Old Faces, New Places
Phil Simon
2006-02-17
Our scene is a complicated and incestuous place. Much like the blues rock scene coming out of England in the sixties (how many people were in the Yardbirds over the years anyway, and how many other great groups were formed by their members?) or the blues scenes that develop in any sizeable town in the country still – players migrate from band to band, and new projects are formed all the time. I have long been fascinated by the movement of players from band to band, and the jamband scene in general seems infatuated with the guest musician, the part time player, and the interchange of musicians from band to band. I thought that we could take a peek of what that does to a band, both artistically, and in the business side of these projects as they take on new players. I took the opportunity to speak with two different groups of people: The newest band to rise up out of the Ohio Valley is One Under. But while they are a new band to the scene, they are composed of members of bands that have long been popular in that area- namely Ekoostik Hookah and the Shantee. This new band brings both the skills and the passions of the previous bands, but the new musical stew is totally different from its component ancestors. For a different perspective, I also spoke with Brian Felix, formerly of Om Trio about a new band that he has joined, Ernie Henderson and the Make Believe. How do the lessons that these musicians have learned translate to these new projects? How have their artistic juices been revitalized by joining forces with new musicians? How do these new experiences help to shape the bands? Let’s take a peek, first with Brian Felix. Jambands Business School: Tell us about your new band.
Brian Felix: Ernie Hendrickson and the Make Believe is a four piece: guitar, piano, bass and drum. The band was started by Ernie and Brian (Guitar and Drums) and then later on Chris and I started playing with them. It’s been the same lineup for just over a year now. It’s definitely a rock band. Ernie is the principal songwriter and lead singer. Jambands Business School: How did things end with Om Trio, and how did you get into this new band?
Brian Felix: When I got off the road with OM Trio, I definitely wasn’t looking to start a band. I had poured my entire being in to the Trio for 5 years and, when it didn’t work out as we wanted it to, I certainly needed some time to recuperate. I decided to go back to school and get my masters degree, and do sporadic performing, probably 4 shows a month or so. I started doing some shows with Drop Q, which is a name that I gave the band (named after the OM Trio tune Drop Q). That group features Kris from Umphrey’s McGee, Chris Clemente from Kick the Cat and The Make Believe, and Kalyan Pathak from Fareed Haque Group. That’s a great group of musicians, and we play about once every 2 months, mostly improvisation on stage.
Shortly after I got back to Chicago after the last OM Trio tour, I got a call from Brian Abraham in the Make Believe to ask if I could play a show or two. I really had no Idea that it would turn into anything serious at all. We kept playing a few gigs a month and in August we cut a CD that’s coming out in a few weeks. The band has evolved into a regional touring act, and we’ve gotten good responses from audiences in the Midwest. Jambands Business School: How is it playing in a new project after spending so much time in Om Trio?
Brian Felix: Really, for me, this band has two key factors. 1) The musicians are top notch and very creative, 2) We have fun while we’re playing. These to me are the key factors in what I look for in a situation, and the Make Believe has it in spades. Ernie’s also a great song writer, which is obviously a key factor. Jambands Business School: How is it to transition from a band member of a regionally favorite band to a brand new band?
Brian Felix: It’s a little strange, because OM Trio spent so many years building an audience, it feels a little like being back at square one. The thing is, though, this band isn’t going to be touring 25 days a month like OM Trio was. It’s going to be more regional touring on weekends and such. Ernie also takes care of all the business stuff, so I have distance from that, which is nice. As I said before, there’s definitely a recuperation and grieving period after the end of a band, so I’ve kept some distance from the center of the operation. Jambands Business School: What steps did you take as an experienced touring musician to prepare to enter this band?
Brian Felix: I try to consult Ernie wherever possible in terms of booking strategy. After being directly involved in the booking of about 700 shows over 5 years, I learned a few things about what works and what doesn’t work. I’m trying to save this group some headaches that I had to deal with over the OM Trio touring time. Jambands Business School: How does this change or enhance the way you relate back to your experiences in Om Trio?
