On the evening of Friday October 22nd, The Macpodz, Ann-Arbor’s premier 5-piece improvisational jazz/rock/funk outfit, threw down two high-octane sets of music at Thumpty in Ithaca, NY, exposing the audience’s ears to a unique fusion of sound that combines the sophisticated and experimental tendencies of bebop jazz with a distinct dance floor appeal, a genre the band has identified as ‘disco bebop.’
With extraordinary musicianship, The Macpodz effortlessly hopped through the different styles in their musical playbook, progressing through latin inflected tunes like “The Butcher,” to smooth head-nodders like “Give Me The Heat,” and a devastating one-two punch combo that included a cover of Reel 2 Real’s “I Like to Move It,” which dropped right into their funky haymaker “You Got Me.”
And while The Macpodz are the kind of musicians that could comfortably launch into long complex, exploratory jams, the group kept all their arrangements tight and precise, keeping the small crowd groovin’ right in front of the stage until finishing early Saturday morning.
And fortunately, The Macpodz’s bassist Brennan Andes and drummer Griffin Bastian were kind enough to sit down for an interview before the performance to describe the intricacies of their sound, their roots in Ann-Arbor, and maintaining the ability to get a dance floor funked up in the era of electronic technology.
Your sound has been popularly classified as ‘disco bebop.’ Where does that classification come from?
Griffin: (to Brennan) Did you coin that one?
Brennan: I sure did.
Griffin: Yeah, Brennan came up with that.
Brennan: I’m a jazz musician at heart, so I grew up playing bebop and studying bebop and learning how to play lots of jazz music and you know I studied it all throughout high school and what have you and then I got into this big disco kick, and started playing with Jamie Register (of Jamie Register and The Glendales) and she was all into disco. So I started getting into the two of them and I’ve been writing songs that were kind of funk and bop influenced the whole time because I like playing funk music, Parliament’s been a big influence in my life, so I really love funk, and I really love jazz and so when we played our first show at this co-op party in Ann-Arbor, I had the idea of playing a Charlie Parker song with a disco backdrop.
That’s what jazz is all about, signifying.
Brennan: So that’s what we did, we melded these two styles of music together. It’s like we played this tune, Dewey Square, which is a Charlie Parker tune but I was like…
Griffin: Put a disco beat on it!
Brennan: Yeah, put a disco beat on it (laughs). And we ended up doin’ the set together like that, and that’s kind of what started it off was actually playing this tune, Dewey Square. It’s kind of how ‘Bebop,’ which became the anthem for bebop just by being called ‘Bebop’ ‘cause nobody had a name for the style of music yet. And bebop got named bebop by the tune entitled ‘Bebop.’ So basically that’s how the name got started, or the style of music got started. It’s cause like, we were just f’in’ around with like, burning-ass jazz tunes and then climbing out and we realized that people don’t really dance to jazz anymore…but when we put that disco on it everyone was dancin’ their asses off…but the music was still complicated and interesting to play.
Griffin: It’s kind of also something people took and started running with it too. It was like, we were kind of just messin’ around, maybe saying ‘disco bebop’ on a couple of nights and it just kind of stuck. You know when someone asks me what kind of style we are, I do not say disco bebop. I usually say some form of fusion funk with latin influences and kind of you know…
Brennan: Disco bebop is an easy go-to for me, ‘cause it’s really hard to explain our sound because it’s extremely eclectic.
Well that’s why the term is interesting, because there’s so much that’s inherently encompassed in disco and bebop already.
Brennan: Yeah, the best way to check it out is to check it out, literally.
Your bio lists Ann-Arbor, your hometown, as one of America’s “great eccentric cities.” How have your roots there contributed to the Macpodz’s unique sound fusion?
Brennan: Hell man, I’m crazy enough to play music without a job for three years now. Haven’t had a job. Music is my job. And I feel like if I grew up in an institutionalized place that didn’t let me be free like that I probably would have another job right now, but I really love music, and I’m pretty sure everybody else loves music and that’s why we’re doin’ it you know. I got a daughter, you know what I mean. I’m not just messin’ around. I got a mouth to feed, so I’m definitely keeping it tight. I play five nights a week most weeks. I’m always working. Griffin knows what I’m talkin’ about, Griffin’s been gigging his ass off his whole life. We’re musicians first and foremost. Macpodz is kind of our exploration into our own selves.
