Funk Initiative bass guitarist Shaun Abdilla tells Ramona Depares how the band will merge music and science in its upcoming Science in the City performance.

What has Funk Initiative been up to lately?

It’s been quite a particular year for us after having released our album last year. We’ve had Chris Tate and Edward Bonello taking up the roles left by Daniel Buttigieg on drums and Luke Grech on guitar respectively, which has influenced our collective sound significantly. We’ve played a couple of great gigs at Sofar sounds and Django in Valletta, but most of our energy has been focused on seeing what direction the sound with the new line up has been taking.

Is this your first time taking part in Science in the City?

It is indeed, and we’re very much looking forward to it. Each band member hails from a different scientific background.  There are doctors, a pharmacist, a physio and an engineer. This gives the band an individual and collective love for science, and the opportunity to merge science and music is one that we could not pass up.

Why do you feel that festivals such as Science in the City are important?

Events like this help expose elements of science to the public which would otherwise remain unknown to most. Seeing scientific matter being presented in a cultural event can sometimes nurture a love for it that wouldn’t have been sown otherwise.

How do you see the relationship between science and the arts? Would you say it’s contradictory to say there’s a link?

I would say there is a very significant link between them. Take music for example – it works when the collective frequencies of notes and mathematical subdivisions of rhythmical elements are in line, combined with the more emotional and artistic elements of feeling, groove and dynamics. The aesthetic arts depend a lot on geometric symmetry or lack thereof, as well as the combination of colours whose frequencies together portray feelings of emotions to the viewer.  And these are just two examples. The two can and do go very much together.

What can the audience expect from your Science in the City concert?

We took the opportunity to take a different approach for this event, and break down a few of our songs to show how they came about, fuse them with periods of improvisation, and overlay them with occasional periods of spoken scientific writings related to the brain, the theme of this year’s event. It will be a particular performance with an insight into concepts which are not usually exposed.

Your performance is described as experimental – in what way is this so?

The performance of the songs on Cartographers is being adapted to the occasion to allow room for musical experimentation that will break down the songs into their component parts, putting the creative thought process be-hind songwriting on display and engaging the audience to understand how such a process reaches its subsequent final conclusion.

The opportunity to merge science and music is one that we could not pass up

What led to the decision to include improvisation, rather than having the usual style of performance?

We felt that this approach would allow the audience to interact more with the music, seeing it being built, band members playing off each other and crafting a musical creation on the spot rather than just repeating a song that would have been rehearsed multiple times. It again emphasises on the importance of the mind as a receiver, transformer and transmitter of (in this case) audible signals in the form of music.

What are the biggest challenges in improvisation?

Music is a language. Musicians improvising together are having a musical conversation. If everyone tries to speak at the same time, the result is busy, indecipherable and frustrating. If they ask questions and reply in their own time, this ends up being a more balanced work of art/science.

Your performance will also help the audience discover how songs are created and how they can be broken down to their individual components – how will you set about doing this?

Most songs have a  melodic/ rhythmical theme or motif, which is its main concept, and everything else revolves around or plays off this.

By allowing room in improvisation for the music to breathe and then creating a space for the motif to be introduced and seeing how the rest of the instruments support, drive and harmonise it, is an insight into just one way of how songs are made.

The festival attracts a large number of children – will you be tailoring your performance to appeal to them?

The performance in itself appeals to people of all ages, with perhaps younger children enjoying the visuals and music, and older children the whole package, but we’re sure everyone can enjoy what we’re working on.

What’s next for Funk Initiative?

Song writing, jamming, song writing, jamming and then some more song writing and jamming. We’re loving the new dynamics, sounds and feel that our new line-up is coming up with. The more time we spend playing together, the better the result. As a band we look forward to spending time in the studio, so that will follow as well. And, in the meantime, good gigs are hard to refuse.

Funk Initiative is made up of lead vocalist Gianluca Bezzina, electric guitarist Edward Bonello, bass guitarist Shaun Abdilla, Paul Torpiano on piano and synthesiser and Chris Tate on drums and percussion.

Funk Initiative will be performing on Friday at 8pm at Pjazza Teatru Rjal in Valletta as part of the Science in the City festival.  A Meet the Scientist Session follows at 8.45pm in Area 3a. There will be another performance at 9.45pm. Other festival activities will be held at the City Gate entrance, along Republic Street, St George’s Square and other centrally- located venues.

The festival is organised by the University of Malta, the University’s Research Trust (RIDT) and the Malta Chamber of Scientists and funded by the EU’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action of the Horizon 2020 (H2020) Programme.

www.scienceinthecity.org.mt

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