Sam Eastmond is an improvising trumpeter and composer from London, England known for his expansive large ensemble projects which span vast and eclectic swathes of stylistic inspiration.
What would you say to someone considering joining The Ivors Academy?
Do it. There is power in communities, often as composers, producers, writers, leaders much of our work can be solitary and isolated. Building, curating, and participating in communities of music creators and practitioners is a vital part of your own personal ecosystem and will refresh and energise you.
How did you land your first big opportunity in the music industry?
Everything I do is a scaled version of what I started doing as a kid; write some music, get some friends to play it, build a group, expand and repeat. I just got better at all those steps. Working with John Zorn came about because I sent him music and we talked, that led to working together. Everything in my world happens on a very personal level, people trusting me.
What’s the best career advice you’ve received?
“You can do whatever you want, it just has to be better than the last thing you did.” - John Zorn
What’s a recent project you’re particularly proud of?
My arrangements and recordings of John Zorn’s Bagatelles, out on Tzadik label. It’s been a wild ten years working with Zorn, I have seemingly become his go-to large ensemble cat, and am the only artist in the UK currently working on his projects with him and the only person who recorded Masada Books Two and Three, and the Bagatelles as a leader.
I’m also incredibly proud of the Composers Workshop Big Band project I run, a space for young musicians to create, refine and experiment, and workshop large ensemble writing. A real community-based project.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
Huge amounts of grassroots funding for music education, not buzzword-oriented, project-based, short-term, photo opportunities for politicians and civic dignitaries.
I have a career as a musician because of free instrument lessons for children in state schools and exposure to instrumental music, these things have been largely eroded and the landscape of music education is littered with the corpses of great educators attritionally ground down and burnt out of an amazing job. You grow trees from the roots.
Read more about Sam Eastmond and The Spike Orchestra.
