QnA series with a special guest featuring — Jacob Bergson (Producer//Composer//Pianist) - Jojo Mayer/Nerve and Kimbra — The Showrunners exclusive pick of the week

14 min readMay 21, 2020

I have been following Jojo Mayer and his project called Nerve from many years and that’s how I found out about Jacob. It was fascinating to see how far a trio sound can be evolved and I think no one is making this style of music as far as I have explored. Each member compliments and provides a sensible space for each other. I love the way Jacob has designed his sounds, and a genius setup with this trio. It’s a treat to see them playing live and that’s the beauty of this trio. On the other hand, Jacob plays with the Grammy award winning pop/classic rnb/jazz/rock act — Kimbra. A New Zealand based Singer songwriter/actress/model. Kimbra was the part of the 2012 multi-platinum single “Somebody that I used to know” by Gotye.

Today it's an incredible opportunity to have him on board with us as the exclusive pick of the week. We will be having a QnA conversation about his journey towards music and his experiences.

Let’s begin!

1. First of all its a pleasure to have you here, Please tell us about your early days of music, how did it all start, how did you choose the piano as your main instrument?

I was just really attracted to music as a young child. That was pretty obvious to my parents, and so they signed me up for music lessons when I was 5 years old. I really wanted to learn the guitar, but they couldn't find a guitar teacher who would take a 5 year old - I guess the physicality of that instrument is just too much for most young kids. We had an upright piano in the house, and a good piano teacher about a block away. So that was the path of least resistance.

2. How was your experience with the music studies at the University of Cincinnati & The New school? As an instructor, What are your views for music education in general for all musicians?

I decided rather late that I wanted to be a professional musician. I spent a lot of my earlier years just coasting on talent, and didnt get serious about practicing until the later half of high school. And, at that point, I needed more time to catch up to the top tier of my peers, many of whom had been practicing hard since they were quite young. The University of Cincinnati has a conservatory, called CCM, where I was briefly a student. It’s a good music school, and it has really great facilities. I spent most days locked away in practice rooms - I was averaging 8 hours per day of practice time back then.
I had a close friend who was attending college at The New School in New York City. I went to visit him, met some of his classmates who were already outstanding players, and spent several nights out with them in New York jazz clubs. The experience was overwhelming. I was completely outclassed everywhere I went and I had the strong intuition that, in order to become the musician I wanted to be, I would need to surround myself with peers who played at a much higher level than I did. So, at the first opportunity, I transferred to The New School, and finished my education there.
The program at The New School was rather unstructured. I only had a handful of music-related classes, several ensembles, and my private lessons. There was no pressure to take non-music classes at all. I spent most of my time just practicing and playing impromptu jam sessions with other students. The whole experience felt more like a jazz summer camp than an accredited academic institution. The value was in the connections I made with my classmates there, many of whom were talented musicians and several of whom have gone on to have notable careers already. I can trace nearly all of my professional success back to those connections.
I don't really consider myself a music instructor - I teach a handful of private students, and I've done the occasional master class, but my career is primarily focused on performance and composition. I don't consider my opinions on the subject of music education to be authoritative. But, I'll offer them anyway, since you asked.
When you're dealing with young people, who are still forming their musical identities, I feel its very important not to impose on them your own artistic taste and sensibilities. Rather, your role as an instructor is to confer upon them techiques and tools which they can use to express their own musical ideas, in any way they see fit. Otherwise, you're squashing the creativity of the next generation. And you need to accept that your students are going to make music that you don't like, and that is different than the music you make. Thats the only way that this art form moves forwards. If you attempt to indoctrinate them into your aesthetic system, you're doing them a disservice personally and you're doing the state of the art a disservice as well.
I find it truly unfortunate that many instructors don't see it this way. They have strong personal intuitions about which music is great and which music is terrible, and you're forced to conform or risk failing their class. It's not the right way to teach art.

3. Please tell us about your synth current collection and current workstation. Which Synth do would you recommend as the best you've used in the past? Also, tell us more about your live setup with Nerve (A live rig rundown)?

I don’t have a huge synth collection - just the things I’ve happened to acquire over the years. I’m lucky to have access to some friends and colleagues collections as well, so I pretty much don’t buy a new synth unless I plan to use it quite a lot. I do own a lot of gear, but I don’t consider myself a collector. If it doesn’t get used, I don’t really want it around.
My current setup for most of my writing and production is a 16 voice Moog One, a small collection of Eurorack modules, an old Apogee Quartet, and a pair of Dynaudio BM15a monitors. The Moog doubles as a midi controller. That usually all I need, but my Nerve live rig lives in its flight cases in my apartment, so I can always grab some of that stuff if I really need it. I also have an older AKG 414 in its box in my closet, just in case I need a mic for something. But that rarely gets used.
A synth is an instrument just like any other - there is no "best" synth the same way there’s no "best" guitar. Every synthesizer has its own character and personality. Just find one that resonates with you, that you connect with, and that you’re able to utilize to express yourself. If you think about what makes musicians seek out a particular synthesizer, you'll find its not so much the specific capabilities of that instrument as much as it is the influential music that was made on that instrument.
My current live setup with Nerve is a WMD/SSF Monilith (populated with my choice of Eurorack modules), and a DSI/Sequential Prophet 12 module. That’s it, as far as actual instruments go. The rest of the my gear consists of a custom midi controller, a Novation SL MKIII 61 key controller, and a MOTU 8M. I use my laptop as a glorified sampler. It also handles audio processing and MIDI routing duties.

