So often in music, like in life, timing is everything. That’s definitely the case for rising Grand Rapids jazz fusion group Pocket Watch.
Coming together rather serendipitously, finding each other at the right place, and the right time, the six-piece has come into their own in not much time at all.
Formed two summers ago, when they all happened to meet at an open mic at Flanagan’s Irish Pub in downtown Grand Rapids, the group quickly clicked together, and started making music.
Drummer Zach Dubay – who has also played with a number of other West Michigan bands including The Verve Pipe, Nathan Walton & the Remedy, Cosmic Knot, and many others – was part of the house band at Flanagan’s, alongside bassist Dale Bales II.
There they met fiddler Keala Venema, who also plays with GR world/folk music trio Whorled, guitarist Chris Murphy, as well as multi-instrumentalist Tommy Pancy (saxophone/flute/piano), who had recently moved to Grand Rapids from East Lansing after studying jazz at MSU.
Keyboardist Jarrett Holstag came along a little later, joining the band after meeting the other members at the Buses By the Beach Benefit that summer. They solidified around the weekly Sunday Jazz Jam at Turnstiles, hosted by Pancy, where they rehearsed regularly and started finding their sound.
“As soon as we started playing together, we just locked in,” Pancy said. “Everyone is really good at providing exactly what the music needs, whether it’s one of the songs that we wrote, or if we’re just jamming at an open mic, or in the basement. No one was ever trying to step on any toes. Everyone just kind of slotted in perfectly. So it really worked out really nicely.”
Pancy said he started out playing the family piano at six, and played saxophone all throughout middle and high school. And although he and Murphy both went to MSU, and Bales went to Berklee, he’s quick to point out that none of them actually graduated from any collegiate music programs.
“There’s like 10 or 12 years of academic music experience, but zero music degrees in the group,” he said.
The band members also share years of experience playing in other area bands, and cite fellow West Michigan band Earth Radio as a major influence.
Early on they took inspiration from jazz fusion legends Snarky Puppy, but over time have found their own approach, blending in more funk, and a jam band vibe to their sound.
“The way that we write the tunes is starting with a pretty spare skeleton, like, this is the melody, these are like the chords or the root notes behind everything,” Pancy said. “But once we get into the actual learning process, then everyone is able to add their flair to it, and write parts that are more in tune with their influences.”
Last summer Pocket Watch won the annual Walk The Beat competition in Grand Haven, taking home the grand prize, which included studio time at Grand Haven’s Third Coast Recording Co. There they recorded their upcoming debut full-length album, Sounds Like Music, due out Aug. 3.
“That was what gave us the opportunity to be able to go in and record the album,” Pancy said about winning Walk The Beat. “We couldn’t have done it without that. So we’re very thankful for Dave Palmer of the Walk the Beat Foundation, and then obviously, Bill Chrysler at Third Coast for offering up that prize package. That was more than instrumental in putting this whole thing together.”
Pancy added the experience of working in the studio was eye opening for the band, as even though they all had previous experience recording in basement or other sessions, this was the first time they would spend all day, every day, all week, in the studio.
“We have a lot of stuff to get through, so we have to stay on track,” Pancy said. “You have to make sure that we’re well-practiced, well-rehearsed, so we’re not wasting any time. And admittedly, the first couple of days, things started to fall behind and it was getting tense.”
The band is thankful for the help of Third Coast engineer Raziel Castaneda, who kept them on track, and helped them redo and punch up specific parts, capturing the live feel of the band, while expanding the scope with additional percussion, synths, keyboards, woodwinds, and cello.
“We knew it was a lofty task to try to record 10 songs in 40 hours, and we barely did it,” Pancy said. “So it came down to the wire.”
The album’s tongue-in-cheek title, Sounds Like Music, comes directly from the recording sessions with Castaneda as well.
“We thought about the title of the album for months leading up to it,” Pancy said. “We could never agree on one. And so I said, ‘let’s go in the studio, let’s record it, and maybe something will come up, or it won’t, and we’ll just keep fighting about it for the next three months afterwards.
“But once Raz came in and started getting the session really moving, that was kind of his catchphrase. Every time we’d do something, we’d be like, how did that sound? And Raz would always say, ‘Yeah, sounds like music.’ And that phrase kept coming back through the whole session, and we were like, ‘Well, it seems very appropriate for how it all worked out.”
Pocket Watch will release Sounds Like Music with a special show at The Pyramid Scheme Aug. 3. The band will also perform as part of the Shagbark Music Festival Aug. 2-3.
Pocket Watch
Sounds Like Music Album Release
Wsg. Sun.Dyle, Minor Element
The Pyramid Scheme
68 Commerce Ave. SW, Grand Rapids
Aug. 3, 7 p.m., $15
Musicbypocketwatch.com, Pyramidschemebar.com
