San Diego’s Sure Fire Soul Ensemble On New Album, Making Billboard Debut

Speaker 1: 00:00 The surefire soul ensemble is one of San Diego's funkiest bands. Speaker 2: 00:11 [inaudible] Speaker 3: 00:13 [inaudible], Speaker 1: 00:13 the surefire soul ensembles, new album build bridges, debuted number one on billboards, contemporary jazz chart for the week of October 12th. One of its founders, Tim Felton keyboard player is a former KPBS staffer. He's back here in the studio along with Jesse Odello, longtime band member to talk about making music and San Diego and hitting the billboard charts. And Tim, welcome to the program. Thanks for having us back here. Jesse. Welcome. Thanks for coming in. So how did you find out that you guys had made the billboard charts and what was your reaction to him? Speaker 3: 00:51 Well, they'll, the label owner, he hinted to the fact that it may be happening, that we may have charted. And I was like, Oh, so, so then I Googled it. And of course, um, billboard makes you pay for a membership if you want to see the full chart. Um, so I, I, I, I saw that it Googled. So that means, you know, that meant that we had, we had charted, so then I paid for the monthly subscription to billboard and saw that we had hit a couple of different charts. Um, and the best, the best result was on the contemporary jazz album charts where we were number one for that week. Speaker 1: 01:23 And Jesse, what does that mean? I mean, did to hit number one on that, Speaker 3: 01:27 that means that someone's listening basically and the, you know, that our, that our music is actually getting out there. Sometimes you don't see the effects of your music until something like that Speaker 4: 01:37 that happened. [inaudible] Speaker 1: 01:50 now Tim, this new album is called build bridges, as I said. What's the meaning behind that? Speaker 3: 01:55 I was kind of thinking of the expression to build bridges, not walls. Um, so that could have been the title with like a parentheses around not Wallace and kind of relating to our current political climate and this monstrosity that we're, that we, that we seem to need to build on, on the Southern border border. And just like in general in life, you know, I think it's better to build bridges than walls in relationships even. So I think, um, some of the styles that we use within the song are, are blended. Uh, you know, we're, we're trying to show that we, that we're not just, uh, limited to one style, but we like putting things together in the same way that we're trying to keep communities together that should be together. Speaker 1: 02:40 I see. So musically you try to do build bridges as well. Exactly. Now there's a song on this album that may sound familiar to KPBS listeners. It's called Gloria's Anthem Speaker 4: 02:59 [inaudible]. Kim, tell us about this one Speaker 5: 03:05 demo that had, I had made probably eight or 10 years ago and I played it for former KPBS hosts, Dwayne Brown and he really liked the music then. Then it became the theme for the show that Gloria Penner was hosting at the time, which I think was called weekend edition. I remember correctly. It was the TV show. So then they would use the music under the radio promos and then as the intro to the TV show as well. So then years later I, I sent it out to the band members and we've reworked it. And so I thought, you know, leaving, you know, if this blurry and since passed. So I thought completely believe in her name associated with the cool thing to do. That is a cool thing to do. Speaker 4: 03:53 [inaudible] Speaker 1: 03:53 now, Jesse, in 2015, the band released its first full self-titled debut album. How would you say your sound has changed since that time? Speaker 3: 04:03 Um, I think we've gotten a little bit more experimental with our sound. Uh, we, um, always stay with our funk roots, but we definitely have a little bit more driving hard hitting sound. Um, that we feel relates a little bit more to, to our audience. Speaker 4: 04:29 [inaudible] Speaker 5: 04:32 that track that shows that the most is step up. Um, it's, it's has a lot of variety and it's not, it's very much unlike other funk tracks that are on the rest of the album or really funk tracks that you might've heard in the, in the sixties and seventies. You know, it does, does combine a lot of different types of elements, even so much as having a mandolin. I don't know any tracks that have a little bit Amanda linen, you know, from that era Speaker 4: 05:16 [inaudible] Speaker 1: 05:16 you know, on Tuesday nights you guys perform it at Rosie O'Grady's in normal Heights where you use an inhouse Hammond, 1950s, Oregon. In fact, you use an organ in many of these tracks. So what is it about the Oregon that instrument that's so essential to the soul, the funk sound that you're after too? Speaker 3: 05:36 Well, it's just a huge sound. I mean it can be a huge sand or it can be a thin whispering sound. It's just like heavy electronics, old-school, discreet Speaker 5: 05:46 point to point tubes, capacitors, resistors, you know, although amps are tube amps, so when it breaks up it's got a great sound. Um, there's a long time association with um, African American church. So of course, you know, you can't deny like the gospel kind of roots that is associated with the instrument, you know, in Santana's music. So it's got rock and roll, Latin rock and funk. It's just long history with that instrument. We're going to be great description there to the music industry. Just, it can be discouraging. I mean, what keeps a group like yours together year after year? The one thing that we all have in common is that we love to come together to make music and in particular make music with each other. The fans, anytime you come to a show, I get a lot of the same comments saying that, man, you guys look like you're having fun on stage. Speaker 5: 06:48 You're not just playing the music. You're literally interacting with each other on a whole other level. And what we get is it translates to the audience still, but we're all just having fun doing it. What's next for the surefire salt lamp? Sambal more shows, you know, um, we've got a live album that'll be coming out sometime next year. I'll stay late 2020. We recorded it back in may at Panama 66, which is an excellent venue here in Balboa park. So we were, um, the album turned out really great. We're really excited about that. And then we're working on our fourth studio album as well, writing some songs. I can't tell you how good it is to see you again. Thank you for coming in. Jesse. Congratulations to you both. I've been speaking with Tim Felton and Jesse Odello, both of the surefire sell ensemble. Thanks a lot guys. Thank you more. Thank you.