WEHM All Access - Great South Bay Music Festival - Funkin' A

 Funkin’ A joins us to close out Sunday night at the Great South Bay Music Festival, bringing their ever‑evolving blend of deep pocket funk, jazz, improvisation, and big‑band energy. Harry meets with Kyle, Dan, Justin, and Rodney as they discuss how the group has shifted from songwriter‑driven beginnings to a full‑on dance‑party identity, how they juggle a rotating cast of musicians, the art of arranging horn sections, surviving a hurricane gig on a ferry, and the challenge of recording a full album with a nine‑piece band. They also dive into Patchogue’s music scene, Kyle’s Rock Underground school, and what fans can expect from their festival set. 

@Funkin_A

@GreatSouthBayMusicFestival 

Make sure to follow @wehmradio and @harrywehmradio on Instagram and Facebook and check out wehm.com for more!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It's EHM All Access behind the scenes of the Great South Bay Music Festival as we chat with all the different bands that are performing this year and coming up, wrapping things up on the uh Jamaliya stage, Sunday, July 26th, on that Sunday night uh is Funkin' A. Uh welcome to Kyle, Dan, Justin, and Rodney. How are you guys?

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Good man, how are you, Harry?

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Very good. Thank you for doing this. I appreciate it. So you guys are always busy. I always see a lot of different uh shows and different incarnations of the band out and about. I know Kyle, you're doing a lot of stuff, and Rodney and you guys are are really busy. Uh this is fun. Uh, how many years have you guys done the Great South Bay Music Festival?

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Years doing the Great South Bay Festival. I know way over ten.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Well, you keep getting invited back, which is good.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Yeah, we'll take it, man. You know, um, you know, Jim is uh very nice to always ask us and we're always willing to play.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

You've been a fixture kind of the uh the South Shore music scene for a while. Uh what has been the thing that's kind of kept this whole project going and together? Because I know there's been some different members in and out over the years, but uh what kind of keeps the the whole thing going for you?

SPEAKER_02 1:04

I think we just have a lot of fun doing it. Um, you know, we like to jam and uh further our musical explorations and improvisation. You know, we're we're big on, you know, obviously we play funk stuff, but we like to improv and and jam stuff out. We put our own twists on cover songs, we play cover songs now uh, you know, as well. And uh we also do a lot of original music, you know. Um so at this year's festival, we're actually, I think, doing mostly originals, but we got a couple cool covers that we're gonna throw in there.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

You what you blend together jazz and funk and a whole bunch of different sounds. How would you describe the identity of someone kind of that's hearing you for the first time when they're walking by the stage?

SPEAKER_03 1:43

I I think it's changed a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Our identity has changed. It used to be, man, I hate to use this word. It used to be a lot more vanilla sounding, you know, like you know, it was more like your songwriters.

SPEAKER_03 1:54

We were trying to and then we were trying to go for a jam for a while.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Yeah, and now it's kind of like a deeper funk, kind of like we're really all about pocket playing and just like like cool transitions, changing the beat up, and um, you know, we got some melodic, um, melodic lines that we're you know doing. Um, how would I describe it to someone that doesn't know us? Uh a funky dance party.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

Very nice.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

That's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

You know, going back to your your thing about professional, I mean, just you know, all of us staying together. I think one thing that all of us have is a level of professionalism of just knowing our individual instruments and what our roles are for uh you know a group as large as Funkin' A, you know, eight or nine piece, depending on Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

We've even been ten pieces two years ago. We had uh a percussionist, our buddy Dan, um, and then we have Annie sings with us occasionally. She's still in the band, but she's got a lot going on too. And that's just also part of it. A lot of us have a million things going on, and you know, we we uh are good at just not, you know, just knowing how to just push just enough so that it's the stays together, you know.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

What do you look for when you're bringing in new members and kind of moving people in and out? Because it sounds like you know, people are busy with other stuff. You gotta find different people at different shows, different gigs. What's that like to kind of put together? How does that work with such a collaborative effort?

