Monday, December 20, 2010
The Feel Good Patrol, The Orbit Group
Posted By Gavin Sheehan on December 20, 2010, 11:47 PM
As
the concerts wind down and lighten up between Thanksgiving and
Christmas, its become a little difficult to plan out and cover an
all-locals show. But this month provided an opportunity to hit up
a State Street venue that I haven't had a chance to cover a concert
at in nearly two years. Bar Deluxe. Its not that there haven't been
shows there that I've wanted to see, its just... when you're place
smells like an emergency room floor and the ownership refuses to call
you back, you tend to not want to go there.
--- Thankfully this
year brought about about a management change that afforded a new
willingness to have press pop in frequently. And they got rid of the
smell which turned out to be the air-conditioner, so bonus for us.
Bar Deluxe had been a pretty badass place over the years but fell
over the last few without any willingness to fix itself. Now its in
better hands who are looking to turn all the complaints of old around
and revitalize the place over the next few years. This past Friday I
popped in to chat with The Feel Good Patrol and The Orbit Group, the
later playing an extra-long show for a live recording. Plus pictures
of the show for you to check out here.
The
Feel Good Patrol
http://www.myspace.com/feelgoodpatrol
Gavin:
Hey guys, first off, tell us a little about yourselves.
Mike:
We're the Feel Good Patrol. We're just a group of friends that
decided to combine forces in order to focus our efforts.
Ren:
Well... "focus" should be used loosely. Haha!
Gavin:
What got you interested in music, and who were some of your favorite
acts and musical influences growing up?
Joey:
All of us started playing music before it was "the cool thing to do". Haha. %uFFFDWhen we began searching for music on our own, it was an
eclectic collection of groups like; Parliament, Zappa, Coltrain,
Zeppelin, Beastie Boys and The Roots that we listened to.
Gavin:
How did you all get together to originally form Sinthesis?
Mike:
Sinthesis is a separate monster all it's own. Feel Good basically
started as a super-group comprised of members of Sinthesis, Swan
Juice, Shades of Gray and Ren. We now consider Feel Good to be
an umbrella over the groups that are made up of Feel Good Patrol
members, among others. It's more of a collective.
[image-x]
Gavin:
What was the experience like for all of you putting together your
sound and not trying to come off like other hip-hop groups in the
area?
Josh:
We're not influenced much by other local groups so it's not hard to
not sound like them.
Gavin:
You've changed names a few times after forming up. What made you
settle on The Feel Good Patrol?
Mike:
We may have played a couple early live shows as Sinthesis but as we
developed our own sound, we took on the name Feel Good
Patrol.
[image-x]
Gavin:
At last check you were recording an EP, but no news has come out
about it since. What's the word on it?
Ren:
We never threw a release party for Gon' Cheat On Me%uFFFDwhen it came out. We only pressed 100 copies for press-kits, radio
stations and desperate housewives. Since then we've recorded
about five or six songs, a few of which like "Dirt", "Freezin" and "Real Deal" can be found on our MySpace page. We may finish the
rest for an album later on, we'll see.
Gavin:
Word has it you were also putting together a live album from an
Urban Lounge show. How is that one coming along?
Swan:
That's one we never officially pressed. Some of those songs can also
be found on our MySpace page. We made some homemade copies for show
promoters and hungry fans, but we figure if people want the live
experience they can check out on the YouTube page. Thank
you Flip!
[image-x]
Gavin:
Are there any plans in the works for a full-length album, or just
concentrating on performing?
Joey:
We've actually all put a strong effort into recording separate
projects lately like the Samuel Smith Band, Youth In Eyes, Josh's solo
project, Sinthesis, Gold Tooth and Colter's producing albums for
local emcee Pat Maine and Minneapolis based emcee TQD. We've put
together a few mean shows lately for the party people. It's possible
that a full length manifests itself in the coming year, but if I'm
wrong, don't hesitate to support the hard work we've all been putting
in elsewhere.
Gavin:
Down the road are you looking toward touring or staying around Utah
for now?
Josh:
We would love to hit the road again soon. We've played a handful of
shows out of state but haven't put anything together lately. It
wouldn't be hard to fill several hours with our collective alone, but
we would love to tag along as openers for a bigger group
sometime.
[image-x]
Gavin:
Going state-wide, what are your thoughts on the local music scene,
both good and bad?
Mike:
Most people understand that it's healthier to Buy Local First, whether that be food or material goods, so how is music any
different? There are plenty of amazing musicians here in Utah
constantly playing local shows, the masses just need to know about
them and recognize what they've got in their own backyard.
Joey:
It's difficult making a living off of music in a place where the
musicians are trying to bring what they've got to the fans, rather
than the fans searching for it.
Gavin:
Is there anything you believe could be done to make it more
prominent?
