Our band was born one glorious pandemic day after months of composing and improvising on my electric guitar. I had always wanted to perform in a band focused on blues music, and after I sent a couple of rough demos of original songs to my long time friend and collaborator Gavin Marshall, we agreed it was now or never, and that we had to make a group. Then, I called up Sahand Moussavi, a brilliant violinist and keyboard player I had met by chance on the Lachine Canal one evening, and our group was born. We were inspired by the dynamic and sophisticated compositions of The Allman Brothers, the soulful power of Joe Cocker, and the story-based music of Paul Simon. Thus was born our particular style, drawn from electric blues, folk, jazz, and world music, bringing hard-driving rhythms, bold dynamics, and wide open improvisations to the stage.
We always focus on writing and playing songs that have some story, some soul, some rhythm, some attitude, and most of all, that allows us to listen and collaborate with each other in order to improvise on stage, in the moment. We are constantly learning and adapting musically to each other, and because we’ve made that our priority, we feel as if we’ve gotten closer and more in tune with each other. We have been told from members of our audience that our chemistry is electric, and that we’ve got ways of communicating sentiments of support and encouragement with each other with mere eye contact. It happens almost subconsciously, as a reflex, but we strongly believe that this synergy has permitted us to elevate our music to another level.
As an improvisation teacher and theatre director at an acting school, I’ve always taught my students that the most important thing on stage is your acting partner. Meaning that, you have to give them your utmost focus and attention. It keeps the actor grounded, human, and responsive. I try to bring these lessons from the theatre to my music. We strive to be spontaneous players who always have fun on stage. We give each other the space to be vulnerable in the moment, each of us sharing a piece of ourselves with the audience based on our collective interpretation of the music and the moment.
