Matt’s Hat Interviews – Jam Cruise Edition – Turkuaz
I first saw Turkuaz during their tour last fall with The New Mastersounds. I had heard their recordings previously but had not had the chance to see them. Seeing them live is absolutely the best introduction to this band. They have the look, polish and energy to rank among the best of the modern funk/jam bands out there right now. While their live and studio recordings are great, the magic is in seeing them perform.
On Jam Cruise 15 I made it my mission to get to talk to this band, and luckily enough they indulged me. They had just come from the Artist Signing session in the Jam Cruise Merchandise room and were ready to sit down and relax their hands.
As always, I placed a hat in the middle of the table that contained a number of questions ranging from questions I wanted to ask, cliché band questions as well as a number of Would You Rather questions designed to get artists out of their comfort zone.
Sitting in for this interview were: Dave Brandwein (Guitar, Vocals), Taylor Shell (Bass), Craig Brodhead (Guitar, Keyboards),, Chris Brouwers (Trumpet, Keyboards), Greg Sanderson (Tenor Sax), and Sammi Garett (Vocals). Unfortunately Michelangelo Carubba (Drums), Josh Schwartz (Baritone Sax, Vocals) and Shira Elias (Vocals) were unable to join as they had been tapped to play in the Everyone Orchestra set elsewhere on the boat at the same time as our interview.
HAT QUESTION: What one piece of gear could you not live without?
Taylor: My EP1 Envelope Phaser!
Dave: I think you just made that up.
Craig: A reverse XR9. If it doesn’t exist already, it should.
HAT QUESTION: Will you consider doing Taylor Shell Sings The Hits live?
All pretty much in unison: OOOOOhhhhhh!!! <laughing>
Sammi: That’s a great one!
Taylor: Absolutely!
Craig: I’m pretty sure this is happening later tonight…
Greg: What do you think the Jazz Lounge is for?
Dave: We backlined an entire bar, just for that.
Craig: We will need nine bottles of tequila.
Sammi: I’ve got a dress you can wear, no problem.
Taylor: That was quite a day.
MFN: Funk has been gaining a lot more validity lately especially compared to say, six or eight years ago. Why do you think so? What’s the difference between funk and jam? Or is there even a difference?
Dave: Bruno Mars! <laughs> Seriously he’s helping though, a little bit. People who literally didn’t even know what it was before – it’s helping. It’s appearing in actual pop music now for the first time in a while. It doesn’t hurt what we do, you know. It’s cool?
Craig: It helps.
Taylor: It’s cyclical, you know, in general. So much music is funky all the time. I think that as a genre it just emerged over time.
Dave: Truth be told, in the ’90s all the hip-hop was funk driven.
Craig: It never went away, really. It didn’t hurt to have Stevie Wonder playing the White House.
Dave: Some of the most famous songs of all time and all the songs you hear at weddings like September by Earth, Wind & Fire, whatever. But yet on iTunes there’s still not a funk category.
Sammi: Recently a petition was going around to make funk a genre for the Grammys!
Dave: Is that real?
Sammi: It is real, and I hope that it happens.
<Editor’s Note: Turns out it absolutely is real! There’s been a serious lack of recognition for funk artists in general, and I totally support this cause. Sign the petition here: Change.Org Petition>
MFN: So what’s influenced your sound over the years?
Craig: Fresh?
Taylor: Yeah. Sly Stone, Fresh.
Dave: We say this all the time, but it’s huge. It’s an easy go-to. Really though, we’ve got nine people you have so many influences. Everyone’s world of influences all coming together.
Taylor: When we are at our best, that’s definitely how it feels, pulling from everyone.
MFN: Dave – how is your hand? I know you had an injury a while ago.
Dave: My radial nerve got damaged. It was a while ago now, May of 2014. It was seven weeks of no movement, but it came back eventually. Full recovery.
MFN: Do you all lose track of time being on the go so much to where when he just says that was in 2014 it seems like just six months ago?
Sammi: Oh yeah.
Dave: Did I just blow everyone’s mind?
Taylor: A little bit. I was just like ‘Oh wow yeah, OK.’
Dave: So yeah, May 2014 until November. But it’s all better.
MFN: What one album do you wish everyone would just stop and listen to? Not necessarily yours, just one album.
Dave: Oh no, it’s ours <laughs>
Craig: Fresh.
Dave: Special by Jimmy Cliff.
Taylor: Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome by Parliament. That fucking rocks.
