The Music Vibes Earns A Black-belt in Funk with Stoops from Kung Fu (and RAQ, too!)

When Brittany and I arrived at the Catskill Chill media lounge to interview Kung Fu for The Music Vibes, we were hit with a double whammy as we discovered that we were to speak with keyboardist Todd Stoops, who also plays in RAQ– the band that was scheduled to rock Catskill Chill’s Satuday’s late night!   It was incredible to learn more about Kung Fu, which began as a mere improvisational jam session at New Haven Connecticut’s own, Stella Blues before evolving into the epic funk-fusion powerhouse that it is today.  The band combines the genius of Stoops, the undeniable talent of The Breakfast’s Tim Palmieri, Adrian Tramontano, Chris DeAngelis, and Deep Banana Blackout’s funky saxophone player Rob Somerville.  Stoops along with his bandmates put Catskill Chillers in quite the funk Friday night, wearing their signature red jumpsuits, and than he appeared back on the scene the following night dressed in black to rock the crowd with RAQ.

Stoops and our own Brittany Bossler kicked off The Music Vibes interview discussing the best places in Jersey, but it wasn’t long before we got the nitty gritty scoop on Stoop’s experience with the Chillfam, writing for Kung Fu vs. RAQ, and why he brings his son, Oskar, to moe. down instead of Camp Bisco. Speaking of Bisco, The Disco Biscuits are about to throw down in their hometown at City Bisco on September 28^th and 29^th and, speaking of Stoops, Kung Fu will be rocking the late-night after party at The Blockley this Friday! Before you catch him moving his fingers at lightning-quick speeds across the keys Friday night, check out this exclusive interview with Stoops:

Mia: Kung Fu began as an improvisational Monday night gig and is now playing late night festival slots, can you tell us about the journey from playing in an intimate bar setting to playing festivals?

Todd Stoops:  It’s been a really wild ride. We never planned on doing this. We put together a band to do Monday nights. Our friend had a bar, he never had live music in it. It was a like a Grateful Dead theme bar called Stella Blues and he said, “You know, I would be remiss without having live music in here, considering I love the Grateful Dead.” So this little section of this bar had couches and no PA- we came in there, threw the couches and set up a PA and started on Monday nights. Ended up like 14 weeks, and after the second week it sold out every time.  We thought, maybe we should keep this up. At that point we were kinda like covers and stuff. We had 4 or 5 original tunes out, at the end of 2009.  We started getting offers to play- we’re all from other bands, you know? So we were like, “Sh*t, yeah, let’s get it ready!”  It’s just grown organically from there, we’ve been really lucky. It’s really cool, we’ve been given a lot of cool opportunities.  We put a lot of work in, always trying to write new music. Just riding the wave as long as we can!

Mia- With you guys being in other bands (RAQ, Deep Banana Blackout, The Breakfast, BangBang), how do you determine what is specifically for Kung Fu when writing music?

Stoops: Oh, it’s really easy. RAQ is a rock band, you know? I haven’t really written music for RAQ- I wrote a lot of music for RAQ but that was- well I’m a little bit older than you guys- I wrote a lot of the RAQ music 1996 to 2000. So the Kung Fu stuff, I just got really inspired by being in a funk-fusion band. It’s a dance band, you know? When that happened, the creative gates opened and I just started writing.  Right now, that’s my focus. I love rock music and all, like the RAQ set for tomorrow we’ll be playing a rock ‘n’ roll set whereas the Kung Fu set tonight is funk, fusion, dance party. I just haven’t found myself writing rock ‘n’ roll lately. I think I will again, just not right now.   

Mia- This isn’t your first time at Catskill Chill!  Can you tell us more about your experience with the Chill Fam?

Stoops: It’s awesome.  Dave [Marzollo] is an awesome guy.  [Josh] Cohen, I’ve known him for a bit. It’s just a great environment. This festival and Bear Creek are two of the best festivals. I’ve played them all, with my other bands and stuff. The staff- they’ve been doing it long enough, they know what they’re doing.  There’s a lot of festivals that we play where you can tell it doesn’t come naturally to them; I guess is the most polite way to say it.  These festivals, this and Bear Creek, everything’s pro.  There’s never any jam-ups or hassles, everything works out.

As far as the community, it’s awesome! That’s why this place sells out every year. It’s a destination. I mean Dave told me when they put the cabins on sale they sold out in like 12 minutes or something, that’s crazy! It’s a testament to the community that they’ve created for bringing bands that they’re friends with and that they’re into, as opposed to the most popular bands that are out there.  They’re all about that, too, but it’s a great diverse kind of bisection, I think. 

Mia: We first caught (13 year old guitarist) Bobby Paltauf at Equifunk and are stoked to see him here. What’s your experience playing with Bobby?

