Phat Phunk Phamily Band
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Phat Phunk Phamily Band

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Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"Music Is Thicker Than Mud"

Music is thicker than mud in the Phat Phunk Phamily

By Tom Scanlon
Seattle Times staff reporter

Like Sly Stone used to say, it's a family affair ... .

After a house band filled the modest confines of Pioneer Square's Old Timers Café with the delicious sounds of soul and funk, I complimented the guitar player on his playing, and asked the age of his baby-faced bass player.

The guitar player, a bull-necked guy who could pass for a prison guard or former wrestler, squinted at me like he was deciding between a head-butt and a right cross. And then Gary Lee Johnson cracked a smile.

"He's my grandson," he said, with as much pride in his voice as there was sweat on his face.

And that's not all. He pointed to one of the singers. "That's one of my daughters." He pointed to a keyboard player. "That's my other daughter." He pointed to the drummer. "My son-in-law." And on and on ... .

Three of Johnson's daughters are in the band: vocalists O'Lisa and Tiera, and keyboard player Cydney. Deandre Enrico, Cydney's son, is the bass player. Two other vocalists are not related to the Johnsons, but are brothers: GeVoungh and Eugene Royster.

Another vocalist, Catrina Bailey, is not a blood relative, but is considered a "Godsister" of the Johnsons. Likewise, drummer Greg Fields is a "Godbrother." He was formerly romantically tied to one of the sisters, and Gary Lee Johnson still considers him a "son-in-law."

The band's Web site: www.phatphunkproductions.com.

So you could say that the family that plays together stays together.

"It's the best thing I've ever done," says Gary Lee Johnson, a longtime Seattle musician who has played in several rock and country bands.

The Phat Phunk Phamily is more than a charming story, it's one of the best musical secrets around Seattle — fitting that Pioneer Square is the band's home base, as it is very "underground."

Polished by weekly Wednesday night shows at Old Timers for the last two years, and by countless basement jams that bend the dawn, the Phat Phunkers are exceptionally "tight" (meaning the musicians and singers are locked into grooves, ready to race off in another direction at the slightest hint) and almost astoundingly diverse.

Name an urban-music genre, they play it.

A typical show at Old Timers starts out with Bailey — one of three female singers — launching slow, mellow, soulful night starters, 4- to 5-minute mood-setting grooves. Suddenly, the bass-guitar-keyboard-drums kick it up a notch, and Bailey is trading verses with GeVoungh Royster, who climbs into Earth, Wind & Fire singer Philip Bailey's falsetto range.

The next thing you know, the band is blasting out an R&B jam, horned-up funk, heavy on the sax. The applause — from a small but clearly blown-away crowd — from that number is still hanging in the air when Phat Phunk musically slide-steps into a reggae song.

Hip-hop freestyle? Sure, why not: Bailey and GeVoungh flip a few casual raps over busy beats. Later, a long, fat funk jam melts away into the a cappella "I can chase your pain away ... I can chase your pain away," repeated more like a mantra than a chorus.

It's like — what's next?

'It's a blessing'

Indeed, what is next for this band? After seeing them at Old Timer's, where there's no cover charge for their Wednesday night shows, by the way, one can easily picture the Phat Phunk Phamily at bigger places, Chop Suey, even the Triple Door and Showbox. They did get a taste of the big time, playing the Paramount at the "Showtime at the Apollo" tour.

Until something breaks, they'll be playing the small clubs, like Old Timer's and Fremont's Suite G and Wallingford's Sea Monster Lounge, jamming in the basement and keeping the family affair going.

"I think it's a blessing," says O'Lisa Johnson, "because they all understand me." But what's it like jamming with her pop? "Playing with Gary Lee, it's cool. It's like healing. It's relationship building. It's bonding.

"Sometimes I'll take a break from singing and come to the bar, and I'll look out and see my dad and my sister and my nephew (playing) in a row — it's inspirational."

Her nephew, Deandre, is a 21-year-old computer science student at Seattle Central Community College. "They don't treat me like the youngest," he says of his family band. "They helped me because I was really inexperienced."

What do his friends think about his playing in a bar band with not only his mother, but his grandfather? A smile creeps over his smooth face. "Everyone thinks it's the coolest thing in the world."

And it's a cool thing to hear, especially when the Phatties break off into grooveland, building and changing directions ... "We jam a lot," Cydney Johnson says with a laugh, "where we don't know where we're going."

Yet they always seem to get where they need to be.

"We're not real virtuosos on our instruments," drummer Fields says, with the humility of one who started out in gospel music, "but we play together and listen to each other. It's about love."

And, like the midnight jams that roll on and on, the Phat Phunk Phamily continues to grow and shift and bloom. Fields' son "Baby Greg" is playing guitar and programming, at age 12. He's just one of a handful of Gary Lee's grandkids itching to elbow their ways into the basement rehearsals and onto the packed stages.

"Before they're walking," Fields notes, "they were grooving with us."



Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

- Seattle Times


Discography

Singles:
Cassanova Brown
Ease Your Pain
Is It OK
Two Step
EP's:
The Phat Phunk Phamily Band Just a Taste Volume #1
The Phat Phunk Phamily Band Live Taste It

Cassanova Brown: has had radio airplay and Video-DVD recording.

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

Our influences are good music that grooves, tells a story and has a message.
We love what we do and we are very unique in what we do. We are a collaboration of writers, producers, engineers, visual artist, and multi media oriented group of people. We are family, fully in presence together as a 11 piece band, truly dedicated to letting people know there is still good original music to listen to and enjoy out hear, you dig?