Feb. 7, 2021

Filip Jers interview

Filip Jers interview
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Season 1 Diatonic Harmonica Chromatic Harmonica Blues Harmonica Jazz Chromatic Jazz Diatonic Folk Harmonica Overblow Player

Filip can be described as the complete harmonica player, being adept on the diatonic, chromatic and bass harmonicas, as well as being able to play numerous other instruments.
He started out on diatonic, with a love of the blues before submerging himself into the overblow style of play pioneered by Howard Levy.
Filip is the first harmonica player in the 300 year history of Sweden’s Royal Academy of Music to be accepted to study there. It is here he explored the range of possibilities of the chromatic harmonica as a jazz instrument.
Still only 34 years old, Filip already has a great catalogue of albums to his name, with releases focused on jazz, Swedish folk, blues and pop, and fusions between them made to great effect.
He loves to teach the harmonica and has just launched a new online resource to share his deep knowledge of both diatonic and chromatic. 

Select the Chapter Markers tab above to select different sections of the podcast (website version only).

Links:
Filip's website:
http://www.filipjers.com/

Filip's new teaching site:
http://www.patreon.com/filipjersharmonica

Filip's Facebook page:
http://facebook.com/filipjersmusic

Filip's Instagram page:
http://instagram.com/filipjersharmonica


Videos:
Filip's YouTube channel:
http://youtube.com/filipjersmusic

Duet with self on Someday My Prince Will Come:
https://youtu.be/23pQMP7UNLU

Workshop: How to structure practise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8loZS9fvl4


Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com  or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS
and Blows Me Away Productions: http://www.blowsmeaway.com/

Support the show

01:38 - Filip is from Sweden, now living in Stockholm

02:27 - Was first harmonica player in 300 years to study at the Royal Academy

03:45 - One of few harmonica players with formal music qualifications

04:57 - Started teaching at the university later on, but decided to work as a freelance musician

05:22 - How the young Filip selected the harmonica from the various instruments he played

06:13 - Picked up harmonica age 14 after hearing harmonica on pop records, and then blues

06:27 - Father played some harmonica and guitar

06:57 - First harmonica was a diatonic, and Filip started learning overblows, learning jazz on diatonic

08:35 - Bought first chromatic age 18, at Trossingen World Harmonica festival

08:50 - Why Filip decided to play harmonica over other instruments

09:40 - Almost became an accordion teacher

09:50 - Winning two categories at the World Harmonica Championship in 2005 made Filip focus on harmonica

11:56 - Plays a wide range of genres, which started out when studying on the Royal Academy course

12:42 - Stockholm has a good music scene

13:07 - First album was with Stockholm Lisboa Project, for which they won an award

16:28 - Met Toots Thielemans on a few occasions as Toots appeared in Sweden

18:05 - Formation of the Filip Jers Quartet from meeting bandmates on Royal Academy course

18:36 - Debut solo album: Spiro, on which Filip played numerous harmonicas and all the other instruments

23:11 - Aka Med album: jazz-folk fusion

25:00 - First album with Filip Jers Quartet

25:48 - Making albums, and place of CDs in today’s market

28:34 - New Scandinavian Harmonica album

30:36 - Second Filip Jers Quartet album: Plays Swedish Folk, which won Swedish Grammy award

33:03 - Live at the Victoria album: blues

34:13 - Filip’s early influences on harmonica

35:30 - Duo album with guitar player: jazz

37:06 - Filip has a split screen video of Someday My Prince Will come where he plays guitar and harmonica

38:15 - Gotland Jazz Trio album in 2019

39:35 - Filip’s recordings as a side man

40:27 - Teaching resources available from Filip, including new online Patreon site

42:05 - Filip studied online with Howard Levy for some time

43:25 - Some of the many awards Filip has won

43:59 - Has toured around many countries, including to West Africa

44:44 - Played for the Swedish King

45:24 - Featured in a documentary in Sweden, called ‘Harmonica Man’

45:58 - Ten minute question

47:06 - How to use playing other instruments to benefit harmonica

47:57 - Benefits of playing both diatonic and chromatic harmonicas

51:05 - Practising bass harmonica

52:27 - Filip is a Suzuki endorsee and chromatics and diatonic harmonicas of choice

53:52 - Different tunings and different keyed chromatics

54:35 - Embouchre

55:08 - Amps and mics

57:21 - Future plans

WEBVTT

00:00:00.417 --> 00:00:03.382
Philip Jers joins me on episode 32 of the podcast.

00:00:03.722 --> 00:00:11.694
Philip can be described as the complete harmonica player, being adept on the diatonic, chromatic and bass harmonicas, as well as being able to play numerous other instruments.

00:00:12.414 --> 00:00:19.705
He started out on diatonic with a love of the blues before submerging himself into the overblow style of play, pioneered by Howard Levy.

00:00:20.449 --> 00:00:27.039
Philip is the first harmonica player in the 300-year history of Sweden's Royal Academy of Music to be accepted to study there.

00:00:27.719 --> 00:00:31.966
It is here he explored the range of possibilities of the chromatic harmonica as a jazz instrument.

00:00:32.387 --> 00:00:41.479
Still only 34 years old, Philip has a great catalogue of albums to his name, with releases focused on jazz, Swedish folk, blues and pop, and fusions between them made to great effect.

00:00:41.981 --> 00:00:48.630
He loves to teach the harmonica and has just launched a new online resource to share his deep knowledge of both the diatonic and chromatic harmonica.

00:00:52.865 --> 00:00:55.454
Bye.

00:01:26.305 --> 00:01:29.022
Hello, Philip Jers, and welcome to the podcast.

00:01:29.281 --> 00:01:30.102
Thank you very much.

00:01:30.563 --> 00:01:32.385
Talking to you from Sweden.

00:01:32.444 --> 00:01:33.786
Are you in Stockholm in Sweden?

00:01:34.206 --> 00:01:38.170
Yes, I am in a very snowy and cold and nice Stockholm.

00:01:38.769 --> 00:01:41.393
How did you start playing harmonica in Stockholm?

00:01:41.772 --> 00:01:43.534
I didn't start in Stockholm, actually.

00:01:43.674 --> 00:01:51.921
I'm from the south of Sweden, on the southest part, born in a small village called Hör, close to Malmö, which is close to Copenhagen, almost Denmark.

00:01:52.262 --> 00:01:57.406
But I started playing harmonica down there 20 years ago, this year, in 2001.

00:01:57.546 --> 00:01:59.929
And I moved to Stockholm in 2006.

00:02:00.269 --> 00:02:00.368
Right.

00:02:00.388 --> 00:02:00.549
And

00:02:01.930 --> 00:02:03.992
did you move to Stockholm because the music seems better?

00:02:04.033 --> 00:02:06.536
Yes, it was because of my studies.

00:02:06.995 --> 00:02:17.106
I was turning 20 years old and I had got accepted at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and the Royal College of Music in Malmö, southern part of Sweden.

00:02:17.387 --> 00:02:20.250
And then I moved to the capital of Sweden and it feels great.

00:02:20.450 --> 00:02:21.070
I love this city.

00:02:21.372 --> 00:02:26.637
It's really a cool music city with so many different kinds of music scenes all over.

00:02:26.957 --> 00:02:27.157
Great.

00:02:27.217 --> 00:02:31.802
And I believe on the course that you took, Were you the first harmonica player to be taken on that course?

00:02:32.323 --> 00:02:34.966
Yes, I was the first harmonica player ever there.

00:02:35.086 --> 00:02:37.848
I mean, and that school started like 300 years ago.

00:02:37.868 --> 00:02:40.771
So it was kind of funny in a way that I was the first.

00:02:40.953 --> 00:02:46.739
I took a musician education, jazz musician education, and I did it five years.

00:02:46.818 --> 00:02:51.283
So I have both bachelor and master's of fine arts in music performance.

00:02:51.563 --> 00:02:54.227
Usually on these sorts of courses, you need to have a second instrument.

00:02:54.407 --> 00:02:56.229
What was your second instrument on the course?

00:02:56.568 --> 00:03:30.806
I had piano first, and then I had a bit of guitar than a bit of accordion but harmonica was my main instrument first and the funny thing was i i was not allowed to apply first i remember sending in the papers because you couldn't like check harmonica in the list of instrument you played but i wrote it like i play harmonica and then they called me uh two weeks later and said oh we don't have a teacher that can give you exams and things and then i said it's nothing strange it's just notes i mean they are the same here in in the western world so put me among jazz saxophones and then then I will come and do the test.

00:03:30.925 --> 00:03:33.788
And they was, okay, but we have never had harmonica.

00:03:33.868 --> 00:03:34.569
Can this work?

00:03:34.710 --> 00:03:36.491
And I said, yes, it will work.

00:03:36.572 --> 00:03:37.073
It's the same.

00:03:37.092 --> 00:03:38.213
I mean, it's just music.

00:03:38.473 --> 00:03:39.354
And then it worked.

00:03:39.594 --> 00:03:44.640
So I got in, but I had to fight a bit to get in to the music college because they were not used to it.

00:03:44.741 --> 00:03:50.105
Of course, there are not so many in the world that have studied harmonica on a high academic music level.

00:03:50.467 --> 00:03:54.151
You're in the rare club of being a properly qualified harmonica players.

00:03:54.450 --> 00:03:54.852
Exactly.

00:03:54.991 --> 00:03:55.431
Educated.

00:03:55.491 --> 00:03:56.913
Great to have you on.

00:03:56.973 --> 00:03:57.875
So, and we'll get into that.

