Today we’d like to introduce you to Funk Manifesto.
Funk, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Alexis, the drummer and brain behind Funk Manifesto, had a vision a few years ago of bringing good old’ dance-your-face-off funk to San Diego. A few weeks later, Alexis was attending a Harry Potter-themed interpretive dance revue and conveniently met the people who would become the rest of the band.
After a lengthy conversation about their shared love of Hermione Granger’s wit, the discussion turned to music. With musicians from a myriad of backgrounds including classical, jazz, punk, grunge, and psychedelic rock, Alexis believed she might have found what she needed to bring her funk vision to fruition.
The group convened the next morning, drank some mimosas, and started putting their respective touches on the funk palette that Alexis had laid out for them. By the end of the day the band had a handful of originals with hints of Sly, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, and Earth, Wind, and Fire. The band continues to grow their sound today, staying centered in the funk, but stretching the meaning of funk itself and touching on all the genres the members grew up loving and playing.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Our art is comprised of booty shakin’ grooves for people who are craving twerkable music. Yeah, we all love punk, indie, alternative, and rock, but those don’t necessarily get people out of their seats, or moving in front a stage. So, we started blending our favorite genres into our own manifestation of funk. It’s the only genre that stays in the pocket and hard to get out! We hope all our fun-k transcends to our listeners and gives them smiles, laughs, and good times.
Have things improved for artists? What should cities do to empower artists?
We believe everything has a silver lining, even the whole “living in a country run by a bigoted cartoon” thing. With all the hate and discourse shoved down our throats every single day, it’s natural to want to let loose and we like to think that’s where we come in. Call it cheesy, but the first three letters of our genre and our band are “F-U-N” and that isn’t by mistake. To answer the question more directly, “yes.” The world is messed up and we need artists to play many different roles to help it get better, including being voices of reason, which so many of our musician friends are.
In a time with so much exclusion, we believe it’s also important for artists to not be selective in who they share their crafts with. Funk Manifesto is a band formed by members with many different backgrounds and we want to be a band that plays FOR people of all different walks of life as well. It’s pretty difficult to not have fun at a funk show and we want our art to be a catalyst for bringing together all of the different, beautiful types of people in our fine city, and eventually beyond the borders of San Diego. Love always wins and you’ll find an abundance of love at any Funk Manifesto show.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Funk Manifesto is currently working on their first official EP, but some live recordings are available on the band’s website, funkmanifesto.com, as well as funkmanifesto.bandcamp.com
You can always support us by joining us at a show and dancing! Follow @funkmanifestoofficial on Facebook Instagram for the most up-to-date schedule! Our next performances are:
Aug 18 @ Pour House
Sept 7 @ The Riviera Supper Club
Oct 27 @ Indian Joe Brewery
Oct 30 @ Wintons
Contact Info:
- Website: funkmanifesto.com
- Email: funkmanifesto@gmail.com
- Instagram: FunkManifestoOfficial
- Facebook: FunkManifestoOfficial
Image Credit:
Daria Van Nice and Alex Grechmen
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