Isaac Sleator, CC ’17, on his music and inspiration

Tianyue Sun / Senior Staff Photographer
By NEHA SUNDARAM  Spectator Staff Writer
March 12, 2014, 1:16am
Isaac Sleator, CC ’17, didn’t start off making psychedelic music or rock music, but trained as a jazz pianist in high school. Now he’s been playing shows around the city and is working on several music projects at Columbia and in the rest of the city. Spectator sat down with Sleator to talk about his music and his inspiration.

Neha Sundaram: So, tell me a little about how you would describe your own music and style. 
Isaac Sleator: I have a couple different styles and different projects that I’m in. All of them are somewhat psychedelic, somewhat spacey—full of ethereal noises. I’m in one modern psychedelic rock band called Suchaporn, and I’m also in a new project—we haven’t created a name yet—but it’s electronic singer-songwriter music. Kind of like James Blake, but we’ve got guitars in it. I was trained as a jazz pianist, so it’s kind of interesting that this year I’ve really taken off with the psychedelic production and rock and roll.

NS: So how did you make the jump between being trained in jazz and psychedelic rock? 
IS: Well, I played jazz up until last year. ... I started messing around with GarageBand. ... That’s how I started writing music. And then I met some of my greatest friends from high school [LaGuardia High School], and they were in this band called Suchaporn. I joined the band, and that encouraged me to start making more psychedelic music. When you’re playing jazz, a lot of the time you’re playing other people’s music, so in a sense it’s less creative. But at the same time, it’s all improvised, and that’s very creative. The stuff I’m doing, it’s more effectual and less pure melody, so I can do what I want. I listen to everyone else, try to figure it out on stage. 

NS: Could you tell me more about your musical influences? 
IS: One of my biggest influences is Flying Lotus. Another huge influence has been Radiohead—probably my favorite band of all time. For the psychedelic, spacey vibe, I’d say Tame Impala has been a huge influence on me this year. I found out about them last summer, and I’ve pretty much been listening to them all the time ever since. 
Read more: http://www.columbiaspectator.com/arts-and-entertainment/2014/03/12/isaac-sleator-cc-17-his-music-and-inspiration