Find yourself in a different environment

Releasing an album, dealing with American legislation, surviving public voting: Santa Šillere on the road to her debut album and life thereafter

Releasing an album is a serious matter. Although the number of jazz musician album releases in Latvia increases every year, there are still not so many. Therefore, each individual case is even more important, interesting, and exciting because it allows glimpses into the musicians’ inner world. The protagonist of this conversation is singer Santa Šillere, who offered her debut album «Other Ways» to listeners over a year ago and is still actively performing with this program. Being in Santa’s circle of acquaintances, I know that releasing an album with her original music was not easy for her because she did everything herself. Santa’s journey in the creative field is extremely interesting, so there was no question of whether to meet her for a cup of coffee. In fact, we had several coffee meetings because we ended up talking a bit more than initially planned!

Well, Santa! Finally, we’re talking about your album, even though it came out in October!

Yes, six months have already passed!

But at least now you can look at everything you’ve accomplished from the outside, as when the album came out, everything was still hot and fresh, emotions and experiences were still full, and now you can rationally evaluate all the successes and still be happy, as only half a year has passed!

You know, Evilena, I thought there would be relief after releasing the album, but in reality, everything just started with the release. Maybe that dissonance I felt was because I had been working on this album for so long… Basically, if we look at it, I’ve been at it for five years! That is, if we look at the first composition that was written and included in this album. But seriously, I have been thinking about it for the last three years. I would say, from one perspective, this process has ended for me with the release, but at the same time, I realized that my connection with the outside world has just begun, so it can be said that only now is the wave starting to stir. Of course, the satisfaction is huge; I am very happy that I did it, even though there were speculations beforehand — maybe it should have been done sooner and so on; truly, everything is happening at the right time and place. With the age and maturity of this moment, it was the right time to release the album. And if you ask what life is after the album — it’s extremely dynamic. Of course, October marked the release of the album, but then there were all sorts of reflections and efforts on how to strengthen the link so that the album reaches the listener as far as possible here in Latvia and with the media. Naturally, also keeping an eye beyond Latvia’s borders — yes, that wave has just begun.

Let’s start from the very beginning — you mentioned that the first composition is already five years old.

Approximately. The first composition among those included in the album with the same name, «Other Ways,» was written in 2018 in Poland when I was studying in the ERASMUS+ program. At that moment, without realizing it, I met the members of my quintet, musicians (we played together more later). It was probably a turning point in my creative life; I truly found myself after entering a different environment, as strange as it may sound. I no longer hesitated to share what I created; it started to become natural. What’s interesting — like every musician dreaming of their album, the first album is often jazz standards. But internally, I manifested, felt that I really wanted to release my first album with my own music. I don’t know how I got to this point, but that’s how it turned out — all the music on the album is mine, except for one reharmonized Bach prelude with Aspazija’s words, which could be a kind of deviation with reference to my academic education period, but the rest of the material since that year 2018 has evolved and realized in the album. The most active creative phase for me was during the pandemic when I was writing my music; it turned out quite interesting. I completed my bachelor’s degree, and I thought — now I’ll take a leap. Now it will start. I enrolled in the first year of the master’s program with that thought — now it will happen! And, oh, the pandemic hit, basically like everyone else — at home. Even during the pandemic, I completed my master’s, so I think the tone of the album really reveals personal feelings in the music, thanks to this time, as I was mostly at home. I was forced to have a kind of conversation with myself, perhaps delving into events and overall also training my creativity, which was my master’s task, so I don’t sound the same everywhere. It’s more of a view from the composition standpoint — not to repeat yourself, to seek new paths and angles musically, and therefore, I think each composition definitely opens a somewhat different page for me and hopefully for listeners as well. At the same time, although the themes we explore, as we know, are experienced differently by each of us, the range of emotions and revelations we come to are quite similar.

