“I’m hoping people like me and other people that are in the music business really hone in on the fact that we have to preserve our genres of music we have to preserve the realness and what we do and produce and put out there to the world”

Alexis P. Suter: Keep the Music Love Roll

Three-time Blues Music Award (BMA) nominee including the ‘Koko Taylor’ and Best Soul Blues Female Artist award categories, Alexis P. Suter is an American blues, and soul blues singer-songwriter. Raised in Brooklyn, NY by a musically gifted family, Alexis P Suter was infused with the passion and belief that music is to be an emotional and spiritual experience. Miss Suter brings an abundance of love and energy into each of her performances. Alexis P. Suter owns that big, booming voice heard roaring out of Brooklyn and straight into the heart of North America and beyond. Her voice ranges from a pained passion to explosive and soul bearing. She and her backing band have released six albums to date. The Alexis P. Suter Band, a powerful and unique six-piece ensemble, artfully blends the lines between Blues, Soul and Rock music. The band burst on to the music scene with regular performances at Levon Helm’s legendary Midnight Rambles in Woodstock, NY. Alexis and her core band, fellow Brooklyn natives Ray Grappone (drums), Jimmy Bennett (guitar), Daniel Weiss (keyboard), Peter Bennett (bass) and Vicki Bell, (producer, vocals and percussion) have been making music together for almost three decades. Suter, who splits her time between her native Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley, has also opened for B.B. King, Bo Diddley, Dickey Betts, Etta James, Allen Toussaint, Emmylou Harris, and Levon Helm.

(Photo: Alexis P. Suter)

Suter’s ninth album, Just Stay Live: Recorded Live at the Falcon by The Alexis P Suter Band featuring the late great Garth Hudson will be released March 17 on NOLA Blue Records. One of the great vocalists in the roots music and Americana scenes with a voice frequently compared to Mavis Staples, Alexis P. Suter and her band, were joined by Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, The Band’s Garth Hudson on piano and accordion for a special 2011 concert not far from Woodstock, NY, recorded in surround sound and heard in ATMOS. Both artists have deep roots there: Suter has performed at over 100 of Levon Helm’s Midnight Rambles, while Hudson moved there in 1967 and made some of the most legendary albums of all time with The Band and with Bob Dylan on The Basement Tapes.

Interview by Michael Limnios                   Special Thanks: Nick Loss-Eaton Media

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

The question should be how has the world influenced your views of music and how to present it in such a way, where it can open hearts and minds, cause right now the music needs to be more profound than ever. It needs to be heard all over the world in every single language. The need for love, the need for humanitarians to come out and be the heroes. There’s so many people that wanna help, there’s so many people that want to give.

My mother changed my music life forever from a little girl and my oldest sister Andrea, who has passed a long time now, and my mom passed too. My mother always stayed close to all of us. My mother and father, my mother taught music and she sang, and she traveled all over the world, she sang with a lot of prominent people, and open my eyes to a lot of music, that a lot of young kids didn’t have, and then my sister turned me on the music that was forbidden in our household. I mean, forbidden because I grew up in a strict religious household, where you know certain music you could not play in my house, but I used to sneak and listen you know to music, different music and it opened my eyes to a lot. I think that’s been a big influence on me, and how I write, how I view music and how it is done and you know things of that nature. So,Yeah …it’s been all good.

How do you describe your sound, music philosophy and songbook? What keeps a musician passionate over the years? 

This is a great question! My sound is unique because I believe there aren’t many women contrato‘s that are lead vocalist most women have that alto or soprano or even a first tenor, but there are many that are Contrato‘s and I take great pride in that because when I was young. I didn’t understand my voice change so quickly, and I just started to embrace it. My philosophy, I believe is to just keep people informed through Music! It’s like a message in the music something that lets people know that you feel like they feel you think like they think or many levels right now there’s so much confusion. I don’t know what anybody is thinking about anything, all I know is to keep Love rolling. Keep Love going. That’s the only philosophy that I wanna live by that’s the only philosophy that I want to sing about and bye. It feels better to love than to to hate in my opinion.

Very passionate about what we do because we have a platform that can meet people where they’re at. No one is above. No one is beneath, you know we’re all together. We’re all in the center of everything, that’s going on around us, so I’d like to believe that we are a voice of reason, a voice of love and people can relate to us.

