Jams in E minor

Time for Three (tf3), the genre-defying string trio that has made serious waves in the music world since it broke onto the scene in 2003, was in town earlier this week, performing “pop-up” concerts on Monday at Small World Coffee, Wilcox Hall, Frist Campus Center and Labyrinth Books, as well as a sold-out show on Tuesday night at Richardson Auditorium.

The group consists of two violinists, Nick Kendall and Zachary De Pue, and bassist Ranaan Meyer, a trio of classically trained musicians from the Curtis Institute of Music (If you’re unfamiliar, here’s some perspective: Their acceptance rate is lower than ours). Together they have stepped outside the realm of what is considered classical music to create what is in many respects a virtuosic jam band. Their repertoire includes pieces as diverse as an arrangement of Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5 to “Blackbird” by The Beatles to a mash-up of Katy Perry’s “Firework” and Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite.” The guys of tf3 are fully qualified to be classical music snobs, but that would be a complete waste of their time — anything they find inspiring is fair game. I got the chance to talk to Ranaan Meyer, who taught bass at Princeton from 2005-06, about tf3’s unique approach to music.

Q: What was the inspiration behind the “pop-up” performances around town and campus? Did you run into any challenges?

A: Pop-ups are definitely a wonderful thing to do to spread the word about what you’re doing as a group. But you’re invading the audience’s territory to demand them to listen to you, so it’s different from them voluntarily coming to a show. You have to deal with a bit of defense, but Time for Three has always broken through to new audiences through pop-up experiences. It’s something we know we can bring to the table, and we’re at least going to convert a few.

Q: Were you always interested in types of music other than classical? What sorts?

A: I think it’s a little different for all three of us. For myself, I fell in love with music through jazz when I was 15. Jazz brought me into all forms of music. Nick played the drums, and Zach came from a family of violinists that played bluegrass. Classical music is definitely our first language of communication in the band, and everything else is an additive. But we haven’t stopped there, at jazz or bluegrass — we’re now into this pop thing, and we’re not trying to play style-specific. We’re just trying to expand our horizons.

Q: How, as a classically trained musician, do you listen to pop music and decide “yeah, there’s something of substance here”? I think a lot of people who “know” music think they know better than to value pop music, but tf3 seems to have evaded this sort of snobbery.

A: You know, we’re not doing 100 percent new stuff in our world. The idea of taking folk music of your time and bringing it into the sophisticated tradition of classical music has happened for hundreds of years. Composers would use folk themes of their culture and write music for others and also write for themselves.

Q: Wait, are you calling Katy Perry the folk music of our culture?

A: Yes, definitely. Katy Perry, Kanye West — I think they’re extremely important and relevant. I’m not saying this stuff’s sophisticated; I want to be really clear about that. But folk music is not less than anything — it’s the music for the folks. It’s the music that is most popular in a culture. In our case, we have pop music; we have hip-hop. Taking that music and putting it into the classical tradition is something Time for Three wants to encourage the world to do. And, at the very least, we’re having a great time doing it.

Q: How did the mash-up of Katy Perry’s “Firework” and Igor Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite” actually come about?

A: Actually, out of all of our mash-ups, the “Firework” one is the only one all of us have ever agreed on. The thing that drew me to it, honestly, was the message of the video. I think the empowerment of the video is gorgeous, and the “Firebird Suite” fit right in.

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Q: What’s the arranging process like with pop music?

A: Well, it’s not classical writing, so the question is how we take it to a level of sophistication that Time for Three is used to. Really, what it comes down to is having that classical tradition breeze through the song. We start off jamming on the melody, and eventually our writer writes out our ideas with classical counterpoint technique, which immediately takes any melody into our world.

Q: Does tf3 have a grand vision for the future?

A: We’ve been on a journey since day one, and we’ve tried to get very serious and figure out a plan, and we’ve had countless business and artistic meetings over the years. But I think what we came full circle to about half a year ago is that we just want to do what’s in our hearts and solve that artistically and not try to be anything we’re not. Musically, Nick, Zach and I each look for certain things as individuals, but we all know what we agree on: We want to bring the masses to our music. Fans are really important to us, and, that said, we don’t want to do it unless it’s completely organic for us. And that’s the integrity in what we’re doing.

Interview conducted, condensed and edited by Lekha Kanchinadam.