Close Encounters Festival: Bringing Nations Together through Music

Berklee student Jacob McCaslin’s band, Jacob McCaslin and the Jaywalkers, officially formed last semester and was looking for gigs to promote its debut album, Look Both Ways. Little did the band members know, their first gigs would be in Europe, as McCaslin’s band was chosen to represent Berklee and the United States at the 2015 Close Encounters Festival.

The Close Encounters Festival is a five-day event at prominent venues in Helsinki, Finland; St. Petersburg, Russia; and Tallinn, Estonia, that took place from February 9-13. The festival is a by-product of the partnerships created by Berklee International Network (BIN). For years, BIN partner Helsinki Pop and Jazz Conservatory has invited Berklee bands to participate at Close Encounters, where Berklee students write and perform alongside students from music schools based in Germany, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, and Finland.

“It’s incredible, [BIN] giving us this opportunity to go abroad,” said McCaslin. “It was such a fun time meeting people from all over the world and amazing to write songs with musicians we just met.”

Berklee limits bands to three members for the festival, so McCaslin asked Jaywalkers bandmates Ross Hodgkinson (drums) and Jonathan Elyashiv (bass) to join him as the Jacob McCaslin Trio. The trio played seven shows over the course of five days.

“The experience performing a show every night, sometime several times a night, was absolutely amazing!” drummer Ross Hodgkinson said. “Our schedules were super packed and thus we more or less had no down time, which was an invaluable experience in teaching me the importance of making sure to consistently put on a great show.”

The trio was excited to get the chance to perform at the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki, live on Finnish radio, and have the distinction of being the only band from Close Encounters to travel to Estonia, where it opened for a seasoned jazz band at the Clazz jazz club. At the end of the performance, the headliners invited people from the audience onstage to jam. McCaslin Trio members Hodgkinson and bassist Jonathan Elyashiv obliged.

“I felt really proud of my bandmates for getting up to jam,” said McCaslin.

A chance to collaborate

Aside from gigs as the Jacob McCaslin Trio, the Berklee students had the rewarding experience of writing and performing a song with students from other music schools they had just met. The students were separated from their bands and formed into new groups to create a song to perform on the last day of the festival.

“We sat around a table in our new bands and discussed concepts and styles that were common to all of us,” said Hodgkinson. “There was definitely a language barrier, but once we sat down behind our instruments to begin working on our song, everything became clear. It was apparent that we did in fact share one common language, music.”

“The directors walked us through the songwriting process, taking a big picture idea and breaking it down from there,” said McCaslin. “They sent us off to a room by ourselves and we jammed for an hour. I came up with the chord progression, then we figured out a melody that worked with the singers. Then all the other musicians added their own flavor. Everyone’s songs came out really great.”

The Berklee International Network looks at partnerships with schools like the Pop and Jazz Conservatory—through which events like the Close Encounters Festival are possible—as a great opportunity for Berklee to find new talent around the world. “Partnerships help Berklee identify and attract extraordinary musicians,” said Brian Gonzalez, communications coordinator for global initiatives at Berklee. “It also develops international music relationships so students can grow as musicians and explore new musical ideas.”

Reflecting on the experience, Hodgkinson conveyed the broad impact of Close Encounters:

“The festival is about way more than just performing. A massive part of it is meeting other music students from around Europe and finding out about their approach to music. I was blown away by the talent I met while in Helsinki and absolutely hope that later on in my career I'll be able to work with them again!”

Watch Jacob McCaslin perform solo at Berklee.