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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW | A conversation with humble musical genius Race the Tide (Jesse Macht)


This week, we caught up with our latest obsession: Indie artist Race the Tide (aka Jesse Macht). We decided to steer clear of the obvious - that he is the (uber-talented) brother of 'Suits' star Gabriel Macht, and instead delve into what really makes the man behind the music tick.


Let’s start with some history. Your initial musical breakthrough was with the band Burn Down the Mission before striking out solo. How does working solo compare to working with a band?


There are pros and cons, honestly. There is a creative freedom that comes with working solo that I absolutely adore. I can work out ideas without any barriers or questioning that allows me to work through issues on my own without another person or people questioning a direction before the creation has any time to fly.


What I hate is the other side of the coin of collaboration: sometimes another point of view that has as much desire and care for the creation is exactly what you need to help it get the best version of itself. That’s why this project, Race The Tide, includes a whole lot of collaboration with the players I had on it. I had two different drummers, two piano players, a bass player, and another guitar player, plus my buddy Justin Tocket, a producer/engineer all helping with suggestions and critiques to help it be crafted. My mini-addition was my girlfriend, Lindsay, who did extraordinary work being an outside perspective and listening and helping with some creative sound ideas. She absolutely adores music and all sorts of music. She likes music more than I do! So she was great helping me listen to some other kinds of artists that I didn’t know myself and using that influence. She was responsible for introducing me to Tycho, Blood Orange, LCD Soundsystem and War on Drugs… and a good amount of other electric indie rock music.


It’s been three years since the release of your soul baring, very personal and seemingly cathartic album 'Suitcase Heart'. Tell us a little about the inspiration for your new album 'Race the Tide'.


This record incorporates some new sounds but is still a introspective album. Thanks for seeing the previous piece as such. This record is a bit of a journey from start to finish. It begins with a lot of self doubt and insecurity. The first two songs, 'The Enemy' and 'Rip Tide' are about that specifically and the doubts I have about encountering the struggles of career, financial stability, art, love, and emotional security and growth.


As the EP continues making its way to 'Somebody’s Gotta Burn' where I address those issues head on and try to incorporate a “letting go” and the EP concludes with 'Dayenu', which is Hebrew for, “It is Enough”, I’m trying to create this mantra of my work, participation, and trying to “ let go” and trust in the process of life as the answer to my fears. Whether I’m doing that or not is a whole other question, but it’s what goes on in my head and definitely feeds into the process. This record deals with my existential struggles as an artist, and the new project name, Race the Tide is obviously a metaphor for that struggle.


Your musical sound has been classified as having an Americana familiarity with a likeness to Ryan Adams, Wilco and The War on Drugs. Who would you say was your main musical influence when you were growing up and what was it about them that inspired such creativity?


I mean I loved Ryan Adams’ 'Easy Tiger' and 'Self Titled' a lot, a long with some of his other records. Tom Petty’s 'Full Moon Fever' is a staple, and I spent my early 20s falling head over heels for Jon Brion’s 'Meaningless'. Those kinds of sounds are definitely the groundwork for my sound. I love a great guitar tone, a kick ass snare snap, a bass line that grooves us into oblivion and a pop hook that keeps us coming back to listening over and over. That’s always my goal.


Keyboards is where I think the sounds get influenced at different stages of my life. This record is very reminiscent of Americana because of the instruments mentioned, but I think some of that more progressive sound comes in the more out of the box keyboard sounds I was chasing.


Aside from that Americana bass, I was a huge Michael Jackson fan growing up, so that’s why I always aim for a groove if I can. Otherwise, this year I listened to a lot of Dawes and Laura Marling. I love so much different kind of music, but I guess I’d say those influences make their way into the music most. We don’t hear much of the System of a Down I listen to in these songs. (laughs)


You have just been on the road-touring Race the Tide. I am always interested to know about the type of items musicians place on their tour rider. Do you have any unusual items on your rider? Does it vary according to the location such as local bourbon in Kentucky or freshly cooked bagels in New York?


