Local Victoria band returns to performing after a year
A local Victoria band, The New Groovement, is promising to bring the funk to UVic’s the Farquhar this week. The live-streamed concert series features shows from June 3rd to 6th.
The New Groovement is “an 11-piece everything band,” according to the band’s rapper and vocalist Shane Blaq. They boast two percussionists, a drummer, bassist, guitarist, two vocalists, and four horn players. This concert also marks the return of the original lead vocalist Theresa Pasaluko.
“The cool part of how diverse the group of musicians are is that it allows us to tap into a bunch of different places and create a bunch of cool stuff.” explained Blaq about the style of The New Groovement. While The New Groovement tend to do a little bit of everything in terms of music stylings, there is definitely a funk undertone to all their music through the horn section.
“We bring the funk when the funk is to be brought,” Blaq said.
The line-up for the concert is a mix of songs from their first album, and two brand new songs. The Wave, the song in their latest music video, is also being performed live for the first time. The New Groovement plays off each other on stage, which extends to how they write music together.
“A few of the newer songs that we’ve made have been jams that we’ve recorded that turned into something.” Explained Blaq about the writing process behind one of their newest songs, The Wave. “It was just a cool funky rhythm and I sang a thing overtop and initially intending the [other vocalist] to kind of take that part out, and the song just kind of solidified. We built on the instrumentation but the song structure and everything like that stayed the same.”
But not all music compositions are made in the moment, like The Wave was.
“We have a song that we’re going to be releasing soon that actually was compositioned by our barry-sax player,” said Blaq. “He had this composition written for all the parts and [the band] just built on that and then [the other vocalist] took it and sang to it and I came in and put in a verse.”
When asked about what it was like to begin performing again with the band in person after a year, Blaq said he is relieved to be back on stage.
“I’ve been a performer for a really long time, like 20 years, and I didn’t realize how integral that was to my mental health,” he said. “It’s that thing that fills me up, it’s my fuel.”
Tickets for the upcoming concert can be purchased at the Farquhar website, and find The New Groovement either on their website, and can find their music whenever you get your music.