00:03:57.895 --> 00:04:07.564
And I think that really does show in you're playing and i think you know a lot of people who are playing and maybe a lot of the harmonica players don't read music you know whilst we're on the topic then what do you think that brings to your playing

00:04:07.824 --> 00:05:05.908
yeah the good thing when i was in the royal academy of music was that they they treated me just as a musician and then they just cured a lot of music on me and i had to handle it so i learned all the tools of being a musician so i never really thought that i'm i'm just a harmonica player i was just thinking this is music i should be able to play this i was a very bad reader or i didn't read music music so much before I started I like crash coursed on it six months before the test when I was in my teenage years because I was really playing just from the air in the beginning yeah I learned how to read very good and also I mean the most important thing to interact and to work with other musicians all the decisions you make and all the things you should listen for and how to work with dynamics and phrasing and it was so lovely and it was so funny to study at that music school I did five years and then I got into the teacher's program as well but I felt like I should try to live life as a freelance musician and it has worked 10 years no worries

00:05:21.910 --> 00:05:21.949
so

00:05:22.625 --> 00:05:26.309
So going back a little bit to your younger days.

00:05:26.449 --> 00:05:30.473
So I know from reading about you, you play various instruments.

00:05:30.492 --> 00:05:33.175
You mentioned already piano, guitar, accordion.

00:05:33.214 --> 00:05:37.579
You've also played some bass, some saxophone, some flute, mandolin.

00:05:37.639 --> 00:05:40.521
So what instrument did you start off with when you were younger?

00:05:40.541 --> 00:05:42.523
At what point did you pick up the harmonica?

00:05:42.884 --> 00:05:47.408
I started on cello when I was seven or eight, classical cello.

00:05:47.588 --> 00:05:49.069
But I wasn't so into it.

00:05:49.309 --> 00:05:52.591
But I played every week and it was fun, but not my main passion.

00:05:52.591 --> 00:06:56.785
but then when I was 13 I got a guitar from my father and then it was wow music is the coolest thing in the world because I had seen a classmate in high school that played played guitar and sang and I was like wow this is music wow and then i got a guitar and we henrik is his name we started playing together and then i was 13 and then at 14 i got my first harmonica for my grandmother because we listened me and henrik would listen a lot to 60s music to a lot of blues and kind of folk pop things of that era and there is a lot of harmonica in that music and also to be mentioned by my father also played guitar and harmonica he was not a musician by profession but he was a very happy amateur and and played lots of music at home and also a real music lover had like 10,000 vinyls and I was brought up in a musical home in that way and also my mother she played a little bit of piano but her father was a jazz musician and forest worker I think you call it that.

00:06:57.105 --> 00:07:00.689
Great and so this first harmonica you got at the age of 14 what type of harmonica was that?

00:07:01.129 --> 00:07:01.930
That was a

00:07:02.050 --> 00:07:06.956
diatonic in C and it was a Horner blues harp the MS version To

00:07:07.598 --> 00:07:15.045
make it clear to everyone, you play various types of harmonica, with the diatonic and chromatic harmonica being kind of equally spaced, so...

00:07:15.490 --> 00:07:24.577
you started off as a diatonic player yes you then so how did you how did your progression go on the harmonica did you start picking up the chromatic when you start getting more into jazz what happened there

00:07:24.997 --> 00:08:08.194
no i was actually i started on diatonic and then pretty early on i heard a concert with mark breitfelder a fantastic german harmonica player who played blues but with lots of modern techniques meaning he used overblows and overdraws and stuff and i heard him when i had played harmonica for like one year so i was like oh i bought all cds and Then I sat at home and learned how to overblow and overdraw.

00:08:08.737 --> 00:08:10.482
And then I could get all the chromatic notes.

00:08:10.742 --> 00:08:15.357
And then I also found Howard Levy's recordings and I got totally...

00:08:15.841 --> 00:08:18.185
Totally fanatic about his playing.

00:08:19.086 --> 00:08:22.192
And I really loved it and still love it.

00:08:22.572 --> 00:08:25.435
So I was really into playing jazz on the diatonic at first.

00:08:25.456 --> 00:08:27.459
To overblow, what do you say?

00:08:27.499 --> 00:08:29.923
Overbend all the notes that aren't there.

00:08:30.985 --> 00:08:35.091
I did that for, I think it was maybe four years or something.

00:08:35.150 --> 00:08:41.179
Because I bought my first chromatic when I was at the World Harmonica Festival in Trossingen in Germany.

00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:43.123
Which was 2005.

00:08:43.163 --> 00:08:45.005
Then I bought my first chromatic.

00:08:45.378 --> 00:08:49.741
So that came when I was like, yeah, started on the chromatic at 18 maybe or something.

00:08:50.822 --> 00:08:53.504
What made you decide that the harmonica is your main instrument?

00:08:53.544 --> 00:08:58.929
Having played several instruments, like you said, cello, guitar, you know, you play some piano, you play accordion still now.

00:08:59.009 --> 00:09:02.173
So yeah, what made you settle on the harmonica as your main instrument?

00:09:02.373 --> 00:09:02.493
It's

00:09:02.533 --> 00:09:02.613
the

00:09:02.673 --> 00:09:02.993
sound

00:09:03.033 --> 00:09:06.216
of the harmonica that it just touches me so much.

00:09:06.416 --> 00:09:09.438
I love the sound and the feel that you're so close to the notes.

00:09:09.578 --> 00:09:47.934
This is interesting to say, because I don't know if I would have chosen harmonica if I wouldn't have heard Howard Lee when I was that young because when I heard him I kind of realized wow all of this is possible this is amazing and that made me stick to the harmonica because I was playing lots of guitar as well and what should I choose what instrument is the coolest and then I also when I found Toots Thielemann harmonica is the thing that was also when I was in that age 18 19 I played lots of accordion as well and actually when I finished high school I was planning to become an accordion teacher and I applied one year to study accordion.

00:09:47.955 --> 00:09:50.076
And I did that for six months.

00:09:50.256 --> 00:09:54.900
But then I went to the World Harmonica Festival in Germany and competed.

00:09:54.961 --> 00:09:58.865
They have this kind of thing every fourth year where there is a big competition.

00:09:59.264 --> 00:10:02.567
And then I won in diatonic jazz and blues, two golds.

00:10:03.168 --> 00:10:05.331
And then I felt, ah, I am a harmonica player.

00:10:05.370 --> 00:10:11.855
I have to try to educate myself on harmonica to make it my first instrument to see if it's possible.

00:10:12.096 --> 00:10:13.236
So I decided on that.

00:10:13.356 --> 00:10:17.761
And then I applied for the, as I told you earlier on the the Royal College of Music.

00:10:17.881 --> 00:10:22.265
So it took a few years actually, starting on harmonica at 14.

00:10:22.706 --> 00:10:27.510
And then I decided really when I was 19 that this is my main instrument.

00:10:27.530 --> 00:10:28.572
This is what I should play.

00:10:29.432 --> 00:10:33.857
So the victory in the World Harmonica Championship in Trossingen was the real stepping stone, as you say.

00:10:34.018 --> 00:10:34.719
That was in 2005.

00:10:34.739 --> 00:10:39.964
So you were about 18, 19 years old then you decided to make the harmonica your thing.

00:10:40.203 --> 00:10:40.403
Yes.

00:10:40.644 --> 00:10:40.845
Yeah.

00:10:40.904 --> 00:10:41.424
So how was that?

00:10:41.465 --> 00:10:42.605
As you say, you were quite young then.

00:10:42.626 --> 00:10:46.110
You went along and you won the jazz and blues category, separate categories, yeah?

00:10:46.274 --> 00:10:47.807
Yeah, so you were quite young to do that.

00:10:47.868 --> 00:10:48.996
So yeah, how did that go?

00:10:49.299 --> 00:10:49.864
It went well.

00:10:50.177 --> 00:10:51.940
I didn't think so much about it.

00:10:52.039 --> 00:10:58.865
I was, because I had visited Trossingen two years earlier with my Swedish harmonica friend, Dick Kruberg.

00:10:58.966 --> 00:11:00.067
He's in his seventies now.

00:11:00.287 --> 00:11:04.650
He was actually one of my first harmonica teachers and also a great customizer.

00:11:04.770 --> 00:11:08.214
But me and Dick Kruberg, we were in Trossingen, I think that was 2003.

00:11:08.313 --> 00:11:11.677
And then we went, it was this masterclass week.

00:11:11.917 --> 00:11:14.058
I studied and met the whole gang.

00:11:14.178 --> 00:11:19.523
It was like Joe Felisco, Brandon Power, Steve Baker, Carlos Del Jonco, so many great players there.

00:11:19.803 --> 00:11:24.990
And then I I remember Steve Baker told me, oh, you should come back to the World Harmonica Festival in two years.

00:11:25.331 --> 00:11:27.874
And then I really had like a goal to practice for.

00:11:27.913 --> 00:11:31.138
Then I practiced for that and then I went down again and then I won.

00:11:31.418 --> 00:11:32.178
It felt amazing.

00:11:32.379 --> 00:11:35.202
But I also felt like competing in music is like it is.

00:11:35.403 --> 00:11:39.708
But that day I was the best who entered those categories in the competition.

00:11:39.989 --> 00:11:41.551
And I have not been competing since.

00:11:41.831 --> 00:11:43.474
I stopped competing when I was on the top.

00:11:43.937 --> 00:11:46.224
Then I realized you can make those goals for yourself.

00:11:46.504 --> 00:11:48.089
They don't have to be in our competition.

00:11:48.249 --> 00:11:54.546
But it was good to do that thing that young, I think, because I really decided, yeah, this is my thing.

00:11:55.226 --> 00:11:56.070
And that helped me.

00:11:56.322 --> 00:12:01.125
So you did your course, you started your jazz course five years from the age of 18.

00:12:01.426 --> 00:12:05.309
I mean, from there now you play, we're talking about your albums shortly.

00:12:05.889 --> 00:12:07.272
You play a whole range of genres.

00:12:07.312 --> 00:12:12.375
You play jazz, you play blues, you play folk and world music, pop and classical as well.

