"Today music serves less of a spiritual role than it has in the past and although I can appreciate its role as entertainment, I find I gravitate towards music that uplifts my soul and resonates with a part of myself that thinks this whole human experience is worth it."

Ernesto J Ponce: In-Between Times

In-Between Times (2024), the new album from Ernesto J. Ponce, is a callback of sorts to the singer/multi-instrumentalist’s bluesy roots. Ponce revisits songs from his back catalog and debuts new material, all unified by the common thread of electric lap steel guitar. Ponce’s production skills are as much in the forefront as his musical skills as he constructs a sound that’s not so much sparse as it is wide open, with intricate layers lying beneath. The blues foundation never gets lost though, as echoes of classic blues sounds and rhythms serve as building blocks for larger, more intricate soundscapes. “I think most of the songs I do are derived from the blues in some sense,” he says. “Some are more soul-based, particularly with the falsetto vocals, but there’s always a blues sensibility. I grew up playing sax, and that informs a lot of things with regard to my approach, even when I’m playing guitar.”                       (Photo: Ernesto J. Ponce)

By alternating, and sometimes layering, lower range vocals with falsetto parts, and employing production techniques you’re more likely to find on an indie rock album, Ponce allows In-Between Times to carve out a space all it’s own. It defies and embraces traditional blues conventions all at once, making for a record that stands out in a sea of commonality.

Interview by Michael Limnios               Special Thanks: Larry Kay (Night Train PR)

How has the music influenced your views of the world? What moment changed your life the most?

Music is powerful. Since an early age it’s given me an avenue for expression, a challenge mentally, and has afforded me the opportunity to grow through the creative process with all that brings, the joys and sorrows of attempting to expand and grow, plateauing, starting over again. Where it all feels really special to me is in the collaborative process. There is just nothing like finding yourself and discovering new roads in relationship with others. You begin to view people and situations differently, to realize that everyone really has a unique vantage point, and we’re all in this crazy mystery together.

How do you describe your sound, music philosophy and songbook? Where does your creative drive come from?

Being an engineer and producer, my philosophy tends to be pretty straightforward. The phenomenon of sound is the most important aspect for me. It comes from a place where a drone from a tanpura or a simple pentatonic melody from a native flute has the ability to calm and quiet the mind, to emote and communicate immense depth. Musically those forms are not very sophisticated, but that really doesn’t matter. I’d rather listen to something that is simpler but has forethought and was well recorded and that captured a real moment in time than to a complex arrangement without soul and intention. That’s where the blues sensibility lives I think, it doesn’t live in the head but in the heart and soul. And I’m a huge fan of bebop, being a saxophonist, but I gravitate to your Coltranes, Redmans and such, that have married the opposites if you will. My creative drive really comes from a place that appreciates beauty and our innate ability to make life a little more beautiful or interesting. It’s a place that realizes that I simply feel better and more alive when I’m creating. And most of the times it’s not even music I’m creating, I enjoy creating a home for my two boys, creating opportunities, designing cover art and videos. To me creating is tied to gratitude for life and the huge blessing it is to be human.

"I don’t really share any of the fears many people do about the future of music. I think good music will always happen because it comes from something deeper than any technology or cultural environment. AI will never create what human consciousness and will can." (Photo: Ernesto J. Ponce)

Are there any specific memories or highlights of your career that you would like to tell us about?!

I’ve had some pretty cool opportunities in my career. I was able to open up for Wyclef at Artscape in Baltimore one year with one of my projects, Spirit Parade. I got to meet N.E.R.D and record a verse for Pharrell Williams for a Lupe Fiasco tune. Those are all really cool but, to be honest, the most memorable moments were just random gigs, playing with local musicians, late at night at a bar or something; the energy and sound lines up and you know you're in it!

What do you miss most nowadays from the music of the past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of?

I don’t really share any of the fears many people do about the future of music. I think good music will always happen because it comes from something deeper than any technology or cultural environment. AI will never create what human consciousness and will can. I think where my concerns are with AI for example is how to accurately pay royalties for something like a sonic aesthetic or even the makeup of harmonics in someone’s voice. If auto-generating a voice like Snoop Dog for a commercial, for example, shouldn’t Snoop be paid for the use of his voice? It just gets tricky with logistics. As far as the past, I think what modern day music lacks often, aside from really good jazz, is that the music in the past embodies what some may call the ‘flow state’; that levity and near transcendent state that is active and passive at the same time, a confidence in the creative flow, I think due to the need to perform in that state as the editing capabilities were primitive compared to today.

What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience in the music paths?

I’ve learned so much through music. At its best, music is really a metaphor for life. Everyone’s heard the notion of the tortured artist and how struggle can create good music but for me it’s never really been like that. Although struggle and the human experience informs my work, I still have to be “clear” to create anything good. I have to have done the inner process of working through the emotion and integrate the experience first before I can write about it or reflect on it. For me, good music is where hope and sorrow meet.

"My creative drive really comes from a place that appreciates beauty and our innate ability to make life a little more beautiful or interesting. It’s a place that realizes that I simply feel better and more alive when I’m creating. And most of the times it’s not even music I’m creating, I enjoy creating a home for my two boys, creating opportunities, designing cover art and videos. To me creating is tied to gratitude for life and the huge blessing it is to be human." (Ernesto J. Ponce / Photo by Jacob Ponce)

Why is it important to we preserve and spread the blues? What is the role of music in today’s society?

I think it’s important to preserve musical forms like the blues the same as you would good literature or any of the visual arts. For me, the blues transcends race and culture, although, let me be very clear, it is a music that was born out of the struggle of African-Americans and it speaks to that people’s struggle and oppression just as the music of Appalachia was born of the struggle of poor whites. I think I gravitate to roots music in all of its forms because those forms really are the language of the soul and, being such, though its expressions vary, speak to the human experience and have a common root. But although it’s transcendent in that way, the tradition and origins of the music should be preserved so that we can fully appreciate and understand the people and places that it derives from and the sorrow that it was created to mitigate.

Today music serves less of a spiritual role than it has in the past and although I can appreciate its role as entertainment, I find I gravitate towards music that uplifts my soul and resonates with a part of myself that thinks this whole human experience is worth it.

What are you doing to keep your music relevant today, to develop it and present it to the new generation?

I really appreciate the intersection between tradition and modernity. It’s a hard balance to strike I think and no one ever get’s it perfect but if my music can conserve enough of the original spark while still pushing things forward a bit, I’ll be happy. I think where modernity comes in with my music is in its production and engineering because nothing I’m creating is really novel musically. But I hope it comes across as a fresh reiteration of the past and that it feels like it has a life of its own.

(Photo: Ernesto J. Ponce)