Lyle Divinisky Tells Us of His Journey with The Motet Before They Headline Red Rocks Amphitheatre This Weekend

By: Mirna Tufekcic

Once upon a time, in the small town of Boulder, Colorado, hippies roamed freely, love was abound, and it gave birth to a music scene rich with homegrown, grassroots vibes where people jammed for the love. After a while, that Boulder scene died out and moved to a place called Denver, where the music community urbanized and became more serious. Today, Denver holds one of the most unique music scenes around. From this community of awesomeness came the band The Motet. Their first album came out in the year 2000, and since then, they’ve been expanding their musical family and crushing it. In lieu of their headlining Red Rocks Amphitheatre show this Friday, July 12th and their massive upcoming fall tour, I phoned frontman Lyle Divinisky to chat about what we should expect to see from their upcoming shows. Read on:

Lyle joined The Motet sometime in 2014-2015, just when the band was looking for something fresh and new to add to their mix. Already a part of the extended grassroots music scene, Lyle was recommended to The Motet by his friend Ryan Zoidas from Lettuce and Dave Brandwein and Taylor Shell from Turkuaz

“The Motet reached out to the guys from Lettuce and Turkuaz when they were looking for a singer, and those guys recommended me. I guess you can say the rest is history. The guys from The Motet had me collaborate on a couple of songs, which turned out to be the songs on the Totem album and we vibed so well that shortly after that, they asked me to join them on tour, starting with a headlining show at Red Rocks with the likes of Vulfpeck and Medeski Martin and Wood. At that time, I was skeptical about leaving my goals as a solo soul singer, but I knew I couldn’t pass up that kind of offer. I think I made the right decision,” he laughs.  

The Motet.

The Motet.

And that he did! For Lyle, the most exciting part of becoming the lead singer of The Motet was exactly the Colorado vibe I mentioned earlier. As he says, “Being able to come into that built-in grassroots, home legacy, and to be welcomed so deeply and quickly, I think, is a really special thing about this band and the Colorado scene in general. The Colorado lifestyle, the Colorado excitement, the Colorado loyalty and investment in music; the music experience and culture created around this community is my favorite part.” 

Lyle grew up on R&B, hip-hop, and soul. His dad, Phil, was his biggest influence. “Yeah I got these pipes from my dad. He ended up choosing the home route and he’s been a teacher his whole life, but while I was growing up, he would play gigs on the weekends and at home, he would have friends come over who would play guitar and sing and I would be around all of that.” 

How he chose to be a singer by profession was a purely instinctive inclination. “I never took any singing lessons, but I grew up around it and was really good at listening. When I finally got old enough to be left alone around the house when I was about 12 or 13 years old, I started singing by myself. But even then, I was just kind of doing it for fun. I didn’t really start becoming serious about singing until I was 17 when I realized a basketball career for a slow, barely-six-foot-tall white guy who can hadrly dunk wasn’t going anywhere. Naturally, I chose the next most successful job placement and that was to be a soul singer,” he laughs. And honestly, we both laugh at that one, but sometimes a strong dedication to what feels right, despite the odds, pays off. So far, in Lyle’s case, it’s been a successful ride that shows no signs of stopping. 

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Lyle and I spent a little time talking about The Motet’s history and how the feel, sound and direction of the band has changed over the years. On that topic he says, “The coolest thing about The Motet’s history is a supreme lack of fear in constantly changing. There’s no thought of trying to build walls or boxes around who the band is. It started as a worldly music with heavy bass and percussion, then moved into afro-jazz and afro-beat, then it went straight funk and right now, with the configuration of the people in the band like Parris on the trombone, Drew with a reggae vibe, and me with a heavy R&B and soul influence… it was inevitable for the band to journey more into that realm than ever before.” 

Parris Fleming, who Lyle mentioned, is also the newest addition to the band. Only 27 years old, he is truly a breath of fresh air for the band as a whole. He took Jazz Instrumental studies at Columbia College in Chicago and played in Dumpstaphunk before joining The Motet. Adds Lyle, “We all feel really lucky to have Parris in the band. He is a superb musician, but he also brings some calm energy to the group. To be only 27 years old and to be such a mature and well-rounded, calm, and confident dude is pretty amazing.” The age range of the band members of The Motet is 27 to 51, a nice mix of experiences where everyone has something worthwhile to bring to the table. 