SPEAKER_02 3:13

I mean, uh I I uh I'm always looking for um, you know, obviously a great, great sound, like Justin said, knowing their instrument and uh you gotta be cool too. Like we vibe with cool people. Yeah, um, that's a big thing, really, is just you know being being cool and nice and wanting to play. And you know, uh it's crazy being a musician these days, especially. And you gotta just roll with the punches, and uh that's uh that's half a funk and a right there, is rolling with the punches on stage, whatever happens.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Let me tell you real fast about a uh crazy, crazy uh gig that we did last year. It was actually um we got it through Jim. It was great, it was a great experience, but we played on a ferry in a hurricane. Oh my god. People came to see us, and we uh we called up, we're like, hey, are we um are we still playing this thing? There's like I think a category or something, hurter hurricane. And he's like, Look, people people bought tickets and they came and we played the whole band. People were dancing, you know, one lady's losing her lunch, and we kept on playing the we played the funk for people, and uh that that was um that was we looked back at that gig and we're like, okay, we might not do that again, but that that was also something that really uh, you know, it it we it was a good experience at the end of it, if you know what I mean. Yeah, you know what I saw.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

You remember those gigs.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Yes, definitely a memorable one.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

That's for sure. Yeah, you do but both you mentioned the originals and covers. How do you balance that during the live shows?

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Well, it depends on the live show. If we have to fill a four-hour gig, obviously you're gonna get a bunch of covers. But uh, you know, for Grey South Bay, we're we're gonna try and hit them with as many originals. Also, we try to hit a couple covers because people are just seeing us for the first time. And we're a funk band. We try to hit those funk standards, you know, maybe something from Tower of Power or something from Stevie Wonder or James Brown. You know, we we like to hit those just so people know that we're also, you know, we're into the authentic funk. I also like to, you know, play that stuff because it's just what I love listening to as well, you know.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

And well, I was curious, where did you guys listen to growing up? What and kind of what brought you to this to this type of band um and the funk sound? I mean I'll go through each of you guys. I'm curious.

SPEAKER_04 5:18

I mean, as a trumpet player, you know, when I was in like high school, I was playing in a ska band. But my my band teacher is in the band Funk Philharmonic. Uh-huh. And we would go to like the crazy donkey and see them play, and they were playing like all the Tower of Power stuff, and that was like, oh my god, like that is what my I saw his teacher before I knew him, actually, at the Funksgiving show they did at the Crazy Donkey.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

Yeah, and they still do that. Um you probably were there at the same time before we didn't. And we might have really, but we were not playing music together. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:47

Yeah, for for me, uh, I I would I feel like you know, I grew up as you know a classic rock uh type of person, just my parents, and then that branched off to just whatever genres in the 90s, you know. I'm I'm 40, you know, if you can date me for music. Uh and then you know, later in high school, it was for me, it was classical music and and it was jazz. And then, you know, I went to music school. You know, I'm a music teacher myself. Um, and I I feel like coming back, you know, I once I went to grad school and coming back in the summers and playing at O'Reilly's in Oakdale uh at some of the jam sessions.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

I think that's where we met each other, yeah. That's where Funkin' A started.

SPEAKER_03 6:29

You know, it's right around the corner from where I grew up. So I used to go there and and jam, and that's kind of how I got my foot with Funkin' A. But also really the whole musical genres that Funkin' covers is all, you know, kind of Funkin' A, you know, introduced to me. Yeah. And, you know, then branching off from there and finding the other groups that, you know, influence Funkin' A. So it was it really just like a musical journey for me, this group, you know, in my adult life.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Look, let it be known that we're very versatile as a band. We can play all sorts of stuff. We've played weddings, we played lots of weddings, actually. Um, and we play funk, but we also sometimes will we'll we'll funkify as a grateful dead song or or like you know, like something we try to do that twist, and people are like, wow, that's cool, you know. So anyway, you know, like that's we come from all different walks of musical, you know, uh lives, if you will. You know.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

