12:42 Speaker 2: I know, it was a shock the track came back,

12:47 Speaker 2: and that is fully Bill Aswell's work. You know Bill

12:50 Speaker 2: is uh it's it's really been awesome to know him

12:53 Speaker 2: and you know you in terms of his health struggles.

12:56 Speaker 2: It's it's something you can do. I don't like to

12:58 Speaker 2: be the one to talk about it, but yeah, and

13:00 Speaker 2: read about it. There's go fund these and all you know,

13:02 Speaker 2: ways to support him. And you know, he's he's he's still,

13:06 Speaker 2: he's still you know, finding out how to keep creatively

13:10 Speaker 2: working and you know, keeping things happening.

13:13 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent. Well, very good. Well listen, Augustin.

13:17 Speaker 1: We'll let you go in a moment, but let me

13:19 Speaker 1: ask you, well two things. First, let me ask you,

13:22 Speaker 1: where is the best place to go online for people

13:24 Speaker 1: to keep up with everything that you are doing, everything

13:26 Speaker 1: with navars and anything else that you want people to

13:29 Speaker 1: know about. Where should people go online to keep up

13:31 Speaker 1: with you?

13:32 Speaker 2: Navars dot net and E V A R I S

13:34 Speaker 2: dot net that is where everything is. There's definitely music

13:38 Speaker 2: that is not on Spotify, not streaming that is there. Oh,

13:42 Speaker 2: I have four records on there. Uh, and I'm going

13:45 Speaker 2: to be posting all the shows coming up there and

13:48 Speaker 2: yeah that's the spot Oh fantastic.

13:50 Speaker 1: Well that's easy. And the other question is what should

13:52 Speaker 1: we play at the end of our conversation. We played

13:56 Speaker 1: on ninth Sun to open, but I'm thinking so we've

13:59 Speaker 1: got there's document and there's remedy, doub orchestra. Might be

14:02 Speaker 1: a little longest, might be a little might be a

14:04 Speaker 1: little long for for the radio.

14:06 Speaker 2: But but but I'll let you go for document document.

14:10 Speaker 1: Okay, what anything special we should know about this track

14:14 Speaker 1: before we play it?

14:16 Speaker 2: I think that that one was the chance to you know,

14:20 Speaker 2: play some more traditional Afro Cuban rhythms with Angel Rodriguez,

14:26 Speaker 2: the Great Angel Rodriguez on congas, So that was cool.

14:32 Speaker 2: And that's Jojo Cool also playing percussion, who played in

14:39 Speaker 2: Felous Band after Tony Allen. So you know there's some

14:42 Speaker 2: awesome people involved. And uh, there is a go fundme

14:46 Speaker 2: for Jojo because he just had an operation on his heart,

14:49 Speaker 2: so I shout that out. Cool if you look him up,

14:53 Speaker 2: he's playing on it, and uh, really just a great

14:55 Speaker 2: group of people. It was a joy to work on it.

14:59 Speaker 2: No no arguing, no stress, just playing music.

15:01 Speaker 1: It's fantastic and you know the success of it is

15:04 Speaker 1: evident in the end result. So definitely definitely a good

15:07 Speaker 1: group of people you put together for this. Absolutely no,

15:10 Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. The EP is incredible.

15:12 Speaker 1: All right, Augustin, will let you go. We're going to

15:14 Speaker 1: hit that track, but I'm sure we will talk again

15:16 Speaker 1: as you're releasing new music. Sounds like you got a

15:19 Speaker 1: lot coming up, so we'll definitely have you back.

15:21 Speaker 2: Awesome, I appreciate it. Have a beautiful day, all.

15:24 Speaker 1: Right, Augustin Navaras, thank you. We'll talk to you soon.

15:25 Speaker 1: Bye bye. All right. That is Augustine Navarus of the

15:30 Speaker 1: project Noavarus. Of course, check out sound session. It's a

15:34 Speaker 1: fantastic for a track EP. We're going to play another

15:36 Speaker 1: song from this right now, and this is called Document