Percival Potts
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Percival Potts

Band R&B Funk

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Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"P-Potts video from back in the day"

<a href="http://69.43.206.52/school/music.php?id=1420&rid=88">The Vid speaks for itself!!</a>

Palestra.com is a college scene online news source, they got some great Music and some great videos of local college scenes in the midwest. - Palestra.com


"P-Potts plays Earth Day"

Earth Day comes a bit early this year with the annual Earth and Music Festival, hosted by the IU Student Environmental Action Coalition. The festival, which will take place Saturday in Dunn Meadow, is a chance for IU students and the Bloomington community to come together and celebrate the environment through activities and music. The admission-free event will run from 10:30 a.m. until 10 p.m.

Senior Sarah Butler, coordinator of SEAC, said the nine bands performing throughout the day were chosen from a pool of about 45 applicants. Ranging from Blue Moon Revue and Alma Azul Blues Band to Soul Shine and DJ Frazah, the groups were selected for their diversity. Around dusk, the activities will close down for the night to come in, and the festival will feature the Bloomington locals Percival Potts for a 2 hour concert.

Families are also welcome at the festival, with special activities planned for children, like making watering cans out of reused and recycled materials and potting plants.

"In the past, we've had music, plays, poetry; it's a great way to help educate and bring everyone together," Butler said.

Neil Michalares, drummer for Percival Potts, was asked why they chose to play a concert for this event. "We prosper from this community, most of the band grew up here in Bloomington. We bring people out to see a concert and while we're doing it we can promote the idea of being good to the Earth, good to the environment we live in. It rocks." Percival Potts will start around 8:30 p.m. - Indiana Daily Student


"Long Slow Burn"

Jam bands are becoming an increasingly popular site in bars and clubs. Everyone wants to be like Phish or Karl Denson. But what if you take a jam band, throw in some funk, a little soul and a touch of rock and roll? You get something original -- you get Percival Potts.

Made up of four IU students and Bloomington residents, Percival Potts is breaking out of the Bloomington music scene and taking their act regional in hopes of someday making it to the national level.

"Ideally, I'd like to stay with it as long as possible. To make it national would be a dream come true," lead guitarist senior Will Pierce said.

Percival Potts, or P. Potts as it is known to fans, played its first show under the name on February 1, 2002 at Uncle Fester's. The inspiration for the band name came from the British scientist, Sir Percival Potts. According to band member senior Rob Reynolds, Potts studied chimney sweepers and their development of cancer. He discovered that cancer was dependent on the environment. The air coming from the carcinogens of the coal dust that the sweepers breathed in caused cancer to develop. Reynolds said he happened upon Potts one day and learned more about him.

"We thought, wow, this is a hip guy, especially these days with the amount of chemicals that are in everything that we eat, breathe, drink. We want to promote something that will make you think as opposed to something that doesn't," he said.

"It's also a question on the MCAT," Pierce said.

The band became what it is today when bass guitarist Kevin Boas joined in May 2003 and Pierce, joined in August 2004. Boas, an IU alumni and Bloomington resident, entered the band with a strong jazz background and is well known for his improvisational skills.

Pierce also brought a heavy jazz background to the band. He was a member of jazz band throughout high school and his father was a jazz guitarist. Currently, he is working towards a music informatics major. Inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Bela Fleck, music is a mainstay in Pierce's life and he says it is something he wishes to continue doing.

"I rather make $10,000 a year playing music than $100,000 doing something else," Pierce said.

Reynolds takes the role as leader as vocalist/guitarist/keyboard and coronet player as well as composer of most the band's music and lyrics. Reynolds also picked up music at a young age. He had hopes of being a trumpet major in the IU School of Music until he blew his lip out in high school. Instead, he began playing piano, guitar, and teaching himself to sing by listening to greats such as Otis Redding, Motown and Stevie Wonder. Reynolds' persistent attitude and passion for music is what led him to start the band.

"Dealing with music, I'm ready to rock n' roll for the next five, eight, ten years," Reynolds said. "I'm always writing. It's a constant process. Listening and writing. Trying to improve upon what you can do as a musician."

Senior Neil Michalares met Reynolds about six years ago when he saw Reynolds playing in a band called Cova. Michalares told Reynolds he wanted to play drums for him someday. Taken up on his offer, Michalares is the second P.Potts original member. With a family background of percussion, Michalares took up the drums in high school and has played in bands ranging from heavy metal to punk.

Together these four personalities make up Percival Potts. They blend together to make the smooth, "groovin' danceable vocally intense music."

Being an upcoming band is not an easy task. It takes patience, hard work and determination -- it also takes money. With classes, practices and an extensive road schedule it was often difficult for the men of Percival Potts to find a job and work a lot of hours at that job. But nonetheless, they are passionate about making music and sharing it with others. Initially, the funding from the band came out of their pockets. They took their own cars to shows, paid for gas and saved by not staying overnight anywhere. Now, as their popularity rises, they have a band van they take to shows complete with TV and Play Station 2.

"We use money from previous shows to pay for gas. We bought a van, trailer and a ton of equipment. We've got an endorsement deal with Sam Ash too, that helps. We try and buy food and everything on the road with money from the band account, and then we split what is left when we get home. Most of the time, we're just breaking even, but we have a blast, and people get down for us," Michalares said.

Life on the road is still something Percival Potts is getting used to. At times, it can be quite taxing.

"When we drive 5 hours there, 5 hours back, setup and tear down for 2 hours, and only play for 45 minutes, it feels a little like we're more in a moving company than a band," Michalares said.

But there are also perks to being a band traveling from venue to venue. Most places give Percival Potts free meals and drinks as well as a VIP area to relax in before the show. But m - Indiana Daily Student


Discography

EP - The Dome Sessions (Live) - July 2005
* Out of Print - limited edition artistic copies are out of print, but we feature the music online still.

LP - choices - August 2005
* Tracks featured on NPR's all things considered, PBS special "Where the water ends...",

New Album and special edition recorded material is being tracked and demo-ed for a planned Summer/Fall 2007 release.

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

Percival Potts was a man who was knighted in the 18th century. He was a Doctor and a scientist, and while being one of the forefathers in promoting sanitation in the operating room, his claim to fame was to be the first scientist to demonstrate that a cancer may be caused by an environmental carcinogen. So... We thought he had an awesome name.

Percival Potts the Band started in Oct. 2002 as a project of simply getting the songs in our head onto paper and recordings. Neil and Rob had been playing music together since 2000, and upon the split of an experimental project band decided to pick up some dedicated musicians to work together. Kevin Boas Jr. joined the band in May 2003, replacing a previous bass player, and Will joined August 2004 replacing a previous lead guitarist. All set with our new upgrades, we set out upon the Bloomington bar scene with a vengence.

Playing Bloomington quickly grew into the surrounding areas of Louisville and Indianapolis, and before we knew it our weekends were spent in a touring van we bought with our band savings, touring the countryside and playing shows regionally. We have maintained residencies at venues in Louisville, KY, Indianapolis, IN, and Bloomington, IN.

Late 2004 and early 2005 found us in the studio recording our self produced, self funded album "choices" - which was released August 2005. We followed our album release with a 3 week national tour, spawning enough album sales to allow us to make a second, larger printing, and realize that we have something big on our hands.