00:12:12.456 --> 00:12:16.659
So a whole range of genres that really shows through in your music.

00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:19.241
Did that develop after you finished your course?

00:12:19.261 --> 00:12:21.163
Were you working that through there as well?

00:12:21.903 --> 00:12:26.288
Most of the things happened when I was in the College of Music because I met so many fans.

00:12:26.288 --> 00:12:28.250
fantastic musicians and music lovers.

00:12:28.509 --> 00:12:31.033
And I met people from the Folk Music Academy.

00:12:31.413 --> 00:12:34.277
And that's how I kind of started playing folk music.

00:12:34.297 --> 00:12:36.999
I had lessons with a classical flute teacher.

00:12:37.100 --> 00:12:40.003
He played classical flute and I played chromatic harmonica.

00:12:40.342 --> 00:12:41.683
And then I got into classical.

00:12:42.085 --> 00:12:46.850
And then also Stockholm has always been very, I mean, it's a pop music city.

00:12:47.009 --> 00:12:52.596
I mean, if you know ABBA, there has always been lots of pop music produced in Stockholm, Sweden.

00:12:52.655 --> 00:12:54.638
So there are studios everywhere.

00:12:54.798 --> 00:12:57.041
So I have always been doing studio sessions.

00:12:57.100 --> 00:12:59.462
I started with that when I was in the school as well.

00:12:59.803 --> 00:13:03.027
So the school was really like gigantic network that I created.

00:13:03.047 --> 00:13:06.029
And I'm so happy that I was able to do that.

00:13:06.410 --> 00:13:08.393
We'll get on a little bit then to your recording.

00:13:08.472 --> 00:13:14.278
So it looks like the first time you really started getting out playing was with this Stockholm Lisboa project.

00:13:14.339 --> 00:13:14.840
Is that right?

00:13:14.899 --> 00:13:15.100
Yes.

00:13:15.480 --> 00:13:15.880
Yeah.

00:13:16.140 --> 00:13:22.607
So this is a Swedish Portuguese music kind of a collective where you're playing music from Sweden and Portugal.

00:13:22.648 --> 00:13:22.768
Yeah.

00:13:22.807 --> 00:13:23.668
So how did that come about?

00:13:23.729 --> 00:13:26.192
It definitely produces some really interesting stuff.

00:13:26.192 --> 00:13:26.452
Bye.

00:13:37.953 --> 00:13:38.014
Bye.

00:13:40.097 --> 00:13:47.063
Yeah, the Mandola player, Simon Stolzbeth, he saw me in an ad for hearing harmonicas.

00:13:47.163 --> 00:13:49.225
I was playing hearing harmonicas back then.

00:13:49.725 --> 00:13:50.767
And then he just called me.

00:13:51.048 --> 00:13:52.889
Oh, I also played a harmonica.

00:13:52.969 --> 00:13:53.909
Can you show me?

00:13:54.129 --> 00:13:54.610
And then we met.

00:13:54.831 --> 00:13:56.711
Yeah, he had that band already.

00:13:56.852 --> 00:13:59.014
And then after two weeks, I was in that band.

00:13:59.174 --> 00:14:00.655
And it was a fantastic band.

00:14:00.735 --> 00:14:01.797
I'm not in it right now.

00:14:02.017 --> 00:14:04.759
But it was Nordic Mandola, which is a string instrument.

00:14:04.940 --> 00:14:05.779
I played harmonica.

00:14:05.960 --> 00:14:13.006
And then there is a Portuguese violin player and Portuguese fadista, which is vocal style from Portugal.

00:14:13.408 --> 00:14:18.173
So it's a mixture of Swedish folk music and Portuguese vocal music, you could say.

00:14:18.533 --> 00:14:20.335
Or Fadoist folk music as well.

00:14:20.794 --> 00:14:26.380
We blended our musical traditions together and we had so much fun during those years.

00:14:26.861 --> 00:14:32.567
I think, is it your first album you were on, which is the Diagonal CD, which was released in 2009.

00:14:32.628 --> 00:14:34.409
This won a German Record Critics Award.

00:14:34.429 --> 00:14:35.051
It's a great album.

00:14:35.071 --> 00:14:49.066
I've been listening to it thinking this is great, you know, and it's such a beautiful setting for the harmonica and it's different you know and it's almost got a medieval sound to it some of this music as well with that that female singer has kind of got that vibe was that your first album released album

00:14:49.125 --> 00:14:53.791
yeah my first full-length album the one where i was a part of the whole cd process yes

00:14:54.030 --> 00:14:57.815
and on this one already you've got some bass harmonica being

00:14:57.955 --> 00:15:57.379
used and also playing harmonica in this i mean the harmonica has a place in in swedish folk music but it's it's not that common in portugal there are some tremolo and octave harmonica players in portugal but there is not so many and they play folk music but in this fado style they had never had harmonica before so i kind of had to find a way of how to play and i kind of tried to mix the the chromatic style that i had with the kind of more folky and bluesy diatonic sound and then the bass harp just came as a blessing that i oh i have a bass harp as well and why shouldn't i this is the perfect band for it yeah i was really kind of sore at after the first tours with that band in the mouth it took really on the on the armature to play play all that stuff but yeah we had amazing time we toured a lot in Europe and we were also in in Asia and Canada and stuff and toured so yeah it's and it's it's out now so people can listen to it I'm really happy for that

00:15:57.759 --> 00:16:30.981
yeah no it's a great music and a great start for you so you know you won the you won the harmonica championships when you were young and then your first sort of main full-length album you won an award for and we're touring so yeah you got off to a great start and uh i believe just before that as well you met two steelmans yeah

00:16:31.553 --> 00:16:33.755
Yeah, I met him at gigs in Sweden.

00:16:34.355 --> 00:16:36.477
He was playing in Sweden around that time.

00:16:36.738 --> 00:16:41.883
He has always been in Sweden a lot since the 60s, and he speaks a bit of Swedish as well.

00:16:42.403 --> 00:16:45.306
And I knew the arranger that made the gigs.

00:16:45.365 --> 00:16:46.626
Oh, no, you have to meet Toots.

00:16:46.746 --> 00:16:51.751
And I was so nervous, but he took me backstage, and then I sat and played and talked with Toots for hours.

00:16:52.152 --> 00:16:58.017
And then he came two years later, and then I got backstage again, and then we talked and played.

00:16:58.658 --> 00:17:03.282
Yeah, it was really amazing to meet him and to talk with him and play with him.

00:17:03.701 --> 00:17:05.584
I realize that now when he's gone.

00:17:06.065 --> 00:17:06.826
It's like, wow.

00:17:07.346 --> 00:17:10.609
It's like playing the saxophone and meeting John Coltrane.

00:17:10.970 --> 00:17:12.050
It's on the same level.

00:17:12.111 --> 00:17:14.614
I mean, Tootsie's the one for jazz harmonica.

00:17:14.673 --> 00:17:23.303
There is no doubt.

00:17:23.923 --> 00:17:32.173
Any words of wisdom did he give to you that you could share

00:17:32.673 --> 00:18:05.669
yeah you have to cut your mustache so it doesn't get too long because it gets up in the harmonica but he also said things uh jazz theory things on on diminished scales and and altered scales kind of these things and then he also but he also said a very good thing that he tries to solo in a way that he writes a poem on a very small piece of paper and that is very beautiful words i think you shouldn't you yeah don't play too much and try to say much with with less that's things i always think about and

00:18:06.348 --> 00:18:18.721
and did you also form your um your quartet at this stage uh which you later you later went on to record an album but yeah were you so you touring with your own quartet from what sort of 2008 time as well

00:18:18.982 --> 00:18:35.800
yeah around that time i think it was 2008 when we first jammed together in the jazz halls and it started as a project kind of school project but then it really became a band because we had so much fun they are all amazing musicians from their generation in that band guitar bass and drums and harmonica

00:18:35.941 --> 00:18:47.933
and then in 2011 you did your debut solo album Spyro yes which has got lots of great harp on a go for a couple of the songs but is it right that you recorded all the instruments on

00:18:47.973 --> 00:19:13.904
the album yes I did I had that music in my head and I just had to get it out I heard all those songs and all the things and I okay now I have to do it so I played all all kinds of harmonicas on it and then also guitar and jaw harp and an accordion and recorded all the music and mixed the whole cd it was that kind of gigantic project that many people do after their 40s but i did it when i was 25 so

00:19:30.049 --> 00:19:31.151
Yeah, I mean, it's fantastic.

00:19:31.952 --> 00:19:41.726
Quite often, you know, when you hear that somebody's recorded a home album, and I do some recording at home, yeah, and, you know, I keep thinking to myself, I should get some proper songs, you know, put together kind of like an album like you have.

00:19:41.746 --> 00:19:43.228
But it's a big task, yeah?

00:19:43.248 --> 00:19:46.592
I mean, I have a full-time job, so it's a bit time-wise.

00:19:46.852 --> 00:19:48.494
So how long did it take you to do it?

00:19:48.974 --> 00:19:50.037
It took two years,

00:19:50.257 --> 00:19:53.000
I think, from the first idea until I had it.

00:19:53.121 --> 00:19:54.583
But I actually recorded it.

00:19:55.042 --> 00:19:59.088
It was released in May 2011, and I recorded everything in January 2011.

00:20:00.289 --> 00:20:17.424
in my student room in Stockholm but you know to write the songs to practice the instruments and to really yeah to really make good music that took lots of preparation but I'm so happy I did it and I'm it's 10 years now so somewhere I might do a step two let's see

00:20:17.924 --> 00:20:33.159
it'd be great you know again you know when you listen to a kind of home produced album you sort of think oh you know the quality might not be quite up there with you know maybe when there's a studio and other musicians but it's great you know it sounds really great all of it and the Of course, there's lots of harmonica on there and lots of different harmonicas on there.