Colter:
I think if venues and/or show promoters treated locals a little more
like they do touring acts, people would notice and support them.
Some local groups find a bigger following out of state which is kind
of sad, but you can't really blame the artist for going out there to
try and find that.
[image-x]
Gavin:
Not including yourselves, who are your favorite acts in the scene
right now?
Josh:
Samuel Smith Band, Youth In Eyes, my solo project,
Sinthesis, Shades Of Gray, Gold Tooth and of course the ever-slaying
Feel Good Patrol. Oh... not including ourselves? Haha!
Gavin:
What's your opinion on the current airplay on community radio and
how its affects local musicians?
Swan:
In our experience the harsh reality is that it's not how good you
are or how hard you work, but rather who you're friends are. If
stations were eager to find new local material they could find it
pretty quick, but unfortunately it's pretty political. We've
definitely had our trouble getting heard, with the exception of our
shows.
[image-x]
Gavin:
What do you think of file sharing these days, both as musicians and
a music lovers?
Skyler:
On one hand, it's great that people may find your music who normally
wouldn't. On the other hand, paying bills for making music would be
nice. For me personally, the main goal is getting our music out
to as many people as possible by any means necessary. Thankfully, in
this day and age, there are a few more options to get money straight
into musicians pockets instead of going through a record label, via
iTunes, Amazon and so on, so that's always nice.
Colter:
As music lovers and musicians even, it's convenient for us to find
groups similar to us or share influences with each other for cheap to
free.
Joey:
All we ask is that people who hear free music that they like,
support that music at a show by paying a small cover or buying
merch.
[image-x]
Gavin:
What can we expect from you guys over the rest of the year and going
into next?
Ren:
Like we said, we've all been hard at work recording other stuff as
well as rocking Feel Good shows so check out the new stuff during the
week, then come party on the weekends.
Gavin:
Is there anything you'd like to plug or promote?
Mike:
Much love to War Regime and Danksquad. Also, be sure to Rock Local
First. Come check us out downtown at EVE on New Year's Eve at 6PM,
then come party at Salt Lake Recording with Samuel Smith Band and our
girl from NY Erin Barra.
Ren:
Sex, drugs and Feel Good.
The
Orbit Group
[image-x]
http://www.orbitgroupmusic.com
(For
this interview, the band chose to answer as a group)
Gavin:
Hey guys,
first off, tell us a little about yourselves.
TOG:
The Orbit Group is a very eclectic, groove-oriented, R&B rock
band that formed in Salt Lake City in 2009. We’ve been playing
shows in Utah for over two years and recently expanded into the Wyoming
and California music scenes. Our debut album will be released this
spring, which we’ve been carefully planning this past year.
[image-x]
Gavin: What
got you interested in music, and who were some of your favorite acts
and musical influences growing up?
TOG:
Everybody in Orbit has a little bit different story as to why they
started playing music or what made us interested in the first place.
Some of us started playing music in church, others in school, but I
would say we all grew up in an environment that was very supportive
of the arts. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against The Machine, Led
Zeppelin, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Outkast, Jay Z and Supertramp.
Gavin: How
did you all get together to form The Orbit Group?
TOG:
We formed the group in 2009 at the University of Utah and most of us
have played together every sunday at New Pilgrim Baptist church. Our
original line up was Bronco, Joe, Ben, and Duke, because we all went
to school together. Then, when we got involved with the music
department at New Pilgrim Baptist Church we added Tim and Josh.
Around the same time Aquile, our singer and front man, joined up with
the group. Joe and Aquile were old friends from when they both lived
in Wyoming.
[image-x]
Gavin: What
was it like for all of you to mesh styles together and form the
jazzy-club sound you have?
TOG:
It was easy, and it’s what we believe gives us our unique sound.
Since most of us have been heavily influenced by jazz, one can find
hints of it in our music. We are also trying to connect with as many
people as possible, which is where the sort of “commercial” club
element comes from.
Gavin: With
a large rock scene going around the venues, how has it been
establishing yourselves around the state?
TOG:
We love playing in rock venues, because we always end up playing
for people that have never seen us nor ever would in any other
circumstance outside of a rock venue and since our music has a lot of
rock themes mixed with so many styles of music, everyone in the rock
scene seems to respond really well to our show, which kind of makes
us stand out in some respect, especially the farther we travel
outside of downtown SLC.
[image-x]
Gavin: You've
been pretty active in getting videos put together, mostly of live
performances. What persuaded you to do that before officially having
any releases?