As far as the band’s live performances, they don’t seem to be stopping. The Motet will be doing the weekend warrior thing this year, playing shows every weekend from now until Thanksgiving. Even though the band’s been on a headlining streak at music festivals and big venues across the nation for several years now, their out-of-the-box approach to making music is unwavering. Staying as a cohesive whole, made of different parts, their performances remain engaging and aspire to connect and impress every time. “We really don't want to box ourselves in. Everything we write and create we want to be genuine. It comes from all of our inspirations coming together and we all have different influences that we bring to the table. As we present that music to the audience we know that we want to create an experience and we know that we want to take the people on a journey, whether that’s to give them the freedom to be as weird and wonderful as they want to be or to nerd out to Garrett Sayers being the most ridiculous bass player and Joey Porter being the funkiest dude ever… you know, we want to create moments and scenarios with the music are very proud of and share it with the audience.” says Lyle.

As for their upcoming headlining Red Rocks show this Friday, they're playing with Galactic and Moon Hooch. Lyle is pretty stoked, saying, “Headlining Red Rocks, once again, is such a dream come true. You hear people always say, ‘Oh man that is such a cool venue!’ And yeah, they’re not wrong! It never gets old and it’s a magical experience, one I am honored to be a part of. This time around, we will have a few special guests and it will be a non-stop-funk-filled dance party. It’s really what we try to do every time and what we do best. The band as a whole is in a really cool place right now. It just feels like there’s something special happening within the group and the music we’re playing. I think it’s undoubtedly going to show in our live performance.” 

As far as magic goes, the dudes of The Motet are also playing during a magical time of the year: summer in Colorado! You can buy tickets for The Motet’s Red Rocks show here while they last. I look forward to seeing you out there!   

-Mirna

All photos, videos, and embedded tracks per the artist featured and those credited. This feature was edited for brevity and clarity by BolderBeat.

Moon Hooch: Transcendence, Dance Music, Saxophones, & Drums

By: Will Baumgartner

The sensational New York-based trio Moon Hooch have generated a huge international buzz with their joyful, intense, explorative, dance-friendly music; a buzz that has grown from their early days a few years back playing on subway platforms in NYC to touring with the likes of Beats Antique, They Might Be Giants, and Lotus, all while selling out their own shows at venues across the nation.

Moon Hooch.

Moon Hooch.

This Saturday, October 29th, the trio will play Boulder’s Fox Theatre, and there are still some tickets here. Currently, the crew is touring in support of their wonderful third album 'Red Sky'. The group, which consists of saxophonists Mike Wilbur and Wenzl McGowen plus drummer James Muschler, create vast soundscapes and irresistible dance party music with just these three instruments filtered through a bit of electronics. Their music is in large part an outward expression of their own spirituality and activism: they all meditate and do yoga, practice conscious eating habits, and are constantly involved in work with organic farmers and other groups working toward social and cultural change. With these things in mind, I sat down with McGowen and tried to gear my questions toward the seemingly unlikely connection between their ass-shaking music and their spiritual and cultural efforts. The result was a conversation that, like their music, was both fun and thought-provoking.

First things first- is there a particular meaning behind the name Moon Hooch?

No, actually there isn’t. It means something, but we came up with the name kinda randomly. One day we were playing in the subway and people started dancing, and we were kinda surprised because we weren’t really planning on starting a band. So a person asked us what the name of our band was, and Mike just randomly said ‘Moon Juice’. We went home and googled it and there were four other bands with that name. We looked up synonyms for juice and hooch was one of them, so we went with that.

Watch Moon Hooch's music video for "EWI":

How has your music changed since your debut album, which came out in 2013?

We started out playing in the subway and that was completely acoustic. When we started playing in bigger rooms, I wanted to use more bass, and that’s why we started using the traffic cones, which we put in our saxophones. It creates a bass frequency that makes the subwoofers in clubs respond more. I also bought a contrabass clarinet, which goes as low as 33 Hz, and we have come up with this intricate system of using electronics as spice but not substance. We produce all the sounds acoustically, and then process them through a computer, and that gives us the ability to emulate the sounds of drops and buildups that are common in electronic dance music.