00:20:33.179 --> 00:20:36.383
So as a harmonica fan, it's a real pleasure to listen to.

00:20:36.423 --> 00:20:38.984
It's quite experimental in places as well.

00:20:39.025 --> 00:20:43.369
Some of the songs, you get some effects on the harmonica and stuff.

00:20:43.410 --> 00:20:45.772
It's kind of experimental sounds on some of them, isn't it?

00:20:46.113 --> 00:20:51.578
Yeah, I mean, it's sounds that were in my head and I had to get them out.

00:20:51.679 --> 00:20:54.541
And to be honest, I have not heard many of them before.

00:20:54.801 --> 00:20:57.105
I mean, not on any other harmonica CD.

00:20:57.724 --> 00:21:18.743
And I felt there is like some songs that is really free improvisation and very strange double stops and all these things but it's kind of I mean if you put it in a genre maybe jazz 1960s free jazz or Ned Coleman style I was listening to that at that time I mean and I tried to play like him almost that music was inside me and it had to come out

00:21:19.163 --> 00:21:30.173
and the song the basement for example that's that's quite a composition and oh yeah I think you're playing bass harp you're playing diatonic and chromatic and I think you're playing a jaw harp

00:21:31.938 --> 00:21:41.278
Thank you.

00:21:43.425 --> 00:22:10.308
yeah that's a very strange yeah i i kind of imagine you know like the x files and then that that molder is going down in the bass and it's like what is this sound and or some kind of tom wait song that is super creepy and really yeah something different than a beautiful jazz ballad

00:22:10.849 --> 00:22:31.198
kind of yeah and then there's the there's the blues tooth 2002 which is with an accordion yeah and it's got a kind of almost like kind of folky is it kind of swedish folk kind of blues and again it's got this great kind of feel about it so

00:22:31.458 --> 00:22:39.025
Yeah,

00:22:39.085 --> 00:22:42.988
and that's the, I mean, playing accordion where the reed is very stable.

00:22:43.188 --> 00:22:47.231
And then I play a diatonic where you can go around with the pitch of the reed a lot.

00:22:47.251 --> 00:22:50.074
So those worlds meet on that song.

00:22:50.734 --> 00:22:56.779
And of course, Toose did an album with an accordion player, didn't he, with a chromatic, where the sound's quite similar between the chromatic and the accordion, isn't it?

00:22:56.819 --> 00:22:58.121
But you were playing diatonic on that one,

00:22:58.141 --> 00:22:58.221
yeah?

00:22:58.300 --> 00:22:59.021
Yeah, exactly.

00:22:59.481 --> 00:23:02.345
But there are a song also with accordion, and chromatic

00:23:02.884 --> 00:23:28.990
yeah so yeah really interesting i'll put some clips on people to hear and then there'll be uh people can find it on spotify of course on the playlist for the podcast so and then the the next one on the on the list is uh is it the akamed album yeah it means join us it's dubbed as a folk jazz trio that's a really good album i really enjoyed that one so

00:23:37.506 --> 00:23:39.126
For me, I'm also very proud of it.

00:23:39.248 --> 00:23:43.691
It was actually recorded almost directly after I released Spyro.

00:23:44.172 --> 00:23:52.739
That band had our rehearsal room in a cellar, and we recorded the whole CD there on a few summer nights ourselves.

00:23:53.058 --> 00:23:55.602
And then the bass player and me mixed that whole CD.

00:23:55.882 --> 00:24:03.689
It's really kind of a mixture of folk songs from the UK, some of them, and some from Sweden, and then some original ones.

00:24:04.269 --> 00:24:05.630
Then we just improvise on it.

00:24:05.790 --> 00:24:09.355
We kind of treat the traditional songs as jazz songs.

00:24:09.454 --> 00:24:14.040
We kind of use the form and the melody, but then we improvise on the form and the melody.

00:24:14.281 --> 00:24:17.566
And then we add chords and kind of make it our own versions.

00:24:17.846 --> 00:24:20.430
Yeah, we played a lot with that band for like two, three years.

00:24:21.070 --> 00:24:23.515
And then it kind of, every band has its time.

00:24:23.615 --> 00:24:25.518
That band is on hold right now.

00:24:25.778 --> 00:24:28.342
We are good friends, but yeah, you don't have time for everything.

00:24:28.761 --> 00:24:34.029
And I also, I switch a lot between chromatic and diatonic on that one, almost every song.

00:24:34.241 --> 00:24:35.684
Nice mixture of songs there.

00:24:35.704 --> 00:24:40.115
You've got the Ackermann, and then you've got Crowley's Reel, which is an Irish song.

00:24:40.155 --> 00:24:43.042
That one I learned from Brendan Power's Irish book.

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000
.

00:24:55.394 --> 00:24:58.921
And then he did another album with the Stockholm Lisboa Project.

00:24:59.382 --> 00:24:59.602
Yes.

00:25:00.123 --> 00:25:03.589
Before then recording the first album with the Philip Jers Quartet.

00:25:04.010 --> 00:25:06.915
So this is more of a straight up sort of jazz album.

00:25:14.771 --> 00:25:15.933
Yeah.

00:25:24.162 --> 00:25:27.724
That album was my original songs, my jazz songs.

00:25:27.845 --> 00:25:34.830
And we also recorded two standards, Sophisticated Lady and It's Only a Paper Moon, but then only my own song.

00:25:35.050 --> 00:25:36.192
I love that CD as well.

00:25:36.272 --> 00:25:40.476
I mean, it's, yeah, it's a time in life that is documented in music.

00:25:41.037 --> 00:25:43.939
I think the ensemble is playing really good on that.

00:25:44.559 --> 00:25:47.582
It's great jazz playing among the musicians.

00:25:48.083 --> 00:25:53.446
I think, you know, looking through, you've got a lot of output, a lot of albums out there with different bands, as we've already talked about now.

00:25:53.708 --> 00:26:07.342
And you talked about sort of documenting a time that you say these bands don't always last very long do they maybe just a few years but you capture you know that time and that music don't you so it's great to get those down i mean is that something you've been really committed to to think yeah let's get an album done

00:26:07.883 --> 00:26:57.494
both yes and no we didn't think that we should record now because we might quit in a few years but we back in those days you had to kind of record an album to get gigs to to get booked to kind of become a band that's strange because now 2021 it's like it's better to have a good YouTube clip than to have a full length album at least in my situation and that's kind of strange and it's not always like that but I'm working to live with that but yeah I'm so happy that we did those full length CDs and I mean that format will never disappear the full length CD like 40 to 50 minutes of music because that's the old form of the sonata that the composer like I think Haydn was the one that said this is If you write music for 40 to 50 minutes, we call it a sonata.

00:26:57.615 --> 00:26:59.916
And then everyone did that, Mozart, Beethoven, etc.

00:27:00.357 --> 00:27:02.759
And that's the same length of a CD.

00:27:03.019 --> 00:27:05.803
And that has stayed with musicians for a long, long time.

00:27:06.042 --> 00:27:07.564
It's kind of interesting if you think on it.

00:27:08.085 --> 00:27:16.752
Yeah, it's interesting as you say that, you know, social media, YouTube clips, short clips, Spotify, you know, that sort of thing, streaming music, Amazon music, Apple music, etc.

00:27:16.932 --> 00:27:18.433
That's sort of overtaken it, isn't it?

00:27:18.473 --> 00:27:21.196
So is it kind of, it's a lot of effort to record an album.

00:27:21.217 --> 00:27:22.218
Yeah, you know, you need to...

00:27:22.657 --> 00:27:24.848
you need to commit a lot of time and effort to it.

00:27:25.332 --> 00:27:28.567
So it's going to kind of be replaced, but you think the album is going to live on.

00:27:28.749 --> 00:27:30.236
I think it's needed still, isn't it?

00:27:30.721 --> 00:27:31.363
Yeah, it is.

00:27:31.522 --> 00:27:32.483
I mean, it will live on.

00:27:32.763 --> 00:27:41.230
But if you want to sell it and go plus minus zero or on a plus, then you have to tour a lot and sell the CDs at gigs.

00:27:41.570 --> 00:27:44.854
You sell CDs on gigs, but you don't sell them so much.

00:27:44.874 --> 00:27:49.317
I don't sell CDs online anymore because people consume from streaming services.

00:27:49.417 --> 00:27:50.439
And I do that myself.

00:27:50.778 --> 00:27:51.740
But it is a problem, isn't it?

00:27:51.779 --> 00:27:55.323
Because as people stream more, then you're not going to sell CDs yet.

00:27:55.403 --> 00:28:00.347
And at the end of the day, are you even people even going to have CD players to play CDs on in a few years time?

00:28:00.428 --> 00:28:01.588
So because Everything will be straight.

00:28:01.608 --> 00:28:01.808
Exactly.

00:28:01.868 --> 00:28:05.292
I mean, now the cars don't even have CD players anymore.

00:28:05.833 --> 00:28:14.221
The thing is, if you make a CD, then you kind of commit yourself to get together with a bunch of people or with yourself and really make a project.

00:28:14.403 --> 00:28:17.326
And that is a good artistic goal to always have.

00:28:17.506 --> 00:28:25.374
Yeah, as I said, your time in life or the songs you play or in the style you play or in the style you want to play, that that can kind of become a goal.

00:28:26.015 --> 00:28:28.798
But now for us, it's a CD or it's a recording.

00:28:29.157 --> 00:28:30.359
So that will not disappear.

00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:34.784
Yeah, so moving on, Sean, your range again.

00:28:34.824 --> 00:28:41.371
So you did New Scandinavian Harmonica Volume 1 in 2014, where you're playing with a Finnish harmonica player.

00:28:41.551 --> 00:28:42.011
Yeah, his

00:28:42.132 --> 00:28:43.053
Joko Kyyhelle.

00:28:43.334 --> 00:28:45.276
This is just two harmonicas on the album, yeah?