Brian Felix: I really loved, and still love the OM Trio music and I really think that was a great band. After that ended, I wouldn’t want to immediately start playing in another band that’s similar, which is what’s good about the Make Believe – it’s a totally different style, and I’m not playing lead all the time. It’s nice to be able to support another soloist too – it adds some variety and excitement to what goes on throughout a performance. Unlike the experience that Brian had as he joined a new band, One Under was a project that seemed to be formed more purposely for the members. Containing members of regionally strong bands, and drawing from the strengths that those bands have made in the last two decades in Ohio, the band was poised from the start to skip a few steps in the formation of their audience. To get more perspective on how these musicians got a new start in in a region to them already I sought out Johnny Polansky. Johnny was the percussionist for Ekoostik Hookah for years, and appears to be spearheading the band’s business start-up. Joining him is another Hookah alum, Ed McGee. Jambands Business School: Tell us about your new band.
Polansky: One Under has been playing together for almost a year now. We consider our anniversary date to be February 18th. On our website what we state that we are “trying to forge a sound that combines the roots of rock, American jazz, afro-Cuban Latin and pure groovy funk.” I think that we are trying to go for a sound that combines the music that’s been a part of all of our cumlitive musical lives. Our guitar player and I have been friends for the past 12 years and have always had similar philosophies about running a band from the business side. We have always thought that with a well calculated game plan on how to run your band’s business, it can be a help with so many issues that come up over the course of a band’s journey. I looked at myself as a general manager or sorts much like a sports team would use one. I called the personel up and asked if they would be ineterested in this project we were putting together. Each member was asked to join because they bring a certain strenghth to the table and I thought the combination would create a band that could write together, work together and most inportantly have fun together. Jambands Business School: Ed, how is this band unique?
Three things: communication, group vision, and talent. I am amazed by the band's efficiency with respect to learning and shaping music and I think it's a result of excellent communication. Each member seems to have a sharp grasp of how to share and receive musical thoughts. Also, we seem to have this group vision, a union of goals and drive and commitment, and a deep respect for making quality music. And then, talent. I have never been in a band with such clever, creative musicians. The songwriting force here is untouchable. Cello adds on the same issue:
We all have the same goal, and for the most part agree on what we need to do to give us the best chance of achieving it. 4 of the 6 of us are in are mid to late 30's and we haven't given up. We started an original band from scratch. Most musicians would have given up on that idea long ago but we still have passion and confidence in our music. Because we all come from different musical backgrounds I believe we all push each other, which is unique for me. The business side of this band (this business) is more coherent, well thought out and simply more addressed than any other band I've been with. Jambands Business School: How is it to transition from a band member of a regionally favorite band to a brand new band?
Polansky: It hasn’t been all that difficult. I mean to be honest Ekoostik Hookah’s name was more recognizable than the reality of large crowds or strong numbers at shows over the past few years. The reality of the situation is that no matter what levels you are operating on, you need to keep working hard to get to your goals. The hard work is never over… I‘ve been a musician for almost 20 years and have played in many different capacities and hope to build upon all of those experiences to make each situation a forward movement in all capacities. Jambands Business School: What steps did you take as an experienced touring musician to prepare this band before you launched it?
Polansky: Well, one of the first things I did was to sit down and talk with everyone about what we wanted to try and accomplish over the short term and long term of the band. We asked and assessed where did we saw ourselves at different points of the journey, what steps we would need to take to reach these goals and we had to really look at what level of commitment we were all agreeing to so that there were no surprises. Look, let’s face it, when trying to start any business there is a period of time that you are putting a lot of your own resources into what you are doing. After laying out a general idea of a plan we had to start to implement that plan by getting our support staff in place. No matter how good your band is, your business and support staff has to be reliable.
Jambands Business School: How has your business as a musician been effected by this change from a regional favorite to a brand new kid on the block?
Polansky: To be quite honest, my business philosophies have allowed me to not really change that much. If you aren’t constantly assessing the risks and rewards in terms of cash and consistently scrutinizing where you money is being spent, you can lose track of that pretty easily and it can get wildly out of control. I have always had the same business philosophy and apply it to whatever situation is at hand. Let’s be real here, if capital outflow is exceeding capital income, there is a negative cash flow and that is eventually going to push you further and further into the red and limiting more and more of what you can attempt to accomplish. I feel that it really doesn’t matter if you are dealing with 30 dollars or 30 million- the philosophy applies. In my opinion you have to be putting money away on a steady basis to plan for the long term. Keeping in mind that there are times capital needs to be spent on a project and it sure makes it a ton more fun taking the risk of spending that capital if you have a little cushion in case something a project doesn’t for some reason generate positive capital gains. Jambands Business School: Your artwork is pretty amazing. How does that fit into your marketing plan for this band?
