We’re here at Off Broadway in St. Louis, Missouri, for Couch’s sold-out show. I know you got your first P. Mauriat saxophone in middle school – what grade was that, and how long had you been playing at that point?
I started playing saxophone in fourth grade, so by eighth grade I had been playing for about four years. My family decided it was time to upgrade from a student model, so we went to Leonards Music in Bedford, Massachusetts. I tried about ten different alto saxophones, and the first one I picked up was the P. Mauriat 67R in cognac lacquer. I kept coming back to that one and ended up walking out with it. I played that horn all the way until late 2025.
I still like to play it, but now I’ve switched to the new PMXA-67RBX, which is very similar. It plays almost the same, though this one feels a little brighter.
What’s kept you sticking with P. Mauriat all this time? I realize it might be hard to remember exactly what drew you in back in eighth grade, but beyond just feeling right, what made you want to stay with the brand and the horns?
One of the first things I noticed was how warm the response was compared to other saxophones, especially altos. The low register on alto can feel kind of honky, which isn’t my favorite part of the instrument, but on the P. Mauriat horns the tone felt rich and even across all registers. Even in late middle school and early high school, I was getting specific compliments about my tone. Obviously, a lot of that comes from your anatomy, embouchure, mouth-piece, and reed, but I do think the horn plays a big role. I tried my sax teacher’s horn, which was much more expen- sive, and I still preferred mine. It never felt honky or thin. I also never felt like I was fighting against it. Usually, you only think about your instrument when something isn’t working. Occasionally, touring and flying will knock something out of place, but when it’s in good condition, I don’t have to think about it at all. That’s exactly what you want. It just feels like an extension of yourself.
You also sing in the group; how does that ‘instrument’ compare to playing a woodwind? Wind instruments are uniquely connected to the body and voice. How do you experience that?
As a singer, I’m a bass, more baritone-bass, so the saxophone has always felt like singing the high register I don’t naturally have with my voice. On a wind instrument, you’re placing every note with a specific throat and tongue position. It helps to sing the note you’re trying to play, then memorize how your throat and embouchure need to feel to get the sound you want. I’ve played P. Mauriat horns for so long that they feel completely familiar to me. That history makes me more inclined to stick with them. When I switch horns, different notes can have different intonation tendencies, and that adjustment can be distracting.
Got it, so you really understand how to make this instrument speak exactly the way you want. How has the new horn been working out for you? You mentioned liking how it avoids that honky tone in the lower register, what kind of sound are you aiming for overall?
The first word that comes to mind is rich. I also think smooth and textured at the same time, even though those feel like opposites. I like a bit of breathiness, but not too bright. I want control between quiet and loud. Altos can be very bright and piercing, especially in the middle register. That projection can be great, but it can also be harsh. I want to be able to project when needed, but also play sweetly or powerfully without it sounding so harsh. In Couch, I’m part of a two-person horn section with just a trumpet. I’m trying to match the energy of a brass instrument, but I don’t want to poke out underneath it, since the trumpet is often functioning as the lead voice. The P. Mauriat horns I play give me enough power to hang with the trumpet while still keeping a pleasing sound that has character to it.
Are you using the P. Mauriat touring case?
I sure am. Gets the job done. I like having a hard case for touring and flying, especially since the horn gets jostled around. It’s designed specifically for this model, including the enlarged bell, so the fit is really snug. I want the snuggest fit possible, and this case is perfect for that.
There seems to be a resurgence in horn-section-driven pop and funk music. Artists like Lake Street Dive, Cory Wong, Lawrence, Sammy Rae and the Friends, folks seem really excited about lush horn arrangements again. Why do you think that is? And what draws you to that kind of music?
Horns bring a ton of energy because of their brightness and timbre, but they also have a very human element to them. You can hear the personality of the person playing more clearly than with something like a piano. Horns are as close to the human voice as it gets. Strings can be pretty expressive too; I think horns and bowed strings are the instruments common in Western culture that have the most universal, emotion-eliciting appeal. I think the resurgence you’re talking about has a lot to do with streaming. Of course, there are plenty of issues with how artists are paid, but algorithmic discovery has removed a lot of barriers. People can now find independent artists without needing a major label to push them.
So the music was always there, it just didn’t have the same reach?
Exactly. Bands like Vulfpeck and Lake Street Dive started blowing up right when Spotify became popular. People realized they weren’t beholden to the radio anymore. Those bands were doing it at a high level at the right time, and they paved the way. This style of music has always been popular. Motown, Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire. It’s great to see it coming back and I hope it continues to grow. I feel like Olivia Dean is in a similar vein. Raye is in a similar vein. They’re carrying that sound into the Top 40 mainstream now, too.
Are there any horn parts or solos in Couch’s repertoire that you’re especially proud of, or love to perform?
I solo on the second song in the set, “Saturday.” It’s a high-energy solo where I really get to wail, so I’m always excited for that. Later in the set, I have a more extended solo that gives me more of an opportunity to tell a story. There are solos where my job is just to get everyone hyped, and there are solos where I have a blank canvas to paint on.
Which song is that later solo in?
It comes after “One Night.” It’s kind of an addendum that transitions into another song near the end of the set. But honestly, I also love playing the section parts. “Middle Man” has a lot of flashy horn writing, and I enjoy funky parts with different articulation and variety. We often have pads for sustained textures in a pre-chorus, then we’ll have a call-and-response with the melody for the chorus, and maybe we’ll harmonize with Tema, our lead vocalist. We have a sort of playbook of functions that the horns can serve and our songs often rotate through those roles depending on the section. We just put out our debut album, Big Talk, and my favourite horn parts on the project are in our song Static & Noise. Swung sixteenths, groovy, and more similar to big-band writing than a lot of our other songs.
Check out Couch’s new album, BIG TALK, on all platforms.
