AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
When Evan Mast was a kid, the idea of making a living as a musician never crossed his mind.
EVAN MAST: There was nobody in my life that was a professional musician. Like, it didn't seem like something you could actually do. But the pieces fell into place, and once I started getting opportunities with it, I just ran with it.
RASCOE: Mast went on to found Ratatat, an electronic rock band whose sound was groundbreaking in the 2000s.
(SOUNDBITE OF RATATAT SONG, "SEVENTEEN YEARS")
MAST: The mission statement with Ratatat was to see if we could make instrumental music that was just as exciting as music with vocals. A lot of electronic music at that time was kind of more about, like, a vibe and more about creating a mood. But we were going for something a lot more, like guitar parts that could almost substitute for vocal melodies and that kind of thing.
(SOUNDBITE OF RATATAT SONG, "SEVENTEEN YEARS")
RASCOE: Ratatat's breakout hit, "Seventeen Years," came out in 2003. The band released five albums of instrumental music, built a global fan base and collaborated with some of the biggest stars in music, including Jay-Z. Evan Mast, who goes by E.Vax, now has a new solo album. It's called "Just Like Fire."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHEN I'M GONE")
GEORGE JACKSON: (Singing) When I'm gone, my love will go on and on. My love will go on. Even the sky can't reach it. Even the sky can't reach it. Even fire can't burn it.
MAST: The initial concept I had going into this record was to work with samples, which I've never really done much of before, to go back to the records that I was listening to as a teenager. I mean, a lot of that music is, like, '90s rock, punk rock and stuff that sounds pretty dated a lot of the time. But what I wanted to do was recontextualize it and see what happens.
RASCOE: Kind of like a spark.
MAST: Yeah, the spark, and the fire is related, obviously, there, too.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHEN I'M GONE")
JACKSON: (Singing) Even fire can't burn it. Nothing, nothing, baby. Nothing, nothing...
RASCOE: You're originally from Ohio, and that's where you fell in love with music and saved up for your first guitar while working at a gas station.
MAST: Yeah, my first, like, proper job was at a golf gas station. I got the job when I was 15, and I worked there for a couple of years, and it was a little gas station that nobody really ever went to. Yeah, I would go in at, like, 6 p.m. and be there till midnight or something, and we'd have, like, two customers in that time. So it was basically just me sitting in a booth at a gas station, listening to records and earning minimum wage. And so it took me, like a whole year, but I got the money to, like, buy some music equipment. That was kind of my entry point into writing my own music and recording my own music.
RASCOE: What was that like for you, once you finally got the guitar?
MAST: Well, I started taking guitar lessons a little bit earlier. My first teacher was a guy who had, like, this, like, big, hollow-bodied, like, B.B. King-looking guitar. And his whole approach to, like, teaching me was to kind of just give me, like, the really basic tools, and then we'd just alternate, one of us playing chords and one of us playing improvising scales over the top. So my entry point was really all about improvising.
(SOUNDBITE OF E.VAX AND RATATAT'S "LABBA")
RASCOE: You largely composed this new album, "Just Like Fire," while staying in Vietnam.
(SOUNDBITE OF E.VAX AND RATATAT'S "BEO")
RASCOE: How did that influence the album?
MAST: I came here initially to play shows with Ratatat - I think the first time was 2008, so quite a while ago - and just kind of was blown away by Vietnam from, like, the moment we got here, just kind of the feeling of it here. So when it came time to start working on this album, I knew I wanted to go somewhere to sort of isolate myself and just, like, really dial in and focus.
(SOUNDBITE OF E.VAX AND RATATAT'S "BEO")
RASCOE: Is there a song on this album that captures that feeling that you had in Vietnam or that space that you were in?
MAST: I think the first track, "BEO," is the one that I really associate with this spot. It was one of the first tracks I made for the record, and it was one of these ones that came together very quickly and immediately felt like a real jump-off point where I could - there was, like, a lot of new ideas, a lot of new sounds in there that I felt like I could take on a lot of new directions.
(SOUNDBITE OF E.VAX AND RATATAT'S "BEO")
RASCOE: Your song "Caroline" - it has this kind of gritty but relaxed vibe.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CAROLINE")
PHYLLIS DILLON: (Singing) Long, long, long, long time. Do you, do you, do yeah.
RASCOE: Who's Caroline? Like, what's the story behind this song?
MAST: (Laughter) Caroline's not, like, a real person, just sort of a - I think I made, like, the beat and the chord progression and the kind of bare bones of the track and titled the file "Caroline," for some reason. It was just the first word that popped into my head. It just felt right.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CAROLINE")
DILLON: (Singing) We don't have no nice time.
MAST: The sample comes from Phyllis Dillon, a reggae artist. I always loved the original song and just kind of wanted to take some elements of that and bring it into, like, a different sort of atmosphere.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CAROLINE")
DILLON: (Singing) I'm feeling good. How do you feel? How do you feel? How do you feel? How do you feel? I give you love. I hope you're ready, hope you're ready. How do you feel?
RASCOE: You know, I know that you feel like this is something new. This is something different. Is there something maybe universal for the audience to take from this album of just, like, we're often trying something new, going into a new space, evolving, you know, stepping into a new version of ourselves?
MAST: Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think as an artist, that's kind of just what you have to do to keep yourself interested and evolving. And it's this intuitive thing where you're just trying to create an environment for some sort of spark to happen, and you never know what that's going to be, and I think it's kind of impossible to figure out. So you just have to show up and keep trying, and when it does happen, you just have to try your best to not ruin it (laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NOBODY ELSE")
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing) I got love in my heart. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Oh, that? That's for you. That's for you. I don't love nobody else but you.
RASCOE: That's the musician Evan Mast, talking about his new album, "Just Like Fire." Thank you so much for joining us.
MAST: Thank you for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF E.VAX AND RATATAT SONG, "NOBODY ELSE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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