And Rodney, I'm curious.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Um, me? Um I grew up listening to like jazz records. My father had like jazz records and blues records. Um I'm from out there too, actually from Bridge Hampton. So um I started playing with the like the folk bands out there, the folk musicians. So uh uh I ran a gamut, then I came up here and uh uh I met these guys. So you know I was always listening to everything on the radio, trying to play everything on the on the on the kit.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

So I met Rodney, he came to my open mic, which was a long-running open mic for over 10 years, I think, or something like that, at the Brick House Brewery in Patch Hog. And I did every Wednesday night, and then Rodney showed up and we didn't know each other, and he's like, I'll bring a drum set. I'm like, I haven't been doing drums yet, but okay, you know, didn't know each other. And I'm like, I'm gonna play a couple original songs, man. Just follow, you know, and it had some parts to it, but the guy didn't miss a beat, and he's like he played the song before, and I swear it was like I was like, Okay, and we've been playing music ever since then. That's probably 20 years ago. I don't even know. I mean, no, wait, not 20, uh 15 years ago. Wow, yeah, a long time.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

You um you do a lot of you mentioned a lot of different uh types of environments you played in uh festivals, breweries, you mentioned uh uh ferry um for different private events. How do you adapt for different environments? Yeah, obviously you must have a plan kind of going in for each show.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

Um I mean, there's definitely a couple beers involved, um, you know, but uh, you know, no, in all seriousness, I guess he kind of just I mean, the reality is like you can paint the picture in your head, but you really don't, you know, like most things are just like you know, normal gigs, but there's plenty of them out there. It had, you know, you just have to adapt. And, you know, that's always the way it is. I mean, um, being in a band, like especially when you're doing different gigs, you have to be able to read a room. It's very important that you you're you're seeing how people are reacting to the music you're playing. And but like something like with Great South Bay Festival, we're going there to put our identity out there, and that's really what you know. So it depends. It really depends on the type of gig. Are are we being uh asked to do something for the person that's like hiring us, or are we doing our own thing? That's you know, really where it comes down to.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

I know you guys are working on a new record um and some new music. Uh tell me a little bit about it. How does it work? Uh, because there's so many different people uh involved, so it's a large group. How does that work collaboratively with your with the writing process and kind of introducing new music to the group?

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Well, it's like that that thing that is uh you know, what is what is that you spend most of your time waiting? Um no, I'm just kidding. But no, mostly we're waiting for everyone to be all together. Um and it's really hard because there's so many guys and we all are so busy. Like I said, our buddy Johnny, who's not going to be joining us at the festival, unfortunately, because he's just wrapping up a tour. Um, but uh, you know, when he's around, we can record stuff and um, but really we kind of all just get on the same page when it's time to, and we you know, it's um but we have like you know half half of the tracks recorded right now, we have to get the other half down. But it's been a work in progress, and it's not easy actually. It's really difficult.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Where does it where does it kind of start? Um with you, Kyle, or how does it work with um literally the birth of a song?

SPEAKER_02 10:35

Yeah, I mean, I I you know Justin's written a song, and I'm sure you can can uh write another three or four if if we try. Uh, but I've sometimes just come up with these ideas, and um, you know, I got my degree in music, and of course, uh, you know, some of the the horn players will have to correct when I write it out for them. But I try it, I try it that way, and then uh, you know, I I write lyrics and stuff, and um it generally comes from an idea within, you know, uh or a feel or a groove, you know.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

What was it like uh during COVID for a lot of bands? I'm always curious because I know it was a very tough time where touring stopped. You couldn't do gigs and make money that way. What was it like for this band in particular?

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Well, we we I don't think we played. I mean, me per personally, I was able to do these live from my upstairs uh attic or whatever I had. And I was doing shows actually, I was I was I was like you know putting out the donation thing and it was actually really helping. Um and I would do it once a week and I would try to come up with different themes. But as far as the band, we basically, you know, a lot of people went separate ways and we all had to hunker down. So it was actually quite difficult, but different experience, I'm sure, for everybody. If any anyone wants to chime in.

