Name: TUKAN
Members: Andrea Pesare (Guitar), Nathan Van Brande (Bass), Samuel Marie (Keys), Tommaso Patrix (Drums)

Nationality: Belgian
Occupation: Musicians, composers
Current Release: TUKAN's Atoll is out November 18th via MAGMA/NEWS.
Recommendation: I think you should know about Chick Corea & Herbie Hancock's 1985 release SHRED. Just type that in youtube if you're a big jazz fusion fan.

If you enjoyed this interview with TUKAN and would like to stay up to date with the band, visit them on Instagram, and Facebook.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

We started to play together about 7 years ago in different bands or projects, but we all come from different backgrounds, and started playing music at different ages when we were young.

Our early influences as individuals go from Led Zeppelin to Radiohead, or even Dizzy Gillespie! Then, as a band, our first influences were more close to bands like STUFF., Floating Points, The Comet is Coming …

[Read our Danalogue of The Comet is Coming interview]

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

We all traverse emotions differently. I think we can associate music to all our senses, it's connected to what we've been through in life, and can relate to meaningful memories.

When we listen to something that we really like, it makes us feel really alive, and that's we're looking for when we're playing together and performing on stage. It's all about energy!

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

We started this band without really knowing where to go, except that we wanted our music to be danceable and deep at the same time. After a few months of defining our interests, we more and more agreed on our electronic influences, and came upon the challenge to play this music with our instruments.

Also, working on new stuff confronts us to finding different ways to compose, to keep moving and challenge our own creativity so we can find infinite formulas and not just rely on one that works.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

We feel like we are a hybrid kind of band, our scene can be in the middle of a DJ club as well as a jazz or rock festival.

It's interesting to be able to swim between all our influences, we can find inspiration in everything and try to mix it with the rest of our sauces.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

Honesty, humility and attention to detail. And FUN, of course.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

Both topics are necessary and interesting.

We feel more on the “music of the future” side, as what we play isn't really a tradition (yet! … that's for the humility part of the last question).

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

Well, as we are a band of four musicians ... We'd say basically our four instruments: Bass, guitar, drums and a lot of synths!

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

Get up, eat, play, listen. Or in any other order.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

We have a piece called “Raymond” that we like to take as a reference for ourselves when we create.

It was a very long process to create this piece, and it never sounded good at the beginning, it was cursed. Then after months of forgetting it and putting pieces of jams together with bits of it, we ended up finishing this big complex puzzle called “Raymond”.

And now it's one of our favorite pieces, as we feel like it's filled with our very essence.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

We've always composed everything together. At least, a big part of everything we play comes from us jamming for hours, and then listening to it all and putting bits and pieces together. Then we look at every part with an ear-microscope and construct a structure with all the elements that we liked.

That way, we keep the organic live element at the center of our music, and try to program it to attain the best efficiency.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

It's a complex question. Music is by essence non-essential. I'd say it's an useful tool to organise emotions and create contrast in a day to day life where everything can be so bland and meaningless. (Hello, this is the depressing guy from the group talking)

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

Music is for us an intense moment of communion. It is a moment of gathering, dancing and celebration ... It acts as a catharsis, it is an outlet.

I think our music gives strength, contrast and colour to these questions without giving a concrete answer to any of them.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?  

I think there are many bridges to build between science and art in general. These two approaches are complementary in that they do not answer questions in the same way. Music and art will have a more affective and emotional approach to life, where science will have a more rational one based on facts and a precise methodology.

This is without taking into account the fact that science is produced by sentient beings. Indeed, scientists and people who read scientific content carry with them cultural baggage and sensitivity. Why not link the two more closely? Add aesthetics to scientific content and stop claiming absolute objectivity (for me utopian).

The same goes for music, study what happens when one is confronted with a piece of music in a scientific manner. Or what makes a work of art successful? What is this famous golden ratio? All these questions can be exciting when approached in a scientific way.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

It depends how you like your coffee!

I think everything can be art, and can be intended in an artistic way. What we can express through music can probably be expressed to a same degree by a Japanese tea master making his art for an interested drinker.

That makes sense right? It's late ...

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

I don't know ... Maybe some kind of universal harmony is going on there ...

Spoken words are also vibration in the air and can deliver the same kind of deep messages. It's just a form of communication, and of personal sensibility.