Kam Franklin of The Suffers Introduces Gulf Coast Soul (INTERVIEW)

What a year it has been for The Suffers. After just a few years of existence, this group has everybody talking. With an arousing appearance on Letterman, which left the host slobbering all over himself with excitement, and house-shaking performances at festivals and clubs, The Suffers are stirring a pot. But don’t call them Retro Soul just yet. They have too many juicy intricacies to be pinned down as an R&B band or a soul band or a Jazz band. And come February, they hope to really show everyone who they are and what they’ve got in their arsenal via a new full-length CD bursting with new tunes as well as remixtures of their last EP.

As the vocal centerpiece of The Suffers, Kam Franklin has the capability to bring her voice into any musical genre. Did you know she fronted a punk band? Or that her musical roots lie heavily in gospel? That she wasn’t even singing at the time Adam Castaneda was putting the band together in Houston? That she does one sultry, groovy, Caribbean flavored rendition of “Every Little Step” that makes you forget Bobby Brown’s version even existed? Put her in front of nine exceptional musicians and you’ve got a group that you can’t stop spinning on your turntable.

Enjoying a little time at home last week, before a show with Galactic the next night, Franklin chatted with Glide about growing up on gospel, her love for the punk band Rancid and what The Suffers music is really about – all with an excitement in her voice that only dreams coming true can instigate.

It’s been a really exciting year for you and The Suffers. What were some standout moments from this year?

We’ve definitely had a big year. I think at the top of the list would probably be Letterman, of course; playing the Newport Folk Festival up in Rhode Island was incredible and definitely life-changing for us. It’s been pretty gnarly (laughs). We’ve just been having such a good time and really just trying to enjoy ourselves.

With the new record coming out in February, what can we expect?

We are remastering the entire EP [Make Some Room] and including those songs on the full record but we’ll also be including quite a few new songs as well. I feel as though the record itself is definitely just a feel good album. There’s a few songs on there that will kind of take you to a little bit sadder place as far as relationships are concerned but the overall theme is that it gets better and if it’s not working right now, it might work later on – and that’s for all forms of relationships, be it romantic or family, whatever.

Was that the original intention to put out an EP first?

At first, we had intended to go all-out and release a full-length but we kind of had to gain a little bit of perspective because we realized that even though we’re ready to release the record, we don’t think that the public was really ready for us to release a full record at that time because while we were popular in our own region and popular at home, there was so many people all over the country that had never heard of us. We released that EP before Letterman ever happened, before we had even gotten confirmation for it, so we decided to kind of scale it back a little bit and just kind of see. If people respond well to this EP then we’ll release a full-length; if they don’t, we’ll just continue to have a good time and make music and have fun and hopefully one day they’ll like us (laughs). You know, I don’t think any of us set out with the intent of, yeah, we’re going to release this and everybody is going to love it and we’re going to blow up. It was more, I hope this goes well kind of thing, you know. And now we’re embracing making more music and trying to connect with everybody. It’s just been a really fun process overall.

suffers33Were the new songs already kind of in your bucket, so to speak, or did you go and write new songs after doing the EP?

The vast majority of them were already written earlier this year. There was one that is actually going to be the lead single coming out in January called “Peanuts,” and that was the last to be added and the last to be recorded but it ended up being the most popular song, as far as the band is concerned. So we decided to make that the major focus for 2016 and I think it’s a great introduction to the public as far as where we’re going and where our music is headed. We’ve gotten a lot of comparisons to so many great groups this year but I thought this song “Peanuts” is a big representation of who we are and what it is that we sound like. Even though we are a soul band there is so much more to us. We’re all about having fun and telling people not to take themselves so seriously. It’s so easy to just focus on the bad stuff and I think people forget that there are so many things to be thankful for. So we’re just trying to, you know, keep those little reminders in their ears.

Is that what the song itself is about?

“Peanuts” is actually about telling people to just chill out. You get so caught up in fighting and who is right and who is wrong and you forget why you started dating that person in the first place. So “Peanuts” is about taking a step back, taking a time out and just hanging out with that person you like and forgetting about the argument. But that one won’t be out till January. The one we released a few weeks ago, “Better,” it’s kind of in that same vibe where it’s like, you know what, it’s really easy to just be a jerk and do nothing and not help people but it takes a really big person to stand up and help somebody out, give them the opportunity that someone might have done for you, be it in the form of playing your music or giving you a job when probably you weren’t the most qualified for it or lending you some money and not asking for it back when you really needed it. There’s different ways to be helpful and I think people are very selfish sometimes. I don’t think they really intend to be or they mean to be, I think it’s just very easy to forget that other people could use a little bump.