Somehow, the reference point is Poland, where I started sharing my music, and then the most productive phase for me in creating original music was during the pandemic. Inga Bērziņa was also a big motivator in this; she, I think, caught on that maybe I sound different in my music and also feel different performing my music, and she gently nudged me, challenging me during each assessment to essentially write my music from a different perspective. In these processes, Tuomo Uusitalo also played a significant part; I studied composition during my master’s studies with him. Each assessment had original compositions, and a large part of them were selected for the album because, of course, I didn’t include all of them.

But why did you decide to record with Polish musicians instead of locals? You have your own team here.

Absolutely, I have musical kindred spirits in Latvia that I would never want to change or replace; they truly hold a special place in my heart. However, I think the album process itself is more connected to, firstly, my time in Poland, where my creative side truly blossomed, and these musicians were just along the way. In reality, the material started to resonate with them to some extent because after I returned from ERASMUS+ back home, I continued with an ERASMUS+ internship, meaning I spent a whole year privately going to Poland to study with teacher Anna Gadt, and there I regularly met musicians; we truly played together. We also played at the «Voicingers» festival in Poland; I think it just naturally fell into place. Looking back now, it frankly seemed significant why I recorded with them, even though I have such wonderful musicians in Latvia whom I joyfully play music with every day. I believe the music connected with me through them, perhaps. However, despite playing a lot in Latvia, I felt different playing with those musicians in Poland. I think that’s the beauty of jazz music — we complement each other, we trigger impulses in one another to which we respond and react, and that’s what happened with those musicians; they probably gave me different impulses, or maybe I was finally ready to feel them, I don’t know, but that’s how the material started to take shape with them. It definitely wasn’t a directive that I had to record an album with Polish musicians, but rather a natural turning point in life. But I am very happy because now, listening to other feedback or sentiments, many have said that my sound has gained an interesting quality because these musicians are involved and that I bring a Latvian element among them that somehow weaves our experiences together in this way.

I know that there was supposed to be one more piece in your album that wasn’t included due to legislation differences in Latvia and America. Can you tell me more about that?

Yes… Actually, there are two pieces that weren’t included because during the album recording session, I recorded 10 pieces, and then, while going through the recording session files with Pauls Dāvi Megi, who mixed my album, we removed one song because, in a way, it didn’t conceptually fit at that moment. And that was completely acceptable to me; I had anticipated that maybe one piece from the session wouldn’t make it into the album. Many colleagues also told me that if there’s a chance to record more pieces, one can be taken out later to create a cohesive whole. However, the sad story is about the song «Bluebird» because it was my original music, but I had taken poetry from the American poet Charles Bukowski. It’s his poem, and in my master’s years, I had written a piece with it and even performed it at my concerts. Of course, I hadn’t imagined at that time that I would want to officially release this piece, and definitely, at no point would I have hidden this fact — I was happy, as Charles Bukowski really is unique in his writing style and thought direction. However, a long story short: a couple of weeks before the album release, I realized I had a problem with the copyright of this piece because everything was in order with Aspazija and Bach. Let’s just say it was a couple of intense weeks where I almost called Los Angeles every night because, of course, there are no representatives of Charles Bukowski in Latvia, and I contacted the publishing company that holds most of Bukowski’s copyright, even reached out to the New York office, and they said, yes, we hold the rights to this poet’s work, but there are individual poems that are not under our representation, and one of them is «Bluebird.» It seemed like, Santa, how did you choose this one… And yes, then they informed me that the copyright holder is his wife, Linda Bukowski. Thus began my long search for Linda’s contacts; I was considerably assisted in this process by Arta Jēkabsone, who had greater access to contacts. With her help, we finally got this lady’s number; we called and called, but she, of course, didn’t answer. Then Rihards Kolmanis, who also lives in America, called her, and probably because it was a local number, she answered and said, «No one will ever use this poem, and someone will then these people will have to deal with my lawyers.» Well, I think her stance was pretty clear; at that moment, I understood that I didn’t want to play games with this… I simply have to hope that years will pass, and perhaps her attitude will change, or maybe the copyright holder will change, and perhaps we’ll release it after some time because the recording was truly wonderful. I definitely want to publish «Bluebird,» that’s a fact. We have to wait for the right moment.

