Interview With Max Hatt/ Edda Glass- Seeking Wisdom Through Jazz

It is always a joy to interview artists that have a spiritual connection to their music. They use this art form to both understand and empower humanity. Max Hatt / Edda Glass are some of the wisest musicians you will come across, and you will see their talent as a beacon for enlightenment. Their music stems from their heart and their beautiful belief in the power of empathy. They see jazz as both a representation and salvation of the soul, which is felt in their album, Ocean of Birds, which is to be released on May 20. Moreover, it was felt in this lovely interview I got to experience.

Diandra: I have read your definition of your music, to which you say it is experimental. What makes you say that your sound is an experiment?

Edda: I was trying to combine all of our influences into something new. In a sense, all art is an experiment unless; you are trying to emulate what was done before.

Max: More specifically, the ongoing experiment is to take the sophistication of jazz and bring it to a bigger audience. We want to do something transparent in the lyrics, song, and narrative that will overcome pre-conceived notions of what is “jazzy.”

Edda: We want to see that we can resonate with the audience through musical structures that are more complex.

Diandra: When I saw you guys performing together, I felt like there was such a familiarity/ease between you two. What did you see in each other to make you go on this experiment together?

Edda: Well, we play Bossa Nova in Montana. As you can imagine, not a lot of people play Bossa Nova in Montana. That is where we musically started. I had heard Max playing, and all of our original songs were originally solo- guitar compositions he had written. For me, his songs were so intimate yet vast, all at the same time. There was something very mysterious about them, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. When Max asked me to try and put some lyrics to them, it was my opportunity to figure what the mystery is about. That is part of the experiment, as well.

Max: We try to represent that in a performance space, which you caught in your review. We try to be subtle and invite the listeners to engage in their own narrative through our narrative. Our music is an invitation to be in the moment.

Edda: Yeah. We live in a very visual world. We love to watch movies and all the great television out there right now, but at the same time, as musicians, there is something special when you are just operating on an auditory level. When you are listening to a story rather than it being presented to you. It makes you have to work for it. You have to project the images on your own internal screen, and to make music that moves people to do that is what we are both about.

Edda: We firmly believe that art is about communication, and our job is to get this internal mystery out to where people can experience it.

Max: We believe that the most personal things are the most universal things. So we try to be deeply in the music so that can be a portal for people to participate.

Edda: As we tour, we are trying to find ways for the audience to experience what we are experiencing. Having to create the images of a song in your head means you have to be apart of the creative process, which for me, as a listener, is what I am after.

Crossing Over

Edda: I think the point is that you are constantly probing that mystery, and you cannot discover it.

Max: Humans are a mystery. Why are we here? What are we supposed to do? I think humans tell stories to explain and deal with that mystery. There is no definitive story or answer about that mystery, but it is about engaging in the process of it. You can see that as simple or complex, but it is both at the same time, and we try to simplify that complexity through our narratives.

Diandra: Well in your new album, Ocean of Birds, you seem to consistently touch upon themes of displacement and existentialism. What makes those such rich themes for you as musicians? 

Max: Most humans go some place thinking that it will be their home, and end up realizing it is not and they go to find it in another place. When you look at the current situation in Europe and hear of all these refugees that have been pushed out of their comfort zones and homes, this is a very timeless, universal theme. I think we are all looking for a home, and your birthplace isn’t necessarily that. So, we are very inspired by that sense of longing and searching for your place. In the West, there is a lot of nature to reflect upon that, and Edda enjoys writing about it.

Edda: When you see all these empty landscapes, it is like a blank palate. It is very evocative and inspiring and makes you feel small.

Max: So our songs are like an interface between the internal and external landscapes.

Edda: When I was a kid, I was always pretending to be someone else. It is just make-believe, and I think reading books has inspired me more than other songs because it is like stepping into a person’s world. I’m really drawn to fiction where you are passing between two worlds. When you see something from the outside and the inside you understand it better, and it could make what you thought familiar about it feel foreign and vice versa. That is where the human mystery comes back and things you take for granted as familiar become strange again.

Max: And on the other side it brings empathy.

Edda: I would say it is the improvisational element. Suddenly, there is this complete newness to the song, and gets back to that familiarity/ mystery we are going for.

Max: I think jazz is the most existential art form. To do it well, you have to be in the moment. Playing jazz, at its best, makes you come fully alive in all your dimensions. You’re writing music about yourself and sharing it with other humans in a social setting. It is the quintessential human experience and brings everyone together as one self.