Against all odds
Anthony Smith takes the hard road with his Trunk Fulla Funk
By Stephanie Flood
Published on 05/15/2008
Music, to a musician, is a life force that drives all things. It entices a person to commit to a lifelong pursuit of testing one’s skills and passions. It fosters a hope that everything will turn out even when all signs point elsewhere.
These are some aspects surrounding Anthony Smith’s experiences, the singer/songwriter/bandleader of Trunk Fulla Funk, a soul-groovin’, funkishly blues-boppin’ band that sprung from Terrestrial Records, based in Portland, Ore.
As Smith embarks on his experiential journey of musicianship amidst a contemporary world of financial woe, he composes songs for the band and writes his experiences in his blogs on the Internet.
“If you’re observant of your surroundings,” Smith says, “and you take an interest in people and the different characters that you meet, the different strange scenarios that you find yourself in within different cities, different states—it can be a really fascinating life that is worth examining. And I think that it’s worth writing about, and that’s sort of my main premise with writing.”
Creating compositions is Smith’s flame that never stops burning. “I’ve always had a penship for writing,” Smith says. “I love to write, whether it’s a literary endeavor or songwriting. Anything that has to do with composition, I think that’s really where I shine.”
Smith, who is also a keyboardist, has jammed in bands for a very long time. By experience alone, his musical abilities began transforming into a well-rounded globe of musical reference. Between 2001 and 2005, Smith founded the band called Global Funk Council, and he toured incessantly with them until he began wanting something different.
Feeling musically unfulfilled, his road began to twist in another direction. “I took a break,” Smith says. “I decided to make the difficult decision to end the band because I realized it wasn’t very gratifying artistically anymore.”
A few years ago, Smith wanted to start all over. This decision sprouted a jazz/funk/organ-based band called the Karl Denson Trio, formed by Smith and his partner Karl Denson, a well-known sax player on the national touring circuit with bands like his Tiny Universe, and the Greyboy Allstars.
But Smith was still looking for more, which lead him to create Trunk Fulla Funk, a six-piece band drawing from rock, funk and soul influences with some hip renovations that make the jam band sound fresh.
Smith keeps a tight nucleus of friends and musicians close, all engaging in constant creation. The Trunk Fulla Funk includes guitarist Aaron Bleiweiss, trumpeter Igmar Thomas, drummer Jake Najor, bassist and right-hand man Matt Schumacher, and soul singer and percussionist Walt Williams.
Music’s got a way of making life a little less mundane, and Bleiweiss understands this after spending a couple years studying funk, R&B, and jazz to better his guitar playing skills.
“When I’m having a tough week and things aren’t going right,” Bleiweiss says, “at least for me, playing music sets it all aside, whether it’s short term or long term. It clears your mind, and it washes away and gets rid of all the everyday things that might be annoying you or the hardships you’re facing.”
But a person can’t just live off of love alone. Some hardships musicians face when they take their dreams down a hazy horizon is financial stability. “It may be fulfilling mentally and spiritually or what not,” Bleiweiss says, “but actually being able to support yourself, especially when you’re doing music, is an extreme challenge.”
Despite their obstacles, in April of 2008, Trunk Fulla Funk released their first studio album called Life as We Know It, a compilation of all-original songs that Smith wrote and arranged for his fellow musicians, although each one of them introduced their own stylistic thumbprint in the grooves of these intricately engineered compositions.
Mike Naramore, co-producer and label-head at Terrestrial Records, explains what went into the makings of the album: “Basically, Anthony had them sketched out. The musicians pretty much learned their parts right when they got in the door. That was the biggest challenge about the whole thing. For example, a lot of trumpet lines were kind of spur-of-a-moment, where Anthony would get an idea, write it down and hand it to the trumpet player. That happened over and over and over again.”
After the tracks were recorded, a very laborious editing process commenced.
“As we added more tracks,” Naramore says, “things got a little more complicated. A couple of the songs had over 80 tracks, so that kind of got a little crazy. But Anthony and I are workaholics, so our energy would just feed off each other. The end result stayed true to our vision, so it was worth the work in the long run.”
Smith dedicates himself to a creed most musicians hope will one day burgeon into less of a philosophy and more into a reality.
As Smith writes in his blog, “Do what you love and the money will follow.”
