Cool Cleveland Interview

Ryan Lott of 2% Milk

His work has received critical acclaim in the New York Times and the Gay City News. His music was recently featured in the Works & Process Series at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Lott’s multimedia installation, bornwaking, was recently featured at the SPACES gallery. Two other events, titled Connect: A Multimedia Party in 3 Acts, were Ryan’s most recent multi-disciplinary efforts. They were enacted at Cleveland Public Theatre.

To say Lott’s got a lion’s share of creative partnerships under his belt is an understatement. He has worked with choreographers and dance companies including Gina Gibney Dance (NYC), Dance Ad Deum (Houston), and Marah Dance Theatre (Philadelphia), as well as Cleveland Contemporary Dance Theatre, Inlet Dance Theatre and Groundworks Dance Theater here at home. And that doesn’t even take into account all of his other side projects.

Last year, Lott’s efforts were awarded with an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship. This year, Lott became the Cleveland Arts Prize Emerging Artist Award Recipient. Cool Cleveland recently talked with Lott about his awards, his three-ring artistic circus, and the upcoming “Urban Art Attack” performance that 2% Milk will create with 216 Beatriders as a part of Sparx in the City this Thursday, August 10 from 5:30pm - 7:30pm right on E. 4th Street.

Cool Cleveland: Before we get started, I just wanted to share with you that I really enjoyed Connect, your work at CPT, in the fall. You are quite the ringmaster.

Ryan Lott: Sweet, man. Thanks! I was kinda stuck with a ridiculous ticket price on that second go-around. Not many people were able to come, I think mostly because of the price. I know I certainly wouldn’t have been able to afford it. But I’ve heard positive things from two people in as many days, so that’s cool. It’s good to hear.

Actually, I have to say that I really have appreciated living in Cleveland. I think it has been really good to me. It’s inexpensive, but there’s also a certain celebration of the artists and respect for the professional artists that I know you just don’t get everywhere. I’ve lived in a lot of other cities, but Cleveland has been great. Cleveland has a lot to offer, and we’re thankful for it. Coming from the outside as Jennifer and I did, I think we see a lot more of the positive things than those who have been here the whole time give themselves credit for.

I’ve heard the same thing from a lot of incoming Clevelanders. So, first the OAC fellowship, then your work at the Guggenheim, then the Cleveland Arts Prize. That’s quite a coup. What do you do for an encore?

That’s a good question! (laughs) I suppose you just keep on keeping on, really. I am very fortunate that following my passion has been rewarded and led to more opportunities and awards. It’s a hard question to answer, actually, because essentially it’s the efforts of other people that allow me to continue to do what I do. Take Gina Gibney Dance and Food for Thought.

We were essentially a part of tutoring developing choreographers. [Gibney] encouraged collaboration, and ultimately after the program, she kept me and Jennifer in mind for future projects. She was invited back by David [Shimotakahara] from Groundworks and she asked me to write the music for it. Now we’re a part of the repertoire for Groundworks, which is incredibly cool.

Obviously you have a lot of projects going on: your own solo piano performances, the material you do under the moniker son lux, which has a Portishead/Sigur Rós vibe, Ash Ensemble, which is organic multimedia, and the funk/hip-hop tip of 2% Milk. That’s a lot to keep track of.

Yeah and that’s about half of them! (laughs) I guess I’m the kind of guy who just loves to get really into something deeply for a few days, but that concentration is such a deep thing that I need relief fairly often so I don’t burn out. I’ll work on project for a week, take a respite and work on other things to get recharged. For example the NY piece, that was the largest commission I’ve ever done. If that was all I was doing that summer, I probably would have pulled my hair out.

I actually counted last summer that I was involved in 17 unique projects, which I know is a little over the top. Usually I’m at 4-6, but it keeps me healthy, efficient and effective on every front. It also allows me to bring certain sensibilities to the concert stage. Essentially there’s a lot of bleed-in influence and integrity that comes into play from classical composition training—everything from the sense of rhythm and groove, to the tension of different creative extremes.

Artistically, you’re also all over the well-rounded road. What are you not currently doing with any of your projects that you wish you were?

I’d love to be a part of a larger ensemble that performs regularly. Basically, I’d love to be in some sort of committed band. 2% Milk is really unique, because it is primarily a two-way collaboration that performs in more non-traditional venues and it’s based on improvisation. In college I was in bands with horns and emcees and our [gigs] would turn into these huge dance parties. I really miss that.

I would imagine that such a three-ring circus inspires a lot of other ideas, maybe even more than you can get to. How do you keep track of them and prioritize what you devote your time to work on?

Because I am self employed, I have to be extremely disciplined at what I do. I have a formal “to-do list,” but the things I really want to do the least are on top. You know, administrative stuff, research stuff—basically things that are non-creative. I try to tackle that stuff first. I tend to have a better time creating when I have that off my chest. If I dive into what I love first, that admin stuff never happens and then the creative stuff is haunted by a conflicted consciousness.

