the evolution

I still feel that the imaginary place that Volta is… I still have a long way to go to get there. But I feel like that with most projects. The good thing about that though is that during the year that is left — I’ll tour for another year — I will still have food for touring, videos, photo shoots and such. The album is only a piece of it all. I’ve recorded all the gigs so I will probably release live stuff. You’ll be able to see how it has changed. Songs like “Wanderlust“ for example have grown a lot since we started touring.

Has interaction – with the large band, the Konono percussionists, with co-vocalists like Antony – given you another way in to the material ?

Me and Antony had to develop a new way of singing it on stage. It took a few runs. But at the Harlem Apollo we mashed it in ; took a different angle than the CD. It was fun, too, to play with Min Xiao Fen. She added a rawness to the song live. But overall, since I’ve been touring for so long, I’ m aware that the album version is often a work-in-progress, on purpose. So leave it that way. We still have a long way to go. I’ve always altered the songs live, all the way up to the last gig : new arrangements, overall molding of the thing. We noodle in hotel rooms and have long sound checks. We rotate 40 songs. It keeps the show alive. Stagnation’s less likely. I don’t decide on a set-list for each show until after sound check, see what sort of venue it is, what sort of mood we’re in. Be in the moment.

Harp Magazine, November 2007