What do you think of the way your live show translates to the dance floor in an era where musicians are relying heavily on electronic music or the integration of electronic elements into a live band?
Brennan: We keep it real without relying on drugs to be the main substance of a party. While there’s probably sober cats that go to dubstep shows, I imagine the majority of the shows are based around something that’s not, in my life, sustainable for all of time. Like you can’t…it seems like a fad as to where real serious musicians will always take serious music seriously, you know what I mean. It’s not to say that dubstep isn’t serious at all, I mean people are makin’ really sweet like….really sweet cats doin’ their own takes on it. Obviously, electronic music like The New Deal and EOTO and all these great bands that have taken live instruments and played electronic music with live instruments…
That’s the best of both worlds.
Brennan: Yeah, it is the best of both worlds. I’m not knockin’ it, I’m just saying I think ultimately, musicianship…that’s really like…that’s deep. And it’s really easy for one guy to show up to a gig, or two cats to show up to a gig, and like laptops I guess are the way of the future but I’m not very good with computers, and I don’t have a laptop. So I just rock the electric bass. I rock the electric bass as my means of…as my voice. And Nick (Ayers)’s got like a laptop and a whole bunch of shit, Griffin’s got a laptop, so everybody’s got the stuff…
Griffin: I don’t use a laptop on stage or anything.
So what do you think of audience values in today’s music? Have people been critical of when you get experimental or have you seen widespread support?
Brennan: We have and we haven’t. This is an argument in our band to the day we die because there are songs that are effective according to some people and songs that are really beautiful. I mean it’s weird, it’s an issue, I think that as an artist it’s our job to play music and feel music for music’s sake and play the shit that we actually like to play. And there’s a fine line between placing songs at a bad place in the night. If everyone’s wasted they probably don’t want to hear like, a super intricate song. Well…there’s a judgment on our side there but I think that it’s up to us to create our stuff and have people listen to it, and accept it for what it is. And that’s true for pretty much anyone who plays music.
Griffin: I think it’s kind of hard to gage what the audience is really thinking. You know, if they’re dancing, as a drummer, if they’re dancing, we’re doin’ alright. But as soon as they stop dancing, it doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t like the music anymore, they can be thinking about it, but what they’re thinking I don’t really know. It’s kind of hard to tell.
How closely do you stick to the set list you write at the beginning of the night so you can adapt to those changes in attention?
Brennan: It’s funny you say that. Our set lists are pretty…loose.
Griffin: Sometimes we won’t finish ‘em. Like we’ll write a set list, we’ll get like a couple songs before the end and we’ll like cut off or something.
And you guys just figure out the rest on stage?
Brennan: Sometimes we’ll meet up before a show and talk about the first couple tunes. And then we’ve been playing, at the last like four shows, we’ve been working on this set for a while, and it’s a pretty sweet set. And we’re not doing the exact set verbatim but we’re doing a lot of the same tunes from that set and trying to re-create this show that we’ve created. And we’re actually making it really hype. Because we know there’s certain songs that work really well, and we’re also in the phase where we’ve been in a band for five years and we can’t be playing all this old material all the time. We have to be constantly re-inventing ourselves and our sound…for us to have it be worth it for us.
The Macpodz have also been touring heavily for four years now. How have you evolved over that time on the road?
Brennan: We actually realized that we’re on stage playing music for people.
Griffin: I think the musicianship had to get taken very seriously because you’re playing huge national festivals with literally some of the best musicians in the world. Dumpstaphunk played right after us late night at Summer Camp. Amazing musicians, Raymond Weber on drums played with everybody…these cats are some of the best players in the world and when that’s who you’re starting to play the same gigs with…you can’t suck. So the musicianship had to definitely get raised over the years.
Brennan: I think we’ve always agreed that the most important thing for all of us is to play music. Pretty much we’re all bound by music together and it’s undeniable…and that’s crazy.