00:28:45.796 --> 00:28:46.977
No other instruments?

00:28:47.357 --> 00:28:50.080
No other instruments, just many different harmonicas.

00:28:50.500 --> 00:28:54.305
We only play traditional Scandinavian folk music on that album.

00:28:54.586 --> 00:28:59.790
And as I said, the harmonica has a tradition in Swedish folk music and in Finnish folk music as well.

00:29:00.192 --> 00:29:06.920
And we met First, we got a grant to kind of explore our traditions from the Swedish state and the Finnish state.

00:29:07.220 --> 00:29:08.281
And then it was so fun.

00:29:08.342 --> 00:29:10.904
So a year later, we recorded it as a CD.

00:29:24.182 --> 00:29:24.221
So

00:29:26.849 --> 00:29:32.515
And we have been playing pretty many school concerts and showing the harmonicas to kids and stuff, me and Joko.

00:29:32.694 --> 00:29:36.337
And we also played around folk music festivals in Scandinavia.

00:29:36.538 --> 00:29:42.763
And I mean, that CD is interesting for me because I really play mainly melodies on that album.

00:29:43.023 --> 00:29:50.550
I mean, I improvise as well and make a solo, but mainly working on other textures and ways of playing.

00:29:50.711 --> 00:29:55.634
It's a big contrast, that one, to the song Basement from my Spyro CD.

00:29:55.974 --> 00:30:02.962
And that Joko is such an amazing player because he plays so strong and so traditional in a very good way.

00:30:03.163 --> 00:30:04.284
I really like his playing.

00:30:04.584 --> 00:30:07.667
Me and Joko, we don't have the same touch, but I think that's good.

00:30:08.008 --> 00:30:10.130
And it's interesting here you accompany each other.

00:30:10.451 --> 00:30:11.711
It's all the way through the album, isn't it?

00:30:11.731 --> 00:30:15.955
And you've got the kind of chord stuff going on on one harmonica while one of you plays over it.

00:30:16.017 --> 00:30:16.856
It works quite well.

00:30:16.916 --> 00:30:21.041
So I guess you did that partly with different sorts of harmonicas as well on there.

00:30:21.521 --> 00:30:26.688
Yeah, and we had some retuned harmonicas with Blu-Tack on whole free draw.

00:30:26.708 --> 00:30:30.143
So I could get a fifth if I inhale one and three on the diatonics.

00:30:30.384 --> 00:30:32.673
Yeah, that album, I'm also very proud of it.

00:30:32.914 --> 00:30:34.300
It's an interesting one.

00:30:34.594 --> 00:30:35.855
Yeah, definitely interesting.

00:30:35.894 --> 00:30:43.642
And then another interesting one the year after, a great output, you're really putting out these albums, is your next quartet album, which is the second album.

00:30:43.942 --> 00:30:46.564
It's called Philip Joe's Quartet Plays Swedish Folk.

00:30:46.604 --> 00:30:52.670
So I'm going to ask you about this Swedish folk, Philip, because this is not the sort of folk music I'm used to listening to.

00:30:52.690 --> 00:30:58.855
It's almost got that kind of 70s Butterfield kind of long track sort of feeling about it.

00:30:58.894 --> 00:31:00.476
So yeah, what about that one?

00:31:00.896 --> 00:31:04.240
It is only traditional Swedish folk music on that CD.

00:31:04.359 --> 00:31:42.655
The two tunes are like from 70 years old to 200 years old and they are mostly played on a fiddle or free fiddles or something or they are sang but we make our own jazz versions of the songs and often you can take the titles from that album and just search that title on Spotify and you might find the traditional folk music recording and you will find something very different but we took those melodies and then we added chords and different modes and different styles to every song and made our music of it and we are all it's my jazz quartet yeah same generation and happy jazz players so we just improvised and played what we felt and heard

00:31:58.849 --> 00:32:05.134
After listening to the first album from your quartet, which is, as we said, a kind of straight ahead, you know, playing jazz standards.

00:32:05.536 --> 00:32:10.720
And then I listened to this one, I'm thinking, Swedish folk, but yeah, it's that kind of free jazz sort of feeling about it, isn't it?

00:32:10.740 --> 00:32:11.661
Yeah, really interesting.

00:32:11.721 --> 00:32:13.482
And again, really pushing the boundaries there.

00:32:14.022 --> 00:32:16.285
Yeah, and it's lots of waltzes as well.

00:32:16.325 --> 00:32:23.431
In jazz, you don't often play in 3-4, but on this CD, we play many kind of different time meters as well.

00:32:23.550 --> 00:32:25.472
Almost 3-4 is the standard.

00:32:25.532 --> 00:32:28.276
And then we stretch that to different versions of 3-4.

00:32:28.576 --> 00:32:28.816
Yeah.

00:32:28.816 --> 00:32:34.801
Did you upset the Swedish folk fraternity by doing that to their traditional Swedish music?

00:32:35.343 --> 00:32:39.688
Yeah, maybe some people, but many of them were very, very happy.

00:32:39.948 --> 00:32:44.071
And we got the Swedish Grammy in the folk music category for that album.

00:32:44.472 --> 00:32:44.952
Ah, excellent.

00:32:45.294 --> 00:32:52.922
And also we got lots of gigs in the folk music community in Sweden, at big festivals in Sweden, because folk music is strong in Sweden.

00:32:52.942 --> 00:32:58.647
We have a very living tradition, lots of players, lots of courses, lots of festivals, lots of clubs.

00:32:58.768 --> 00:33:02.932
So we got into a new kind of concept as jazz musicians.

00:33:03.392 --> 00:33:06.934
And then your next album out in 2017, Live at the Victoria.

00:33:07.075 --> 00:33:10.798
I think this is a live blues gig, basically, with a great singer on there.

00:33:10.999 --> 00:33:11.858
Yeah, Svante Show.

00:33:12.200 --> 00:33:16.703
And we have been playing blues together since 2004, since I was 17.

00:33:16.983 --> 00:33:22.067
Every summer I had a gig, second weekend of July, where we played at Sweden's biggest blues festival.

00:33:22.248 --> 00:33:28.733
We never met during the year, but then like 8th of July, we went to that festival and played a bunch of gigs and then went home.

00:33:28.738 --> 00:33:32.301
2017, we had done that for like 13 years.

00:33:33.042 --> 00:33:34.324
We have to make a CD now.

00:33:34.483 --> 00:33:36.967
So then we recorded Two Nights in Malmö.

00:33:37.166 --> 00:33:57.829
And yeah, that CD came out.

00:33:57.849 --> 00:33:57.950
Oh! Oh!

00:33:58.210 --> 00:34:06.666
That's also a nice journey, not to close a chapter, but to make a point that we have done this music together.

00:34:06.686 --> 00:34:09.893
And I mean, those songs, I love all those blues songs.

00:34:10.235 --> 00:34:12.038
I only play them with him once

00:34:12.119 --> 00:34:12.318
a year.

00:34:12.358 --> 00:34:19.313
So as a blues diatonic player, did you listen to lots of blues, the classic blues harmonica stuff when you were younger?

00:34:19.534 --> 00:34:19.614
Yeah.

00:34:19.777 --> 00:34:20.438
Yeah, I did.

00:34:20.458 --> 00:34:23.340
That's one of the reasons I started, that I heard that sound.

00:34:23.501 --> 00:34:25.682
First, I think I heard it like on Beatles.

00:34:25.963 --> 00:34:31.228
And then my father said, oh, but if you like harmonica, you should listen to Rolling Stones because they have more harmonica.

00:34:31.288 --> 00:34:32.369
And then I listened to Stones.

00:34:32.708 --> 00:34:35.532
And then he said, yeah, but you should not listen only to Stones.

00:34:35.552 --> 00:34:36.512
You should listen to the Roots.

00:34:36.572 --> 00:34:41.197
And then he gave me CDs with Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter and stuff.

00:34:41.237 --> 00:34:44.298
And my father, he could play some of those things on harmonica.

00:34:44.358 --> 00:34:49.744
So all of the old blues guys, they are with me somewhere in my sound, in my head all the time.

00:34:49.744 --> 00:35:12.989
I go back to them still and I think I have studied every one of them for a little while and then then moved on but now I'm revisiting so many of them because people share clips with them on Facebook and it's like oh yeah this is this song and ah this is this and I mean the things they say with their harmonica is incredible they are so expressive in how they handle their instruments it's like wow

00:35:13.329 --> 00:35:32.429
well that live album definitely you know ensuring that you've got your blues chops on the diatonic oh thanks yeah so you know it's great to here again showing your diversity and the fact that you're playing all these harmonicas well particularly the chromatic and diatonica really strongly great and then your most recent two albums more sort of well jazz so you did the duo album with the guitar player

00:35:32.469 --> 00:35:52.811
Emil Ernebro the guitar player he's really a virtuoso in what in his playing he's he's so cool in his style that's interesting as I said earlier that it's good to have a good video clip we got together I was guesting on his CD and then we just yeah that was done and then we filmed a clip with his phone, put on Facebook, and then we got like 10 gigs.

00:35:52.992 --> 00:35:55.313
And it's like, okay, maybe we should play together.

00:35:55.353 --> 00:35:59.117
So we kind of built all of our stuff on social media.

00:35:59.297 --> 00:36:01.420
And then we felt like, ah, now we have to make an album.

00:36:01.521 --> 00:36:04.724
So we made an album of just standard songs that we love and play.

00:36:05.063 --> 00:36:08.068
I wanted to do a standards album for a long time.

00:36:08.307 --> 00:36:09.869
Yeah, I'm really proud of that one as well.

00:36:10.670 --> 00:36:11.911
And you're playing Nature Boy on there.

00:36:11.931 --> 00:36:16.496
And the first chunk of the song is like a bass harmonica solo, isn't it?

