Between all the fine jazz releases that make up the Keep an Eye The Records collection, the album FANATIC by Flatland Prayer stands out. The Amsterdam-based trio of River Adomeit (double bass, vocals), Liva Dumpe (vocals), and Antonio Moreno Glazkov (trumpet) play songs composed by Adomeit in which various jazz styles merge with American folk and singer-songwriter sensibilities. Flatland Prayer allows River to reflect on life in general and with FANATIC on the Trump-era of the United States of America in particular – more and more as the outsider looking in, he explains in this injazz interview.
Originally from Hartford, Connecticut, River Adomeit settled in Amsterdam to study jazz bass at its Conservatorium. Besides graduating summa cum laude in 2023, he has become a respected member of the Amsterdam scene and the artist-driven community Splendor. While dedicating a lot of time to Flatland Prayer, he is also touring internationally with Germany-based, Mongolian vocalist Enji.
Can you describe your journey as a young musician from the US to the Amsterdam jazz scene? Maybe not only literally, but also spiritually.
‘It feels quite cyclical in a way. I left the States 4 years ago to study jazz at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and really found a home in the city. Since then, there’s really been a process of coming back to American music, how I want to relate to it, and how it fits into my own voice. I think if I still lived in the States, I’d still be searching for some kind of external musical identity, but having the distance allows me to take a look back on the music I grew up with and incorporate it into what I do now, without the bias or need to make it feel “fresh,” somehow.’
‘Līva and Antonio are both incredible musicians with their own very distinctive voices, so I feel very free to put basically anything in front of them’ – River Adomeit (photo right)
What did – and does – the city of Amsterdam mean to you?
‘I first started coming to Amsterdam as a teenager to visit my brother, Matt – he plays mandolin on the album but also studied bass at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. I even auditioned at the Conservatorium when I was 16 but ultimately decided to do my undergrad in the States. I’m glad, ultimately, that I spent a bit more time in the States, especially studying jazz. It meant that when I did move to Amsterdam (almost a full decade after I originally wanted to) it was with much more intention.
Amsterdam really quickly felt like home. The first time I went back to visit the States after living here for a few months, it already felt like I was a tourist there. Now I’m actually looking into renouncing my American citizenship and becoming Dutch. Due to the Trump administration’s attacks on trans people, I don’t think it’ll be long until my passport is deemed illegitimate anyway.’
Flatland Prayer
Can you explain the position of Flatland Prayer in your career as both a band leader and a sideman?
‘Flatland Prayer has always felt like a playground for me, or an opportunity to workshop ideas and concepts. I think of the three of us as a kind of cover band – I write the material and then we have to find a way to make it work.
Līva and Antonio are both incredible musicians with their own very distinctive voices, so I feel very free to put basically anything in front of them. I almost always give them a chart with only a bassline and melody (if I do write chords, they’re usually wrong) so there’s also a lot up to interpretation there. Antonio does a lot of the heavy lifting arrangementally – I don’t think I’ve ever written him a specific part. It’s also an unusual setup in that the person interpreting the text (Līva) is separate from the lyricist (me.) It gives another layer of removal somehow, and I think adds to the “cover band” feeling.
I definitely think Flatland Prayer has influenced my life as a sideman as well. I’m much clearer on how I want to sound and interact with an ensemble. I now find myself in a lot of small ensembles (especially trio) with vocalists, either because that’s what people see me doing or because I seek it out. It feels nice to have a bit of a niche.’
Pocket Concerts recording Sunflower
In that light, we saw you play a Pocket Concert with Sunflower, the trio with Amelie Spinks and Joost Lijbaart, which seems to be promising as well. Do you notice an overlap stylistically between the two groups?
‘Definitely, both bands carry a lot of folk influences, though having drums with Sunflower makes the feel of the trio very different. There’s also a certain naivety to Sunflower, both in the song choice and Amelie’s delivery, whereas I think Flatland Prayer is coming from a generally more wry, ironic tone. The tunes of mine that we play with Sunflower all come from an EP that I wrote for my nephew’s third birthday, for instance. Different source material than far-right extremism.’
