Over het album
More than fifteen years, Rood's versatility as the singer, poet, composer en multi-instrumentalist has been characterized by his appearance as front man of Nighthawks at the Diner and the albums Fool’s Tango, Walkin’ On Eggs, Transit Cellophane, and Perfect Life. His songs are being described as "jazz in a tango-vehicle, trashcan blues, harrowing ballads and grubby vaudeville suites ". Melancholic yet raucous. Nightclub music. With Mindful Indifference, Rood's stories are being put out in the open field. They breath air, some with life-affirming joy, some full of loneliness. A delicate album, on which Rood's timing and feel, his gorgeous voice, the guest appearances and remarkable tributes all are being brought to daylight.
Why this title Mindful Indifference? Rood: "It’s a kind of a wish. Wishing we all get to be a little bit more indifferent about a lot of things. I mean, we’re trying so hard to fix everything in our present-tense culture, leveling and standardizing things. More and more we’re inflating The Big Illusion of Control, again. I guess we just got to let go more often. In a careful deliberate manner. Mindful Indifference, there it is. Deflate the illusion of control over our lives, over nature, over other people. Maybe most of all, deflate the illusion of control over love. Celebrate imperfection more often. Take some time to play, learn, understand, and enjoy the ride. Freedom of mind only exists in places where the illusion of control has been dethroned, or better yet, has abdicated itself.’"
For his latest album, Rood picked up all instruments himself, letting go of his vast formation, and started experimenting recording his songs the old-fashioned way: single-mixed. Rood:
"It happened I came to work with what I now call ‘the natural imperfection of the environment’. I started recording the first demos on weird locations, not fit for acoustic accuracy. But along the way, I got used to the sound of these ‘imperfect’ rooms. I figured, my ears don’t bother whether the notes are being played in a controlled or in an out-of-control setting. My ears don’t care whether this progression was a balanced decision or just coincidence. Who cares how this particular chord made it to the record? That’s why I continued experimenting without sound-proof booths, overdubbing, click-tracks, noise reduction, and so on. Just sound-on-sound, using the same single mic. You hear the limitations in the master files, the background noise and the distortions, but it turned out to be what I wanted to hear. The album has become a Don Quichot-like quest for little rags of love, taking place in a rather utopian time. A time in which the throw of a kiss at the station is of more importance than a fist-fuck in a damp alley. A collective longing, I guess, but I'm not too sure."