00:36:16.536 --> 00:36:19.599
And it's quite a nice long couple of minutes almost.

00:36:19.599 --> 00:36:20.081
isn't it?

00:36:20.101 --> 00:36:22.585
A bass, which is great to hear so much bass.

00:36:41.998 --> 00:36:42.077
Yeah.

00:36:48.449 --> 00:36:51.945
It's hard to find solo bass harmonica, so I took my spot there.

00:36:52.286 --> 00:36:54.094
Yeah, now we should have some bass harmonica.

00:36:54.135 --> 00:36:57.449
And that album I recorded as well and mixed, actually.

00:36:57.793 --> 00:36:58.735
in my studio.

00:36:59.375 --> 00:37:25.938
And on here you do Someday My Prince Will Come which is another jazz standard which is made famous by Miles Davis so just bringing up this video that you have on YouTube and I'll put a clip on it on the podcast page where you're playing obviously not on this album but on the video you're playing the chromatic harmonica and the guitar and you videoed yourself doing both at the same time which looks fantastic and I definitely recommend people checking it out it's just it works amazingly well so yeah how do you put that together?

00:37:26.099 --> 00:38:03.157
It was during the in the spring time of 2020 when I had lots of time at home felt like now I have practiced non-stop for two months I should learn something more and then maybe I should raise my video editing skills because I had seen those kind of films going around on internet where people clone themselves and play with themselves and I thought maybe I should do a song on guitar and harmonica and then I mean someday my prince will come is so fantastic and for me that was the first song I heard with Toots Tillemans actually so I always relate that song to him from his, it's an album from the 80s with Joe Pat.

00:38:03.378 --> 00:38:04.920
And I really, I know his solo there.

00:38:04.980 --> 00:38:06.822
I can sing it in my sleep from that version.

00:38:06.961 --> 00:38:11.686
So I decided now I will record Someday My Prince Will Come with myself on my couch.

00:38:12.067 --> 00:38:14.929
It took a few hours, but yeah, it was a good and funny take.

00:38:15.451 --> 00:38:18.634
And your most recent CD is with the, is it Gotland Jazz Trio?

00:38:18.894 --> 00:38:19.554
Yeah, exactly.

00:38:19.594 --> 00:38:22.858
And we recorded two years, yeah, summer 2018.

00:38:23.119 --> 00:38:27.083
Actually, it's a state-employed jazz trio on the island of Gotland in Sweden.

00:38:27.423 --> 00:38:50.664
Kenneth and music music music music

00:38:58.657 --> 00:39:00.190
Thank you.

00:39:10.242 --> 00:39:18.172
I really dig the sound on that CD because I'm using an old SM58 from the 60s into a very expensive preamp.

00:39:18.293 --> 00:39:22.097
But most of my other CDs I have recorded with other mics.

00:39:22.338 --> 00:39:24.300
This one was the first full-length CD.

00:39:24.380 --> 00:39:27.403
I just handheld SM58 like Toots did all of his life.

00:39:27.824 --> 00:39:29.987
I really dig the harmonica sound on that CD.

00:39:30.188 --> 00:39:32.670
But it's pretty hard to get those old SM58s.

00:39:32.831 --> 00:39:34.434
They are pretty rare to find.

00:39:35.074 --> 00:39:39.181
And then you've also done, according with other players, you've worked as a kind of session musician.

00:39:39.201 --> 00:39:43.248
You're on this Louise Lynn album, which is where now she's a singer.

00:39:43.289 --> 00:39:47.215
So have you done lots of work like that where you've been guested as a player on?

00:39:57.454 --> 00:39:57.534
Yeah.

00:40:00.449 --> 00:40:01.411
Actually, so many.

00:40:01.510 --> 00:40:02.411
I have lost count.

00:40:02.431 --> 00:40:07.655
That one, we were in the studio together, but I often, I do sessions at home that I get files sent.

00:40:07.835 --> 00:40:10.358
I do the recording and we send back and forth.

00:40:10.378 --> 00:40:11.378
And I love that work.

00:40:11.460 --> 00:40:14.461
It's a great way to work these days that you can do it.

00:40:14.601 --> 00:40:19.326
But of course, it's also great to meet everyone in the studio and do the music together.

00:40:19.365 --> 00:40:19.907
Great.

00:40:19.927 --> 00:40:22.809
So yeah, a very varied catalogue of recordings there.

00:40:22.929 --> 00:40:23.929
Loads of great stuff as well.

00:40:24.010 --> 00:40:25.791
I recommend people check out your playing.

00:40:25.851 --> 00:40:26.452
Yeah, definitely.

00:40:27.152 --> 00:40:33.179
So another thing that you've done is quite a lot of teaching You taught at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm.

00:40:33.219 --> 00:40:34.139
You did that for a while.

00:40:34.179 --> 00:40:36.202
That's the one you mentioned earlier on, is it?

00:40:36.262 --> 00:40:40.226
And also in Malmö at the Music Conservatory in Copenhagen.

00:40:40.827 --> 00:40:41.507
Yeah, exactly.

00:40:41.527 --> 00:40:54.021
When I took my exam in 2011, it went like a wave among the music colleges in whole Scandinavia that now there is a harmonica player that has studied this.

00:40:54.201 --> 00:40:56.423
And then people, how can I have harmonica at the school?

00:40:56.764 --> 00:41:00.208
And then some people picked up harmonica as a second instrument.

00:41:00.268 --> 00:41:02.349
And I I got students from different schools.

00:41:02.510 --> 00:41:10.057
And I also had one student for three years in Stockholm that went to the folk music education, Erland Westerström.

00:41:10.898 --> 00:41:12.320
He plays fantastic folk music.

00:41:12.740 --> 00:41:15.204
Yeah, I've been teaching a lot on that level.

00:41:15.264 --> 00:41:19.208
And I don't do so much teaching privately anymore.

00:41:19.387 --> 00:41:25.454
I did that before, but I have done lots of harmonica workshops on festivals around the world, harmonica festivals.

00:41:25.914 --> 00:41:28.217
I have also been teaching a bit of online classes.

00:41:28.958 --> 00:41:30.280
I think that works great.

00:41:30.320 --> 00:41:38.188
as long as I get a nice audio recording before the lesson, because then I can really hear the harmonica player's kind of tone and sound.

00:41:38.449 --> 00:41:40.451
Yeah, streaming doesn't give the right sound.

00:41:40.751 --> 00:41:50.842
At the moment, I'm also working on building an online teaching platform, because I realize that's a beautiful way to learn and to share knowledge with people that want to play the harmonica.

00:41:51.164 --> 00:42:01.568
I have worked a lot with recording videos online, Actually, today, when we speak, I opened up a page at Patreon, which is a membership site where you can subscribe monthly and then to my account.

00:42:01.668 --> 00:42:04.931
And I have videos there already, and more is coming every week.

00:42:05.112 --> 00:42:07.074
And that's a really cool way of learning.

00:42:07.153 --> 00:42:11.498
And I have been studying that way with Howard Levy for a few years.

00:42:11.838 --> 00:42:15.061
Because nowadays, to think about, you can learn from so many sources.

00:42:15.380 --> 00:42:19.164
I mean, you can learn, I mean, online, and you can learn so much on YouTube.

00:42:19.264 --> 00:43:04.956
I mean, watching YouTube for three and a half minutes on Wednesday night can change your life and that's a very beautiful thing but I also I felt for like really doing some kind of project on it so I'm building my own harmonica hub and at the moment the level is intermediate and advanced there are so many good online harmonica schools that focus on beginners and blues and how to pick up the harmonica from the beginning so my classes are more I mean that you know how to get a single note and can play some songs and so on just want to develop and it's growing now so it's kind of evolved and if people say can you do a video on this maybe I do it because I really like teaching as well the address is patreon.com slash philipjersharmonica

00:43:05.416 --> 00:43:07.980
so are you teaching diatonic and chromatic on here

00:43:08.240 --> 00:43:14.769
yes both chromatic and diatonic and also you get sheet music and tablature with the things I teach

00:43:15.233 --> 00:43:18.597
Yeah, and also if you're a student who signs up, you invest in it more, don't you?

00:43:18.617 --> 00:43:19.818
Because you're paying a little bit of money.

00:43:19.838 --> 00:43:24.021
It's usually not a lot of money, you know, and then it's like, yeah, you're more motivated then to practice.

00:43:24.422 --> 00:43:24.621
Yeah, yeah.

00:43:24.981 --> 00:43:26.704
We touched on a few of the awards that you've won.

00:43:26.744 --> 00:43:30.266
You won the World Championship at Trossingen twice in 2005.

00:43:30.786 --> 00:43:33.769
You got a long list of awards on your own website.

00:43:33.969 --> 00:43:44.358
You won a Young Jazz Prize in 2003, the Danish Harmonica Championship, a Junior Blues, and then going on through the years, you got the 2014 Jazz Quartet Best Group.

00:43:44.539 --> 00:43:45.199
So yeah, lots of awards.

00:43:45.199 --> 00:43:46.942
through the years, so great to see.

00:43:47.242 --> 00:43:48.884
Any particular special ones from there?

00:43:49.123 --> 00:43:50.465
They all mean a lot to me.

00:43:50.766 --> 00:43:55.851
The one that really changed my life was the gold medals at the World Harmonica Festival when I was 18.

00:43:56.152 --> 00:43:59.335
I mean, I'm just very, very thankful that I received those awards.

00:43:59.695 --> 00:44:03.639
And you've done lots of touring, played all around Europe, of course, but you've also been to the USA.

00:44:03.679 --> 00:44:06.322
I think you appeared at Spa in Dallas in 2012.

00:44:06.922 --> 00:44:07.083
I've

00:44:07.483 --> 00:44:11.889
been, yeah, at Spa a few times, I think four or five times, and I had a great time.

00:44:12.148 --> 00:44:15.152
And then I would like to go every year, but yeah.

