Nordic Jazz 08: Wildbirds & Peacedrums

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The two-day Nordic Jazz 08 festival — held on the House of Sweden's roof, overlooking the Potomac — kicks off on Thursday, and all this week readexpress.com will feature interviews with the artists performing there. Yesterday was composer Kristian Blak from Denmark's Faroe Islands. Sharing the bill with Blak on Thursday is Sweden's Wildbirds & Peacedrums. The husband-and-wife drums-and-voice duo sounds like a tribal punk band covering Nina Simone songs, and their recent CD, "Heartcore" (The Leaf Label) is as soulful as it is original. Andreas Werliin smacks the skins and Mariam Wallentin sings most of the songs.

» EXPRESS: Express 5 singers and 5 drummers who have influenced you and why.
» WERLIIN: Drummers:
1. Jon Falt: For making drums something else than time keeping and technique.
2. Paal Nilssen-Love: For creativity and forward thinking.
3. John Bonham: Sound and beat.
4. Elvin Jones: Hard swing and pure energy.
5. Tony Williams: For independence and direction.

» WALLENTIN: Singers:
1. Sidsel Endresen: Freedom.
2. Nina Simone: Power.
3. Diamanda Galas: Energy.
4. Aretha Franklin. Spirit.
5. Chet Baker. Intimacy.

» EXPRESS: Did your past band experiences help you decide to go with a minimalist lineup for Wildbirds & Peacedrums?
» WERLIIN: The forming of the band was a reaction of all earlier experiences from musical institutions as genres and schools; we needed to make something pure and physically comfortable. We had talked a lot about music and shared the same record collection, so when we started play it was easy to create. It had enough space in it so you can hear everything and keep your imagination free to fill in the rest.

» EXPRESS: Were there any particular artists or recordings that inspired you to keep things mainly based on voice and drums?
» WERLIIN: We listened a lot to Norwegian improvised music and got into drone music such as Earth. The simplicity and direction in that kind of music was something we looked for. It's about the energy — not the sound or notes. At the same time, we like traditional songwriting — just tried to do it on what we knew best: drums and voice.

» EXPRESS: Explain the meaning behind the band name.
» WERLIIN: We felt like we wanted a big and long name for a small group. A name that made us feel like there was many things to fill it with. And we honestly feel our band name is a kind of description of the music we make — but sometimes a bit more Wardrums, maybe. Nobody remembers our band name but they sure do remember the music. That's fair.

» EXPRESS: The lyrics on your album "Heartcore" seem very personal. Are there any songs that sometimes make you uncomfortable to sing because the sentiments are so raw?
» WALLENTIN: Hmm, of course I can feel the feelings behind the lyrics sometimes when I sing and remember the state I was in when writing them, and that can move me in all kinds of directions. But no, if I was to feel too uncomfortable or sad, I wouldn't have written something that I need to go through every time I'm on a stage. It's more like I get strength from singing about a sad thing, or things that makes me mad. Like a sort of ritual cleaning bath.

» EXPRESS: Were you surprised to be considered for the 2008 Jazz in Sweden award — and then to have won it? Many great artists have won it, but Wildbirds & Peacedrums are the least jazzy.
» WERLIIN: We got a phone call last summer and the voice said we had been awarded with this prize. We thought they were joking at first; we hadn't thought about genres for a long time and especially not what to call our own music, and at first it was like, "Hmm, are we really so much jazz?" But then we felt really honored and proud that someone wanted to call our music "jazz" and give us an award for the music we make.

For us, jazz is the origin for improvisation, and freedom takes a big part in our music. The award is decided and given out by the Swedish music counsel, and it finances a record and some shows during the year. We accepted the award because we felt we had done an honest musical trip — beyond the jazz. We hadn't "trained" to win a jazz award — more like the opposite, actually!

» House of Sweden, 2900 K. St. NW; Thu., 7:30 p.m., $25 (or $40 for both nights); 202-467-2600. (Foggy Bottom)

Up next: Iro Haarla (Wednesday) and Ola Kvernberg (Thursday).
Photos courtesy Wildbirds & Peacedrums