Polansky: Well I honesty think that artwork and merchandise are a big part of how fans identify with the band and each other. I believe that it is important to keep the artwork somewhat in line with what you are going for. If you are a fun funk band that wants bodies sweating and shaking to a funky groovy sound, you most likely need to keep your artwork in check with your vibe. The one thing I will say is that being such a young band has made it difficult at times to figure out exactly how to bring our vibe and the music across in our artwork. We are so young and you don’t really want artwork to be anything but really pretty organic. You don’t want it to seem like it’s been forced out of nowhere. I think that is important for a band to establish a logo or a certain font that the band uses consistently early on it’s career because this can really helps with marketing. Jambands Business School: What new techniques might you be using here in the 21st century to help promote this band? File sharing? Ring Tones? Satellite radio? Internet Radio?
Polansky: I think that the use of all these things is extremely important in promoting a band in this day and age. With how accessible all of the technology is getting for individuals, it seems senseless to buck utilizing these resources. I think that with amount of material that we have collectively, we are really in a special position to utilize the internet for file sharing. There is a tremendous amount of technical knowledge with in the group that we are now just starting to scratch the surface to what we will be able to present via some of these mean such as file sharing. Jambands Business School: How do you see some of the goals that you have as an individual playing out within the context of this band? Cello-
As an individual I want to get better. I want to learn to tune in more often. What I mean by tune in is getting out of your own way. Playing music, especially improvisational music is sort of like having a great dream in that once you realize you're dreaming you wake up. When you're tuned in, once you think too hard or become too self-aware you usually lose it. I've always wanted a musical voice of my own. I've always envisioned it in this context. Ed-
It's been less than a year and I've already seen several goals of mine come to fruition. Co writing songs, co creating...totally awesome. Never done that before and was missing out. Also I'd been really wanting to take lessons or somehow learn more about guitar playing and playing with this band more than satisfied that need. Every rehearsal is like a guitar lesson and theory seminar for me. Between Robb and Cello, I am happily inundated with new musical knowledge which I can incorporate immediately into my playing. Johnny-
I have always felt comfortable on the business side of the equation and for me projects I had been involved with I was being constantly shut out and hindered from exploring that side of the music industry that really gets me jazzed up. Feeling like my philosophies differed wildly in how a business needs to be run and by what type of individuals. In this band I am getting to reach some of my goals of being involved with a business that is conscience of the operating and evolving world around it. I feel at times that I was involved in the past with the mentality of one of these countries part of the axis of evil type of scenario; Isolation and complete defiance to what needed to be done in order to move a business like a band forward.
Robb McCormick talks about the talent level and the material at our disposal currently-
I've never had a problem writing tunes and improvising. Even as a kid it came very easy, but I've always had a problem writing lyrics. I've always had a strong feeling that I would team up with a wordsmith down the line and since I began working with Ed, it just doesn't get any better. Ed has written lyrics to numerous songs by Cello and myself, Reprieve being one of them. I remember the first few times I heard him singing the lyrics I was really blown away. Shortly after I asked him if I could sing it. I've never considered myself a lead singer, but I've always loved the blues and Reprieve has always been a favorite tune of mine. One of the first times I recall working with Ed, we were sitting in my studio working on a tune and he says, "Can you just give me like 20 or 30 minutes? Like maybe go in the other room or something?" I was almost a little offended at the time. I had no idea what he was talking about or why I had to leave the room. About 30 minutes later he yells in saying he's finished and I come in to find that he'd written all the lyrics to Armageddon in a single sitting. The lyrics are phenomenal and at the moment I knew that One Under's potential for continuous songwriting was huge. Collectively between the lot of us, I'd say we have at least 3 albums worth of new material without even getting picky about the song selections. It's a great feeling to know there will be fuel for the fire for quite a long time. It’s fun to watch these bands develop and how the individual players are changing in their different environments. You have an opportunity to witness the birth of a new band, while still have the familiarity that you have developed with these players as you got to know them in other projects. Check out Ernie Henderson and the Make Believe, with the newest man in the band Brian Felix as they release their new CD at Martyr’s in Chicago in early March. You can catch One Under on the road this Spring and Summer, at clubs and festivals around the Eastern half of the U.S.
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