Do you mind that so many people try to label you as retro soul?

(laughs) I don’t mind it, I just think it’s lazy. I think it’s a little lazy or maybe it’s our fault because the full record is not out. I think once it comes out that label will kind of be pushed back a little bit. Maybe I’m clueless and I am retro soul but I like to call it Gulf Coast Soul because there are so many different forms of soul music being thrown in there. I don’t think that soul music is just Sam Cooke or Aretha Franklin. I think that soul music is whatever you feel. I think soul could be classified as gospel, I think it could be bluegrass because in those regions where that music comes from, that’s their form of soul music. And when you’re dealing with all of these people in this band, even though I have what I think soul music is, there is other people in my band that didn’t grow up with the music I grew up on. To them, metal might be their form of soul music. That might be the thing that gets them feeling something. So to put that all into one gumbo that we call The Suffers, it ends up sounding like something familiar but at the same time it’s like, what is this? So I feel when people call us retro soul, they hadn’t really been paying that much attention. There might be one song that is kind of retro; the other three, no ma’am (laughs).

Your take on Bobby Brown’s “Every Little Step” is like this sultry, Jazz/Caribbean flavored gem of a song.

I like you (laughs). Well, what started it was my keyboard player Pat. Pat is the notorious New Jack/swing fan in the band. Like, I love it but I think Pat loves it more than me. You know, just looking at him you probably wouldn’t think that that’s some of his favorite music. He’s this super tall, pale skinned Irish dude, Pat Kelly, but he’s obsessed with 90’s R&B music. I work with him and it ends up this really, really great partnership because not only does he understand my vision when I talk to him about stuff like this, he comes with ideas that I wouldn’t even think to do. So that was totally his suggestion as far as covers and people ended up really, really enjoying it and we don’t do it very often but when we do it, it’s fun every single time.

You mentioned gospel music earlier and I understand you had a lot of gospel in your life from early on.

Oh yeah, I’m twenty-eight now but the first nineteen years of my life was gospel. Every Sunday, four days a week rehearsal, you know, and then after that trying to emulate the sounds that I’d hear some of my gospel idols do and just trying to practice and practice and practice so I could figure out how to do it too. So yeah, everything from Mahalia Jackson to Yolanda Adams and things like that are a big part of who I was and even though I don’t go to church as much as I used to growing up, those foundations are still a very big part of who I am as a singer now.

Do you think it still influences how you write a song lyric-wise?

Oh definitely. I think it influences how I write a song, I think it influences how I sing the song, the way I hear certain chords. I mean, sometimes we’ll have arguments – and we actually had one the other day. We were working on some music and I was singing something and the rest of the guys weren’t hearing me but my backup singer understood because he has that same gospel background. He said, “Oh, that’s a gospel chord, blah, blah, blah.” But because my guys trust me, instead of just being like, “Oh it’s wrong,” they were like, “Alright.” (laughs) If it’s something I don’t understand as far as like the theory or training that they’ve had, I don’t question them. I just let them have it and if it doesn’t sound good later on then we revisit it. But if someone has a vision and are very strong about it, then we just run with it because that’s how it works, for us at least.

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Is that how you survive in a 10-piece band? Is it that you listen to each other and you respect each other?

Oh yeah. We have so many people that come through and are like, “Who’s the band leader?” and I’m like, “Technically, we all have our days. One day I might be leading something but the next day it might be someone else. That’s the reason we’re able to be successful because there is no dictators as far as how the music is written. As far as how the business is run, yes, there might be some people taking the lead more than others but when we’re in the studio or when we’re writing a song, the input is done ten ways.

When you first started singing as a little girl, who was it that encouraged you the most to keep singing?

Definitely my mother. I mean, my father sang and he was big on chasing our dreams but my mother was definitely, “You need to go to rehearsal, you need to be practicing, you need to be blah, blah, blah.” It wasn’t so much a thought to me as far as like her encouraging me, it was more so like, this is your thing, this is what you do, have you done it today, have you practiced today, you need to go practice.

What was more nerve-wracking to you: performing live your first songs that you had written or playing at your first big festival in front of all those people?

(laughs) I think definitely my songs cause to me the crowd is always the thing. It didn’t really matter the city to me cause I’m going to play the same show and if I’m not playing a show the way I need to be playing it as far as getting an elevated level of response, that makes me want to put on more of a show. So that doesn’t really have an effect on me. But if I’m playing new music or I’m showing it to somebody for the first time, yeah, there’s a whole new level of nerves that come out. What if they hate it or what if they don’t respond? I hope they like it. You never know what you’re going to get. You might have that one fan that goes, “It’s alright but it’s not as good as blah blah.” I just kind of have to prep myself for that but at the same time I don’t want to get caught up in making the same music over and over again cause that’s just not who I am. That’s probably the highest level of nerves, debuting new music that I’ve written.

