Little Brother Project: LittleBrotherProject.jpg
You won't meet a lot of bands that are as close as the guys in Little Brother Project. Life-changing events will do that to a group.
Marc Reczek -- guitar
Coy Boazman -- bass
Martin Reczek -- percussion
Phyve -- vocals
Morris Montgomery -- drums
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Track #1
Urban Ocean, 2002
Live and Well Shaven, 2005
Glass Houses, 2008
You won't meet a lot of bands that are as close as the guys in Little Brother Project. Life-changing events will do that to a group.
The Project began in 2003 as a plan to get a club to pay former Bro Sure bandmates Coy Boazman and Marc Reczek to practice in a corner, improvising to their hearts' content without the bother of writing songs or being an actual band. Dean's Credit Clothing on a then-torn up Main Street took them up on the idea, and something unexpected happened: Their improvised funk drew a crowd and continued to do so for a year and a half.
The band, which includes vocalist Phyve ("things happen to me in fives," he says), and multi-instrumentalist Conrad Kao, was poised to record an album when events challenged its very existence. First, Boazman learned he needed a heart transplant, which he had in January 2005. The group was dormant while he recovered with the help of his family — and bandmates.
When it seemed that Little Brother Project was ready to play again, drummer Daniel Beatty, a National Guardsman, was deployed to Iraq.
"We started to wonder what would happen to the band," Boazman says, "but we've been together for a very long time, and we wanted to keep it going. We auditioned Morris [Montgomery] on drums, and we've had a whole resurgence of what we do. Beatty gets out this October and will be our percussionist at that point."
Last year the band released Live and Well Shaven, a compendium of jams recorded from 2004 shows. It's an enjoyable entree into LBP's music, featuring the dulcet One Prayer More; the pretty, piano-laced Numbered Days; and the jammy soul of Cause and Effect.
"Marc's a big jam-band guy, but he's really the only one," Boazman says. "I love the improv, creating something from nothing, but we're way different from, say, Phish. When we were trying to figure out where we wanted to go with our sound, I brought in Stevie Wonder, Funkadelic and some rock CDs. Marc brought in eight Phish CDs."
"I thrive on improvisation," Reczek says. "I love the awkwardness of 'What am I going to do now?' It pushes me to try to go different directions."
The band is working on its first studio album as Little Brother Project (Bro Sure release one studio album, Urban Ocean) produced by onetime Waylon Jennings guitarist — and Reczek's wife's uncle — Gordon Payne, who wants less of the jammy bits.
"He pulls out an ire in me that comes out positively in the music," Boazman says. "I'm playing with my teeth grit, but when you listen to the tape, it's beautiful."
The approach has been difficult for a band that does in 12 notes what a different band might do in two, but everyone is committed to this slower approach in the studio, rather than releasing more live recordings (The Travis Tapes, Standing O).
"We're trying to capture what we do onstage, with the driving groove and creativity, but be centered around the vocalist, where it used to be centered around Marc's guitar," Boazman says.
As Little Brother Project regains its momentum, playing shows and looking forward to the new album, the band's members shine with an obvious joy for making music and being around each other.
"I get to play with passionate musicians," Kao was says, "I don't care if there's only one person watching, just sharing that passion with other players is good enough for me."
"Even when no one is around, after we've set up, Conrad will say, 'let's just play now,'" Boazman says.
-- Sara Cress | July 26, 2006
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