SPEAKER_03 11:42

Yeah, I mean, COVID for me was just kind of locked in the room, just tinkering with I I think for a lot of people in COVID, it was like getting focused rights and and doing some recording and and learning how to well you were doing a couple things with another band that you know, but yeah. I I used to play with another band on the islands, and we were doing like some of those like tile videos where you know things like that, or I've always wanted to do that.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

I always wanted to do one of those with phone cutting. Like, you know, we should we could do it, you know. That's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. Video editing is no it's easier to just get us in one room and then you know. Yeah, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

That's really interesting. Um, music-wise, I know you guys are always working on stuff. When when are you thinking about the record as far as getting it out of the room?

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Well, we're we're our goal was at the end of this year, and we're still trying to hold to that, but maybe you know, at the beginning of next year. It depends. Actually, things can happen quite quickly with us once we you know, the summertime unfortunately is just so busy. I mean, I've been playing shows, you know, like you said before, I'm in a million different bands and uh I play solo a lot. It's just you know, even we're we're lucky enough to get together and rehearse. You know, we have a million things going on and we're rehearsing, but it's like, you know, it's even tough, you know, it's just we're so busy. You know, um, being a musician on Long Island is very difficult and it only gets more difficult. So we end up having to take the gigs as opposed to like, you know, like I work all day and I play all night, you know, and it's basically what it is. So where we are trying, and for terms of the record, we are trying, um, things should start to chill out, and we'll pick it back up in hopefully September, even though I'm about to have a child.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

All right, so trying for September, but we'll see. Maybe maybe maybe 27. No, we'll guess.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

It will actually the progress so far has been very positive. Really been been good. It's it's it sounds good.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Is it a full is it a full album or EP?

SPEAKER_02 13:29

It'll be a full album. Wow. It'll be a full album. I think we're we might even just um toy with the idea of trying to release a couple songs first to give you a taste, and then the uh the goal would be uh hopefully at a good time to do an album release show when the whole thing is ready, you know, and maybe we can get EHM involved. That would be great.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

That'd be terrific. How does it work as far as because you you mentioned there's so many different projects? How do you know it's um it's for this specific project for Funkin' A?

SPEAKER_02 13:53

That's a great question. Um, I hear it. I I mean, like, you know, I I was showing you guys that one tune that I wrote recently I really want to do with Funkin' A. And we haven't we only worked on it, I think, once, and everyone really liked it, but we're gonna come up with some cool horn parts to it. Um, that's a great question, Harry. Uh, you know, it just I we have a sound, and um I just this is maybe one of the most badass bands I've ever, you know, probably the the badass bands that like when we really want to do something, I feel like we could do it well, and we gotta and you know what's funny is like we constantly kind of come up with different variations of even our own original we have new ideas. Hey, let's do this there, all of a sudden, and it's and then it becomes a thing that you know you'd only experience if you come see us live.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

That makes a lot of sense. Uh, and yeah, uh it's you have such a unique sound too with the horns and everything. Um, how do you um I guess how do you arrange that? Because you have so many different players. How do you make sure that you get everyone involved?

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Well, I'll tell you what, let me let me give it off to the horn players, but I'll just say like they have a big it it's a lot of arranging, it really is. And then like these these guys are geniuses when it comes to um you know making the right parts sound right, you know, flipping things, you know, it's it's a lot of work actually arranging music. It really is. I'll give it to one of you guys.

SPEAKER_04 15:05

Yeah, especially like, you know, from gig to gig, you know, you know, we have basically four horns that are the main cast, and that that's interchangeable with other people too, that we've had on the band with us, and like we have to make sure that the music looks good enough on paper so anyone can just come in and play with us, but then it's also like okay, well, now we don't have a tenor player for this gig, we only have three. How do we shift what songs we're gonna play? Like, or you know, how do we rearrange like sections of songs? And a lot of time that just happens on the fly and just we communicate with each other a lot.