MFN: Do you prefer stretching out songs with improvisational jams or do you prefer to stick to the original idea. I know this is a cliché question, but the reason I ask it that I know for a lot of people that when you are writing a song you often have this specific story in mind that you are wanting to tell. Everybody loves jamming and those improvisational things, but it can sometimes step on the toes of this thing that you were trying to create.
Craig: We don’t necessarily stretch TOO much, so the times that we do we really appreciate it, so it’s a special thing when we do it. We have so many people that it can be kind of chaotic when we do it.
Taylor: Some of the improv happens in the context of playing in the songs.
Craig: Yeah, interpreting the songs differently.
Taylor: The way it happens on any given night, the way the sound is, some of the improv happens there. We do some long jamming type of stuff, but that’s definitely not the thing we are doing all night.
Greg: At the end of the day it’s still based around the song. It highlights those experiences.
Dave: When we used to have to play three hours at a bar also.
<everyone laughs>
Dave: Oooooh yeah, we should make this song l-o-n-g-e-r.
<more laughter>
Dave: But then cool stuff would happen so we keep it.
Craig: Those were good experiences for us because we had to learn how to do that out of necessity.
Sammi: Oh yeah.
Craig: I think in the first days of the band, before I was even in the band, there was no jamming at all.
Dave: So it’s your fault!
Taylor: Wait a minute I never thought about that. Craig!!
<everyone laughs>
Greg: It’s all you!
Taylor: Craig just loooooves that jamming.
Dave: Ahh, we all do. The thing was Craig was good at it. We should all do that more.
HAT QUESTION: Has anyone ever given you any life-changing advice?
Craig: Not really. Probably just didn’t really think about it at the time.
MFN: Do you ever get to just hangout at festivals or are you mostly just in and out now?
Dave: We used to. In the early days we did but now not so much.
Craig: Select festivals we do. We hung out at Lock’n.
MFN: Do you still like camping?
Greg: Oh we haven’t camped for years.
Dave: I never did like it. I still don’t like it!
Sammi: It’s just so hard putting your makeup on in a tent. Trying to curl your hair in a tent is never good. If you don’t have to perform, no problem.
Craig: We are doing so many dates and so many nights it’s tough to sleep on the ground.
Taylor: We already get pretty run down, that would make it worse.
Craig: We do like seeing our friends though. That’s what I get most excited about for festivals.
Sammi: We chill, for sure. We just don’t get to hang out.
Taylor: We keep it real, but we don’t kick it!
<all laugh>
Dave: That’s a pretty confusing sentence.
MFN: Funk Battle! Kool & The Gang vs. Curtis Mayfield. Who wins?
All: Curtis
Dave: I don’t know, I prefer Kool & The Gang.
Sammi: It’s a cool tie.
Dave: Curtis Mayfield is dead though, so he can’t defend himself…
Taylor: He’s also like the Bob Dylan of Funk
Craig: You can’t kick a man while he’s dead!
Dave: Alright, then we’ll give it to him.
MFN: What genre do you consider yourselves?
Greg: The term we throw around is ‘Power Funk.’
Dave: Power Funk, yeah.
Craig: It doesn’t cover everything we do.
Chris: It’s funk minus the ‘k’
<all laugh>
Dave: Oh that’s so cheeky…
Greg: When Craig is playing crazy guitar solos, I’m always like ‘This is total rock and roll.’
Craig: We are all rock musicians at heart, but we meet in the middle on funk. That’s why it works, I think.
MFN: Music experiences that give you goosebumps. Not necessarily your own music, it can be just anything. Those times when something connects that just give you goosebumps.
Taylor: Seeing Bootsy Collins at the Leaf Festival (Asheville). We played with him. That was the funkiest show I’ve ever seen.
Sammi: Also, playing with George Clinton. I mean, that was…. he’s… yeah. We opened for him at The Northampton. That’s pretty much why we do what we do.
Craig: I recently saw Cleveland Orchestra do some Ravel. Classical music gives me that. It’s such a focused experience.
HAT QUESTION: Would you rather change gender every time you sneeze or not be able to tell the difference between a muffin and a baby?
<all laugh>
Oh shit!
Dave: I don’t have anything to do with muffins or babies so I’m gonna go with that.
Sammi: I would say muffin or baby. I don’t…
Taylor: That is so weird. You can’t do that!
Craig: I love muffins, so I’m gonna have to change into a girl. For the love of muffins.
MFN: I know you have other things waiting, so thank you very much for your time. I seriously love what you do and your sound, so this has been an absolute treat for me. Thank you!
Find out more about Turkuaz:
Website
Facebook
Turkuaz will be touring heavily in 2017, including west coast and east coast dates.