Anime Winds Interview: SXSW 2010

Posted on Feb 8th 2010 2:48PM by Brandy Keller
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Woodwind quintet Anime Winds has been playing innovative arrangements of classical and contemporary pieces throughout Austin since 2008. The group has partnered with four other orchestral bands and a solo harpist for a showcase of performances that cross the boundaries of traditional classical music. The showcase, aptly titled "Classical Crossover," will take place in Austin during SXSW. Spinner recently spoke with Anime Winds co-founders and co-directors Seetha Shivaswamy and Michael Drapkin to discuss the band and its plans for SXSW.

How would you describe your sound?

SS: Our core group is a classical woodwind quintet -- flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn. We recently added a drummer and guitarist for some of our songs. So it's a really interesting sound, blending the traditional virtuosity of woodwind instruments with the energy of rock and jazz. Very colorful and harmonically dense. All of our members are conservatory trained, but we got tired of just playing stuffy classical music in darkened concert halls with too many rules. We are excited to bring our music a new life and into the mainstream.

How did Anime Winds form?

MD: Well, previously we got a group together for fun, but we all had divergent agendas. The sort of random thing didn't hold us together. Seetha and I wanted to play more non-traditional music, and so we scoured Austin for players who were focused in the same direction.

SS: Michael and I feel really lucky to have met each other. We discovered we had a very similar approach to music and how to attract different audiences doing what we love so much. We both shared the same frustrations of how classical music was too elitist, and we were passionate about changing that. It is all very serendipitous, how that first meeting evolved into this amazing group we have now.

What are your musical influences?

MD: It covers a wide spectrum of great score writers and composers like John Williams and Paul McCartney -- musicians who compose passionately and resonate with audiences. That's what we look for.

How did you come up with the name Anime Winds?

SS: We were all thinking, "Oh, we're so bad at coming up with names." We wanted something that began with A and was catchy.

MD: Anime is actually a French word that means "lively" or "animated." You'll see the word on a lot of Debussy scores.

SS: Sometimes people ask us, "Are you guys gonna play music for Japanese anime?" It wasn't really what we were going for, but who knows?

What do you have planned for SXSW?

MD: What you probably don't realize about this Classical Crossover showcase is that Seetha and I conceived of it and we're collaborating with SXSW to put this whole thing together. We really set a high bar for the groups we've brought in. We're planning to play music from World of Warcraft; we've been talking to a guy at Blizzard and we have an agreement with them to play music from the game during SXSW. It's all very exciting.

SS: As far as the quality of the players in our showcase -- and this is where the musical snob comes in -- I think we're going to blow people's minds. The people that are coming are really exceptional.

What's your biggest vice?

SS: I think our biggest vice is being really geeky classical music snobs. We have to remind ourselves of our model.

MD: Our biggest vice is succumbing to inertia. It's really easy to just follow the ways that people have done things rather than what we feel is right.

Who was your first celebrity or musical crush?

MD: Seetha, I'll let you take that one.

SS: I get musical crushes on people when they play really well. My heart melts when I hear a beautiful melody.

Who are your favorite composers?

SS: Two of my favorite composers are Igor Stravinsky and J.S. Bach.

MD: For me it would be Richard Strauss. Every film composer can trace what they do back to Richard Strauss.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

SS: I used to hide my love of Michael Jackson, like his music was my guilty pleasure, but after he died I realized that pretty much everyone else was crazy about him too.

MD: I'm a marching band music judge, and I love marching band music. None of my professional music friends understand that.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while performing?

SS: I guess our goal is to make people feel like they can get crazy. The traditional classical world is very docile and hyper-mannered. We would love to be the catalyst for some craziness.

Brandy Keller is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.