Winslow is a six piece smooth funk-fest hailing from the Cleveland and Kent area. The bands blend of soulful vocals, jazzy guitar, and grooving rhythm section creates an accessible sound that manages to retain both its substance and style. The gentlemen have amassed quite a following in its brief stint together, with a national tour and a couple of battle of the band victories already in the bag, it sounds like the guys are just getting started. We caught up with lead singer Maurice Martin, bassist Brian Robertson, and drummer Justin Hofmann to talk about the bands extensive formal training, its roots as a cover band, and some of their favorite local flavor.
S*KM: You just finished up a national tour of sorts, what are some different things you enjoy about performing out of state?
Maurice: It was just nice to see that our music went over well everywhere we played. We all embrace the chance to share our music with people all over the country. That is obviously the first of many tours for us, but we were able to look around at the end and say “OK, cool. We really can do this.”
Brian: It was nice to see our music carry over from state to state. We haven’t gotten a chance to see how we come off to others outside of Ohio and people that don’t know us, I think it went really well.
Justin: Your guaranteed no one has seen you before, therefore you get to give it your all. Plus they don’t know you have a useless job back home and that your not almost famous.
S*KM: Five of the six members in the band hold music degrees, what drew each of you to such rigorous formal training, when the do-it-yourself approach seems to be most common with bands today?
Maurice: Actually only 3 guys graduated. I never finished and Neal is still in school. When I personally first went to school, my plan was to be a music teacher. When I decided I wanted to perform, I wanted to learn as much as physically possible so that I could be the most well rounded singer possible. There are never any guarantees in this business, so I wanted to gain the most knowledge I could possibly get so that I could give myself the best shot. There were frustrating moments for all of us. When you study music, there are times when it just starts to suck and is not fun. I think we are all much better musicians because of it though.
Brian: I personally didn’t come from any real hard formal music training with theory as my other band mates have. We all came in with a relative idea and feel that we wanted. We all have been such music fans that when we play, it all kinda fits. I know that I want to be a master at my instrument and I think we all have that same mentality. Keep it simple but with a great deal of musicality.
Justin: I think everyone just wanted to be great at playing music so we just sort of fell into that degree program. Personally a percussion performance degree doesn’t exactly prepare you for a career in rock music, I did that on my own outside of school.
S*KM: Does the bands extremely large pool of music knowledge ever flood the songwriting process with excessive theory?
Maurice: No, I don’t think so. Most of us don’t really rely on theory during the writing process. We don’t want our music to come off as formulaic. Can you groove to it? Can you sing along? Is it the sound we want to go for? If so, then we’ve done our jobs. That is what we focus on, the theory comes later when we go back through to analyze exactly what we have written.
Brian: I think it makes it easier since some of us don’t really know what we are doing (me). We can whip out songs fairly easy, but we don’t want to move on until the song that we are working on is completely finished to a tee. We all listen to so much music that we can get ideas fast when we see what other members are playing or singing and then build around each other. I’m glad that only a few tunes we have now are tunes that we have written as a band.
Justin: Not really, we all play by ear so we just use our theory knowledge after things are written.
S*KM: How well do you feel formally educated players mix with self taught players, or is it something better off kept separate?
Maurice: I don’t think it is a problem at all. Brian has no formal training and he is every bit as quick as the rest of us. A lot of people who are formally educated are just people who were self taught and then tried to go a little farther. Lets face it, this is pop music. We want to play with people who know how to rock out on their instruments and write quality material. We aren’t music snobs, just kids who had the same dreams as a lot of other people and chose to take a different path to get there.
Brian: Well being a self taught player can sometimes put me at a disadvantage but the amount of time I have behind my bass makes me able to keep up with the more formally trained. Having a good creative approach to a song or a part in a song will not matter if you had formal training or not. Don’t play all the notes, play the good ones.
Justin: If a musician has good instincts, and good ears, than that counts for a lot. I know a ton of people with music degrees who can’t play for shit, but our bass player Brian has no formal training at all and I wouldn’t be in a band without him.
S*KM: You originally started out as a cover band under the name 1959, at what point did you get tired of playing other peoples songs and want to start writing your own original material?
Maurice: I personally was writing well before 1959, but when we formed the band it was just to have a good time playing for our friends. Honestly, I think part of it for me was the fear that people would think my music sucked haha. Once we started working on originals and playing them out, they got great responses. When people started singing a long we felt like we had something special. Deep down, we all were just looking for the right project to throw ourselves in to and try to make our dreams come true. When the music started to form the way it did, we felt like this was the project to go for it. At that point, it was time to give ourselves a new identity, make the best recordings we could, and really go for it.
Brian: I joined the band at the end of the 1959 thing. I don’t mind playing covers. I see the point in playing them, but playing originals and getting people to listen and groove is more satisfying to me.
Justin: At some point we realized that the songs we had written were good, and people really seemed to like our songs too. Why not take a stab at it.
S*KM: Who are some individual musicians that have heavily influenced you in the development of your respective instruments.
Maurice: Some of my greatest influences are Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross, Michael Jackson, and Marvin Gaye.