Gosh I wish I had a rider for these events. These kinds of shows did not include that. That said, if I had a rider… it’d probably be a bottle of Bushmills, cheese and crackers and grapes and salami, and M&Ms (and not because of the fame of "green m&ms making it on riders" but because I grew up eating M&Ms all the time. That’s my mom’s fault).


Getting back to Race the Tide, I noticed the album was recorded in several different studios. Was there any particular reason for this?


Honestly, I made a record about 18 months ago that I absolutely adored. I was looking for some support on it and I found a label that was going to put it out. After 6 months of working together, the label folded, and I was left with a record that was now about 12 months old. I was a bit tired of it, and there were some sounds to it that I thought weren’t garnering the adoration I was hoping for from it and I decided to write some more and see if I could come up with something new.


I played some shows and wrote some stuff and eventually 'Rip Tide', 'The Enemy', 'Somebody’s Gotta Burn', and 'New Blood' came out of that process. I went back into the studio and recorded those songs. I didn’t want to throw away my entire unreleased record so I reinterpreted 'Dayenu', 'Every Mile', and 'West Side' for this. I plan to release the previous record one day in some form, but after that whole wait and fold and writing process, this is what came and it only seemed fitting to start fresh.


In a podcast recorded late last year, you talked about your love of promoting and love of trying to bring artists together and help people create home concerts. Given the chance, who would be in the line up to accompany you for the ultimate home concert to top all home concerts?


(Laughs loudly) Oh my! My choice of home concerts. Well honestly, what I love about these new home concerts that I’ve been doing is the eclectic nature of them. I’m not only performing music any more, but helping hosts facilitate different kinds of speakers, presenters, researchers, advocates and hobby-ists to make the bills as eclectic as possible. So in a perfect world, I’d essentially be taking something like “Radiolab” with music on the road. I love the variety of stories they produce and within that structure, adding some music that coincides.


Your new single ‘The Enemy’ is out now and features the musical talent of Heather Robb. This is an interesting pairing of the East Coast and West Coast seeing as you were born and raised in Los Angeles, and Heather is Brooklyn-based from Newark, Delaware. How did the two of you come to collaborate?


On this tour, I partnered with James Smith of The Spring Standards. James is a good friend of mine, and we met because my best friend from high school, and still, Mikey Wells, who heads the Silver Lake Chorus, was best friends with James at Boston University. I had always been a fan of James’ band and met Heather through that. I love how my voice sounds with female vocals and I miss working with Katie Boeck who has since moved and started a family and is doing music in Nashville. Heather had just moved to LA to start working on some writing and I asked her if she’d sing with me and voila – it happened.


When you aren’t on the road touring or recording music, what do you do to escape or relax?


I play baseball and softball. While it’s not really a relaxing sport – it actually is pretty stressful, it allows my mind to take a break from EVERYTHING else I’m doing. Its one of the only times I feel like I can truly just be a human being and just live and be friendly and play and not have to think about all the stresses of life. I’m safe, I’m on a field enjoying nature and there’s no where I need to be and nothing I need to do. All I need to do is hit and catch and throw a ball. I’m kind of like a dog in that way. Perhaps that’s why I like them so much.


I believe a person’s music collection speaks untold volumes about a person’s personality. That being said what was the last album you purchased and was it vinyl, CD or a digital download?

I think the last record I bought was a vinyl of Elvis Presley’s last concert. I love perusing the $2 racks at Amoeba Records. While I do sometimes enjoy Spotify, I really hate their business practices as well as the other streaming services. They have no business model if they had to pay proper royalties to the musicians who create their content, and it boggles my mind how this country allows such a theft to occur every day. That said, there’s a lot of stuff that this country allows and doesn’t allow that make no sense or logic to me, so I digress…


So… I try my best to purchase music, and downloading music also seems a bit boring. A vinyl has so much more interesting attributes to it. While I still love the sound of digital more, I love reading through the liner notes, looking at pictures, and actually focusing on the music I purchase. So, the best way for me to afford music, is to buy $2 records. I think I also bought the last digital offerings of Jeff Buckley acoustic sessions 'You and I' as well as Andy Shauf’s record, 'The Party'.


Race the Tide's 'The Enemy' is available on iTunes now. Listen to 'Rip Tide' on Soundcloud now!


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