We hear about sibling teams in mainstream culture dominating many walks of life – in sports, in the film industry, and in music. However, they seem to elude us most of the time, so when we find a golden duo, they become very hard to ignore. I stumbled across this brother-sister duo, The HVTS and was hooked immediately. Take a look at them performing their original instrumental jazz track called “Jazz” at The Hotel Cafe.
It may take a special ear to groove along to their sound, but it shouldn’t take much to get wrapped up in their original beats. The chemistry between the two of them is obvious – the sibling connection is evident in the chords and melody lines. You can feel the chemistry vibrating through each note as they rock along to their smooth rhythms.
GunZ is a self-taught guitarist with an obvious natural affinity for the instrument. He practically becomes the instrument while he’s playing, and is always riding along, keeping tempo with his constant yet iconic chords. NVNDI always brings along her melodic lines that can be sulky yet sweet in their moodiness. She also pulls out her flute some of the time to jam along, woodwind-style. Though an unlikely match-up, it works. Her brother calls and she responds, and the two have natural chemistry that is simply hard to ignore. Watch this clip of them performing their original song “Dynamite” for the Tiny Desk Competition 2017.
The two are continuing to explore their music agenda – bouncing between funk, rock, jazz, and a combination of genres. None of their songs fully gravitate in a single primary direction – even in their jazziest songs they have a funky, rock-type guitar line that comes in and causes a unique fusion that’s hard to describe. The two are working on an EP, New Day, which they plan to release in the near future. They frequent many popular Los Angeles venues and are looking to share their talent all over. Check their page to see when they’re performing next so you can get a glimpse of this powerful dynamic DNA duo rocking out live! Check out their promo video for a few more clips of them performing!
Today’s feature is on up and coming rock band Sail, out of Detroit, MI. They have a ton of awesome covers featured on their Gigmor profile and we actually got to spotlight their “Limelight” cover on our “Gigmor’s Best 80’s Covers” blog post. We had the chance to sit down with their lead vocalist Anthony Fink and their drummer Tom Lowe. They weighed in on the band’s current state and a little bit about their beginnings.
Gigmor: Thanks for sitting down with us today guys. First question. What is each of your musical backgrounds? How did that lead you to Sail?
Anthony: I grew up classically trained in piano starting when I was about seven years old, then I got really into choir and eventually wanted to try it in college. I got into the Western School of Music, I really went for it when I wanted to. Then I decided to leave college to pursue gigging and that’s when I ran into them [Sail]. They like me, I like them, for about two years now we’ve been jamming out and it’s been great.
Tom: I started playing guitar in elementary school, then I started getting into drums in middle school. I kept with both of them for a while after. Aside from that, my first ever band experience was [playing with] a couple of my friends from church. We practiced a couple times a week and played some gigs. Now we’re here, doing Sail, and have two guitar players, a bassist, and a new female vocalist and have a ton of shows lined up.
Gigmor: How’s the songwriting process going so far for Sail?
Anthony: As every musician knows it’s a difficult process as well as a fun one. I actually have my solo EP out on iTunes– I’ve been writing since my freshmen year of high school. The other members are pretty into it too. As far as the band’s writing process it’s more about the collective sound. Each member kind of goes in different directions and eventually it all comes together.
Tom: We haven’t written that much music. We’re still working to perfect our four-hour set. Once we have time to put our own individual stuff on the table we’ll see what we come up with as a group.
Gigmor: Hit any speed bumps along the way?
Anthony: Creative differences obviously, people are going to want to express what they want to do. It’s never anything bad and always gets worked out. But it is imperative that everyone is on the same page in the end.
Gigmor: If you had to pick one, would you play only covers or only originals? Any personal favorites?
Anthony: Right now we want to do more originals, we’ll never not do covers. We love them too. We like to imitate the covers we play with a little bit of a modern flare to it. Some of my favorites personally are “Creep” by Radiohead and “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals, the audience always loves “Limelight” by Rush.
Tom: I’d say originals. A cover band lets you make a living, but ideally I’d say originals. My favorite is probably…..”Soul To Squeeze” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Gigmor: One selfish question real quick… How did you find out about Gigmor? How do you like it?
A: Our manager Cheri is very good at networking, your site seemed like it had a lot of action. We liked what we saw and just hopped in! The site looks great and is pretty easy to navigate.
G: On your Gigmor page we saw you said you were “Willing to Dress for Events”…any absurd requests?
A: Not yet! We would love to and are up for whatever!
T: Nothing weird, just suit and tie for weddings and stuff.
G: Okay, last question. What are the best and worst song requests an audience member has made?
A: There haven’t been many requests, we used to get “Freebird” all the time.
T: I can’t even think of a worst… well I guess it might have been “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons. I think it just went bad because that song is pretty synthy and obviously we’re more acoustic. That was more like it didn’t go over well not really a bad request. One of the better requests we got was “Short Skirt Long Jacket” by Cake. I love that song.
G: Well thanks so much for taking the time to sit down with us and best of luck!
