Dear readers, we are pleased to offer you an interview with an eclectic Chicago band that fuses Jazz, Avant-Garde, Prog, and more in this article. We welcome the Sons Of Ra.
Hi, welcome to our pages; how are you?
Erik Oldman: “Feeling fantastic, thank you for asking!“
Keith Wakefield: “Same!“
Mike Rataj: “Great, thanks!“
The band was formed 2 decades ago; how did the project and the choice of the name Sons Of Ra come about?
EO: “My roommate then asked me to put together a group to improvise over some beats he recorded as a last-minute fill-in for a monthly electronic music show he booked here in Chicago. Keith Wakefield (our bassist) and I were working together, jamming out on old jazz standards and writing a few things for acoustic guitar and bass that we would play around the city. I also had a colleague on electric violin to round out the ensemble for the show. I was listening to many of Sun Ra’s earlier recordings. We were trying to create a name for the group. My roommate suggested the name, and it stuck with everyone.“
You offer a mixture of Jazz, Avant-Garde, Progressive, and Heavy Music; How did your passion for these sounds come about, and how would you describe your style?
EO: “I grew up listening to proto and early metal bands like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Scorpions. I tended to gravitate towards weirder and more extreme stuff as I got older, bands like Voivod, who mixed avant-garde and punk with their sound, along with more extreme bands like Watchtower, Cynic, Morbid Angel, Obituary, and Death. I got interested in jazz in high school. I started taking lessons with a bebop guitarist to learn the fundamentals and to read music. My starting references were Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane. From there, the musicians and composers who stood out to me were the ones who offered something unique and out there with their works. Thelonius Monk, Charles Mingus, and Eric Dolphy immediately caught my ear with the more avant-garde and free jazz. This notion was something also brought out in the development of my improvisation and composition classes in college. One of my mentors, Bill Russo, shared that it’s like the secret spice in an improv session or within the composing process to have at least an element that’s “delightfully askew,” an idea he took from working with Duke Ellington. This sticks with me today. Our sound is constantly evolving. After a long hiatus in 2014, we reformed as primarily a progressive metal band. From there, we went back to pulling more sensibilities from a jazz fusion perspective into our writing. When Mike joined in 2018, he brought in a different set of influences through his drumming, with punk, noise, and math rock influences. These are
also vital elements in our newer material. One key tenet of our recording was to be heavy but not in a typical metal way.
I listened to early ‘70s Miles Davis and the first Tony Williams Lifetime album to reference that notion. Our rendition of “Vashkar” is inspired by the Tony Williams version.“
KW: “I grew up playing Jazz at a young age. Sax was my first instrument, and I loved it. But at some point in High School, I discovered Metal—specifically Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer. Once I “heard” it, I couldn’t “unhear” it. I loved the intensity. It reminded me of the fierceness and speed I appreciated from my favorite jazz idols, Coltrane, Bird, and
Dizzy. So that got me into the world of guitar and bass guitar. In college, I discovered fusion and prog: 70’s era Miles Davis, King Crimson, Weather Report, Pink Floyd, Return To Forever, etc. This helped me realize I could have everything
I wanted in the same song! Horns could play in E; Guitars could play in Bb. There are no rules! Shortly after, I met Erik and realized he was on a similar path. A few years later…Sons of Ra!“
MR: “This is a natural music lover’s question, and the easy answer is that they’ve all had an energy about them that meant something to me. The fun with sons of Ra is being able to use those very distinct references and incorporate them into songs, either as a bridge or verse or some other part where this intentional left turn makes a lot of sense. Our sound represents the jazz ethos, but I naturally have a heavier hand on the drums. It’s improv and jazz-inspired but gets heavier when the songs call for it.“
Your new album, “Standard Deviation,” will be released on April 11, 2025. How would you describe this work?
EO: “It’s a collection of material that spans the last 25 years, and best represents who we are today as a band. Some of the original pieces are from our early days but are things we still love to play. The more recent stuff is group-written. It needed that process of hashing it out over a few sessions. We interpret four different compositions on the album. The jazz
standard “Nature Boy,” Carla Bley’s “Vashkar,” a reading of John Coltrane’s “Alabama” that is ported to an original piece called “Disintegration,” and an arrangement of Don Ellis’s “Upstart”.“
Long, elaborate, and very intense instrumental textures, how does the creative process of your music take place?
EO: “It varies. Some of the stuff was written long ago and rearranged for the album. Some of the things we jammed through to get the ideas together were good enough forms to cut to the record. Some pieces we went on the road with after we wrote them and evolved. That’s sort of what happened with the work for this album. The next album will be a
completely different process.“
You have extracted a single with an official video, ‘Disintegration (Alabama Revisited). ‘ Do you plan to extract more before the release?
EO: “We will release two more video singles in the coming months. Folks can check out and subscribe to our mailing list and YouTube channel at sonsoframusic.com“
KW: “It was honestly hard to choose singles from this album. All of the tracks represent different parts of us so well. Can we just release the whole album as a single?“
Several guest appearances on the album; What did they bring to the sound of this work, and how did they contribute to the composition?
