Jul. 28, 2010 - Issue #771: Young at Heart
Prevue
School’s out
But the band is still playing
For the members of Edmonton-based funk-disco four-piece Scantily Clad & the Well Dressed Men, meeting each other in the academic setting of Grant MacEwan's music program couldn't have worked out better. Having arrived at the post-secondary institution with a clear idea of what it was they wanted to do, the members were willing and able to jump headlong into the process of creating the band."Just like any eager first-year musicians at Grant MacEwan we were anxious to start writing," explains guitarist Brandon Baker. "We started having weekly rehearsals which turned into daily rehearsals which turned into any moment we could possibly sneak in some rehearsal we'd be jamming."
Access to rehearsal space and like-minded musicians wasn't the only advantage to MacEwan for the band, however; the environment was a boon in other ways as well.
"Your knowledge is always expanding and teachers are there to answer any question you could ever possibly imagine about music," Baker says of the experience. "It's also good because you're learning stuff that you can apply to what you're doing—you learn something in class and then half an hour later you apply it in a jam. That's probably the biggest advantage."
Ultimately, however, the band wasn't simply started out of circumstance, nor as a result of close proximity. For Baker, Scantily Clad & the Well Dressed Men is the music he's been searching for and not finding.
"We're trying to bring back that disco feel from the '70s where everybody is out at the club dancing and having a good time," he says of the band's sound. "I don't wanna knock the music we're hearing in clubs today, but I think it could be in a different direction and that's what we're trying to provide. I feel like there's a need for this type of music out there for people who want to go out and dance and have a good time like myself—I'm just not hearing the kind of music that I want to be dancing to." V
Fri, Jul 30 (9 pm)
Scantily Clad & the Well Dressed Men
With Five Alarm Funk, Still Within
Pawn Shop
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