Jon Batiste

0:13Hello and welcome to the Monocle Weekly, my name is Steph Chung-gu. On this week's show, I speak with American composer and singer-songwriter John Batiste on the new documentary American Symphony. The new documentary focuses on the rise of John's music career following his success at the 64th Annual Grammys and facing a new challenge, composing a classical symphony with a blend of traditional and contemporary sounds from different cultures of America. Working with director Matthew Hyman, John's American Symphony was a feat worthwhile documenting. During filming, John's partner, writer and advocate Suleika Jouard was facing her own challenge, undergoing cancer treatment.

0:51It changed the direction of the film. Now behind the scenes, we see John as a composer, artist, husband and caregiver, balancing his focus on the symphony and Suleika's health. John came into Midori House to discuss the documentary.

1:21Well, that is the dulcet tones of John Batiste, who's with me in Midori House. Thank you so much for coming in today. Oh, yeah. Before we begin, I would like to say congrats on your Grammy nominations for World Music Radio. Oh, my goodness. World Music Radio. I want to start with your music career so far. So from studying music as a child to Juilliard to band leader of the Stephen Colbert Late Night Show to now having, well, had a symphony. How are you feeling about your career so far? Like how you feel about your career point? Blessed. I've had so much a friend of mine called me last night and he told me he had a vision for me he had this incredible vision that came to him after he had done ayahuasca and he said it was a clear clear vision more clear than anything he's ever heard or seen and it told him that I'm in the second quarter, and the third quarter is a huge transition of life.

2:42Now, I don't know if I believe what he was saying, but he was like, you have a whole lot left to do. And I thought that was very, very harrowing. I feel like it's more like the glass is still not full. Yeah, yeah, it was like very encouraging and also daunting. Speaking of daunting, American Symphony, how did the concept of you composing a symphony come together? What was the first thought in your mind when wanting to compose? Spring.

3:19Music is everywhere. It's in everything. It's in me and sometimes it comes out at the most unexpected times. It'll happen the liminal state between resting and waking life. It'll happen if I'm walking down the street or I'm in transit on a plane or on a train or something will happen in my life that will process itself in song. And I thought about this symphony. The symphony really was me processing the last 30 years of life and deciding to try to synthesize all of the ideas and musical experiences and people and trauma, all of it into a symphony because it felt like the right means of accommodating all that.

4:15What are the differences between composing a symphony to composing your albums? My albums are worlds and the symphony is a world. The difference is a symphony is something that has a range of set principles and an album has another set of different principles. So an album is much like a symphony in that it's one world that you're exploring and you're kind of creating out of nothing, built on a theme, built on a narrative, or built on some principles. But the principles are very different.

5:08Oh, I saw the stare I died of every plan I am here to you Oh, I'm here to you The American Symphony, it wasn't a blend of your sound It was a blend of other sounds, Native America, Louisiana, all that sounds and culture blend into one piece of music. What challenges did you face when composing it? Well, I wanted to recreate the symphony. I had to hand select each musician one by one. And you have people who they read music, others who don't read music, others who play in this form of improvised music, others who don't improvise, others who play electronic modular synthesizers and samplers, some who play archaic folk instruments that have never played indoors in their entire life.

6:22how do you make a piece of music that everybody can read or everybody can be on the same page at the same time. So we had to invent a new system that has never been done in the symphonic context or in any context, really. We had to invent a new way of playing together, and I really enjoyed that, but it was also very, very difficult. It took quite a while to figure out what our systems would be so that close to 200 people from all walks of life could come together and play a piece of music together. What brought the idea to document it? You know, there's so much that, especially when you think about the heritage of people of color, women, musicians who are creating iconic works that shift things forward in the genre, in the culture, and the expression of these things is oftentimes so magnetic it can't be put into words.

7:27is so powerful, so profound, you can't explain it. And if it's not documented properly, it's forgotten from our collective memory. So I think that it was important for all of the incredible work that I stand on the shoulders of, the ancestors that I stand on the shoulders of, and the work of the symphonic canon to be expanded by this being documented. And so I thought, if I'm not going to document it, who will? And that was the beginning of us making American Symphony, both the piece and the film that's on Netflix. There's many scenes in the documentary. One that struck for me was the elements coming together for the first time or for the first time as a viewer.

8:15In your view, what was it like hearing the start of the symphony for the first time?

8:34It was a revelation. You know, the people had a sense of what it was when we played the music for the first time. But no one really knew exactly. Actually, I'll correct myself. People had a vision from what I'd explained to them, but no one really knew what it was. And in my mind, it was clear, but the input of the musicians is what made it complete for me. They have personalities and they have experiences that clarified the right way to do things. So it all came together in a rehearsal one day. I remember it very clearly. And everybody started to, their light turned on. Everybody said, oh, I see what we're doing.

9:24And I was like, yes, yes, yes, yes. And then once everybody got the vision, it enhanced the piece even further and it became very, very clear that this was something that we had all never done before. The premise of American Symphony was mainly about your journey into composing the symphony until the premise changed when your partner, Suleika Joyd, underwent treatment for her cancer diagnosis. I wanted to ask how you navigated that while composing the symphony because the scenes that the viewer will see in the documentary, it's not easy. Life is not easy. Life is not something that comes at you in a neat package.