EO: “For “Disintegration,” the piece evolved from the double-bass drone performed by Stephen Reichelt. I listened to a jazz playlist during the lockdown when John Coltrane’s “Alabama” came up. I was taken aback by the piece and felt inspired to write something. I texted Stephen to play a drone on the piece and mentioned that I could evolve this into
something for Sons of Ra. He was game, and the next day, I had a drone and started working on transcribing the main melody and writing the body of “Disintegration” itself. The drone is the foundation of the piece—- the fundamental tone, if you will. For “Intrepidation,” we returned to an arrangement from when I wrote the piece in college. At the time, I was studying Afro-Cuban rhythms on percussion, and I wanted to take the piece back to reflect on those experiences studying with a group of master musicians sharing their craft. That came through during the back section of the piece with Paul
Abella’s percussion work. We thought, well, since we now have reeds coming into play with our sound with a lot of our material with Keith’s saxophone, we could use the flute and create a dialogue during the back section of Intrepidation with the flute and bass. Isaiah Sanderman also performed a complete solo section on flute during “Upstart,” which
features Paul Abella’s rolling percussion work, which creates cool rhythmic textures atop Mike’s drums.“
Your instrumentation has always impressed me; what equipment did you use to make the album?
EO: “For guitars and some of the pieces where I play bass guitar live, I used a Keisel Vader 8-string electric. I also used a Schecter 12-string electric and a vintage Guild acoustic guitar. For keyboards, I used a Nord electric piano. Other sounds came from my old Roland GR-33 guitar synth through different delay pedals that I use live from Walrus Audio and Red Panda. Amps were mostly what I use live with my settings from a Line 6 Helix. We did some reamping for rhythm guitar tones with my old Laney head through a Marshall 1960 cab. My bass tracking was reamped through a vintage Ampeg SVT combo that our engineer and Keith dialed in for the sessions.“
KW: “For my bass, I mostly used my 6-string Carvin bass, which is equipped with a Roland GK3B, which I use with a Roland GR-55. I played directly and through the SVT.“
MR: “My tenor sax is an Allora Chicago Jazz series.“
Your live performances are engaging. Are you planning any dates shortly to promote the album?
EO: “Thank you! Our release show will be at Reggie’s in Chicago on Saturday, April 12. We will d o some more runs through the Midwestern US during the summer and return to the East Coast later in the year. People can find out more info at sonsoframusic.com“
KW: “Thank you for saying that about our live shows! I love our new album because we succeeded in displaying much of our live energy. That said, we are, without a doubt, a “live band” first. Come check us out!“
MR: “Thank you!! I tell new people who have heard the recording that they have to see us live because part of the high-wire act involves a bass loop while Keith picks up the sax and Erik switches to bass. If you weren’t watching it, it’s harder to infer that. Those two dudes are talented!!“
Over 20 years of career, how has the band’s sound evolved from the beginning to today?
EO: “The more things change, the more they stay the same. We use the same thinking process with writing as when we were jamming as an acoustic duo in the early 2000s. We just play more genres now. We write better tunes. This band iteration has gelled in the last couple of years, and we’ve developed a sound that works for us. We can occasionally expand the live show locally with a cadre of ace musicians to flesh out the compositions live. I’ve worked towards that as a composer for the last ten years or so. We finally have the compositional vehicles and strong arrangement sensibilities with Keith to help pull it together.“
MR: “I can only speak since 2018, but part of what you do as a band is evolve creatively together. Our first release, “Cognitive,” was released quickly after I joined the band to give us something to book shows. With this latest release, we had more time, and by this point, we’d played live a lot, so this is a more thorough conversation from the US as a band.
Listening to “Cognitive,” then “Tropic Of Cancer” (last year’s release), and this latest release, you can see how we evolved as a band. We relied more on each other and our influences. Having more time to work on songs also allows them to take on more life.“
Given your experience, what advice would you give young artists approaching music with sounds like yours?
EO: “If you have the time to put into it, go for it. Music is the best. Media and entertainment entities (what we used to call major labels) only will put their money into the safe bets for a return on investment. The real work is getting people to find you.“
KW: “Just get out there and do it! Make some noise. If you are not appreciated in your area, travel and make noise in a different location.“
MR: “Don’t expect to make a living at it; then you’ll tailor your expectations. Whether your work sells or not, you must create that album, so do it and make another one. Good luck. Find your scene; they exist. We’ve had bands approach us after shows and ask to play with us, and I’ve reached out to bands I saw and asked to play with them.“
Music constantly evolves; how do you see today’s scene regarding more sophisticated sounds like yours?
EO: “There are a lot of younger cats out there writing and performing great music. These younger cats are pulling from classic Japanese fusion and video game composers, referencing things like Meshuggah’s rhythmic displacement and more modern polyrhythmic sensibilities. What’s been exciting to hear is that they are finding their voices by mixing technology and traditional jazz instrumentation. We’ve found bands that complement what we do in major markets outside of Chicago and bands from the middle of nowhere.“
Do you have any other activities or artistic passions outside of music?
EO: “Absolutely! Cheese is probably one we all share.“
KW: “Yeah, I’m down with the cheese.“
MR: “Yeah, I like sliced or melted cheese.“
I thank the band for the interview and wish them all the best for releasing their new album and continuing their artistic career.
“Standard Deviation” will be released on April 11, 2025 on digital, CD, and LP through the Lasers Edge Group’s instrumental branch, Free Electric Sound. Pre-Orders are live at the label webshop HERE and Bandcamp – the standard version HERE and the hi-res version HERE
