New Groove of the Month: Sound Tribe Sector 9

Our New Groove for the month of December is Sound Tribe Sector 9. Sector 9 is as well-traveled a group of guys as you'll find, especially considering the youth of the band (they're almost all in their early 20's) and the fact that they only have one studio release to date. The band is quick to tell you that even their 1998 release "Interplanetary Escape Vehicle" doesn't do justice to the rapidly expanding and evolving sound that they are working on at the present time. The five-man lineup of Zach Velmer on drums, Hunter Brown on guitar, David Murphy on bass, David Phipps on keyboards, and Jeffrey Lerner on percussion, has made its initial mark on the music community by extensive touring and a fervent desire to experiment with new sounds and techniques. They have joined other jambands in renowned music festivals like the High Sierra and Allgood, and they even played on the Jambands.com tour last summer. What makes their approach to live performance a little different from other bands is their participation in all sorts of raves and underground dance parties. While there are many emerging bands in the music scene today that combine DJs and prerecorded tracks in their sets, Sector 9 doesn't focus so much on the players, but rather more on the actual sound. They have no full time DJ in their lineup, but they employ so much of the same syncopation and effects with their live instruments that they feel perfectly at ease with guests DJs who sit in on their sets.

While this concept might seem gimmicky in the hands of untalented or insincere musicians, anyone who takes the time to talk with the band will find that they are intensely spiritual people. Deriving their name from the teachings of Mayan calendar and culture, the guys in Sector 9 always give credit for their success to their audience and higher mystical powers. They truly believe in music as a unifying force, capable of uniting all tribes for celebration of the sacred groove. They have been on tour constantly from August to December and will hit the studio again to record another album early in the year 2000.

Their live sound itself is a mixture of genres that really defies basic categorization. Elements of funk and acid-jazz creep in as undeniable influences of Sector 9's sound, but the beat is powerful and fast, and the jams quickly leave the surface of the stage and soar out into the air like a metaphorical rocket lifting off. This combined with the aforementioned techno or trance-like qualities in their music, provides for a very original and entertaining sound experience. I had the chance to talk with Zach Velmer for a little bit about the band's emergence on the music scene as well as the link between live music and rave influences. Excerpts from that interview follow.

C: I've read in some other media that Sector 9 comes from a "jazz background." Would you say that is true in the actual performance of the music or just within the concept of open jamming?

Z: The second part (laughs). Our keyboard player comes from a jazz/blues background just from the early days in traditional studies and stuff like that. But we're taking it to new levels. The word "jazz" the way we interpret it is just free, really free-form, not necessarily swing or be-bop or anything like that. The word, the meaning to us is just a total openness. Open all senses to anything, anything can happen.

C: On the other end of the spectrum, everybody makes the point that you have some house or techno or even ambient influence. I don't think that comes across particularly strong on your album.

Z: The album is not, but the album is really outdated to be honest with you. The album was done about a year and a half ago. We didn't have any gigs a year and a half ago. There were just four of us and they're five of us right now. The four of us wanted to put out a CD for the fact that we needed to get some gigs. We put out this CD and people started flipping out! We were just amazed. We were young, not that we're old now, but people started flipping out. We got 1000 CDs and they went in just six months. It spun our heads. The CD's outdated and we've been touring a ridiculous amount and we're finally at a point where we can take a break and do a new album. There's a couple of beginning stages to where we're coming from with concepts and ideas on the album. The first tune has come a long way from where it was on the album and the last tune, too. We're getting a lot of reviews on the album and we're like, "yeah that's totally what we're doing" but it really wasn't intended as an album, but more intended to just get some music out there - not necessarily an album for people to judge us by, but it is.

C: Of course that album and a lot of the touring you've done has led to gigs at the High Sierra and Allgood and the Wetlands.

Z: Just playing live brought a whole new element to the music of just playing and playing and playing, you know, and it developed not on an idea, but it came through us.

C: Did it surprise you that you have been given the opportunity to play such great music festivals so early in your career?

Z: It was so much fun, man. We were so blessed. The family in it brought that to us, it was just unbelievable.

C: So you feel like you're getting a whole lot of support from the music community as a whole?

Z: The jamband scene has been such a blessing because it put us out there. Right now we're in this morphing stage, we have kids from the rave scene and from everything for the fact that at our shows we promote the Mayan calendar which is a 260 day calendar instead of a 365 day calendar. We have free information of consciousness and art. It's a whole collective and kids are getting into that. In Atlanta we're throwing wave-spells, you know, like warehouse parties.

C: How do you feel the crowd responds to you there? Do they respond to you differently than they do to one guy who might be just spinning and mixing on two turntables?