10:11and that way I see art and life as one and the same and that way it's part of the journey. When you compose, you're processing all the things that you've ever heard. Everything that you've ever heard, everything that you've ever done makes you unique and makes you who you are and that's also why when you have tragedy, that's a part of your artistry and it's not something that for me is distracting beyond just wanting to be there for Sulika. It's not something that took away from the process of composition. It's just a part of the flow. How did you both find watching, well, a rough edit of the documentary together?

10:58How did you find it? I didn't like to watch it, but she really liked to watch it. She was into it. She liked to see the moments that she wasn't able to be in the room or to know what I was going through, to see what I was going through was really very encouraging for her, actually, because it was something that allowed for her to see that I was okay. caregivers and people who take care of people in their life who are going through tragedy often put on a strong face and they want to carry the weight of the illness with the person who they love but then behind closed doors that's when they kind of fall apart and she got a chance to see those moments behind closed doors with me and to see also how there was so much going on at that time, it was a lot to even remember a process in the moment.

11:55It was a good chronicle of the era. So I'm glad that she found it that way. I still have not really, you know, I don't really feel like it's the time for me to sit and relive that. And the Grammy goes to...

12:16We are John Baptiste!

12:29Watching the moment you won the Grammys for We Are, we see you jump higher into the spotlight and then we see the signs of yourself, the artist, the celebrity, the supporting partner, the caregiver. How hard was that to balance and see that on screen? I find that the balance of things is all about finding the integration of your life. How do you integrate the things in your life? You know, the hard things that happen, find a way to elevate your values, things that you really value, the things you really care about, start to become very clear because you don't have room for anything else. It's no BS.

13:14It's like trial by fire. It burns away everything that's chaff. It burns away all of the weak stuff. So one of my values is family. And having family go through some of the roughest times that we can imagine, the worst-case scenarios of life happening, makes you realize that there is no balance. There's only priorities. Your priorities have to be integrated and have to be serving each other, or they'll just fall away. The things that don't serve will fall away. Your key in life of moving through storms is really figuring out, before you're in the storm, what are your priorities? What are the things you value?

14:00What, in the moment of the storm, is going to be most important for you to focus on? Because it's only going to be that. At the end of the documentary, we see the American Symphony finally played at Carnegie Hall, which is amazing, by the way. what was your first thoughts when the performance was done after the standing ovations and I'm assuming the immense standing ovation that you had there were minutes and minutes and minutes it was it was a very very very powerful moment to achieve because there had been what we see in the documentary you see so many things that have been put into the piece coming the life.

14:41There were cancellations of the piece that are not even documented in the film. You know, there was something in the second time it was supposed to premiere that didn't make the film. And I'll tell you now, why not? No secret. I actually got COVID the day before the premiere. And this is after years and years of, you know, a couple of years of putting in work and the premiere is supposed to happen a year prior to that. But we were in the lockdown period of the coronavirus pandemic and all of that stuff was happening. So there were so many things in history as well. And this classical music space in this space of building on the work of what Duke Ellington did and building on the work of the great composers who I admire and this being the next step.

15:38And so allowing for that to really sink in was, you know, it's hard to describe. I feel so blessed to have been able to be the person to bring this vision into the world. American Symphony is an intimate look at a creative balancing a masterpiece and being a caregiver. I'm sure many, many people who have watched this are in similar situations would feel a tie to the documentary. I know I do myself. But for those who do not, what do they hope they take away from the documentary? I think if you have a life mission, if you have a life that is driven by a purpose, something bigger than yourself, which we all have within us, which we're all divinely constructed to carry out in our own way, as great or as small as it may seem.

16:38It's equally as important for everybody to tap into that and to pursue it. The highs and the lows of life will hit you, and that's a prerequisite. But don't lose faith. Don't be discouraged. Find your way to what is made for you, what's destined for you, and it will be glorious. Amazing. Just finally, I just want to touch on your Grammy nominations for World Music Radio. Has that surreal moment came back for you, like with We Are, or are you a bit more level-headed with your nominations? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You see it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

17:32Oh, man, I don't know. Like, I feel like I just make the music. I feel music all over. I feel it. I just make the music. I'm so grateful that my music and the things that I care about resonate with folks out there. And I want to keep doing that. Besides the Grammys, do you have expectations for 2024? I have been seeing there's a few chatter of American Symphony being in the running for a certain movie award that appears in March. Well, you know, that's all wonderful in the ways that we make things. We have this process and then all of a sudden there's this incredible recognition sometimes. And I'm truly, truly grateful and honored.

18:20If that would be the case, I'm just so, so honored to go with Sulika this time because, you know, the last time that I was able to go to the Grammys, we couldn't go together because she was in the hospital. but the last award show that we were able to attend together was when I won the Oscar a couple years back in 21, and that was 2020, actually. So I think it's been a while since we've been able to share in these moments of recognition together as a family, and that would be an incredible, incredible thing to have happen back-to-back, in particular, because, you know, the song that's on the Grammys for Song of the Year is a song that I wrote for Sue Laika when she was in the hospital.

19:13It started out as a lullaby. And obviously the movie is connected to our relationship and our family. So for us to celebrate both of those things in February and in March together and her not being in the hospital, that's my favorite part. That's my literal favorite part of what could happen. Every time I see your face

19:45The feeling's just the same

19:53It's never going away

20:10No, no

20:26That was John Batiste. The documentary American Symphony is out now on Netflix and World Music Radio, John's seventh album, is also available to listen to. That is it for the Monarcha Weekly and for the programme this year. It'll be back in 2024, but until then, thank you very much for listening.