The Ohio Players. Goose. Mateus Osato. Those are a handful of bands or musicians the members of local band Yope toss out when asked about who influences them and what they listen to. Then throw in Snarky Puppy, Flatland Cavalry and Phish, and local acts like Hotel Draw and Dana Ariel, and you’ll get a well-rounded but perhaps still incomplete list of what the quartet – guitar players Connor Jans and Tyler Kelly, bass player Henry Boos and drummer Patrick Groom – dig on.
If you go
WHAT: Yope record release show, with Hotel Draw
WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday
WHERE: Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive
TICKETS: $18/$20
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.animascitytheatre.com
It’s that array of sounds that also goes into their own music, a mix of jam, fusion and stoner rock, funk, psychedelia and whatever else may roll through band members’ digital music devices, turntables or creative heads.
All of those sounds will be on display when Yope celebrates the release of their debut album, “Searching for a Porpoise” with a show Friday at the Animas City Theatre. Opening the show is Hotel Draw.
Things started for the band when the guitar player-less rhythm section of Boos and Groom met Jans and Kelley at the now defunct open mic night at the Starlight Lounge. That was two years ago, and since then the band has kicked things into gear, with high energy regional shows and festival appearances. They’ve also been writing and recording, eager to use the time laying down tracks in a studio to not only record and release an album, but to educate themselves about the process. Recorded at friend and producer Dusty Grannis’ local studio, “Searching for a Porpoise” is a communal effort from a band eager to learn and work together, a band that’s also ready to make Yope a full-time venture.
“It’s our first album as a band, it’s a lot like cutting our teeth to know how certain processes work and just feeling comfortable in there with a friend,” Boos said. “Bouncing ideas off each other definitely created a lot of room for us to make those songs.”
“Sometimes we’d all go in and work on things, and then there was also a lot of one person doing their little bits, and a lot of collaborative work,” Jans said. “It’s a lot of listening, feedback, listening, feedback. So it’s not so much, ‘Let’s lock ourselves in this room for a week until the album comes out,’ it’s like, ‘Let’s do this however it works for us.’”
What has worked for them in the studio aside from a solid debut is the defining of their sound. The singles released from the album thus far remain as diverse as their listening habits. “Brooks” is a psychedelic funk number that drifts into prog-rock territory; “Halocline” is a grooving and dreamy reggae cut; and the latest single, “Communion,” comes complete with a thick, sludgy riff. All the tunes feature tripped-out guitar theatrics.
Throw those original songs into a setlist where the band is likely to cover anything from the Talking Heads to N.W.A. via Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, and you’ve got a show of high-energy rock ’n’ roll that may throw you a curveball.
Those curveballs aren’t only exciting for fans, they’re exciting for the band as well.
“That’s why I’m really stoked about this group is because I think we all bring different aspects in our playing. Reggae’s not out of the question; stoner rock’s not out of the question. We’ll say, ‘Let’s do this one in five, lets do some prog-rock stuff,’” Boos said. “I think everybody kind of bringing their own nuances to our music creation is what really makes our sound what it is.”
The record drops digitally on Friday with hard copies forthcoming.
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
