Part 1

Name: Alev & Jas
Members: Jas Shaw (songwriter, composer, producer), Alev Lenz (singer, songwriter, producer]
Nationality: British (Jas), German-Turkish (Alev)
Current release: Alev & Jas' Bring Your Friends EP is out now.
Recommendations:
JAS:  I’m reading Mark Fell’s book and so far it’s super interesting.
ALEV: Jaune Quick-to-See Smith!!! An incredible artist - and gave me the strength to move forward with the album artwork.  Her art is stunning and stirs deep. Check out Trade (Gifts for Trading Land With White People) and her Kalispell drawings were very inspiring.  
And while I am writing this I am listening to Solstice by Artwork Saxophone Quartet which was introduced to me by way of a Meredith Monk workshop I did last year.

If you enjoyed this interview with Alev & Jas  and would like to stay up to date with their music, visit Alev's official homepage, and Jas's Instagram account.

For an even deeper dive, read our earlier Shaw & Grossfeldt interview.



What were some of your earliest collaborations? How do you look back on them with hindsight?

JAS: The earliest things we collaborated on was Alev’s second album, I think? I had a quick listen to some of that the other day and was really happy to hear it again.

I remember us going to her tiny writing room in Premises and hearing these great songs which had a very band type arrangement and feeling like other people would be so much more helpful to her. But then half an hour later we were watching videos of Samuli, the drummer from Müm, playing his clangy metallic percussion and making plans to email him.

[Read our Gyða Valtýsdóttir of múm interview]
[Read our Gyða Valtýsdóttir of múm interview about her creative process]

So often when I return to a project I find that I have to turn off my how-would-I-do-it-now brain and approach things in terms of what they meant at the time but I feel like this is a something that I wouldn’t change at all.

ALEV: Two-Headed Girl! Yes :)



Funnily enough they actually didn’t have band arrangements on the production files. I had programmed beats but I knew that wasn’t cutting it. I had rehearsed them with a band and I think you heard those demos - which I called visual live demos trying to inch my way through material, towards an album. I was also getting familiar with my approach to production.

But I know for the record it needed something else that the band outfit … and I remember moaning about the predicament I had with the beats downstairs at the Premises reception over some tea. And then someone said, well why don’t you talk to Jas? He’s good with that :) And so when you came down for tea one day I picked your brains and you generously agreed to listen and spend some time with my music . I won’t ever forget your generosity and kindness of spirit. Thank you again. It made such a difference.  

And yes, I played a Hauschka video to you, from Joe’s pub in NYC! I remember that very well. I wanted to hear your thoughts on it, after we listened to the music and exchanged thoughts and both agreed it wasn’t working just yet. I said ‘I need a drummer like THIS’ and you said, "email him!" Lol

[Read our Hauschka interview]

And then I found the courage to and simply did that … only to find out, through Samuli’s apologetic email, that I had emailed him years ago (as my dear photographer friend Kaapo Kamu had told me that we would get along great personally and musically, which is very true) for my first album already!! He remembered me and my music and said he would love to contribute to my second record :) So serendipitous!

There are many potential models for collaboration, from live performances and jamming/producing in the same room together up to file sharing. Which of these do you prefer – and why?

JAS: Ordinarily, we just get in a room and start making decisions. It’s the easiest, quickest, most direct way to do things. In doing a bunch of this over a the years we have built up a mutual understanding and that’s allowed us to do some collaborations remotely and not have them feel disconnected.

When you know someone pretty well you kind of have them with you when you work remotely together. I’ve helped out on mixing on a few things for Alev and circumstance has meant that we couldn’t sit in on the mix and I certainly found myself doing a certain thing and then hearing Alev go ‘No, that’s not it’ or ‘Yeah, this is odd but it works’ before I got a chance to send her the mix.

ALEV: Hehe I’m in your head already:) But I agree, with your work it is also similar for me. When a mix comes back I’m usually hearing you too - not only in the music - and go ‘ah that’s what she did’. I think maybe that’t why Bring Your Friends worked so nicely. I could hear us talk although we didn’t.

I don’t really know what I prefer, I retyped this answer over and over! I think it totally depends on the project and also what options even are avaibalew. But I definitely always prefer to meet whoever you’re working with in person too at some point. Sharing a space, even if it is for not music related, but a chance to connect and look each other into the eyes … a simple coffee. But that doesn’t mean it can’t without having even met once.

It helps if you have some sort of connection through mutual friends I think however. With Samuli we only shared files and finished an album together after meeting months later in person for the first time - and it was a dream! But we had a mutual friend who had somewhat tuned into our spirits already and knew us both well enough and to predicted that it would work…

How did this particular collaboration come about?

JAS: Unusually, I sent some ideas to Alev. Things that I felt had something about them that I couldn’t just delete but that I’d hit a wall with. I liked them but felt that they were not a step forward from what I’d done before. She said that she liked them, which I was super pleased about, and then in a pretty short period of time she started sending me these versions with vocals that approached the tracks in ways that I had not considered at all.

ALEV: I LOVED them ! And I was really yearning for a collaboration. I had worked long stretches alone in the pandemic, just my own thoughts. So it was so needed and welcomed that all of a sudden Jas sent all these beautiful fragments. And because we're able to have a musical conversation without even talking the songs emerged ...

What did you know about each other before working together? Describe your creative partner in a few words, please.

JAS: I knew that Alev liked tea. I’ve found that she’s quietly very brave, both creatively and personally.

ALEV: Thank you! I like tea, mainly I loved the communality at the tea spot behind the reception. It was so special. But yes I never drank coffee. That has now changed!

I didn’t know much about Jas, apart that someone said ‘you should talk to him :)”  I of course knew of SMD, but also not too much.

But I had one bit of important information, and that was all I needed … I don’t know if I ever told you Jas?  I had seen you live at London fields, I think before I even moved into the Premises. I do not know could have been a year or just weeks ... and I am a slightly grumpy live music listener and electronic music especially I hadn’t really experienced loving it - and it was an entirely different experience with your set!  

I loved it so very much, I enjoyed it, I danced and it was so hot, in a tent, but I didn’t leave until the last drop of music ... and had the best time ... it was really one of the best live shows I had seen and your last one too, at the Barbican. It remains in my top 3 live shows of all times. The musicality is just surreal,

What do you generally look for in a collaborator and what made you want to collaborate with each other specifically?

JAS: Collaborations are very difficult to evaluate. I don’t think there’s any single way that they work, each one has a different balance. The same approach with a different person isn’t satisfying, for either person. So, sorry this is a pretty wishy washy answer, I guess that my only thread is that I don’t work with people I don’t like.

ALEV:  Oh yes second that! If you’re not vibing don’t do it! Like I said above, collaborations can work any way, remote or in a room, but I like to be able to sense someone's essence. That is very hard to do on zoom but I think it is essential to see if your gut okays the collaboration.