Recording FANATIC
How long did it take to write and record the new Flatland Prayer album?
‘I wrote FANATIC in two parts- the first half in the lead-up to a gig we had on January 6th, 2024 (the anniversary of the Capitol Insurrection) and the second in the time between Trump’s re-election and his inauguration on January 20th, 2025. I normally have a fairly long-ish period of brainstorming,reading, collecting material, so that once I start the actual songwriting it goes quickly. I think I wrote both halves each in a few days.
We recorded most of the album at Wedgeview Studios in Woerdense Verlaat over the course of two days, with the mandolin overdubs separately in Berlin. We did If Not For You – the track featuring Brad Mehldau – and some overdubs a few months later, at Power Sound Studios in Amsterdam, which was great because it gave us the opportunity to take the time to really listen and see what we needed to add or redo. It also allowed for some nifty little tricks, like the voice change on Guns, Gods, and Gays, which was due to me starting testosterone in the time between the two sessions.’
I’m impressed by the timeless quality of songs like Baby’s Got A Gun, If Not For You, Swamp, Baby Shot Me Down, Ship In A Bottle, Gold Rush. Can you explain how your taste in music translates to your composing?
‘Thanks! I took a music theory class in high school, the foundation for which was taking a theoretical concept and writing a corresponding song stylized after a particular artist (so, for the lesson on I and IV chords, we wrote a “Peter, Paul and Mary song.”) I think that approach really connected with me; it was very influential. We spoke a lot then about what makes the core of a song, what makes it fit a particular style, and all the little tricks that give something its unique sound.
Now, I tend to get obsessed with one or two records at a time and absolutely milk them for all they’re worth (as in, listening to the same album 5+ times in a day, for weeks straight.) Naturally, that then comes out in the music I write. In the writing process of this album, I was listening to a lot of Billie Holiday, Merle Haggard, the Punch Brothers, Kendrick Lamar, and Philip Glass. Some artists that I’m basically always coming back to are Paul Simon, the Beatles, Djavan, and the Strokes.’
Themes and inspiration
A lot has happened in your home country since you settled in Amsterdam. Overseeing your work with Flatland Prayer, you draw a lot of inspiration from it. Are you in the position of the outsider looking in now? Or have you always felt like writing politically engaged material?
‘I think I’ve always been somewhat interested in the topic (my master’s thesis was a comparison of Charlie Haden and Charles Mingus in how they compose protest music) but I certainly didn’t set out to write political material, nor do I see it as the future of Flatland Prayer. The first half of FANATIC really came about coincidentally, we had a performance on the 6th of January, and I thought that was an interesting opportunity to write some new material. Biden was president at the time, so it really felt like a retrospective on a story that was more or less over. Of course, the implications of the set have changed a lot.
That being said, I definitely relate to this album as being written by someone with a vested interest in the situation, but otherwise outside perspective. I’m much more comfortable providing commentary from that position, I think if I still lived in the States, it would all feel much too close to home to have anything meaningful to say besides, “this is bad”.’
Five (correct me if I’m wrong) of the album’s tracks feature – sometimes rather long – fragments of a New York Times interview with Nancy Pelosi. How did you arrive at that, to build the tracks on? And did you have to clear it, to include it on the album?
‘Confusingly, the album FANATIC is made up of two parts: Fanatic and Moderate. I wrote the first half (Fanatic) about the rise in the far-right, culminating in the attack on the Capitol. After Trump’s re-election in 2024, I knew I wanted to write a follow-up set, the obvious standpoint being to come from the other side. The first time I listened to that interview with Nancy Pelosi (which she gave a few days after Trump’s re-election) it seemed to encapsulate the general mindset I was seeing from the left, which was this kind of stunned denial. It’s called Moderate because that’s how I saw Democrats positioning themselves “in opposition” to fanaticism.’
‘I reached out to the New York Times for permission to use the interview and never heard back.’
Please describe the creative process to arrive at the music surrounding the interview fragments.
