The Ross Clowser Quartet is a modern Jazz band with some definite genre-bending twists. The music is thoughtful and thought-provoking. You can see more at the debut album release for this is how we move through time on September 12 at Berlin.
Please tell us about The Ross Clowser Quartet and your music.
The Ross Clowser Quartet is my main musical project featuring myself on guitar, Joe Strachan on piano, Josh Granowski on bass, and Tarek Abdelqader on drums. We play mostly original music that I compose. If I had to label it, I’d probably call it “modern jazz,” but I’m influenced by a whole lot of different music – afrobeat, post-rock, free improvisation, movie soundtracks, and a lot more. I’m as equally influenced by John Coltrane as I am by bands like Tortoise or composers like Pauline Oliveros. The music we play is rhythmic, melodic, original, and emotional.
Each of the musicians in the group is a really great musician and improviser – without them I couldn’t do this. They are as much a part of the music as I am. A lot of what we play isn’t written down – the melodies and arrangements are thought out, but a lot of what we play is made up in real time. We respond to each other and build on each others’ ideas. We have a really great musical relationship and I love playing with them – they’re my favorite people to listen to.
Your debut album, this is how we move through time, is coming out on September 12. It’s an instrumental, jazzy, classy, modern collection of moody songs. Can you tell us about the five-year creative process and how your relationship with music changed during that gestation period?
I started seriously writing my own music in 2020 during quarantine when I lived in Iowa City. I had been playing a lot of straight ahead traditional jazz up to that point and really wanted to branch out. For the size of the town, Iowa City has a huge music scene with a lot of diversity – experimental music, electronic music, hardcore, indie-rock. I wanted to write music that reflected my community and reflected myself. My friend Chris, who passed away in 2023, booked an amazing series called Feed Me Weird Things, that featured different kinds of music from all over the world – experimental jazz, ambient, electronic. Hearing all this different music, I realized that I didn’t have to choose to operate in a set genre or medium – I could blur the lines between them and make whatever I wanted to.
The past five years have really been about trying to sound more like myself as I am – not what I think I should sound like – and be as creative and sincere as I can.
Glitter and Gleam is the song that I know I will listen to the most. It’s not my favorite yet but it pulls me in. Part of the music is sparkly and uplifting but there is an undercurrent repetition that causes me anxiety. I think the repetition speeds up or something gives me a strong reaction. How much of your music is intended to elicit a specific feeling or response? Or does the music come from the emotion and response is left to the listener?
I think art and music allow us to access all sorts of emotions – not just happy or sad, but different shades of feelings. I don’t write music to elicit specific feelings so much, but I try to have every piece take the listener on some sort of journey — how they feel about it, well that’s up to them! That specific piece is all about generating interest and development – it’s based around a repeating figure that morphs over time – it gets compressed and expanded and then kind of atomized. It’s abstract! But still cohesive. There’s tension and release and exploration – things that we experience in our day to day lives, just sort of codified in sound.
It’s awesome to hear that it warrants repeated listens! Some of my favorite music ever took repeated listens to really get. It means there’s something more to discover in the work.
I love the idea of an album and zine releasing together. How collaborative are those art forms for you? Was the zine created after the album to accompany or support it? Did you work on them simultaneously over the years? Did certain images or pages inspire songs or did songs inspire imagery?
I had the idea to put out a zine with the record a few years ago — I’m certainly not the first one! Zines have been a staple of punk and experimental scenes for a long time. I really wanted to make something I could give to people and let them into the world where my music lives — something they can flip through and reflect on while they listen.
I didn’t do these at the same time, but I think the paintings and music speak to each other – the same things I look for in music I look for in a painting – composition, texture, rhythm, cohesion, movement.
I find it really freeing to work between mediums – I get ideas from one that I can try in the other. It allows me to play around a lot more than I would otherwise!
Please tell us about the album release show.
Absolutely! We have a release show happening at Berlin in Minneapolis on September 12th at 7:30 — you can grab tickets ahead of time on their website. We’ll be playing music from the album and maybe a few things that aren’t on an album yet! We’re really excited to play this music for people — and we’ll have copies of the CD and zine for sale as well!
Mostly Minnesota 