There’s the sound and the style of James Brown—that’s influential, no doubt.
But then, there’s his sweat.
“My mom went to see (Brown) back in the early ‘70s,” The Soft White Sixties frontman Octavio Genera says. “The front row was just getting showered with sweat. He had the handkerchief out, he was just working it, man—just leaving it all out there.”
Paste picked up on this San Franciscan quartet after last year’s SXSW (marking them as one of the festivals 25 Best Acts of 2013). Some blogs have already claimed to detect heavy influences of soul, but that’s not to say they sound like James Brown.
That’s also not to say that they’re not inspired by said Godfather of Soul, in fact, it’s more that hardest-working-man-in-show-business aspect about Brown. Yeah, that’s the part inspiring this kinetic rock outfit.
The Soft White Sixties were whimsically named after the wattage and tone of an unscrewed incandescent bulb. They don’t sound “soft” (nope, pretty hard charging, guitar-heavy, foot-stomping stuff, actually). They don’t sound like the ’60s (there are some jangly guitars and strutting beats under pretty melodies, but it’s gnarled with more of a psychedelic ‘70s edge, really).
That said, they also name-drop Electric Light Orchestra, Tom Petty, Spoon and Queens Of The Stone Age. So, whatever all of that could “sound like” is awaiting you on their first proper full-length Get Right.
Joey Bustos plays drums with Ryan Noble on bass (a rhythm section that’s been banding around the San Francisco scene for several years). Aaron Eisenberg, who also spoke with Paste for this issue, is on guitars and keys. Lyricist Genera, meanwhile, following James Brown’s lead, is keen on showmanship, using his body as much as his voice. “I was always drawn to that as a kid—just entertainers, personas, late night talk show hosts, or Elvis and James Brown. I love all that. They’re working, up there.”
Eisenberg, meanwhile, was “going to shows while I was still in the womb.” Growing up in Cool, California, Eisenberg was raised by very musical parents (mom was a DJ and dad was a drummer who worked in merchandising for legendary rock stars). Eisenberg was that iconic aloof toddler dancing on blankets in the grassy hills near the back of thronged crowds at Grateful Dead concerts.
Genera’s family picked up on his theatricalities, encouraging him to act in plays or try an instrument. Maybe he was a late bloomer or just had to find out on his own, but he didn’t get into the music game until much later. But once he performed his first open-mic night with a college friend, he felt that “huge rush” of playing in front of people. “It just felt so right for me.”
Eisenberg, meanwhile, was more of a skateboarder through high school. One of California’s most dangerously aggressive wildfire seasons (back in 2006) kept him indoors. “There were 500 fires across the state, it was so smoky that I couldn’t go out skateboarding, couldn’t even see the other side of my street. That was the catalyst for me; spending time indoors just playing and learning music. I moved down to San Francisco for school, not for music, but just kinda fell into place, as it were.”
Genera and Bustos were part of a fledging trio back in 2010. Bustos brought Eisenberg in and the group’s first guitarist, Aaron Ferguson, introduced them to Eisenberg. It pretty much took off from there. The thing was, though, these guys seemed like they were on a mission, somewhat.
“There was never a checklist for us,” Eisenberg says, “Where we were like: Okay, we gotta get into the ‘Scenes.’ We just wanted to play and then to play outside the Bay area. We wanted to tour.”
?“Whatever doors opened, we went in and just went with it,” Genera says. “The live show evolved naturally that way.” Responding to how several songs evoke the breathless excitement of 11:59 p.m. on a Saturday, Genera says: “That’s just the way the song’s written, you can’t have one without the other, the record without an energetic live show.”
Their dynamism on stage is their signature (so far) and it’s what caught Paste’s attention last March. Now, as they return to SXSW, they have a more complete record (evolved from the more raw, wiry debut EP), with softer, smoother tracks centered on acoustic guitar and piano. Not ballads, per se—but a fresh mixer-upper from the barrel-roll buoyancies of some of the more rock-centric singles (like “Lemon Squeezer”).
They’ve sold out substantial spots around San Francisco and are encouraged that they’ve yet to find anyone else “…doing what we’re doing,” as Genera says. Having already conquered the West Coast, from the Bay to Sacramento and up to Portland and Seattle, they’re more than ready for whatever’s next: more touring and fresh songs to record, namely.
“(Get Right.) kinda closes a chapter for us,” Eisenberg says. “I think, with each record, we’re getting closer to finding out what the Sixties sound like. There’re new songs that are harder for me to pinpoint, to where I wouldn’t know what I could compare it to.”
James Brown? “Well, in terms of energy, yeah,” Eisenberg admits. “In the grooves, the danceability. Then, on the production side, Jim Greer is a big E.L.O. fan too. We love choruses and that kind of pop-side of things, but then, the grittiness and edge of, like, Queens. That’s just stuff we’ve been listening to, I don’t know if that’s what our record sounds like.”
Genera credits their collaborative process in approaching the songwriting and arranging with assuring a steady stylistic evolution. That, then, assures that they continue to evade being “pinpointed,” as Eisenberg put it, in terms of any certain sound.
“We’re writing our own special parts, finding out how we find our own groove. We know what everyone brings to the table. We have a clearer view of what we like, what we think of the band, what we like to do. It’s all starting to pull in the same direction, now. We’re definitely more focused and we’re already writing the next record.”
“We’re excited to get the record out and just have people start listening to it,” Genera concludes. “I’m curious what influences they’ll pull out of it. It’s usually different from what we think.”