SPEAKER_03 15:39

Yeah. I've kind of like for myself, you know, because I my role in the group is mostly like alto and barry sacks. So one's like a higher, you know, maybe second voice of a horn section, you know, after the trumpet, and then the Barry's the lowest, you know. So, you know, sometimes we're playing, you know, uh with a four or five piece horn section, but some some of our gigs might be three, and sometimes we've played with two horns. So I've learned just kind of through hearing the harmonies of how to adapt and figure out, all right, which voice should I play? Like in a in a four-piece section, I'm gonna play the Barry part, but if we're playing with three three parts, I might leave the Barry at home and just you know, stick to Alto. And if we don't have a tenor player, like I'll cover the tenor harmonies, um, you know, and just to make things, you know, sound more cohesive in the horn section and you know, figure out what should be heard, you know, for the whole you know, aesthetic of the piece.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

It's interesting because you do have uh I think one time you said you had 10 members, and trying to get everyone to to row in the right thing that the same direction has to be really interesting. How how often do you guys get together to kind of feel things out? Because it's I'd imagine with so many different projects, you're you're busy. It's hard to come together just to that's a practice per se, but to just be a band and be funkin' A.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Yeah, well, you know, it we um we kind of it's just the nature of uh a musician. I've got it's a rotating door of rehearsals, and then like when the the gig comes up, then it's then it's funken A's chance to and the guys in the band are the same way. This guy plays in a couple wedding bands, this guy plays in a couple wedding bands, and not necessarily they rehearse, but they're busy doing it, you know what I mean? So um, you know, how often? Uh as often as we try as we can. When you have a gig coming up, it's sometimes if we're lucky, it's twice a month. Nice. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Um, where are you? I notice you're in a studio setting right now. Tell me about what this project that you're involved with in in Patch Hog.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

Oh, well, this is uh my music school, uh the Rock Underground of Patchog. We've been here for six years now. We're going through some changes um in a few months. We're gonna be relocating to the basement of the um, we're actually rebuilding the whole place just like it is upstairs to the basement. It's actually gonna be a really cool spot. But I have been uh, you know, we've been putting kids on stage for the past six years um over here in Patchog. Yeah, it's a cool community that we've built up. We got some amazing kids that play here. And uh I'm just trying to give back to, you know, like I'll be honest, when I became uh a musician, if you will, I wanted to play Patchog. Now I live in Patchog, and I, you know, it's just it's just a cool, cool area. Really, it's it's a hip spot, you know.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

It's grown so much over the years. Uh, where are all you guys from? I know Kyle Patchog, but are you guys from the same area? I don't know. Bridgehampton you mentioned Rodney.

SPEAKER_04 18:20

Yeah, I I grew up on um in East Islep, so yeah. I'm I'm in Oakville.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

And Rodney's out in Bridgehampton. Uh, you guys are obviously doing a lot of different things. Great South Bay Music Festival, though, Funkin' A gets together that's Sunday night, the 26th, uh, and the Jamaliah stage. Tickets at Great South Bay MusicFestival.com. And where can people learn about the school too, Kyle?

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Um, you could just check us out uh, you know, uh on our socials, just uh T R U Patchog. That stands for The Rock Underground. You can also go to our website, therockunderground.com. I think it's actually rockundergroundmusic.com. Um I should know that, but I just mostly just go on the social medias and just post stuff there. No, that's you can just find us on yeah, Instagram.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

No, it's great because I love the fact that you are so passionate about the patchog music scene. I've watched it grow up live in the lobby series they used to do there, and I know they still fiddle around and do different things, but watching the whole town come alive, not just with music, but I think that's a big a big part of it with all the different restaurants and all the different um new things that have happened. So I'd imagine uh did you grow up here in Patch Ok, Kyle? Or like right around the city.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

I I I grew up in Seville and I've I've been living in Patchow the last twelve years.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

No, you've you've seen a lot of things change, and it's uh it's it's for the for the better a lot of the times with the music team. So thank you for everything you've done, and thank you guys you guys for sitting down. I really appreciate it and taking the time. Looking forward to seeing on the stage at the Great South Bay Music Festival. Uh great South Bay Music Festival.com Funkin' A. Thank you so much, guys.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

Harry, you're the man. Thanks, buddy. Thank you.