“I am the spirit in the music, and the music is the spirit in me, and I can only sing and share with you was deep inside of my spirit so much is going on in the world, that my spirit will reflect that my energy will reflect that in my music.” (Photo: Alexis P. Suter)

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

I’ve had many highlights in my career even before the band years ago opened up for Bo Diddley. It’s a lot of people don’t know that but yeah, open up for Bo Diddley that was a highlight. It was a little strange, but it was a highlight and of course you know performing with and for Levon Helm and the Ramble‘s up in Woodstock, New York and BB King you know at James oh my God just so many people that we were able to open up for but one of my greatest accomplishments in the 90s. I was doing house music at that time. I was the first African-American woman signed to epic Sony Japan’s dance label. They were doing house music at the time and they took a chance and it was a fun ride for that moment.

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

What I miss about the music from the past is the live recordings like you know in the studio you have live musicians you have live vocalist. It was none of that computer stuff. None of that you know everything was live you know and now we’re at a point in our lives will not in my life personally, but in the lives of everybody This AI situation where they’re just making up music and putting a voice to it and I just think it’s an insult to those who have been doing this for a long time and have been paid and the way for people to be able to share their talent with the world. What kind of concerts are they gonna have they gonna have AI concerts now and what are they gonna show? These kids are gonna be listening to some fake It’s just it’s heartbreaking when when I think about it when I think about the AI that’s happening.

I’m hoping people like me and other people that are in the music business really hone in on the fact that we have to preserve our genres of music we have to preserve the realness and what we do and produce and put out there to the world.

“My sound is unique because I believe there aren’t many women contrato‘s that are lead vocalist most women have that alto or soprano or even a first tenor, but there are many that are Contrato‘s and I take great pride in that because when I was young. I didn’t understand my voice change so quickly, and I just started to embrace it.” (Photo: Alexis P. Suter)

What is the impact of music on the socio-cultural implications? How do you want the music to affect people?

Music impacts people on different levels. You know no one is living the same life but somewhere in the universe. There are people that are living the same life. You know what I’m trying to say like it takes all kinds to make the world, but you’d be surprised how many groups of people are doing the same thing every day they say the parallel maybe that’s not a good example but music impacts people on wherever they are in life you can always relate music to life, because that’s what music is music is life, is just going to the beat of the drum of the life of people who are living day by day, just trying to get by sometimes this music affects people in a way where as positive it helps them and encourages them and sometimes his music that reminds him of wow you know where I could be where I wanna be where I’m going to be so this is sort of a tricky question, but I think you get what I’m trying to say.

John Coltrane said "My music is the spiritual expression of what I am...". How do you understand the spirit, music, and the meaning of life?

I am the spirit in the music, and the music is the spirit in me, and I can only sing and share with you was deep inside of my spirit so much is going on in the world, that my spirit will reflect that my energy will reflect that in my music. Sometimes I cry to release, sometimes I just look up in the end scream sometimes I turn around and look at my bed and they know they know and they support me in that it’s a weird feeling I tell you I can’t really explain a lot of of it but I know that for me all I know is Music! I’m wrapped up in it. It’s a part of my life and when I’m singing the people and I’m relaying a message to people it’s because my life is a part of that message and sometimes the message is so powerful that it connects to people it connects with them and what they’re feeling is like I can feel them and they can feel me.

“Very passionate about what we do because we have a platform that can meet people where they’re at. No one is above. No one is beneath, you know we’re all together. We’re all in the center of everything, that’s going on around us, so I’d like to believe that we are a voice of reason, a voice of love and people can relate to us.“ (Photo: Alexis P. Suter with Garth Hudson, Allen Toussaint, BB King, James Cotton, Levon Helm, and Bobby Rush)

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

Never put all your eggs in one basket, always explore all the possibilities. Never think that you’re turning away from people when you’re trying to explore what you can do outside of the box always expand your horizons always believe in yourself. Never let anyone feel like they have power over your decisions.

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

I keep my ears open. I listen to what people are listening to and what makes them move. What makes them pat their feet, what makes them seeing, what makes them want to listen to it over and over …and over again, and I try to incorporate a lot of things and I try to surround myself as everyone can see with people who have beautiful minds of writing, beautiful music and we all collaborate and we all try to give it a sound that’s relevant that’s with it. That’s solid and I think so far we’ve been doing that especially with the last two CDs just stay high and now just stay alive and people will hear the relevancy in both of these CDs and how we made it amazing and just stay alive is very special because our dear friend Garth Hudson, God bless him. He was such an amazing amazing musical master and I’m gonna say he was a musical masterpiece. That’s what I’m gonna say to be able to perform for and with people like Levon Helm and then do that love and union meet someone like Garth Hudson wow that’s all I can say is how compelling How beautiful how poetic I’m so excited and I’m so humbled to be associated with people like that. It’s a wonderful wonderful thing.

Alexis P. Suter Band - Home

(Photo: Alexis P. Suter)