<bt>Politicks is playing at TT Reynold's on Saturday, April 15.
Introduce the band: Politicks is Matthew Green on vocals, Brian Chafin & Mike Trella on guitars, Bradford Moore on bass, Brendan McCourt on drums and William Waikart on percussion.
How did you guys get together? Brad and Mike started playing together in high school under the name Politicks of Ecstasy. While attending college in Radford, they met Matthew and Brendan — who later added Brian to the group. Politicks recorded their first demo in 2001. William joined a year later.
Describe your sound: We are a rock band with strong influences in reggae, soul and funk. We put a strong emphasis on songwriting and each member has a lot of input in the songwriting process.
Biggest musical influences: Each band member could say something completely different, but we share these influences: Beck, Incubus, Led Zeppelin, 311, Jamiroquai, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Wilco, System of a Down, Deftones, Citizen Cope, The Roots, The Grateful Dead and many more. We're pretty eclectic.
Other influences: relationships, politics and our own personal experiences.
Most surreal moment: That would have to be recording in Los Angeles in March 2005 for our "LA Sessions" EP. We worked with producer Stacy Heydon (former David Bowie guitarist) and recorded in an awe-inspiring multi-million dollar studio, Sonikwire Studios. This trip also got us a private meeting and critique session with Steve Lindsey, acclaimed producer and Dr. Dre's publishing partner.
Have you toured? We've played in five or six states, but we haven't done a real tour yet. Most of our shows are around the D.C. area, but we plan on touring before the year's end in support of our upcoming album.
Anything special about the upcoming show? This show is at TT Reynold's, a seminal club in the Northern Virginia music scene. We've always had a great time there and TT's has done so much to help strengthen the scene. Plus we're playing with a great rock band, Cobbler. We had our first show with Cobbler last week and we were blown away by their performance.
What are your future plans? We recently recorded in Virginia Beach and Los Angeles for our upcoming full length album. Songs from this album will be promoted to radio stations by the summer. And we plan to tour soon after to support it. Also, two of our songs have made it to the storyboards of two major motion pictures slated for release in late 2006/early 2007.
For more on the band, visit their Web site at http://www.politicksband.com.