Anthony Smith takes the hard road with his Trunk Fulla Funk
By Stephanie Flood
Published on 05/15/2008
Music, to a musician, is a life force that drives all things. It entices a person to commit to a lifelong pursuit of testing one’s skills and passions. It fosters a hope that everything will turn out even when all signs point elsewhere.
These are some aspects surrounding Anthony Smith’s experiences, the singer/songwriter/bandleader of Trunk Fulla Funk, a soul-groovin’, funkishly blues-boppin’ band that sprung from Terrestrial Records, based in Portland, Ore.
As Smith embarks on his experiential journey of musicianship amidst a contemporary world of financial woe, he composes songs for the band and writes his experiences in his blogs on the Internet.
“If you’re observant of your surroundings,” Smith says, “and you take an interest in people and the different characters that you meet, the different strange scenarios that you find yourself in within different cities, different states—it can be a really fascinating life that is worth examining. And I think that it’s worth writing about, and that’s sort of my main premise with writing.”
Creating compositions is Smith’s flame that never stops burning. “I’ve always had a penship for writing,” Smith says. “I love to write, whether it’s a literary endeavor or songwriting. Anything that has to do with composition, I think that’s really where I shine.”
Smith, who is also a keyboardist, has jammed in bands for a very long time. By experience alone, his musical abilities began transforming into a well-rounded globe of musical reference. Between 2001 and 2005, Smith founded the band called Global Funk Council, and he toured incessantly with them until he began wanting something different.
Feeling musically unfulfilled, his road began to twist in another direction. “I took a break,” Smith says. “I decided to make the difficult decision to end the band because I realized it wasn’t very gratifying artistically anymore.”
A few years ago, Smith wanted to start all over. This decision sprouted a jazz/funk/organ-based band called the Karl Denson Trio, formed by Smith and his partner Karl Denson, a well-known sax player on the national touring circuit with bands like his Tiny Universe, and the Greyboy Allstars.
But Smith was still looking for more, which lead him to create Trunk Fulla Funk, a six-piece band drawing from rock, funk and soul influences with some hip renovations that make the jam band sound fresh.
Smith keeps a tight nucleus of friends and musicians close, all engaging in constant creation. The Trunk Fulla Funk includes guitarist Aaron Bleiweiss, trumpeter Igmar Thomas, drummer Jake Najor, bassist and right-hand man Matt Schumacher, and soul singer and percussionist Walt Williams.
Music’s got a way of making life a little less mundane, and Bleiweiss understands this after spending a couple years studying funk, R&B, and jazz to better his guitar playing skills.
“When I’m having a tough week and things aren’t going right,” Bleiweiss says, “at least for me, playing music sets it all aside, whether it’s short term or long term. It clears your mind, and it washes away and gets rid of all the everyday things that might be annoying you or the hardships you’re facing.”
But a person can’t just live off of love alone. Some hardships musicians face when they take their dreams down a hazy horizon is financial stability. “It may be fulfilling mentally and spiritually or what not,” Bleiweiss says, “but actually being able to support yourself, especially when you’re doing music, is an extreme challenge.”
Despite their obstacles, in April of 2008, Trunk Fulla Funk released their first studio album called Life as We Know It, a compilation of all-original songs that Smith wrote and arranged for his fellow musicians, although each one of them introduced their own stylistic thumbprint in the grooves of these intricately engineered compositions.
Mike Naramore, co-producer and label-head at Terrestrial Records, explains what went into the makings of the album: “Basically, Anthony had them sketched out. The musicians pretty much learned their parts right when they got in the door. That was the biggest challenge about the whole thing. For example, a lot of trumpet lines were kind of spur-of-a-moment, where Anthony would get an idea, write it down and hand it to the trumpet player. That happened over and over and over again.”
After the tracks were recorded, a very laborious editing process commenced.
“As we added more tracks,” Naramore says, “things got a little more complicated. A couple of the songs had over 80 tracks, so that kind of got a little crazy. But Anthony and I are workaholics, so our energy would just feed off each other. The end result stayed true to our vision, so it was worth the work in the long run.”
Smith dedicates himself to a creed most musicians hope will one day burgeon into less of a philosophy and more into a reality.
As Smith writes in his blog, “Do what you love and the money will follow.”