Culture
Turkuaz’s Dave Brandwein Talks ‘Non’s a Ton,’ ‘Remain in Light,’ COVID-19
By: Emily Votaw
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When I scheduled my interview with Turkuaz, it was late February and the Brooklyn-based funk band had just been announced as one of the performers at the 2020 Nelsonville Music Festival. Particularly exciting was the fact that Turkuaz was bringing their Remain in Light show to NMF, which would not only honor the lauded 1980 Talking Heads album, it would actually include Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew, an iconic guitarist who played on the Remain in Light sessions.
That all changed very quickly as the United States response to the COVID-19 global pandemic accelerated to the point that nearly all public gatherings of any type were cancelled in order to contain the spread of the virus. The 2020 Nelsonville Music Festival being one of those events, I wasn’t sure if Brandwein would have the desire or the time to speak to a reporter from a NPR affiliate based out of rural Ohio. However, he kindly agreed to keep the date and time for the interview, especially being that it would take place just two days after the March 31, 2020 release of Turkuaz’s Non’s a Ton live concert film.
Brandwein spoke to me about Non’s a Ton, working with a member of one of his favorite bands in a professional capacity, and the importance of promoting a discussion about the mental wellness of musicians, especially during these uniquely challenging times.