moodgusic got together with Mustafa Khaliq Ahmed of Arthur's Landing before their June 25th performance at Tramway in Glasgow. Long time collaborator and dear friend to Arthur Russell, Mustafa talks about how he began working with Arthur, the self-titled debut album's recording, and the pleasure of performing.
moodgusic: So Mustafa, how are you doing today?
MA: I’m doing quite fine, I’m really excited. This is my first time in Glasgow – in Scotland. The spirit of Arthur lives on and on.
moodgusic: It does, yeah. So the spirit of Arthur Russell you were saying, what does it feel like when you’re on stage performing? Obviously, Arthur isn’t there, but as Steven said, “It feels as if he is there”.
MA: Well you know what’s interesting; I was just talking to some of the techies about the fact that I have one of the original RX17’s – Yamaha RX17’s, which is the drum machine. And I was very reluctant, y’know Arthur was always into this electronic stuff and of course when he met me he really wanted to have that ‘Afro’ type of thing – that ‘dance’ thing and that’s kind of how he met me. But he wanted me to get into this over piece. And to this day, I have on stage the original RX17 and I bought another one to play them live, as opposed to the pre-programmed rhythms just to have the spirit of Arthur with me all the time.
moodgusic: That’s fantastic.
MA: You know, when he passed away. I told his dad, that his initials: C-A-R, Charles Arthur Russell – he was the car that got us from one place to the next and this guy’s classic man ‘cause you see he’s still rollin’!
moodgusic: That’s true. Do you find that it’s in no part thanks to your work, Steve Knutson from Audika and the internet that his music lives on and still touches so many people.
MA: Well, I’ll tell you it is kind of mind boggling to go and listen to ‘In The Light Of The Miracle’ and hear all of the cow bells and all that percussion, because I used to struggle with finding exactly what it was that Arthur wanted. He knew what he wanted from me, so there was a lot of takes, but you know ‘Let’s Go Swimming’, I’m really proud of my work on Platform On The Ocean and SchoolbellTreehouse you know it’s just really me and Arthur. So yeah I really do appreciate Steve a great deal and Audika for everything that they’ve done with Strut. And before those guys, Steve D'Acquisto who’s also not with us but he really captured In The Light Of The Miracle and that went onto other people, so yeah.
moodgusic: It’s really quite remarkable, would you have ever anticipated that so many years on everybody would say he was way ahead of his time?
MA: Well it is a complete surprise, it’s a blessing, sometimes I feel I don’t deserve it, you know what I mean? I’ll be very honest, unlike maybe Steve and Ernie, you know Arthur had several different periods. And I actually played with Arthur during the last stages of his creativity when he had moved away from some of the pop elements and was really into him playing more keyboards and doing all the work and then it was percussion and drums, you know, me. I didn’t understand the music at the time, I really didn’t. I came from a really different – you know; Jazz, R&B, that type of thing. He found me – I don’t know if you guys are familiar with James Mason’s Rhythm of Life. Well that was also a kind of classic R&B piece and he came into the studio and he heard me play, and he asked me to come and work with him. And I was actually just starting out, playing out at that particular time, so I was flattered that anybody would want me to play with them! So yeah, I mean the music was always, it always had it’s own space, it’s always very different, it never sounded like anything else. So in that regard, it was always special, I could always put it on. And it really bothered me when he got sick, and we were really doing some nice stuff then. In fact, I think we were working on Let’s Go Swimming and we’d gone to Minneapolis with Trisha Brown and Peter Zummo, it was shortly after that I found out he was sick. So I’m just happy to be here and to have kept up my chops, to help promote what Arthur gave to me, practically all the good things that have come to me as far as international travel, playing with Peter Gordon, Peter Zummo and working with Elodie Lauten. That all came through me taking the chance to go and play with this guy who was so weird and so different than what was going on with black R&B at that time, so I really appreciate Arthur so much.
Peter Zummo and Mustafa Khaliq Ahmed Photograph property of Mustafa Khaliq Ahmed
moodgusic: Hopefully you can keep on, like Steven was saying: play London, Northern Ireland, Oslo even.
MA: Listen, I hope so. You know we all love the music, but unfortunately the one thing we keep working and, and working at is refining the music because we don’t get to play it often enough together because of the different projects. So we’re looking for the right formula, something a little bit different, we have a leaner band this time. The last time we were out here we had seven pieces and now we’re down to five. We’re going to have a couple guests from home, from Glasgow. I’m looking forward to hearing these ladies contribute, that always adds a little juice, you know? Playing that rhythm and you see the ladies and you start you know, I hope so.
moodgusic: Tell me about when you were recording the self-titled album, did you and Arthur’s Landing take on any of the traits that Arthur was infamous for; his amount of takes?
MA: Let’s put it like this, none of us for the most part find those infamous traits to be complimentary. They were very, very difficult to work with. I think Steve, Steve Hall, my good buddy Steve, he embodies many of the qualities. He’s a bit of a diva sometimes. But he’s a delicious diva if you want to call it that, he’s a cool cat. But no, I think that one of the things that was really good was that Peter Zummo, who I’ve worked with independently for a long time, who really has a clear idea of what should happen in the studio and what we should get out of it. Ernie Brook
s as you know really plays with quite a number of artists, and like myself who plays and records with a number of different people, a number of different genres, we had a good idea of what it is that we wanted. The challenge, which I would say was similar to working with Arthur, that Steve brought to it was that he didn’t want it rehearsed. He wanted to capture the idea of the guys coming into the studio and playing it live, so we had some direction, but not a lot of direction and so in that regard there was an element of that, because that’s the way that Arthur liked to work. Arthur had an idea, and then he would play, and play, and play, and play and then he would put the pieces together, you know? Especially in those latter years, I mean obviously in the early days he was writing these nice, crisp songs with that lyrical and melodic content. It’s a little bit different from his dance stuff, his dance stuff was about the groove and the interaction between the instruments, we’re going to try and capture some of that for you guys tonight.
moodgusic: What is it like being on the inside, so to speak. I mean all of us fans who’ve obviously never crossed paths with Arthur, we have no idea of the music that’s hidden away and not out there for sale. What is some of your favourite stuff that you could talk about that’s been released and maybe stuff you want to see released?
MA: You know that’s difficult for me to really respond to in that way – I don’t know if the audience that’s listening to this, to your recording, can feel the smile on my face, but I’m just having a good time. You know I’m very humbled and I’m just having a good time. I’m not really too self-aware of what the audience is thinking, I’m just having a good time. I guess my attitude is if there’s an audience that wants to hear us, I feel a responsibility to give them a good show, to find a new shirt – in fact, can I say this? I actually, now again maybe this is not right but I actually found some old plaid pants, you know some brown plaid and I said “I’m going to Scotland to play!” so I got me some plaid pants to wear with my African top and I said “Hey man, this is the joint!”, I never get to wear those things! You know, this is the occasion. So I’m just thankful, I’m just thankful and lucky. Just very lucky.
moodgusic: It’s great to talk to you and see how appreciative you are of Arthur’s music and this is my first time seeing Arthur’s music performed live. To see it performed by you guys, his closest friends and collaborators, It’s an honour. So thank you very much Mustafa.
Arthur's Landing's self titled debut release is out now on Strut Records.
Unedited interview recording~
[audio http://moodgusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/180b8-interview_with_mustafa_ahmed_of_arthurs_landing.mp3]
Interview_with_Mustafa_Ahmed_of_Arthur's_Landing.MP3
*Special thanks to Philip Larkin for giving me shelter and bein' the best.
*Apologies to Mustafa Khaliq Ahmed and Arthur's Landing for the delayed publishing of this interview.
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