Stoops: Yeah! He’s a friend of ours.  He’s 13, he’s unbelievable!  He had a show last year and his dad is his manager, his dad is great.  I have a five year old who’s a drummer, so I’m going to be that guy. When Oskar is 13, I’m going to be that dad! Bobby is amazing and we heard him play and were like holy sh*t, he’s playing like B.B. King and he’s 13. So, we invited him to play with us. We did a late-night slot at Gathering of the Vibes this year and we brought him up on stage.  It was the biggest crowd he’s ever played for, it was like 4 or 5 thousand people. He looked out at the people and (mimics Bobby’s brief moment of hesitation) you could see the look in his eyes for a second then he was like (mimics Bobby shredding). I got a goose bump just now telling you about it. He owned it, head in the air! He’s like a 75-year-old blues guy from Mississippi in a 13-yr-old little Connecticut kid’s body.  Very, very cool, he’s going to be a name to remember. By the time the guy’s 18 he’s going to be a f*ing nightmare for other guitar players, “What, I’ve been doing this for 30 years, are you kidding me?!”  He’s like Larry Carlton- [Chris] Michetti, my guitarist for RAQ and for Conspirator, we were talking the other day and the phone and he says, “Dude, that Bobby Paltauf kid you guys play with-he’s amazing…” He’s getting a lot of respect from other guitar players.  When you were 13, when I was 13- what were we doing?

Brittany: Going through puberty!

Stoops: (Laughs) Yeah! Like, “Oh my god, I have an armpit hair!” (all laugh) He’s out playing clubs, it’s ridiculous. (Imitates bartender) “Grape soda? Chocolate milk? Okay, Bobby.” The other night at Toad’s Place we did a benefit for a friend of ours who was hit by a drunk driver. It was a last minute thing a couple of weeks ago.  We invited Bobby to play and I was joking with him and his dad, saying “You’re going to get a lot of girls” and he was like “Huh?” I was joking with his dad and it didn’t even cross his mind, I [told him] don’t worry about it (laughs).

Mia: Bobby is exceptionally talented, but what advice would you have for young musicians in general?

Stoops: Just play. Just play as much as you can and hopefully your parents are as supportive as Bobby’s dad. Bobby’s dad is a musician, too. My buddy Adam Deitch from Lettuce, his parents were musicians, went to Berkley and all that, so he grew up in that environment.  You want to foster it from a young age, you know. If you have cool parents that let you jam in your basement or garage and let friends come over, milk it for all it’s worth- never move out of your house! Pay rent if you have to as you get older. My advice would just be to keep playing. Express yourself, musically. 

Mia: Your name, Kung Fu, means skill but more specifically skill resulting from hard work. What are you guys hard at work on now?

Stoops: We just finished an album. We are in the last steps of mastering an album. Tim [Palmieri] and I have been writing music like crazy the last month. Tim just got married, my guitarist- our guitarist, I should say. I don’t own him. (laughter) I have stock in him but I’m not over the 51% mark. No, but we’ve been writing a bunch. We’re just always trying to keep it fresh for us. We feel like if we feel fresh, then our audience will feel fresh.  Some of the songs we have been playing for a couple years and we’ll write a set for a festival and the guys will be like “Oh, we don’t want to play that song” and I’ll say, “No, we’re here for the first time, we gotta play it.” We have that, “what’s next” vibe.  We push ourselves. 

Brittany: Can I sneak in one more question? What’s your experience playing with Moe.?

Stoops: Oh, oh, oh! Yeah, I’m good friends with the Moe. guys, I’ve known them for a while. RAQ has played with Moe. a bunch.  They gave us a lot of good opportunities when we were young, like we played at The Tabernacle in Atlanta with them. We’ve done Summer Camp. In 2005, instead of them taking a set break we all came on and did their band switchover and played their set break in front of like 15,000 people, it was awesome. They’re older and they’ve been around for so long- they don’t have egos. You learn a lot from hanging out with those guys, about the right way to be, the right way to speak to people and other musicians. Now it’s very much a family vibe, they all have kids. RAQ just played moe.down a couple weeks ago and my wife and I brought my 5-yr-old, Oskar, to the festival, and he was up on stage with us and playing with Vinnie [Amico]’s kids. Everybody’s kids were running around. It’s a lot different than Camp Bisco, we’ll put it that way.  (Laughter) You see a lot of children running around there, too, but it’s not the same. They’re like twerking and sh*t. 

It was nice to meet you guys, though.

The Music Vibes certainly enjoyed meeting Stoops, as well and we are especially looking forward to catch him playing at The Blockley as part of Kung Fu for the Official City Bisco after party this Friday! Things are guaranteed to get weird so leave the kiddies at home and designate a driver!

Interview by Mia Jester and Brittany Bossler

Article by Mia Jester

Check out The Music Vibes Review:  Take a Minute to (Catskill) Chill

Check out The Music Vibes Review: Pulp FUNKtion: Kung Fu live at The Highline Ballroom