Z: Exactly. That's the amazing thing is that we're combining it. We're doing what the DJ's are doing but it's live energy. It is five people doing it instead of one individual. It's crazy, being five guys making instrumental music, at least it's so open. On the last tour we did we had a DJ come with us. It was SO phat because he would spin with us put in samples and put in beats and it was like BAM, DJ's on. It was a mix of the two. People were really, really fond of it. We played in Ashville and had some rhymers come on stage. We played in San Diego and had the trumpet player from Karl Denson ['s Tiny Universe] come out. It just leaves it real open. There's just so many sick bands out there. I'm just so proud of all of my friends touring, you know. On the road you make friends and see takes with all these badass musicians, the whole experience is just unbelievable.

C: One of your guys comes from Asheville, right?

Z: That's Jeff Lerner. He comes from a background in Asheville, but he's been all over.

C: You guys have played Be Here Now a lot up there. Is that town a special place for you?

Z: That is definitely a special place. There's a consciousness up there that we're really into and we have a lot of family up there and a lot of support. A lot of our art comes from up there. Awareness and intention among a lot of people in Asheville is really beautiful. That's one place that we definitely call home. There is a guru from Asheville that we've learned so much from. He's an elder and has some land outside of Asheville. He's got a huge stage and we've spent a lot of time up there with him and just -- unbelievable teachings of consciousness and awareness of our place here on earth and out time here on earth, realizing our time here on earth.

C: You guys seem to be very spiritual people. How does that fit into your life outside of the music? Do you all hang out a lot when you're not touring?

Z: We live together, we spend all of our time together. We all have girlfriends and spend a lot of time with them. When we get home, it's hang out time, but not a lot of hanging out together. We've spent so much the last two years that it's just been like we get home and "I'm going to bed." (laughs) We have a lot of ideas and a lot of projects for the new millennium that have sprung from all of what we've been doing. We've made a pact, we've been touring since August 8th. Our last show is in Worcester and that will make like 90 shows in five months, with a couple of days of here and there. We have a vacation and some studio time booked. We have some ideas and friends with a Roland 1680. The new album is going to be ridiculous, through ideas and concepts we have. We're all really excited about it.

C: Will you give us a sneak preview of what you have planned for the new album?

Z: It's gonna be using the studio. We're definitely using the studio as a tool. I don't know, I think we might keep it a little bit of a secret before it comes out (laughs)

C: I know on your old album and when you play live there really aren't any vocals, but you did mention you've brought some guys up to do a little rhyming and rapping Do you think that's something that you're gonna have more permanently in your future plans.

Z: Nope, we're really just gonna keep in open so when it happens, it happens.

C: Just go with the spontaneity?

Z: Exactly. From the road it's just like a family thing. We've met so many beautiful people and hung out with so many beautiful people that are in bands and touring. We want to share some stuff on the album with some of these people. We've made a couple of inquiries talking to a couple people. We want to use a couple of kids from Viperhouse and a guy named Kofi Burbridge who plays flute. We do have a couple of ideas, so we're stoked.

C: Do you jam with DJs a whole lot at your live shows? How hard is to actually hear DJs spinning when you're onstage, especially at smaller venues?

Z: I have them in my monitor. That works really well. It picks my playing, too. The beats are programmed beats. I'm the drummer, so it tightens my ass up! It's really cool because it just flows. Sometimes we have our booking agent book shows with the DJs and people are loving it. It's easy for us having the DJ spin for us and then just go onstage. We don't necessarily have an opening band, because on some of these stages we're playing on it's extremely tight, but the DJ is like having an opening band. It's really cool and then him playing with us and blending it, because he'll start something and we'll go right off of it like BOOM nothing even changed. We have sick tapes and it's like "is that us playing or the DJ playing?"

C: It seems like there are a whole lot of bands who are mixing the live music with the prerecorded samples of loops and DJs. Do you think this is going to turn into a long-term movement?

Z: I hope so, man. I dig it. It's such a way to get a message across. You have these people singing their message and then you have people sampling these phat quotes of consciousness. I'm excited about the whole movement. There's articles coming out about jungle or drum and bass and how it's a new style. Not necessarily a new style, but the live music is taking it in. These live drummers are just taking the programmed beats and applying them in an organic sense. These kids are flipping out, because you can take beats in any time signature. When you go away from 4/4 kids just loose it. The jungle is just sick, and it's kind of a cool thing that it's kind of coming out, but staying underground as well. How do you define underground?

C: For me I would say part of it is refusing to buy into the corporate rock mentality. What do you think? Do you think that's one way to bypass the restrictions of the corporate mentality?

Z: That's the whole reason of the raves. The raves are renting these warehouses out. There's exceptions of course, but usually there's no smoking and no drinking. That's awareness. None of us in the band drink alcohol. We don't drink at all and our personal reason is just for clarity. I think it's a beautiful thing. There's no genre, you know what I'm saying? It's just live sound, come and share. It's both of us. It's experimental live sound. We're all in the same place, the rave kids and the hippie kids, and we're blending it all together for love. I think it's a beautiful thing and I think it can be done.