You've talked about incorporating the energy and activity from your surroundings into your music. What's the difference between doing that in the subway and onstage in front of a paying audience? What are the similarities or constants between these two settings? 

The similarity is that you have to give everything you have and be in the moment. If you’re thinking about something else, whether onstage or in the subway, the crowd will respond less. So I think it’s pretty much the same. Maybe onstage you’re a little more focused because people are there and giving you their attention, whereas on the subway you have to grab people’s attention.

Like more and more musicians these days, you've been very vocal about your spirituality, and publicly involved in activism. How do your yoga and meditation practices affect your music? What are the causes you're most involved with as activists? 

It’s a systemic problem we have: culture has spiraled out of control based on domination, greed, fear, and competition, and that has manifested in so many ways. Anywhere you look, you’ll find a manifestation of that core issue. For example, the fact that forests are getting cut down is because we value trees more as a commodity of profit rather than as a breathing, living organism that helps our planet and our species stay alive. It’s a very selfish mindset that leads to this. And that’s only possible because people have become so hardened; they don’t feel their heart as much anymore, and actually don’t really care.

We have so many layers of fears and insecurities and our own issues that really prevent us from caring about others. In the school system, you can find the same sort of issues. We’re getting trained to be functioning members of society; that’s really the main goal of the school system. It’s not really to help a child explore their own purpose and find out who they really are. Most people coming out of school have no idea what they want to do or who they are. This sort of culture is robbing us of our identity.

I see us as spiritual beings: we are consciousness in human form. And as such, we are actually not that interested in material things! These things are all conditioned into us. They’re conditions of being in a body, and in this culture that we crave money and power and all these things, but our true purpose lies in unfolding our loving potential. That’s what spirituality is for me: a way of navigating through all these negative fears and habits and finding our true selves. You can do that through yoga, meditation, music: through anything that allows you to train your focus and clarify your intention. I think you could be making burritos and have very spiritual experiences. If you’re fully present with the burrito, and the people you’re serving, then you have overcome some layers of social conditioning and have found a peaceful place in your heart. These ideas can be manifested in so many different ways, and we try to do it through our music.

Do you feel that you're making a difference in terms of raising consciousness in your fans? In what ways do you try to spread the word about your causes, and encourage people to embrace spirituality? 

I think a lot of people at our shows actually have spiritual experiences, whether they call it that or not.They have experiences that lift them out of their normal state of being. A state of being is essentially an agreement between the mind and the body, a way we interact with ourselves and our nervous system that feels normal to us, that we identify with. And I think that music can heighten the moment to the point where we break out of that and suddenly experience something beyond what we’re used to. I think many people use this experience to question themselves, question society, and grow as beings. I’ve certainly experienced this transcendental state through music, and thought, ‘Wow, I could feel that way all the time if I learn to find a way to transcend all these forces in life and really be expressive.’ So overcoming these things is something our fans do while listening to our music.

What do you want audience members to take with them from your shows?

[I want them to] realize the experience of being free and in the moment that they get at our shows can always be attained by working patiently and diligently [whether it's by] having a daily meditation practice, daily yoga practice, mindful eating, playing music... Whatever it is, being in the moment is something you can practice. And by creating a new state of being, which is really our old state of being, we can create a peaceful society. I think inspiring others to grow in this way is activism.

The album art for Red Sky.

The album art for Red Sky.

I’m totally looking forward to being at The Fox show this Saturday, in the moment, and personally dancing myself silly! What's next for Moon Hooch? Do you plan to go back in the studio anytime soon?

Yes, we do! After this tour, we’re actually renting a house in the desert in Joshua Tree, California for two weeks, and we’ll be working on new music there for our next recording.  

Make sure to get your tickets to Moon Hooch at The Fox for this Saturday here. And keep up with the band on their website

-Will

All photos, videos, and embedded tracks per the artists featured and those credited. This feature was edited for brevity and clarity by BolderBeat.