So, I get up, have the coffee and tackle the nitty gritty. And as I get the list checked off, I get closer and closer to the things I’m most excited about that day. But with so many collaborations, sometimes I have several different deadlines at different times. That can derail my system, too. I guess the in the end, you just have to stay flexible and not take yourself too seriously in anything else other than your work. (laughs)

Which of the projects provides you the most personal pleasure and why?

(long pause) Well, I would say I really love collaboration. Life is ultimately about people and the value of it is found in people. Making music is a very spiritual, personal experience for me… but that doesn’t mean it’s not public as well. There’s something about sharing art-making with someone—particularly with someone you love, as I do with my wife Jennifer and with friends or companions—because something so much more remarkable emerges. Being hobbit-like, solitary and indoors writing books, or making music for yourself where no one else hears you seems really, really hard to me.

As a writer, I can tell you that working in a vacuum can be tough.

In some ways, I can’t imagine liking that. I really have found the most satisfaction from collaboration, although I think I’m kinda unique in that way. My training as a composer suggests you should be inward with the [creative] process; yet, my actual experience with the process actually leans the other way. To write music that serves my vision and that of others at the same time is an incredible high. To be able to absorb someone else’s intent or desire in their creative work, and then actually help it translate, that’s an awesome thing.

As it relates to your own solo piano work, have you had an opportunity to connect with pianist Christopher O’Riley—the gent who has done that pair of Radiohead piano translations—now that he’s local?

No. I’m familiar the name and his stuff. I should say that as a pianist, I’m raised and trained as a classical pianist. I can fake it and convince a lot of people. But every time I play that [way] I feel like I’m faking it. There’s a difference between forcing something out of you and actually feeling it. Performance of classical music has always left me feeling disingenuous and ultimately unsatisfied.

Interesting, though not much of a surprise.

Maybe it’s partly because I consider myself far more of a composer than performer, you know? Honestly, I never get much joy out of playing prepared pieces of music on a piano. Improv is my thing almost exclusively. When it comes to performance, I’m far more comfortable having nothing prepared.

Good one! OK, so I dig the name 2% milk. Pretty accurate, given the sound you and Doc have. Good entendre, pretty lean with just a little bit of phat.

Cool. (laughs)

Talk a little bit about how the project began and how you first connected with DJ Doc and got those b-boy vibes cooking?

Well actually, Doc and I both are both Christian people and are a part of a [collective] called Newsong, which is based in the heights. I met him through fellowshipping there; he was the sound dude and did a great job. I was just observing and could tell he really knew what he was doing. The first time we played together we did one of these express-o-café parties (express-o-café.net). There’s actually one this coming Saturday. Anyway, we actually played together for the first time at one of these parties at the Phoenix [Coffee] on Lee [Road].

It was an open kind of jam session; we both had our gear and just did something. Afterwards, we both thought there would be something to the programming and turntablist collaborative. Doc’s got a really experimental approach to the turntable as an instrument, and we thought we’d be a good team. We are constantly creative together. He’s one of my best friends, and we do work well together.

Lemme put you on the spot: What would you say is 2% Milk’s mission?

Good question, dude. We ask ourselves the same thing a lot these days. Initially, our main goal was just to create music and perform out for our friends and community—to be a part of a network of people who are collaborative and connected on spiritual and social issues. Now we’re starting to think about things more broadly: whether or not we have a product for a wider audience, defining who we are we as recording artists, performers, producers, etc. Just who is 2% Milk? We have innovation to bring, but it’s still hard to say at this point. We’ve got an EP, we want to do a full-length [release] pretty soon, and we’re open-ended and light-hearted about everything, even though we have serious things to say.

What’s it like performing on the street for Sparx in the City?

Man, I gotta tell you it’s really cool. To be a part of rethinking downtown and what it means to have a street life is great. I always want to be a part of a city like that. Sparx happenings are one of the things that Cleveland is doing right, one of the best things going. We cut our teeth filling a 2-3 hour time slot on Sparx—which was tough initially—but it goes back to what I was essentially saying about the efforts of other people allowing me to continue to do what I do.

We’re always thankful for the opportunity to hone our craft and the opportunity that Sparx has given to us. There’s just no substitute for learning to improv in front of people. Being able to collaborate with other groups, like the Beatriders, allows 2% Milk and other Sparx artists do continue to innovate and get recognized for what we do as being cool and innovative.

Visit 2% Milk at http://www.myspace.com/twopercentmilkmusic and their collaborators 216 Beatriders at http://www.216beatriders.8k.com/. For the complete Sparx in the City schedule, visit http://www.cleveland.com/sparx/.

From Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian peterATcoolcleveland.com (:divend:)