Photo courtesy of the band
Funky Chemist
Guitarist Daniel Nathan knows how powerful the addition an organ player can be in a band. He’s wanted to form his own, organ-based trio ever since seeing Robert Walter play a Hammond B3 in the Stanton Moore Trio and during his trip to the New Orleans Jazz Festival in 2012.
“For me, it was kind of a new scene and a lot of new styles of music that I wasn’t familiar with,” Nathan says. “I really dug the organ trio. I said, ‘Oh gosh, there's no base player, that's just the organ doing it. That’s a really cool thing.’ I'd played around in other bands, doing blues and indie rock, and I kind of felt like it has sort of all been done before. But this style of music that I was hearing from an organ trio, it was fresh.”
About five years ago, he formed his own trio with Hammond organ player Jeno Somlai and drummer Andy Blochowiak called Funky Chemist. Nathan and Blochowiak, who had previously played together in other bands, had a long search to find an organ player.
“It’s tough to come by someone who has the coordination to do the baseline with their left hand while they're soloing with the right,” says Nathan. “We were doing gigs with Jeno Somlai, and he was just picking up the organ. I knew he was an exceptional drummer, and I thought maybe some of that coordination would transfer over to the organ. He really does do a great job on the organ.”
The band will celebrate the release of its debut album, Groove Generator, this week. “It’s been a long time in the making,” says Nathan. “We started writing five years ago, and we finally cracked down last summer and got it on record.”
The album’s title draws its name from a bottle of Hammond organ generator oil, as well as the grooves from the album’s eight songs that feature an infectious mix of funk, psychedelic rock and jazz.
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“It’s all based around the groove,” Nathan says. “It’s taking stuff that may be a little jazzier and then making it heavy. In the jazz clubs, you don’t expect to see your favorite guitar player roll off with the Marshall stack. It’s just something that makes it a little different. I can’t tell you why it works, but it's just the route we went with it, and I think it does work.”
For his part, Nathan adds a harder rock edge, which comes from playing in Guns N’ Roses tribute band Nightrain International and studying Slash’s guitar playing. “I always like a heavy guitar, and I like the drone and distortion or a buzz down here or there and get that vibe going,” says Nathan.
Nathan also plays flute on “Merchant.” “Flute was the first instrument that I really studied back in the fifth grade when you pick a lesson for elementary school band,” Nathan says. “I just thought a flute can be a really funky instrument.”
Funky Chemist celebrate the release of their album, Groove Generator, at 9 p.m. Saturday, March 14, at The Gig, 1132 E. Wright St. For more information, visit thegigmke.com.
