Kasim Sulton’s Utopia

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“Certain music stays with you for your entire life, so I try my best to keep the songs we play each night as faithful to the original Utopia recordings and arrangements as possible. I think it’s really important to maintain some integrity musically and keep the songs the way the fans remember them.”

“I think that just by continuing to play this music, I’m honoring the band Utopia. That’s the bottom line. The fans have been so loyal and so devoted over the years that it’s my pleasure to be doing this for them. And I try to make sure that, as much as I do things for myself, I do them for the audience as well. For example, I really like to honor the audience when we play songs like ‘Set Me Free.’ They love hearing that song, and I love playing it.”

“It’s always been about supporting the songs and honoring the lyrics — unless it’s an instrumental, of course. I’m always thinking, ‘How can I feature the lyric, the melody, or what the song is about better? What can I do, and what can I contribute, to make the song more listenable and capture your attention?’ Sometimes it’s done by playing a little bit more, and sometimes it’s done by playing a little bit less.”

“These days, it’s so easy to go on YouTube and pull up an old Utopia concert or pull out one of the records, and then see what the record sounded like, who sang lead on this song, who sang backgrounds on that one, and what it all sounds like together. Just like I said before, I want to try to keep what we do live as true to all that as possible.”

“I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t be a live performer. The secret in my book is you have to play well, and you have to play well with others. It’s one thing to get along, and it’s another thing to get along and play well with others onstage.”

“If you’re good enough at what you do, people appreciate your talent. And if you’re nice enough to be around, people will want to be around you, perform with you, and see you play live.”

“It’s been great to see how some parents are bringing their kids out to the shows now. Whether it’s the guy who brings his son, the mom who brings her daughter, or the mother and father who bring their daughter and son, I make it a point to say to those kids, ‘You have really cool parents who are doing this for you.’”