Brian: I learned to play bass by listening to rancid then moving on to Chilli Peppers, 311, Primus, Jaco and Tool. I started to listen to other bands and bassist but stopped learning the songs and tried to just play lines that sounded like that band or that person. I didn’t want to get sucked into just the bass lines in music. They are only a part of a song, I wanted to listen to the whole of the song and get whole picture. I still try to do that but I have to say my biggest influence on technique and style would have to be Les Claypool.
Justin: For me: Jon Theodore, Stanton Moore, John Bonham, Josh Freese, DJ Shadow…
S*KM: You won the 2006 Kent State Battle of the Bands and most recently the 2007 Molson Battle of the Bands, besides playing good music what has helped you attract the most attention?
Maurice: It is definitely our live show. We all love to be on stage and I think that comes across to people who watch us. We want our fans to walk away thinking “man that was a good time.” We focus on the total package…a tight musical set that is entertaining.
Brian: Our live shows. the way we see it, this might be the only time you see us. We have to sell our performance to separate us from any other no name band. We want you to remember our show. So far it has worked. The more times we play an area I start to see familiar faces, I guess which means we are doing something right.
Justin: We strive to have an entertaining stage show that fits the music, yes that includes dressing up a bit for our shows.
S*KM: You are signed to FTF records, which is based in Stow, Ohio. What has the process been like working with a local label, do you feel they have provided invaluable services you would have otherwise been unable to handle yourselves?
Maurice: No doubt. Every young band is just looking for a team of people who will rally behind them. FTF does that for us. Jeff Gargas and the rest of the team truly believe in us and throw themselves into helping us get to the next level. We owe a lot of the growth we’ve had and increase in visibility to the hard work of our photographer, publicist, and Jeff.
Brian: Oh definitely! I try to stay out of the whole process as much as possible but do know that the stuff Jeff and FTF records have done have helped a lot. They have one thing that makes being a label one less thing to worry about, money. But as a band you have to earn your keep which is one thing I think we do well. We know that without FTF we wouldn’t have some of the things we do.
Justin: Working with FTF is really personal, I mean the founder Jeff is in my phone and he is at about half of our shows. FTF has been really supportive of everything we have done and there aren’t many labels that just throw out money to let someone record at their leisure.
S*KM: You also recently picked up a well known national booking agent, can we expect you guys to play Madison Square Garden soon?
Maurice: Well that would be pretty bad ass but I think we still have some dues to pay first! Sometimes when people hear us, they think we have been around a lot longer than we have. We have been really putting everything we have into our original music and I know we are on the right track, but this stuff takes time. I would say we’ve made a lot of progress in a short period of time between the albums we’ve sold, the loyal fans we’ve made, and some of the great press we have received. Having said that, we need to just keep trucking and pay our dues before Madison Square Garden comes knocking. We feel like we have the formula for something special, but part of that formula is never taking anything for granted and keeping our noses to the grindstone.
Brian: Touring is fun, but hard, and we all have to make a choice to go and tour and tour and tour or work a day job that will let us. I Don’t see us playing anywhere huge soon. I know we have to pay our dues and I think we have gotten pretty far for how young we are as a band. The more we play with bigger acts we find out they are four, five, six, years in. I think it takes away, but then again who knows.
Justin: No, if we blow up that fast we definitely did something sleazy
S*KM: When you guys aren’t crafting your own sexy neo-soul funk sound it is rumored you enjoy checking out other live shows, what bands and venues do you frequent most?
Maurice: I love to support the local Kent scene. Acts like Sean Benjamin, David Ullman, The Speedbumps, and Amplexus are some of my favorites. I also am really starting to love Youngstown musicians like the Zou as well. In the end, I think I’m just big into supporting local music. Hopefully many of us will be the national acts of tomorrow, so I try to support the cause the best I can.
Brian: I live on the Eastside of Cleveland so I go to different venues then the other guys in the band, but I really like the Beachland its gotta cool vibe. As far as local bands I really like: Return of Simple, If These Trees Could Talk, mr. Gnome, and Poetic Republic. If you have not check out any of these bands you need to.
Justin: Whatever we have time to check out, especially if our other friends are playing. I love going to the Grog. I love going to see This is Exploding, Junior Revolution, Pete Nischt, and The Dr. Teeth.
S*KM: You have a healthy list of shows booked throughout Northeast Ohio this summer, which one are you looking forward to the most?
Maurice: Honestly, we just look forward to every chance we have to share our music. We will be touring a lot of colleges over the next few months, and we will be hitting up several big cities in the next few months. In the end, its just about playing in front of as many people as possible and having as much fun as possible. Where do we want to play? Everywhere that people enjoy us and we can further the name. One gig at a time, one new fan at a time. We are at the beginning of the ride and we are looking forward to it.
Brian: Which ever one has the singer from Maroon 5 there and he says he wants us to open for them.
Justin: Anything with a crowd.
You can listen to Winslow for yourself at www.myspace.com/winslowsoul and catch them live next on Friday, July, 18 at Around The Corner in Lakewood, Ohio.