by Sarah Thomas

Drummer Rudy Royston’s upcoming album, Day, reflects on the daily routines and emotions he experienced during the 2020 lockdown. On Wednesday, his band Flatbed Buggy presents their album release show at the Gallery. Rudy’s thoughtful writeup about the album is available on The Jazz Gallery website. We caught up with him last week to talk more about the experience of presenting this music live, reflecting on the lockdown time, and upcoming dreams and projects.

The Jazz Gallery: When you started writing this music during lockdown, did you expect it to turn into an album?

Rudy Royston: During the lockdown, I shut down. This music came after. Anything music during that time, I just couldn't. It was scary. I was like, “What’s wrong with me?” I couldn’t get my head into it because of everything else that was going on. It just didn't seem very important. And I was like, “I'm not going to make a lockdown record,” because I knew a bunch of them were about to come out. 

But a friend of mine told me a long time ago, you have to write from where you are. You have to just be who you are with the tunes and with what you do with music. Towards the end of the quarantine, I started to notice these routines that I got into throughout the day. I was like, “I’ve been doing this same thing for six months.” So I decided to write some music about it. 

I’d say, “How am I feeling now?” and start a couple of measures, and there may be nothing else that day. Then the next day at 3 o'clock, I’d ask again, “How am I feeling now? What do I have from yesterday?” And I would continue that. Then I realized these tunes are a record. I wasn’t writing it for that purpose, but it's a record.

TJG: A few years removed, what is it like for you having this music that's reflecting on that time?

RR: I’m kind of out of it now, so I’m more detached from it. When I was writing it, I was really in it. Now I'm still connected to it, but I can hear the music more for what it is and as an outsider listening to it. It's a reminder. It brings it back up in me. But I enjoy listening to it, because it's not so close. It's not so painful. I can actually play it and enjoy it rather than feel it so much. I enjoyed it then, because it was medicinal. But I enjoy it now because it's just good music that I can enjoy myself. 

For the guys playing in the band [Flatbed Buggy], it's interesting for them to feel how I was feeling. We've played a few gigs now, and they're like, “Oh, I could feel your day now after we played it.” I play it in the concert in order, so they can relate to my experience with a typical day. It's cool.

TJG: Did you have Flatbed Buggy in mind when you were writing the music?

RR: Flatbed Buggy was the band I wanted to do my next record with, no matter what. So I sort of had them in mind. That instrumentation is really cool, so it was fitting my ideas. I’m kind of still in that headspace.

TJG: Has working with this unique instrumentation changed anything about your writing?

RR: How I'm thinking about music or writing harmony or melody—that stuff stayed the same. I just heard it for the band, so I fit it into that. These guys make it so easy. The people who are in the band are all composers. Maybe the people in the band have affected my writing. If it wasn't these guys, I don't know that I would write this music. I wouldn't have this band, because there's not a person who plays accordion like Gary or plays cello like Hank. 

It's because of playing with these particular people that this band works. I can hear their sound and how it all works together. They're so unique and strong in their styles, and they're so unselfish and loving when they play. If it were someone else, I’d still write for this instrumentation but it would be a different kind of writing.

The band came about for the first Flatbed Buggy record. That’s why I put all these guys together. That record was more of an “outside” record. Day is an “indoors” record. It’s inside music. But the first record is a lot airier. It's a lot more outdoorsy. I was thinking of the country, wind, dirt, and trees. All the instruments are wood. There are no brass instruments. There are no electronics. It's just air, even in the accordion. And it clicks and all that stuff. So it's very wind-soundy and onomatopoeic.

TJG: Day is a very linear and narrative-driven album. Do you have other works you've approached in this way? 

RR: Not in the chronological way. Other things I’ve done are a story or an emotion—where I am at that time. Most of my writing comes from places like that. I can't write random tunes that are just cool tunes. There's some kind of theme that's tying them all together.

But I didn’t try to make any kind of musical theme to connect the tunes on this album. Sometimes for me, albums feel basically like a long piece broken up into sections, and there's connective tissue between them. But with Day, it was linear and not necessarily connected musically to the last tune. “How do you feel now?” It may not be related to how I was feeling when writing the last tune.

TJG: Has this more linear narrative affected how you present the music live? 

RR: In the shows, it makes it kind of hard sometimes because I don't necessarily want to stick to that linear order. So when I don’t want to do it in that order, I have to find ways to skip 12 o’clock and go to 4 o’clock, then come back. But it's cool when I do play it in order, because I think people feel the journey more clearly. 

TJG: Do you think you’ll write with this type of structure again?

RR: In the future, I don't think I’m going to do this too much. It's cool, but it binds you up a little bit because you have to stick to the timeline when you express it to people. We can mix it up. But if I want to get the real shape and emotional feeling of it, we kind of have to stick to the linear order. 

TJG: Do you have other projects coming up you’d like people to know about?

RR: This has taken up a lot of my head space right now, but there was something I was planning before this. I want to do a piano record. Not me playing piano—me playing drums. But a piano trio record that is more traditional. There's also a piano duo I want to do with Matt Mitchell where we play traditional, old-school church gospel tunes.

In the future, I definitely want to do a show tune record. The closing theme that Carol Burnett sings from The Carol Burnett Show—that is really cool. I want to do TV show music and some rock tunes, like Kansas or something. But it’s so hard to do. How do you do that and not be super corny? I’ll have to find a way to do it, though, because that's the stuff I sing. That’s the stuff I love all the time.

Rudy Royston plays The Jazz Gallery on Wednesday, April 26 with his band, Flatbed Buggy. The group features Rudy Royston on drums; Gary Versace on accordion; John Ellis on bass clarinet; Hank Roberts on cello; and Joe Martin on bass. Sets are at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. ET. $30 general admission ($15 for members/$10 for student members), $40 cabaret seating ($25 for members), $20 Livestream ($5 for members). Purchase tickets here.