4. Do you have any other interests/projects than Nerve? Please tell us about them?

I also play with a great singer named Kimbra. She's from New Zealand, but currently based in New York. That's my other main project at the moment. When Kimbra and Nerve are both active, the combination takes up a significant amount of my time.

5. Are you writing any new music? Please tell us about that. Also, what do you try to express/promote through your music? Tell us more about your music writing approach?

I’m nearly finished writing a solo record. That has been my main focus for the past year or so. I only intend to keep about 12 tracks in the end, but I’ve written nearly 40 pieces of music for that record so far. Additionally, I’m almost always collaborating with other artists as a producer or co-writer. I’ve probably written somewhere close to 50 songs already in 2020. You can pretty much assume that, if I’m not on tour, that I’m writing something.
The music I write generally falls within the broad category of electronic music. I write nearly everything on my computer, with the sound design and production as an integral part of the compositional process. I almost never sit down at the piano to write.
What I really enjoy about writing on the computer is that, if you set up your environment the right way, you’re always presented with the unexpected. Writing on a piano is not like that at all - you’re more or less limited to the ideas of your musical imagination. But I can get my laptop to spit things back at me that I never expected to hear, and I find that so exciting. There’s a feedback loop there, between man and machine, and it pushes me to write really differently than I otherwise would. It also preserves an element of surprise and wonder in my own compositions for myself as a listener.
Some people complain about the limitations of writing on a computer ("everything is on the grid!"). But I suspect that those people simply aren’t any good at it. In many cases they probably haven’t even tried it. A computer is an instrument just like any other. It takes years of practice to gain the necessary facility, but once you’ve become adept at using it, the results can be exquisite. These days, there are virtuosos of the laptop computer the same way that there are virtuosos of the piano. Go listen to someone like Arca, and then tell me that she makes rigid computer music. There’s no way! Her music is as organic and limber as any there is.
The freedom of instrumental music is that it isn’t about anything. It doesn’t convey specific ideas. Its a blank canvas, with no inherent meaning, onto which the listener can project whatever they wish. You can try to impose meaning with something like a song title. But I rarely remember the song titles of electronic tracks anyway. I suspect that’s because they usually have little relation to the underlying music.
What I'm looking for when I'm writing is a general emotional salience. When I can capture that, then the music has an immersive and transportive quality that exists in all the best instrumental music. It creates a world into which the listener can import their own meaning. But the song needs to have that emotional quality. If it doesn't have that, then it doesn't mean anything to anybody.

6. How is survival without live music is going with you and the musicians around you? How deeply this pandemic has affected the music scene in New York?

It's bad. It's really bad. There's basically nothing left - most of my friends are musicians, and everyone is out of work. Everyone is worried for their survival. Everyone has cancelled or rescheduled tours, and almost nobody has any income for the foreseeable future. All of the music venues in New York are currently closed.
I've been living here for well over a decade, and during that time the cost of living in New York has increased enormously. This has, over time, forced many musicians to move out of the city and forced many venues to close. The music scene here was already in decline due to those financial pressures - it's still hanging on, but the end is coming. And this isn't only the case for music. That same pressure is felt by venues, clubs, restaurants, galleries studios, any cultural institution you can think of. The cost of rent is too high, and profit margins, already slim for many, have steadily withered. Our current situation, with a prolonged lack of income for many business owners, will only accelerate these changes. I have no idea how much of a scene will remain when the city ultimately reopens. And I'm worried.

7. Tell us about your past collaborations? What's in your current playlist? Any 10 albums you would recommend? (Artist - album)

I have too many past collaborations to name, fortunately. The most recent one that was released is 2 songs on the great singer Becca Stevens's new album. You can check out "Feels Like This". I think it was one of the singles.
I also have a 7" LP coming out sometime very soon under the name Zahn/Bergson/Tufts. It's a collaborative instrumental trio with my friends (and great musicians) Spencer Zahn and Austin Tufts. We have a full length album nearly done as well, which we intended to finish, but Austin lives in Montreal and the virus has shut down international travel between the United States and Canada. So that one will just have to wait a bit longer. On top of those I have a handful of other projects that are complete, but are just awaiting release.
10 albums to recommend, all time? Here’s an intentional mix of older and newer albums. These aren’t the 10 greatest ever, because that’s an impossible list. These aren’t my 10 favorite albums. These are 10 great albums that are definitely worth your time and attention.