You attended Texas Southern University. What were you intending to be?

You know, I don’t think I attended school for myself. I think I was doing it for my parents so I think that’s why I didn’t really finish. I do intend to go back one day and finish but when I was there I was just there in their music business program for a little bit and I don’t think I had a real plan of what it was I wanted to be or do. I just knew it was something in music. At the time, I actually wasn’t in a band when I was there but I knew that I wanted to do something. Now, I’m kind of glad I went because I did learn a lot while I was there.

When Adam brought all of you together, what were you doing at that time?

I was working at an investment bank and I was in a very serious relationship and that was about it. I wasn’t doing anything musically. I actually had a really bad ankle injury that caused me to not to be able to walk for about three months and it sent me into a really bad state of depression because I wasn’t walking the way I once was, I wasn’t dancing the way I once could. So it kind of really fucked me up for a while. But when he called me it was just the intention of, “Okay, we’ll do this one thing and maybe we’ll do a show once a month or every couple of months.” There was no real intent to be what it is now so that’s why I think it was easy for me to sign up. But I think after that first rehearsal, I definitely felt it and I actually ended up having another ankle surgery after the first year with the band to get all of my metal taken out of my ankle and it ended up being the smartest thing I ever did cause I was able to dance again. I’m still not dancing the way I once did but basically it allowed me to return to a level of performance that I once was at. So it’s allowing me to explore new forms of performance and I’m really grateful for the opportunity to be able to do it.

surffers55

What did you do to your ankle?

I fell off of a bike and my bone came out of both sides of my ankle. It was real gross and real bad and I hope no one ever has to go through that cause it was very painful. But I’m good now.

I understand that you were in a punk band

Yes, that’s the other funny thing about the whole retro soul aspect of the band is that everybody in The Suffers at one point has been in a punk        and/or ska band or both.

How do you take your beautiful voice and make it aggressive?

(laughs) Well, the funny thing is, that’s the gospel roots coming back. There’s a lot of howling that goes into gospel and that is something that was just a part of that atmosphere. I’m still a huge punk fan and Rancid is probably one of my favorite of all times.

Did you see Johnny Lydon when he played at Voodoo in New Orleans?

I did not get to see him play. I did see him backstage but I did not approach him (laughs). I just stared at him but was like, this is pretty cool. But I had to leave. It was getting really, really rainy and I was still in my white outfit.

That’s right, you were in white with the red fake blood

There you go, that was one of our little odes to our love for punk rock, us all dressing up like Andrew WK. It was a really simple Halloween idea but at the same time, I love Andrew WK and I love the positive vibe. I’ve seen him perform probably like five times. He’s just such a positive person and I always feel good when I go to his shows. It’s like some little form of punk rock church (laughs). It has nothing to do with religion but is more about partying and being happy.

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Does your name reflect any punk origin?

It’s a reference to an old Jamaican movie called The Rockers and in the movie the Sufferers are the people that are putting out music and putting out art but are not getting anything in return for it. They are basically just getting all their money taken away. So when we first started we were actually a ska/reggae cover band. That is when the Bobby Brown cover came in cause it was just kind of one of those things we did in our repertoire when we first started. As the originals started coming out it became like, okay, I guess we’re like a band band now (laughs). When we first started we were called The Sufferers but we realized it was way harder to say when you’re explaining it to somebody so we changed it to The Suffers and even though it’s not grammatically correct, it’s way easier.

You have a big New Year’s Eve show coming up

Yes, we do, at the House Of Blues here in Houston and it features a bunch of different regional bands that are fantastic, Los Skarnales being one of them and they actually are a punk and cumbia band from Houston and they are actually a big reason The Suffers, the majority of us, got our start in that band or collaborating with that band and they’ve just had a huge influence on us. We don’t play with them very often but New Year’s Eve seemed like the perfect opportunity to kind of just rehash that romance that the bands have with one another.

What is 2016 looking like for The Suffers?

The record comes out February 12th and we’ll be doing a tour with Lake Street Dive and a few dates with Galactic. We’re actually playing with Galactic tomorrow in Austin so I’m pretty excited about that. Beyond that, we have a few surprises that are coming up that we’ll be able to share earlier in 2016 but it’s going to be another big year and we’re excited and we look forward to seeing how much further we can go. We’ve done all this with no real label, just the help of our friends and family and a few people on our team that just really want to see us succeed. It’s been a pretty long but exciting journey for us.

 

Live photographs by Leslie Michele Derrough

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