Seb Rochford: "I don't actually listen to a lot of jazz"

A few years ago an article in the Guardian asked of the drummer Seb Rochford: "Is this the hardest-working man in music?" At the time, Rochford was collaborating with the tenor saxophonist Pete Wareham in three bands—Polar Bear, Acoustic Ladyland and Fulborn Teversham—as well lending a hand (or, rather, two hands) in a dizzying number of other projects, with such luminaries as David Byrne, Brian Eno and Pete Doherty. Acoustic Ladyland and Fulborn Teversham have since stalled, apparently definitively, but Polar Bear, the most recognisably jazz-orientated of the various Wareham-Rochford collaborations, endures.

Polar Bear's fifth album, In Each and Every One, is released on the Leaf label on 24th March. Joining Rochford are Wareham, his fellow tenor player Mark Lockheart, bassist Tom Herbert and the electronics wizard, Leafcutter John. Those electronic textures are now as much an integral part of Polar Bear's sound world as Rochford's clattering polyrhythms and Wareham's muscular tenor playing. When I spoke to Rochford last week, I began by asking him how he would describe the musical journey he and the others have taken since Polar Bear's first album, Dim Lit, which was released in 2004.

SR: It feels like a natural progression. Every album is different but comes from the same place. I only make an album when I feel like I’ve moved on. So sometimes there are bigger gaps between albums than others, because I can’t force it. Maybe I could force it, but I choose not to.

JD: One way of describing that musical journey would be to say that, with each album, Polar Bear have moved further away from something recognisable as “jazz”.

It’s not intentional. But I don’t actually listen to a lot of jazz. When I listen to jazz now, it tends to be older stuff—Ellington, Billie Holliday, John Coltrane. That’s the stuff that seems to stay with me.

How much of this album was improvised?

Lots—probably more improvisation than ever. So in that sense, it’s more jazz than ever.

Polar Bear began as a largely acoustic project, didn’t it? And then with each subsequent album you introduced new textures, electronics. Was Leafcutter John getting involved an important moment in the development of Polar Bear’s sound?

Definitely. But even on the first album there are little things I did [in the studio]—overdubs and stuff. Even then I was looking for some other element to go in the music, even if I didn’t know what that would be or how I’d incorporate it. Then I met John and I thought, “Why not get someone in who knows what he’s doing, rather than me fiddle around with electronics?” And that opened up lots of possibilities.

You produced this album. Do you enjoy production? Does it allow you to explore bits of your musical personality that being behind a drum kit doesn’t?

Yes. I just really enjoy the process.

I gather that for this album you decided not to use the ride cymbal on your kit. Why was that?

When we were rehearsing I was listening to the drums and they weren’t fitting the music. I wanted them to belong to the same soundworld as John’s electronics. The ride cymbal—certainly the one I’ve got on my kit—enables me to do certain things. It was almost like a safety blanket sometimes.

I’ve seen the sound world of this album compared in some reviews to Burial or Jon Hopkins. Are they people you’ve been listening to?

I love Burial. I get really inspired by him just to be myself. He does what he wants. One thing I love about his albums is that you can listen to them over and over again. I feel they have a lot of depth. They get better the more you know them—a bit like with a jazz album actually. It becomes clearer the more you listen to it.

You always seem to have multiple projects on the go at the same time. What have you got going on alongside Polar Bear at the moment?

I’ve been working with Andy Sheppard, but actually we’re recording another Polar Bear album next month.

You released an album on the ECM label, Trio Libero, with Andy Sheppard and Michel Benita in 2012. That music is stately and limpid, whereas Polar Bear is often frantic and edgy. Do you like that icy, northern European ECM mode? Is it something you’ve always listened to?

It’s not actually! Maybe it’s a generational thing. At home, I heard Keith Jarrett, but that’s probably the only ECM record I heard growing up.

You were listening to Slayer instead?

Yeah, and Napalm Death!