In no particular order:

Ahmad Jamal Trio - At the Pershing
Rosalia - El Mal Querer
Floating Points - Crush
John Coltrane - Crescent
Big Thief - U.F.O.F.
Siriusmo - Mosaik
Burial - Untrue
DJ Rashad - Double Cup
Smashed Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Stephan Bodzin - Powers of Ten

At this particular moment, I’m in more of a creative mode. And when thats the case, I don’t listen to much music. When I take a break from writing, then I’ll start absorbing new influences again and try to catch up on new releases, find new inspiration, etc. For right now, though, my whole musical world is basically just me.

8. If there could be a chance of hard reset to the music scene, what major changes would you like to see? What are your views on the current state of music?

There's great music being created all the time, all over the world. The quality of the work isn't the problem - anyone who complains that the quality of new music has declined simply isn't paying attention. There's so much music being released all the time that it can be difficult to get your music to new listeners. At the same time, if you already have an audience, it's easier than it's ever been to distribute your music to them. Technologically speaking, this is a great time to be a musician.
As far as a hard reset goes, we need a total re-think of the value of intellectual property, and our options for monetizing music fairly. For decades, ever since Napster opened the Pandora’s box that triggered the collapse of the recording industry we’ve been told: "YES, ok maybe there are no profits anymore from record sales, but what are you complaining about?? The artists who enjoyed those profits were bloated and pampered anyway. They squandered million dollar record advances. They trashed hotel rooms. They didn’t deserve all that money. You want to be an artist for a living? That’s a privilege! Go pound the pavement. Go play 200 gigs a year. Go sell T-shirts".
Well, now there aren’t any gigs left to play, and most musicians' last income stream has dried up to nothing. How’s Spotify doing right now? They’re doing just fine.
Our current system, the one we've been operating in for the last several years, was already untenable. The virus has just put that in sharper relief. And, it will still be untenable even when gigs start up again. I don't have the solution, I just know that we need a better way.
The cost of getting this wrong is that there won’t be a music industry anymore. It appears right now as though things are proceeding relatively unchanged, as artists are live streaming concerts and writing quarantine albums. But that’s a mirage. It’s only because everyone assumes that their careers will just go back to normal in a few months, and they’re all attempting to use this time productively. But pretty soon, if they aren’t able to make a living as musicians anymore, they’ll simply have to quit music and go get a job. This won’t affect the top tier of artists, who are essentially celebrities and have myriad ways to earn money besides concerts. And it won’t affect the bottom tier, who were never making a living from their music anyway. But the vast middle, which contains so many of the artists we love, may simply crumble away.

9. Tell us about your best memories from the last India tour? Which was the best and the most happening gig from that tour?

Our schedule for that tour was really tight - we had basically zero time that wasn't spent at the airports, venues or hotels. It would have been grueling under normal circumstances, but to top it off I spent most of the tour really sick with the flu. For me, those shows were really tough both physically and mentally.
With that said, we are always received with great hospitality in India - the venues always treat us well, and the audiences are always enthusiastic and friendly. Every venue we played on this last tour was radically different, and so each show ended up being very different as well.
That was my third time in India, and I'm sure I'll be back before too long. It's one of the most unique and fascinating places in the world. And, most importantly, the cuisine is spectacular.

10. Last question, What advice would you like to give to the new musicians/artists who want to develop true musicianship? What are those important factors one shouldn't skip?

Developing your musicianship is only a matter of identifying areas where you need to improve, and committing to working on those areas. That sounds simple, but its extremely difficult emotionally. It requires the strange mental gymnastics of directly countenancing your own shortcomings, while still trying to maintain that base level of confidence which any musician needs to have in order to be able perform.
Its tough work, and its a task that never ends. But if you want to grow and improve then its necessary work. It’s important to note that I’m talking about broad musical skills here. How is your rhythm? Your feel? Your grasp of harmony? Your technical facility on the instrument? Your musical imagination?
Do not fall into the trap of thinking that you need to master all genres. You don't. But there are a set of foundational musical skills that apply across all genres and will make or break you as a musician. Those are what need attention.

Jacob Bergson is a producer, composer, and pianist currently residing in Brooklyn, New York. He received his formal musical training in Jazz piano performance at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, and at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.

Jacob initially started working with Nerve as a recording engineer for (The distance between zero and one) sessions in 2010. Recently he also started to lend his talents as keyboardist and producer to Nerve and Kimbra.

His broad stylist experience in jazz, electronic and pop music, and his skills with synthesis makes him not only a perfect collaborator for nerve but for a wide range of contemporary artists including Rubblebucket, Luke temple of Here We Go Magic, Diiv, Moon Hooch and Janka Nabay.

You can follow Jacob and his projects on social media by clicking the links below

JACOB BERGSON

FB — https://www.facebook.com/jacob.bergson

IG — https://www.instagram.com/jacobbergson

NERVE

FB — https://www.facebook.com/NerveOfficial

IG — https://www.instagram.com/jojomayernerve

KIMBRA

FB — https://www.facebook.com/kimbramusic

IG — https://www.instagram.com/kimbramusic

So that’s it for this edition of QnA session featuring Jacob Bergson as The Showrunners exclusive pick of the week. It was a pleasure having him on board with us. See you next time with another amazing musician in the next edition. Take care, Stay safe, and keep making music.

Mohan Kumar