You can't stand still when Randy Woods is playing
If you hear that Randy Woods is playing, you know he won’t be alone up there on stage.
“I’m not a coffee house strummer. I don’t do solo shows. I always play with a band,” Woods says.
He’ll be doing that on Friday, Dec. 1 at The Bassment, playing ska and funk with a band of five.
“It’s all brand new material to us. It’s all original material. We actually do only one or two covers for the whole night.”
Known also as the frontman of Absofunkinlutely, Woods guarantees one thing.
“It’s definitely music you can dance to and move around and groove to.”
Woods has been making music his living for the past two decades, recording his own and other artists’ music in his own studio (even The Sheepdogs in their puppy days) and doing commercial work. Groove-oriented music always appealed to him.
“For years I played in rock cover bands and a country band here and there. Being from Saskatchewan, that’s kind of what you have to do. But I was always kind of seeking something out, and I love reggae and ska and R&B. It seemed like a natural fit.
“When we started Absofunkinlutely, there was not a ton of other bands doing that type of stuff with the horn sections and all that. That’s what drew me to it. I thought I could get some gigs and I liked doing it, basically.”
On the production side, he’s learned the hard lesson of practising what he preaches. If he tells an artist that a chorus is too long or that they should change a certain word, he has to listen to his own advice.
“If it feels weird or awkward, you’ve got to rework that. That and letting go, it’s hard for people to let go. Just sing it, rip it up and don’t be afraid.”
Woods released the Randy Woods Band album in January. It might have been made in Saskatoon, but you’ll notice a European flair in a couple of videos if
you check out randywoodsband. com. Woods was in Amsterdam and Berlin and simply took out his Samsung Galaxy and shot footage for videos of songs like You Should Have Guessed and Subletter.
“I was on holidays, basically, and I thought I’ve got a pretty good backdrop why don’t we shoot a couple videos of me looking silly walking down the street?”
At The Bassment, Woods will be joined by Mike Pierce on drums, Geoff Assman on keyboards and bass (check it out — he plays both at once), Connor Newton on sax, Adam Streisel on trumpet and Dave Upwards on congas.