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0000017c-60f7-de77-ad7e-f3f739cf0000Arts & More airs Fridays at 7:50 a.m. and 4:20 p.m.Theme music: "Like A Beginner Again" by Dan Barry of Seas of Jupiter

Funk Is Back With Medicinal Groove

courtesy of Medicinal Groove

Michigan-based band Medicinal Groove will play Friday night at 9:30 p.m. at Shakespeare’s Pub in Kalamazoo with another funk-inspired group called Crime Funk.

Matt McCalpin of the funk-inspired band Medicinal Groovegrew up in Traverse City—a mecca for musicians. But while McCalpin wanted to be one of them, he says he didn’t feel he fit in with the classically trained kids at Interlochen Arts Academy. After all, he was into punk and the blues, and had never had a formal guitar lesson.

“I was basically starting from scratch as a musician and I got to a point right after high school where the self-taught thing wasn’t getting me anywhere new,” he says.

So after high school, McCalpin moved to California to attend the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. That’s where he met a guy from Boston named Jonah Mclean who would change his music forever.

“Went over to his apartment and he had Parliament posters on the wall and James Brown records and all sort of things," McCalpin says. "And I was just hooked by the way he presented it and he just had all the good stuff. And before I knew it we were going to Lettuce and Soul Live shows together in L.A. and then we were in our own funk band called The Get Back.”

A year later in 2011, McCalpin came back to Traverse City and started his current experimental funk band Medicinal Groove. Though the members of the band now live all over the state, McCalpin says they maintain a cohesive sound.

“But it’s not really that difficult to pull off because the core of the band is the trio—which is myself, Jordan on bass, and Chris on drums. And that is the core of the group and we’ve been together for about four years doing this. And there was a time in the beginning when we were getting together almost every night and working on songs, working on cover songs, trying to get everything tighter and tighter,” says McCalpin.

“But it’s much easier and quicker for us to kind of get it together—whether we just get together right before a show or we spend the day together before a show in a different town. So we kind of have that connection.”

The band has also managed to produce a new album every year they’ve been together. McCalpin says they’ll start on their next record in March. How does the band stay so prolific?

“I think a lot of it just constantly comes from wanting to do new set lists live. Like we’ve never been into the idea of just having 20 songs and presenting them in the same way each show,” says McCalpin.

“So with that kind of mindset, we’re constantly coming up with new stuff and we’re constantly wanting to share it and document it on an album. So I think that’s the drive, like always wanting to keep it new and keeping the audience on their toes.” 

Matt_McCalpin_full.mp3
The full interview with Matt McCalpin

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