But how was it to write music for someone else’s lyrics? Because in the other pieces, the lyrics are yours (except for Bach/Aspazija).

That is an interesting question. Yes, it was different. I would say that I don’t have much experience in writing for someone else’s text, I tried to read the melody of the text; every language has a melody. I listened to «Bluebird» on YouTube, where Charles Bukowski himself narrated it. Maybe that truly resonated with me, and then I began to read this poem through. I tried to feel where the text’s melody leads. How I read it, how I interpret it, that’s how it happened. I think it’s complex because mostly, if you look at my compositions, the music came first. For me, the harmonic, melodic language is closer, or it just happened that way, predominantly coming first, and the text came somewhat subordinated. Or simultaneously. But yes, writing music for existing poetry was an interesting process.

You were also nominated for the «Kilograms kultūras» award; congratulations!

It was a pleasant surprise! I woke up to a flood of messages on WhatsApp and Messenger, thinking — what happened?! Yes, there was this voting, which I consider to be an extremely significant honor because in the grand scheme of events in a year, there are so many competitions in art, culture… I am immensely grateful that my album was even noticed amidst everything happening! Also, in such a prestigious nomination — «Start,» as indeed this debut album marked a new beginning in my creative journey. It was a crazy month, to tell you the truth. While the nominees for major music awards can relax as the jury does all the work, here, the organizers of «Kilograms kultūras» are very clever because the jury only does the initial important work; they nominate, and then the nominees themselves have to rally the audience, get votes. This tested all my social media skills and all possible ways in which I could engage people, the audience. It was truly mad, essentially involving a month full of winter and final voting. It’s a full-time job! As an example, during the day, I am at the Dome Choir School teaching youngsters, and essentially, I only have the morning or late evening to remind people to vote and film a video. But you know, I’ve learned a lot from this phase because I realized that nowadays, an artist must communicate so closely with their audience, and interestingly, I truly gained a new audience! This period also marked a realization that I have entered a new phase where I need to build relationships not only with myself and my music but also with my audience to explore who my listeners are and how to reach them with my music. This is just the beginning of a new chapter, and it’s intriguing, but it requires a lot of self-breakthroughs and discipline.

Because discipline is required — to post something new every day on social media?

I believe discipline is key; you need to be actively present all the time, in person, in interaction because concerts and events are constantly happening, just as album listening isn’t only in October when it’s released but also in March, April, summer, and so on. It involves strategic thinking — how to engage and understand how I can perceive my project not just as an artwork, as musicians generally like to think about their music, which is understandable, but nowadays, it requires so much more. You are a musician-manager, musician-PR specialist, and musician-publicist, and if we don’t have the opportunity to work exclusively with professionals in these fields, we all become them. So, this is my current challenge, as I mentioned — I don’t want my music to stop with its release, and also, on some other level of consciousness, I don’t want it to stop with Latvia, so this moment is about exploring a market where I could find my place and get to know the European audience. It’s a new path with much to learn, and honestly — I enjoy it. «Kilograms kultūras» was a fantastic start to that because I was compelled to immerse myself in this entire event, be socially active, and also observe how other colleagues do it. It’s very interesting; it’s a whole new world.

Yes, even among all jazz musicians, I could name maybe four who actively promote themselves on social media… Deniss Paškevičs, Kristaps Vanadziņš, you, and Toms Rudzinskis. The rest pretty much do it quite discreetly.

We also have Latvian musicians living abroad, but that’s different. You’re right; though there aren’t many to seek advice from or benchmark against, each must find their unique way to communicate with their audience. It truly requires a different mindset.

But are you still sticking to just Instagram?

Primarily, yes, it’s Instagram. I’m trying to be more active on Facebook, occasionally on TikTok. Currently working on a website set up for better understanding for international listeners, and perhaps the next big step will be a European tour!