Interviews with Sons of Cream Malcolm Bruce, Kofi Baker and Rob Johnson
I had the honor to spend the afternoon and evening with the band members of the Sons of Cream, Malcolm Bruce (son of Jack Bruce), Kofi Baker (son of Ginger Baker) and Rob Johnson.
The Sons of Cream is the latest iteration of Kofi and Malcolm’s celebration of their father’s legacy. Far from a tribute band, these musicians don’t just play the music of Cream, they improvise and extend the songs with an approach that feels very much like the original band.
Check out my 2019 blog post featuring an interview with Malcolm Bruce and Will Johns from the Music of Cream.
The band didn’t arrive at the venue until 4:00PM (for a 7:00PM show), so there wasn’t enough time to conduct the interviews before the show. The guys were very gracious though, inviting me to hang out in their backstage room while their equipment was being set up, then allowing me to be on stage with them to take pictures during the sound check. I loved this because it allows me to get angles and proximity that is not possible during a concert.
Since they take an intermission, they decided to have me interview Kofi during the break, then talk to Rob and Malcolm after the show. This certainly made for a very late evening (I didn’t leave the venue until after midnight), but it was worth the wait.
They guys then invited me to go to dinner with them. We enjoyed a meal just around the corner from the venue. I always find it a bit tricky to speak to someone for an extended time before I “officially” interview them – you don’t want to spoil the spontaneity of a subject that you want to cover – so I was very conscious to stay away from any of the questions I was planning to cover on camera.
All three guys were in very good spirits, cracking jokes, telling stories, and asking questions about the local area. 45 minutes later it was time to head back, and literally 15 minutes after paying the bill, the band was rocking out on stage.
I would have normally wanted to shoot the concert with two cameras: the Nikon D850 and the Sony A7r-iv. However, the Sony was already in place as part of the three-camera set up for the interviews and I didn’t want to disrupt the setup. So I opted instead to simply swap the 70-200mm and 24-70mm lenses on the Nikon throughout the show.
The lighting was excellent so I was able to set the Nikon in manual mode, 1/250 of a second, f/2.8 at ISO 1600. I occasionally fiddled with the ISO when the lights were brighter, but this didn’t happen very much.
When intermission came, Kofi went to the dressing room to make a smoothy, then sat down for the interview. We only had a total 15 minutes, but Kofi made the most of it, enthusiastically talking about his drum techniques, his Dad’s influence on his drumming, and how he approaches his extended drum solos.
After the show, the guys signed shirts and posters at the merch table, and posed for numerous photos. The fans that stayed were very excited and full of great praise for the concert. You could see the band was genuinely interested in what everyone had to say, giving each one their full attention and as much time as they wanted. I loved seeing that.
Once everyone was served at the merchandise table, I pulled Rob in to talk, then Malcolm. My discussion with Malcolm was quite lengthy, cut off when Kofi came in to tell Malcolm they should be getting on the road – they were in for a 10.5-hour drive from Nashua, NH to Detroit, MI and wanted to complete some of the drive that night. Keep in mind they already were in the car 5 hours earlier that day coming from New York City. What a grind it is for a band to knock out a living on the road.
I wanted to thank Malcolm, Kofi and Rob very much for their time and great hospitality. They made me feel completely as ease and were never in rush to “move on” at any time during the day or night. Very classy.