‘It’s a bit different for each song. I first just made note of the parts of the interview that interested me (either in terms of content or Pelosi’s delivery.) Some things, like the line she has about “guns, gods, and gays” were very obviously a tune. Others took a bit longer, like the fragments I picked out to use for That’s What Concerns Me. That song is a funny mix – it’s partly composed, with some written lines and some melody fragments for Līva and Antonio, but it’s also very much stream-of-consciousness in terms of how we respond to what she’s saying.
‘I tend to get obsessed with one or two records at a time and absolutely milk them for all they’re worth’
With the other songs, they’re more of a metaphorical response to what Pelosi is saying. When hearing her defense of how American democracy is still very much intact, it made me think of this idea of a ship in a bottle – a very beautiful, Platonic ideal of a thing that can’t actually function. With Gold Rush, it’s more this delusional optimism: “we’re gonna go out West and get rich off all this gold they’re finding in California”.’
Did you ever question the life span of those tracks?
‘I think the more obscure, metaphorical songs are more timeless than the ones that have more direct commentary, either Pelosi’s or my own. Specificity locks them into a certain timeframe; some things aren’t as relevant anymore. I guess that’s the danger of making things too explicit.’
‘I will say, I didn’t think of this at all at the time I was writing the material. I wrote the second half as a live response to Trump’s re-election. I didn’t necessarily intend to record it, even. Since writing FANATIC, much has changed in the nitty-gritty of the American political landscape, but I think a lot of the sentiments expressed in the album are the same.’
Honoring American music
Do you think in musical genres at all? Did you feel constrained while studying jazz bass?
‘I think genres are an interesting compositional tool, especially in the case of these super quintessentially American songwriting styles. There’s so much context built in, I think it can add a lot of meaning with very little explicitly stated. Maybe it’s an added layer of irony, or reference to another event or period.
As I went through the process of writing FANATIC, one goal became to utilize and honor American music, so in that way it became a bit more intentional. That being said, I never really sit down and think, “I’m going to write a jazz ballad,” but often after writing the lyrics, a certain style of music will usually fit best. This can come at the expense of my own sanity; I wrote the text of Guns, Gods, and Gays, realized that it was very clearly going to be rapped, that I couldn’t ask Līva to do it, and therefore I was going to have to.
Conservatorium van Amsterdam is very much a jazz school, but I never felt constrained by that. I think of my time there (and Oberlin, where I did my undergrad) as great years of working on craft, within a certain idiom, from which I can now take what I need and leave the rest.’
On temptation
Did you just ask Brad Mehldau to come and join the recording of If Not For You, or how did that come about?
‘I basically just asked him. I already knew Brad a bit but not much- I summoned all the courage in my body to text him and ask if he would be up for joining us, and I’m still amazed he said yes.’
Weren’t you tempted to have more guests, or some bigger arrangements?
‘I think a lot of the power of Flatland Prayer is in the vulnerability and space of the instrumentation. Sometimes the temptation is to fill that space, but I often find we’re happier with the result when we resist that temptation.
‘As I went through the process of writing FANATIC, one goal became to utilize and honor American music’
A lot of my songwriting (especially on this album) is also so incredibly derivative. I think if we played it in a more conventional instrumentation it would sound, frankly, boring. In the end, the guests we have on the album are as much about my own sentimentality as a musical contribution. I grew up playing mandolin with my brother, Matt, and knew I wanted the album to feature him and that sound (in the end, I love that the album is kind of all about the mandolin; it frames the two halves.) Brad was a massive musical hero of mine growing up, and we’re also from the same hometown, so it felt like there was another layer there as well.’
What are your plans for the rest of 2026?
‘I’m so excited for this year. We’ll be touring this album, and I have a few other projects in the works with Flatland Prayer. I also just joined the collective of musicians at Splendor and have an endless stream of ideas for what kinds of projects to host there, from an after-school clubhouse for queer kids to a concert/fight club-style evening featuring musicians and boxers.’
This article was published on 10 February 2026 Interview and Pocket Concert photo by Mark van Schaick Other photos by Bjørk Semey