00:44:15.152 --> 00:44:20.818
Every second or third year, I tried to go there to meet the people and get the vitamins of the harmonica.

00:44:21.418 --> 00:44:24.121
And then you played in Japan, Canada, but even in West Africa.

00:44:24.181 --> 00:44:24.621
How was it?

00:44:24.862 --> 00:44:25.943
What happened in West Africa?

00:44:26.344 --> 00:44:28.025
Yeah, West Africa was fantastic.

00:44:28.166 --> 00:44:34.331
Me and a friend got invited to one of the biggest jazz festivals in West Africa in Burkina Faso, in Ouagadougou.

00:44:34.492 --> 00:44:38.297
We got the gig because I knew one arranger that had did it before and blah, blah, blah.

00:44:38.697 --> 00:44:43.481
So we went down and we played and it was fantastic and it was extremely warm.

00:44:44.003 --> 00:44:45.644
And you've played for the Swedish king?

00:44:46.065 --> 00:44:46.945
Yeah, many times.

00:44:47.286 --> 00:44:49.588
One time he asked, do you have it?

00:44:49.889 --> 00:44:50.309
I said, what?

00:44:50.530 --> 00:44:51.090
Your harmonica.

00:44:51.451 --> 00:44:51.751
Oh yeah.

00:44:51.851 --> 00:44:57.597
And then I took out, so he held my Suzuki Sirius 16 hole and he said, oh, this is, it's heavy.

00:44:58.038 --> 00:44:58.878
I said, yeah, it's heavy.

00:44:59.259 --> 00:45:04.304
I mean, I couldn't take a picture, but it would have been a really good picture to have the king holding my harmonica.

00:45:04.445 --> 00:45:05.025
But yeah.

00:45:05.525 --> 00:45:07.628
But you hang out the king regularly, do you?

00:45:07.708 --> 00:45:07.927
No,

00:45:09.030 --> 00:45:09.269
I haven't.

00:45:09.349 --> 00:45:16.077
No, but I play many kind of ceremonial gigs in Stockholm at events and and ceremonial stuff.

00:45:16.177 --> 00:45:20.302
And then the king is pretty often there to make a speech or shake some hands and stuff.

00:45:20.742 --> 00:45:23.905
And I don't know him, but we have talked four or five times.

00:45:24.306 --> 00:45:27.528
You've been featured in a documentary called Harmonica Man in Sweden as well.

00:45:27.909 --> 00:45:28.971
Yeah, that was beautiful.

00:45:29.050 --> 00:45:32.375
It was independent filmmaker Mikael that made that movie.

00:45:32.574 --> 00:45:34.556
And then he got it sold to the Swedish TV.

00:45:34.637 --> 00:45:40.362
And that really opened up lots of doors to have like 30 minutes on primetime TV just about yourself.

00:45:41.324 --> 00:45:44.947
He followed me for a year, Mikael Ek, the videomaker.

00:45:45.007 --> 00:45:46.690
It's in Swedish, I take it, is it?

00:45:46.909 --> 00:45:47.771
Yeah, it's in Swedish.

00:45:47.911 --> 00:45:48.391
Good to have that.

00:45:48.431 --> 00:45:51.655
It's funny, Errol Linton on the last one, he had a documentary made about him.

00:45:52.036 --> 00:45:53.876
That really helped him sort of launch his career.

00:45:53.918 --> 00:45:54.637
So yeah, interesting.

00:45:55.059 --> 00:45:56.280
Yeah, it launched me as well.

00:45:56.300 --> 00:45:57.521
TV is still TV.

00:45:57.902 --> 00:46:04.389
So a question I ask each time, we touched on teaching, but if you had 10 minutes to practice, what would you spend those 10 minutes doing?

00:46:04.789 --> 00:46:09.713
I take a harmonica and then I take a note and I really try to find the note.

00:46:10.034 --> 00:46:13.998
Inhale, exhale, really kind of which note do I resonate with today?

00:46:14.378 --> 00:46:17.422
Really try to find a nice resonance and a nice tone.

00:46:17.623 --> 00:46:19.704
And it can be a bent note or a normal note.

00:46:20.005 --> 00:46:23.588
I do that for a few minutes, just play very slowly, very meditative.

00:46:23.989 --> 00:46:34.139
And then I often either play some blues lick or like a train stuff, or on chromatic, I would play some jazz lines, just free improvisation, playing the notes that comes.

00:46:34.380 --> 00:46:38.985
Often they say the hardest thing to play every day is the first thing that you're trying to play.

00:46:39.226 --> 00:46:40.007
I'm working on that.

00:46:40.126 --> 00:46:42.869
It's nice just to take a harmonica and start playing something.

00:46:43.309 --> 00:46:47.193
But to answer your question fast, I would improvise something for 10 minutes.

00:46:47.355 --> 00:46:49.336
Yeah, and obviously working on your tone is important.

00:46:49.617 --> 00:46:51.338
Yeah, always work on tone.

00:46:51.418 --> 00:46:54.802
I mean, long tones in every register and really work on that.

00:46:55.123 --> 00:47:01.148
And the cool thing, because with harmonica we inhale and exhale the music so we become the tone almost.

00:47:01.248 --> 00:47:02.990
I mean, we are the reason the tone is there.

00:47:03.172 --> 00:47:06.295
So I think one should really value that and work with that.

00:47:06.534 --> 00:47:13.583
Playing the different instruments then, what do you do to pick up on techniques from other instruments that you bring to the harmonica, say, and vice versa?

00:47:13.922 --> 00:48:44.847
I think many of the other instruments if it's first non harmonica that i have played i have tried to incorporate them into harmonica that like okay now i'm playing fast super cold pentatonic guitar lick or now i'm playing a very mellow soft nice clarino note from the clarinet in this register or i'm trying to bark and sound fat and big like a tuba i often think kind of in terms of gesture on other instruments when i play imagine kind of a sound in my head and also that i have tried to play many other instruments I think that might help that I kind of know how much air is required to get a note out of a tuba then you can talk about pressure compared to playing just a low F or play the tuba it's a bit different but also playing in between diatonic and chromatic I am one of those people that say you should do it and it will only help you in the long run you will become a better player on both instruments because the diatonic if you're a good diatonic player and pick up the chromatic you often have lots of stamina and good muscles strong tone kind of you're a strong player and then you will have a unique and cool sound on the chromatic because many chromatic players mostly play single notes that's beautiful and great but there are many other things that the harmonica can do which you will mostly experience if you play diatonic and vice versa if you are a chromatic player that think maybe I should pick up the diatonic You should do it because you're already very good at single notes and you often know how to phrase and play scales and stuff.

00:48:44.987 --> 00:48:46.969
So many doors are already open.

00:48:47.230 --> 00:48:56.597
I feel like also that the harmonica muscles get a nice workout every time I switch between instruments because it's a little bit different muscles on the different instrument.

00:48:56.717 --> 00:49:07.507
But most of all, it's the touch on the instrument, the way you like put the harmonica in the mouth, how you approach the pressure with the lips, how you have your tongue or your breath control.

00:49:08.007 --> 00:50:11.880
Everything is really has to to to work you both have to practice all of that and be super aware and you also have to practice it and and don't be aware at all and just play or just okay now i really have to try to play the f note on a c harp in hole two try to get that as as clean and strong as as it can be in a chromatic those are things i i practice a lot and also i i practice mostly chromatic harmonica when i was in the college of music in stockholm for like five years my main in practice was on chromatic but before that I have had like seven years on really diatonic for many years and both blues but also overblow Howard Levy style and then when I took my degree I played both a lot and then in some bands I play more chromatic than diatonic and some bands more diatonic than chromatic but I always try to have both harmonicas in every band and for me it's nothing more strange than if you would play saxophone you would also maybe play a Or if you play guitar, you might play some bass and some mandolin.

00:50:12.061 --> 00:50:15.047
I don't think you should make so big of a difference on the instrument.

00:50:15.088 --> 00:50:16.831
You shouldn't make borders too much.

00:50:16.972 --> 00:50:22.226
You should just think that they are harmonicas and let's try to find the music inside of them.

00:50:23.266 --> 00:50:24.146
It's interesting.

00:50:24.306 --> 00:50:25.188
I play a lot of chromatic.

00:50:25.248 --> 00:50:30.032
I played diatonic for a long time and a bit of chromatic, but now I practice chromatic more than diatonic.

00:50:30.632 --> 00:50:36.297
But I find that when I'm performing, I still play the diatonic more, partly because it's a stronger sound.

00:50:36.356 --> 00:50:40.440
It comes across louder and more powerful when you're performing live than the chromatic.

00:50:40.460 --> 00:50:44.264
So that tends to sort of make me turn to the diatonic more when I'm playing live.

00:50:44.304 --> 00:50:49.548
So I'm often intrigued by that thinking, yeah, I always play lots more diatonic, even though I practice the chromatic more now.

00:50:50.028 --> 00:51:24.344
But I also think practicing lots of chromatic can make you a better diatonic and practicing lots of diatonic can make you a better chromatic player people shouldn't think that oh if I take the other kind of harmonica I will become a worse player on my primary that's the wrong way of thinking for me and I should be honest I don't practice so much bass harp I do when I have recordings and when I played with Stockholm Lisboa project I played it live a lot so then I played it but when I practice it I mostly practice only with a metronome and a bass harmonica and me and I really try to work on when does the note come When does it come?

00:51:24.445 --> 00:51:25.567
When does it really come?

00:51:25.987 --> 00:51:29.331
And that is so hard on the bass harp because the reeds are so heavy.

00:51:29.550 --> 00:51:32.893
On the chromatic or diatonic, you can control that a lot better.

00:51:33.195 --> 00:51:37.880
I think many harmonica players should practice really on a when does the note pop out?

00:51:38.019 --> 00:51:39.681
Does it come when I think of it?

