Student bands to compete in ROCKUS Battle of the Bands semifinals

    On Friday, Feb. 27, four Tufts student bands — The Gentleman's Bet, FunkSoulLove, Navigator, and The Situation — will compete at Tommy Doyle's pub in Harvard Square for the honor of representing Tufts in the final round of the ROCKUS Battle of the Bands. The competition is sponsored by Veritas Records, a student-run record label from Harvard University, and Rolling Stone magazine. In preparation for covering this event, the Daily caught up with each of these bands individually to get a snapshot of each group.
    Featured this week are FunkSoulLove (sophomore lyricist David Dormon, junior drummer and producer Zach Camara, Berklee College of Music senior bassist and songwriter Tim Suby and senior vocalist Paula Dormon) and The Situation (sophomore rhythm guitarist and vocalist Nate Ingraham, sophomore lead guitarist Nate Typrowicz-Cohen, sophomore bassist Patrick Anderson and sophomore drummer Mike Gleichman). The Daily spoke to Gleichman and interviewed Dormon via e-mail.

Josh Zeidel: When and how did your band form, and how has it evolved over time? Has your sound changed over time, or has it remained fairly consistent?

Paula Dormon, FunkSoulLove: The band started last year in the fall. It started off with Tim, David and me just fooling around in the music building making songs, and then we got into it and started making more. And later on we met Zach in gospel choir, so he joined the group a little after that. Over time we have had some members that have come and gone, but the core members have stayed. I wouldn't say our sound has changed over time, only gotten better.

Mike Gleichman, The Situation: We started playing as a band last winter. I lived next door to Nate Ingraham, who also recruited Nate Typrowicz-Cohen. The two Nates were friends with Patrick, who lived in Tilton at the time, and knew he played bass. So we started playing together some, and we realized it was pretty cool, so we kept doing it. Our sound has remained consistent, though we sound better as a group, a lot tighter than we did when we first started playing.

JZ: How often, and for how long, do you practice as a full group?

PD: We practice one to two times a week for three to four hours per session regularly, then more frequently when we have upcoming gigs.

MG: We usually practice once a week for an hour or two, going over the old music every once in a while, just to make sure we don't forget it.

JZ: What are your musical and lyrical influences? Are there any albums that you've found particularly inspirational to your music?

PD: Well, David comes with a hip-hop background, Tim comes from a jazz and rock background, Zach comes with a gospel background and [Paula comes] from an R&B background, so we try and incorporate all of those genres into our music. We have been more influenced by underground music than mainstream; what comes to mind is Jill Scott, Little Brother, Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, A Tribe Called Quest, Joe Henderson, The Fugees, Mos Def, Kirk Franklin and other artists along the same lines.

MG: In terms of influences, our songs are musically influenced by a lot of older soul artists, such as Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. Lyrically, and also musically, we draw influence from the singer-songwriter tradition — Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne and others from that genre. 

JZ: How would you characterize your sound? Is there a particular genre that you're going for?

PD: Hip hop, soul and R&B infused with many different genres.

MG: We don't think there's any particular genre we're going for, as much as, say, "smart pop." It's got a lot of jazz influence; we've all got some jazz background. So it's pop-rock music, but it's something that's a little deeper than just, "Oh, that's got a catchy melody."

JZ: What is your songwriting process? Does one person write most of the lyrics, or are there multiple contributors? How does the music get written and arranged?

PD: Tim composes the songs, David and [Paula] write [their] own lyrics, and Zach writes his drum part as well. We all bring something to the table while still influencing each other.

MG: Nate Ingraham writes pretty much all of the lyrics.  The music is written by all four of us for the most part. Nate Ingraham has written many of the songs, just because he has most of them pre-conceived. One person will bring in a song — for example, Nate — and he'll play something on acoustic guitar, solo, and then we'll say, "Oh, that's cool, what if you tried this?" Then we go through the process of arranging it, like when we're going to repeat certain sections, what's going on with drums and bass and when we want certain instruments to drop out. Then we'll change the song a little over time, trying this or that idea, until we settle on the song's best arrangement.

JZ: What venues have you played recently? Are there any upcoming gigs you'd like to publicize other than the Battle of the Bands at Tommy Doyle's?

PD: We have played at the Middle East downstairs, Johnny D's, Porter's Bar and other venues, but now we are trying to put the finishing touches to our album. Our main focus is the album and the Battle.

MG: We've played Hotung a couple of times. We haven't really been very aggressive about getting gigs, but we're doing some recording this spring, so for the time being, we're really focusing on polishing our songs for that process.

JZ: For those looking for more information about your band, is there a website or profile page that they can check out?

PD: Yes. Our MySpace page: Myspace.com/funksoulloveconnection. We've also got a Facebook group. Facebook users should search for FunkSoulLove.

MG: We do have a Facebook page. Search for The Situation and it should come up.

Be sure to check back next week when the Daily profiles Navigator and The Gentleman's Bet, the other two Tufts student bands contending for a spot in the ROCKUS finals.