TOG:
Releasing videos allows us to keep in touch with everyone on a very
personal level. Since we are planning our up-coming album very
carefully and taking all the appropriate steps, it is allowing us to
keep our friends, family, fans, and industry partners updated with
our newest material while we are preparing to release our upcoming
album. Our good friend Keith, a sort of “unseen” member in the
group, has been doing an amazing job with our video and digital
productions, which can be seen on our website. Video is the most
effective medium for promoting our sound because when we are live
playing together we can really communicate and play off the other
people in the band. Park City TV gave us our first real developed
video. They have been so supportive of us. Now we have Keith who does
a lot of the digital production and he has captured some really great
video and photos that we are about ready to put out. Our show's this
weekend will all be recorded so it would be awesome to have a lot of
people come out and get on the video.
Gavin: Recently
you've been switching time between SLC and Los Angeles. How has that experience gone for you?
TOG:
What a learning experience that has been. It took us two years to
build up our base in Salt Lake, and so now we are trying to keep our
home town fans involved and still keep pushing forward in new areas.
The hardest part about trying to work SLC and LA has been having the
band divided. The seven of us playing together is where our real power
lies. Los Angeles has talent like you wouldn't believe. Individual
musicians that are beyond normal comprehension. But there is a
strange music scene in LA, it is pay to play most places, and
saturated with lots of artists good and bad. Having the chance to go
there and work hard to make a name for ourselves is exciting, and
exhausting.
[image-x]
Gavin: I
understand you have an album in the works. What can you tell us about
the recordings so far and when can we expect to see it?
TOG:
Yes, we have been recording in Salt Lake, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles
the past six months trying out lots of different recording techniques
and we are getting pretty close to zeroing-in on our sound. It’s
been bit of a challenge, since a huge part of our band’s sound come
from the organic aspect of playing improvised music so it’s been
tricky. Our sound in this album is starting to become more
structured. I'd say that we have enough material to put the album out
now, but we need to get together as a band and spend some more time
fine tuning everything. Our first few releases were focused on solos
and catchy beats, but now we have begun to use computers for a more
produced sound. We've learned to compromise between the electronic
and organic music a little, toning the fifteen minute instrumental tracks
down for a more produced song, but still working our asses off on our
instruments to keep pushing the sound to its limit. We are so excited
about the up and coming album, which is scheduled to be released this
spring.
Gavin: When
its finally complete, are there any plans for a tour or sticking to
home for the most part?
TOG:
One of the biggest things on our platter is trying to find the right
booking agent to work with, so we can get on tour. I think most of us
would prefer to be playing 300 days a year.
[image-x]
Gavin: Going
state-wide, what are your thoughts on the local music scene, both
good and bad?
TOG:
Our local music scene has world class musicians and incredible bands
although you sometimes need to look for it. It would be nice to have
more all ages venues so the scene can spread to the people that might
not necessarily come to a bar or a place that is 21 and older. It's a
very strict environment.
Gavin: Is
there anything you believe could be done to make it more
prominent?
TOG:
I think we could be more active in the music community, I think the
art community as a whole is coming together. There is amazing talent
in Utah and not enough events that put everyone together. I think
Portia at UtahFM brought out the best music in the state when they
did their event this last summer. It was incredible to be apart
of.
[image-x]
Gavin: Not
including yourselves, who are your favorite acts in the scene right
now?
TOG:
Fat Soul, SLAJO, the Chickens, and Sara B are some of our favorite
local bands. We've played with King Niko and Sam Smith a couple times
and those guys are all so rad and definitely worth following.
Marinade is killing it and our fellow music school guys in Big Blue
Ox and Josh Payne Orchestra all are doing really cool things right
now too.
Gavin: What's
your opinion on the current airplay on community radio and how its
affects local musicians?
TOG:
Radio is tough because it seems to be determined by statistics
rather than good music, but we hope to change that. Internet radio is
taking off so we are going to push hard in that area.
[image-x]
Gavin: What
do you think of file sharing these days, both as musicians and a
music lovers?
TOG:
Sharing is caring, and if people like our music enough for it to
spread like that i think its a good start. When people see us live we
get a great reaction from the audience, so hopefully no matter what
people choose to throw on Mediafire, we will still keep them coming
back to see us perform. I remember the concerts I've been to much
more than all the CD's I’ve downloaded.
Gavin: What
can we expect from you guys over the rest of the year and going into
next?
TOG:
Think our success as a band hinges on what we can accomplish this
year. Creating a situation where the seven of us can be together working
on the band full time is probably the most important thing. Recording
a full length CD filled with our best content comes after us all
being able to work together, and then finding a booking agent who can
help us travel and spread the word.
[image-x]
Gavin: Is
there anything you'd like to plug or promote?
TOG: We
are working hard on our website and would love to collaborate with
local artists who think they can add some cool style to our
images/logos/etc... so go to our website and help us
build a great website that can display a lot of the talent that has
helped us get to where we are. And we'd like to add a thank you to Bar Deluxe. Please say thanks to Jake and Kaci from Bar Deluxe who
have supported us from day one, and continue to provide the best venue
in town for us to rock out at.
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