Interview with Earphunk
LiveMusicDaily Tour Dates with Earphunk
Kicks Off Tonight
LMD is pleased to team up with NOLA’s finest rising prog-funk-rock band, Earphunk, for their April 2015 Tour Dates in Florida and Alabama. The Florida run includes stops in Tallahasse, Fort Lauderdale, and Gainsville (April 7-9). From there the group will travel up to Alabama for a return visit to the Soul Kitchen (April 10).
Florida based prog-jam-rock outfit, Displace, will offer opening support for Earphunk tonight in Tallahassee,FL. Displace is garnering some strong attention on a regional level as indicated by their recent set at Gasparilla Music Festival in Tampa,FL. Atlanta rockers, Voodoo Visionary, will join Earphunk this Thursday. Check out our review & exclusive FREE Download of their new album (here). Another killer Nola based act, Gravy, will provide opening support to conclude the string of dates on April 10th.
Earphunk’s latest album, Sweet Nasty, has received well over half a million downloads, get your FREE copy now (here).
April 7 – Sidebar Theater – Tallahassee,FL w/Displace
April 8 – Culture Room – Fort Lauderdale,FL
April 9 -High Dive – Gainesville,FL / Voodoo Visionary
April 10 – Soul Kitchen – Mobile,AL w/ Gravy
* A special thanks to our close friends at Live & Listen & iWally for the photos. LiveMusicDaily is a close friend of Live & Listen, a group that recently raised $2,000 for the Cancer Wellness Foundation of Central Alabama!
Could you tell us more about the progress that has been made on the recording of the next record. How will the record differ from the last record both production wise and song-writing wise? How will this be the most notable album to date?
Mark: We’ve tracked two hard hitting instrumentals so far. Both have been received very well live. We are going to start focusing on getting a significant amount of vocal tunes finalized soon. This album may have a higher percentage of vocal tunes than albums past so I’ve got my work cut out for me.
You said that in David Byrne’s, How Music Works, his advice of sorts to visualize the venues you will be performing when writing music really resonated with you. How has that directly impacted songs you’ve written for the upcoming record? What venues did you think of when sitting down on the acoustic to figure out ideas for new songs?
Mark: David Byrne wasn’t really offering it as advice, as he was just remarking on something he noticed in his own songwriting and some other fellow artists as well. I had never thought of it that way. When I first started writing songs, I didn’t necessarily have a direction in mind. I was just putting down the things that would come to me or target a sound, genre, or artist for the feel of a song. I wouldn’t directly be thinking of where it was going to be played I think because the caliber of a lot of the venues we were playing early on obviously wasn’t at the level they are now and playing some of these great national and local venues can be very inspiring.
This will definitely be reflected in the material on the record and the overall sound of the record. Big songs each with its own big sound. That’s the goal. Tipitina’s is definitely one of the places I visualized because its kind of a home base for us now, especially when we release new material. For some of the songs I’ve been working on, I’ve been visualizing them played at an outdoor festival type setting with a thousand or more people. Trying to capture that feel and sound.
Most Nola funk acts playing the live music circuit have a saxophonist. Why have you guys decided to keep it more of a traditional rock based structure?
Mark: We found that for our sound, we like to feature horn players live rather than have the section. When we do have a section, it’s special.
All great guitarists have a unique original tone that is recognizable in seconds – Derek Trucks, Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, Trey Anastasio are good examples. You have one of the more distinct guitar tones among any rising band currently on the scene. Certainly your feel-based instinct and the way everyone’s vibrato and bends are different accounts for a lot of tone differentiation. Could you tell us how you’ve learned to best build your sound as a blend of phaser infused funk and straight up rock n’ roll? How have you tweaked that over years?
Paul: I think someone more famous than I said something along the lines of, “Everyone steals from each other in music, I just steal from more obscure sources!” Hahah, which is one good way to develop your own distinct sound. But seriously, when I heard those wailing notes from guys like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Derek Trucks…it touched me somehow musically. You pick up on that kind of stuff before you even begin to play guitar. Especially with something as personal as vibrato. I’m very particular about the kinds of vibrato I like to hear on guitar. The vibrato I use wasn’t even a choice made consciously, I just naturally leaned towards it.
When it comes to our distinct sound of prog-funk that all comes as an amalgamation of all of the music we, the band, have all listened to throughout our lives. I like funk, jazz, punk, pop, electronic, and jam music all the same. I don’t play the judgement game just because of what people say about the music, I use my ears and whatever I pick up on and like, I’ll use in my own music. That could be a distorted synth sound from an electronic song, heavy guitars from a metal song, whooshing phaser sounds from a funk track. I like it all, and that’s how Earphunk’s music is put together.
When the band arranges songs, at what point in the song-writing process do you like to come along and throw in your opinion on the development of a songs structure? Afterall, your bass line transitions usually are a noticeable mark during any given song both live and in the studio.
Michael C.: A lot of times song ideas will be hashed out beforehand by Paul and/or Mark. The majority of songs are generally riff oriented so bass lines usually lock in with that or shadow the general line of the original idea, but when playing through the songs as a whole, new ideas will be created that we collectively craft into the composition. Its usually at this point of working through a song that an idea will be presented but a lot of times it comes later through playing each song live for the first few times. That’s when something new will come along in the moment, a lick or a feeling that just sticks.
How has your background in guitar helped you understand how a band dynamic best work when you switched over the keys?
Christian: Starting on guitar definitely helped me in the beginning of my keys playing. I already had a basic understanding of chords and scale structures, so I guess I had a bit of a head-start in transferring that over to the keyboards. As far as understanding a band dynamic, the keyboards are such a layer instrument – so having an idea of where the guitar sits in a mix, kind of helped me figure out where to layer in my keyboard parts. Oftentimes what I try to add to a composition or a jam will be underneath, or around the guitar parts, sometimes I’m doubling bass, but other times I guess I can kind of feel where the guitars are trying to sit and interject something on top to shift the attention.
For those viewers who don’t play instruments could you convey the strong difference between playing an “organ” that uses samples vs an actual Hammond B-3?
Christian: The Hammond B3/Leslie sound is unmatched. There are a lot of digital keyboards these days that do a really good job at mimicking the original Hammond, yet never quite get there. It’s totally noticeable when you play the organ one night, and play a digital keyboard the next night.
What are your favorite drummers of all time that influence your playing and in what ways have you personally grown as a drummer over the past few years? What practice techniques do you use personally? Each time I see you you’ve got more tricks in the bag.
Michael: John Blackwell, Teddy Campbell, Nikki Glaspie, and John Bonham are the drummers that I find myself listening to the most these days. I’m a huge fan of powerful drummers who really dig into the drums. In terms of growth as a musician, l’ve learned to listen to what the other instruments are playing and how to react dynamically based on that.
I really enjoy getting back into my practice routine when we get back off the road from touring. I mix things up daily constantly working on coordination and independence along with some linear concepts. I have also been playing along to a few Pandora stations recently. This keeps me on my toes and allows me to play songs or some different genres of music that might be outside of my comfort zone .
With the festival season kicking off right now what festivals are you most looking forward to? What band have none of you sat in with that you’d like to sit-in with this summer?
Mark: Looking forward to Jazz Fest and Summercamp! I’d like to sit in on a tune with Main Squeeze, been listening to their album a lot lately. The more fests, the better!
* Special thanks to Alex, Matt, Austin, Brett, & the band!