jeff sipe on grease factor, bitches brew, tony bennett and more
by Katie Lieberman | July 14, 2004
What happens when you decide to start a band, can’t rehearse due to a good ole’ North Carolina ice storm and then play together for the first time when the lights go down and the show begins? Well for one, you get the almighty Grease Factor, an aggressive, deep fried blend of delicious, jazz infused Cajun rock with a backbone of soul. Made up of guitarist Shane Theriot (Neville Brothers, Jewel), keyboardist Johnny Neel (Allman Brothers), bassist Derek Jones (David Grisman), percussionist Count M’Butu (Aquarium Rescue Unit), and drummer Jeff Sipe (Aquarium Rescue Unit), Grease Factor is loaded with undeniable talent and strong musical vision.
Jeff Sipe is a drummer of many wonders. Having been born in Germany, when he was a freshman in high school Jeff’s family moved back to the south. It was at this time Jeff found the magic that is Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker and the entire jazz dynasty. “I realized that just about all roads in American music lead back to New Orleans and the great music that came out of the turn of the 19 th century. It spawned this beautiful American jazz music that Miles really understood. For me all roads lead to Miles (laughs), Bach too is probably my favorite, I wish those two could have met.” I wondered if any album in particular had ignited this passion, this instant musical revolution? “Bitches Brew was an awakening. [His] sense of timing, phrasing, and his pacing throughout the song…everyone that he played with was going for it.”
And why not go for it, especially when you can put yourself in the middle of an experienced forceful musical unit. “I had never really had this level of (rythming) before with five guys”, Sipe says of his Grease Factor band mates. Unable to rehearse before their first show at Stella Blues in Ashville last January, they showed up at the venue, hoping to pull something off. While each had worked with the other on separate occasions, whether in the studio or on the road, these five men had never played as a collective component before. No one knew what sound was going to come from that stage, but I doubt anyone expected nothing short of awesome. “We were really amazed, at least I was” Sipe continues, “We actually pulled off some spontaneous compositions with intro’s and great hooks and tight endings. Everything seemed liked it was actually rehearsed.” It went so well; the response was so moving that what was originally a five-night run transformed itself into something a bit more permanent.
Starting a new band though means starting from the beginning. “We are still trying to introduce ourselves to the public. Like any starting band you really have to build it from the bottom up,” Sipe noted. Each man has played to sold out venues, where thousands upon thousands have come to feel the sensation of their music. So how does it feel once again to be back in a club atmosphere, with considerably less people? Sipe “enjoys smaller rooms, maybe up to 500 hundred people or so. Once you get 1,000 people in the room or more, it just feels a lot less intimate, the music automatically somehow becomes a little diluted, just to appeal to more people. It’s a different ballgame if you’re playing with big production in a big room. It’s really exciting, with a different kind of adrenaline, a different kind of excitement. Smaller groups, smaller rooms allow for magic and spontaneity.”
Magic and spontaneity seem to be the secret weapon for this group and these five men know how to use that weapon to be impulsive and continuously feed off the musical grace that each possess. “Every night, there’s a section of the night that writes itself and it’s pretty amazing to me how that happens,” Sipe stated.
They are able to accomplish this task by bringing their personal roots into the mix. How does it all fuse together? Well, “Johnny Neel, is really very soulful, influenced by the southern seed. He breaks away from the southern rock mold though and is able to go into the jazz world, but not too heavily. It all comes from a very soulful place. And Shane Theriot has got this New Orleans rhythm and his soloing is just magical and fantastic. The Count, who studied African and Latin percussion adds the spice and Derek Jones, who has played with all types of genres, well there’s just no idiom that can describe his sound.”
While the name of the band comes from a recent Shane Theriot album, most songs are in nightly development and continue to write themselves. I asked Jeff if there were any songs he was excited to see mature and he answered with two. First, “ I have a soft spot for ballads and beautiful melodies, I really want to be Tony Bennett (laughs, but truly serious). There’s nothing more beautiful than a pretty melody, it transcends everything else, so Everyday, that’s really a joy to play.” And the second, “A really sad Latin Groove the Count, myself and Derek are getting into, rhythm section wise. It’s like soaring like an eagle with those guys.”
Well if that isn’t what you want out of the musicians you play with I don’t know what is. I also don’t think there is anything more you can ask from the music that you go and see. It is this type of connection that makes a band great that makes a band’s growth worth watching; there is nothing more enticing. Not that you won’t be impressed already, each member of Grease Factor has the making of a legend in his own right. I must say that Jeff Sipe is one of the most articulate men I have spoken with and his love for music is obvious in every statement made, in every story told and in every drumbeat played.
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