Mercury Lounge heated up within minutes on March 22 as the Toronto-based nine-piece deep funk band The Soul Motivators started playing to a full house.
Having already performed in Toronto and Hamilton, the band was on a road trip to promote their new EP release, and passed through Ottawa, with Montreal on the itinerary for the next day.
“This is our first EP, this is all original music. It’s got some deep soul vibes on it, some funk, and a little of afro-funk as well. Really it’s just a snapshot of what we’re really doing now and our writing. We wanted to take a snapshot of our collective energy and our studio vibe,” bassist Marc Shapiro said.
The band, which has been going for about a year and a half, is just a “good group of musicians who came together on a common goal of making quality deep funk soul music,” Shapiro said.
The name The Soul Motivators existed before it took its nine-member form, vocalist Lydia Persaud said. As the only female band member, Persaud said by now they have all come to own the band name in a personal sense.
“The music that we play, the traditional funk music uplifts people’s souls, it makes people feel good, happy, and forget their daily business, so it’s happy music, it motivates their souls,” Persaud said.
Indeed, the sense of soul-owning and their music definitely comes through, as it’s not just solely about the music itself, but the atmosphere and the energy they create both within themselves and the audience.
“We’re there to throw it down and have a good time, but whatever we’re playing it’s not just about our funk stage, it’s also for our collective energy,” Shapiro said.
In terms of business, the band admits they are not concerned about record sales.
“We’re thinking about what we’re inspired by, in both sounds and lyrics. The business isn’t the motive behind our writing,” Shapiro said.
The real motive, according to him, is “getting deep on the funk and collectively seeing that as a common vision. Lyrically you got to listen to the music and see how it inspires you.”
The band seemed to live up to their motives, as the audience was visibly enthused and having fun. As Persaud described the crowd, she said “the music is really affecting them in a positive way, I see lots of people smiling and dancing and just moving.”
Joshua Crowe, a social worker at the City of Ottawa, heard of the EP release on CBC Radio. Being part of the energized crowd, he thought they had a good groove going on.
“My first impression of these guys is that they are very creative. I guess they’re trying to cut their own style out of the funk, so they got the main theme but they also have different patches of music and they try to make all those fit into funk music. It’s very interesting!”
Although the concert lasted late into the night, the crowd stayed and cheered the band back for more songs. Crowe, who usually doesn’t go to concerts like this, also stayed.
“The musicians are really tied together. They just really make it work,” he said.