00:51:39.822 --> 00:51:45.007
Does it come when it starts in the stomach, in the diaphragm, from the throat, from the articulation?

00:51:45.608 --> 00:52:20.478
And to practice that in a good way is to have a metronome and to play things like that, that, that, that, that, that you play that note with that value and then you have the metronome or like of my if my snap is the metronome you play like and try to just play those eight notes as good as you can and that's really hard on the harmonica these things i do a lot minimalistic timing practice so

00:52:24.289 --> 00:52:27.172
So yeah, we're moving to the last section now to talk about gear.

00:52:27.213 --> 00:52:32.356
So I know you're a Suzuki Endorsi, so obviously you're playing Suzuki harmonicas exclusively now, yeah?

00:52:32.597 --> 00:52:33.358
Yes, I am.

00:52:34.298 --> 00:52:35.760
Is the chromatic the Sirius?

00:52:36.340 --> 00:52:40.963
Yes, the Sirius and the G48s, and also the Fabulous.

00:52:41.405 --> 00:52:42.326
I have all of them.

00:52:42.405 --> 00:52:44.047
And also the SEX, I like.

00:52:44.507 --> 00:52:48.110
They all have sound and feel a bit different for different songs and moods.

00:52:48.771 --> 00:52:49.751
I need all of them.

00:52:50.172 --> 00:52:53.956
And are you playing 12-hole chromatics and 16-hole chromatics?

00:52:54.175 --> 00:52:54.255
Yes.

00:52:54.255 --> 00:53:05.989
12 and 16 I have some 14 but I don't use it that much when I play folk music I play lots of chromatics in other keys meaning D E A G chromatics

00:53:06.753 --> 00:53:09.797
Yeah, and how do you find switching between the 12 and 16 hole chromatic?

00:53:10.297 --> 00:53:10.878
That's no

00:53:11.117 --> 00:53:14.420
real problem actually, but I think they have kind of a different sound.

00:53:14.440 --> 00:53:22.387
The 16 is more mellow, more airy, more kind of, while the 12 hole is a bit more punchy.

00:53:23.528 --> 00:53:27.512
If I'm playing like cutting edge jazz, high tempo, then I take a 12 hole.

00:53:27.632 --> 00:53:31.556
But if I'm playing a nice warm ballad, I take a 16 because the tone is bigger.

00:53:31.896 --> 00:53:33.958
And obviously you're playing Suzuki Diatonics as well.

00:53:34.257 --> 00:53:35.739
There I use the Manji line.

00:53:36.059 --> 00:54:19.545
And the cool thing with suzuki's diatonic is you can like put every part on every harmonica so i yeah i have many hybrids but the manji reed plates and i customize them myself i have done that all of my life thanks to this guy dick he taught me how to customize do you play any different tunings and no not yet i have thought about it but no i think if i play different keyed chromatic that opens up so many doors and that that took a while for me to be open to do but when i really wanted to start to play full I realize I need to do this because to get the right trills and ornaments, to play F sharp G on a C chromatic, it's so much work and heavy and will sound so strange compared to if you just take a G chromatic.

00:54:19.626 --> 00:54:22.528
Then that drill is just there and the music is there.

00:54:22.568 --> 00:54:27.894
So if I took a different keyed chromatic, I could learn 20 songs in the right way.

00:54:28.315 --> 00:54:32.699
But if I only played a C, I had to work with one songs for 20 hours.

00:54:32.920 --> 00:54:34.961
For jazz, I play C chromatics.

00:54:35.422 --> 00:54:36.563
And what about embouchure?

00:54:36.623 --> 00:54:43.110
I use both pucker and tongue block, but I started as a pucker and then tongue blocked when I played the blues riffs.

00:54:43.590 --> 00:54:47.655
And I took some lessons from Robert Bonfiglio a few years ago.

00:54:47.695 --> 00:54:53.762
And then I got into tongue blocking and corner switching more because I was playing more classical stuff on the chromatic.

00:54:53.822 --> 00:54:57.887
I had some gigs with a string orchestra and I really needed that nice legato.

00:54:58.007 --> 00:55:02.210
We're jumping big intervals and it just, it just sings kind of.

00:55:02.811 --> 00:55:04.974
I needed to learn how to tongue block corner switch.

00:55:05.153 --> 00:55:06.436
Now I use both.

00:55:06.556 --> 00:55:08.338
I I improvise mostly with Pucker.

00:55:08.777 --> 00:55:10.500
And amplifier-wise, what amps do you like?

00:55:10.699 --> 00:55:14.103
I usually play through the House PA system, yeah.

00:55:14.364 --> 00:55:20.170
But I have AER, acoustic amplifier, that I bring for smaller things.

00:55:20.231 --> 00:55:21.952
And I also have a Bose amp.

00:55:22.213 --> 00:55:24.695
It's kind of an active speaker that does a great job.

00:55:25.195 --> 00:55:29.199
And if you're going for a blues tone, then are you using any tube amps or using pedals for that or anything?

00:55:29.440 --> 00:55:30.340
No, no pedals.

00:55:30.501 --> 00:55:36.327
If I want a blues sound, then I just plug into a guitar amplifier, put the bass on maximum, treble on zero, and then...

00:55:36.527 --> 00:55:38.070
Yeah, SM57.

00:55:38.271 --> 00:55:39.152
And that works.

00:55:39.592 --> 00:55:42.876
And I put the tape on the grill so it doesn't rattle.

00:55:43.217 --> 00:55:43.938
And then it's stable.

00:55:44.079 --> 00:55:44.719
And then you can...

00:55:45.221 --> 00:55:47.123
It's good for blues for me.

00:55:47.864 --> 00:55:52.130
And for live gigs, I'm a Shure SM58 guy, either on a stand or in the hand.

00:55:52.552 --> 00:55:54.153
And I have used the same mic for...

00:55:54.614 --> 00:55:56.858
Yeah, it's almost since I started playing harmonica.

00:55:56.878 --> 00:55:58.780
So 20 years on Shure SM58.

00:55:58.820 --> 00:56:01.144
Is that the old one that you mentioned earlier?

00:56:01.224 --> 00:56:01.364
No,

00:56:01.505 --> 00:56:02.166
I have a new one.

00:56:02.927 --> 00:56:04.829
A beta or not the non-beta?

00:56:04.961 --> 00:56:05.724
I have both.

00:56:05.864 --> 00:56:08.289
Right now, I'm speaking into a beta, actually.

00:56:08.648 --> 00:56:14.221
Often, if the PA is old, then I take a beta 58.

00:56:14.782 --> 00:56:19.510
But if it's a new PA, I take an SM 58, because that one is a lot softer.

00:56:19.692 --> 00:56:24.862
So if the house sound is crispy, I take a softer mic, and then vice versa.

00:56:25.282 --> 00:56:30.465
And you talked a lot about recording and you got quite a good studio at home.

00:56:30.487 --> 00:56:33.208
What sort of microphones and setup do you have in your home studio there?

00:56:33.509 --> 00:56:37.853
For studio recordings, I've been using the Sennheiser 441 for many years.

00:56:38.152 --> 00:56:38.313
Is that

00:56:38.333 --> 00:56:39.014
the one that Howard

00:56:39.054 --> 00:56:39.594
Levy plays?

00:56:39.673 --> 00:56:40.414
Yeah, it's the same.

00:56:40.675 --> 00:56:43.637
And then I also have the 421, which is another version.

00:56:43.858 --> 00:56:45.860
And I also like a ribbon microphone.

00:56:46.099 --> 00:56:49.943
I have a really good one, the Röde NTR, which is an active ribbon.

00:56:50.143 --> 00:56:50.583
Very good.

00:56:50.804 --> 00:56:53.867
On the Emil Anderby album, all the harmonica goes through that ribbon.

00:56:54.007 --> 00:57:06.599
And then on the jazz quartet, albums I have been using, I have been in a studio and they had, he had like a U47 copy, you know, this kind of, you cannot buy those microphones for money, but that one worked good.

00:57:06.920 --> 00:57:13.387
But most of the other albums, Stockholm Lisp, Promise Motor, My Soul, Spiro, all of these are through my Sennheiser 441.

00:57:13.527 --> 00:57:14.869
Yeah, I have to check that out.

00:57:14.949 --> 00:57:17.992
I remember when I talked to Howard, yeah, I was looking at that microphone.

00:57:18.253 --> 00:57:19.634
He performs through it as well, doesn't he?

00:57:19.733 --> 00:57:20.775
Yeah, maybe.

00:57:20.914 --> 00:57:24.960
So last question then, Philip, fantastic talking to you and all the great things you've done.

00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:32.487
So, future plans coming up hopefully this year we're going to get out playing again soon how are things in sweden and looking for you generally on the on the gigging and touring front

00:57:32.907 --> 00:57:58.097
yeah all my gigs are are cancelled now until april i hope i can play a bit in the summer and me and emilian my guitar player we have many gigs that are on hold and my jazz quartet has that as well and i also have been doing lots of school concerts playing for kids here in sweden we have a really nice system so i play and talk about the harmonicas here history, and I have a guitarist and a drummer with me.

00:57:58.157 --> 00:57:59.739
We have a school show that we tour with.

00:58:00.079 --> 00:58:02.163
Thanks very much for joining me today, Philip.

00:58:02.182 --> 00:58:02.923
It's been a real pleasure.

00:58:03.485 --> 00:58:04.126
Yeah, thank you.

00:58:04.166 --> 00:58:05.228
Thank you for inviting me.

00:58:06.028 --> 00:58:07.811
That's episode 32 in the can.

00:58:07.952 --> 00:58:09.153
Thanks so much, everybody.

00:58:09.815 --> 00:58:13.260
Just over now to Philip Jers to play us out with some Swedish folk.

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000
...

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000
...

00:58:26.402 --> 00:58:26.909
Yeah.