Interview: The Cadre

The Cadre Chats With: Myriad3

By Olivia Robinson

Published on January 21st, 2013

The Cadre [UPEI’s Student News Empire]

Set to play as part of the UPEI Music Department’s Recital Series, Toronto-based jazz trio Myriad 3 is made up of Chris Donnelly on piano, Daniel Fortin on bass, and Ernesto Cervini on drums, and brings with it a unique mix of “modern jazz, meets classical, meets pop, meets Oscar Peterson.”

The show is being held in the Dr. Steel Recital Hall on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013. In anticipation, The Cadre spoke with pianist Chris Donnelly about the upcoming show, how the band came to be, and what it was like to release their debut album.

Cadre: I heard that the band came together as a sort of accident. Care to tell me about it?
Chris: It was one of those instances where the three of us were in a situation and we recognized an opportunity where things felt really right. We all had the knowledge and the foresight to recognize the opportunity and we were like, hey, this isn’t like any other band we have ever played in, let’s do something together. We all knew each other on the Toronto scene, and we all went to U of T together. We had played together, but never the three of us together until a bass player injured himself and called Dan to sub in. So we played that gig together, and then a month later there was another gig. And it happened a few times and it was so much fun that we decided we should try to develop a project together. It was a combination of luck, circumstance, and being able to recognize opportunity.

Cadre: How did you get involved in playing jazz music?
Chris: What’s really neat about this band is that we all arrived at jazz from different angles. I play the piano and started playing classic music at a really young age. Ernesto, I believe, was also playing a lot of classic music and he’s also a really good clarinet player. Dan arrived more through rock music. What we try to accomplish is being comfortable with that diversity and bring that into a musical setting and work with it within the trio. To call it a jazz band is correct, but we’ve had such a diverse range of influences.

Cadre: Would you say those different backgrounds helped the group find a unique sound?
Chris: I think that’s one of the reasons. It also had a lot to do with acknowledging our audience’s increasingly diverse backgrounds. We also put in a lot of hard work in rehearsing and crafting the sound. But yeah, it probably has a lot to do with the nature of how much diversity there is in three young guys coming together. We’ve had so many influences that we love that we want to bring out in the music, so naturally some kind of unique sound is going to come out.

Cadre: What was your favourite part of making and releasing the group’s debut album, Tell?
Chris: I’ll talk for me personally first and then I’ll try to talk on behalf of the band. A lot of jazz music is really leader-centric, like the Chris Donnelly Trio, whereas this is more of a leader-less band. We’re Myriad3, so even though I’m talking to you right now, I kind of feel like the leader but at the same time I’m not really. So personally, the best part of the album was that it was the first album I released with a band. My two other albums were solo albums. When you’re in a recording studio with two of your buddies, it’s a completely different dynamic. It’s so much more fun and so much more relaxed, because you can kind of lean on them a little bit. There’s a lot more banter and joking. So overall it’s just more friendly and fun. I think the other guys would say something similar. We’ve been working together for two years. We got together in December 2010 and released the record two years later, and saw all that happen relatively fast. To get something like that together in two years, to have a group sound and write music and tour and do all of that stuff in two years is a pretty fast pace. Seeing it all come together in the studio was an all-around fun thing. We were proud that we did it.  Releasing an album is a milestone in your career.

Cadre: What was it like going on tour to promote your debut album?
Chris: Well, I’ll give you two answers. Touring is horrible and amazing. It’s amazing because you’re hanging out with good friends and you get to play music together every night. And you get to travel and see different parts of Canada and the States. You get to drive in a car with your buddies and listen to music that you wouldn’t normally listen to. But touring is horrible because it takes a toll on your routine. The road life is a hard life.  It’s very tiring. You’re on the road, up first thing in the morning, and traveling all day.  Then you do a sound check and a gig, and then maybe you eat after the gig. Then you have to wake up the next day and do the same thing. So you’re not eating well, you don’t have a chance to exercise and be healthy. Ten days is about my upper limit.  After that I say, okay, I need my bed.

Cadre: Where would you like to see the band go next in terms of making music or touring?
Chris: I’d like to see the band play some jazz festivals in the next few years. With the album out, hopefully we will develop a profile so we can start playing on jazz festival stages. We would also like to take the band to Europe and do a tour. We’re also working on new repertoire already. We got so excited about this band that we wrote so much music that we have another album’s worth of music that we still need to rehearse and play around with. We have a lot of ideas on the horizons and we’d like to take the band to that next level.