A combination of musical theater, dance, debauchery, and comedy, Funkanalia is a revelry of funky grooves based off of the 1960’s NOLA origins (James Brown), the 80’s Minneapolis sound (Prince), and contemporary West-Coast trunk bumpers (Anderson .Paak) with a touch of stank.
Get ready to move that derriere …
Front-woman Cheyenne Banas cut her teeth in the Mid-Western musical theater scene as a performing artist using her formal background as a classically/chorally trained vocalist from the Ohio State School of Music. Drawing inspiration from her local funk icons, The Main Squeeze and Mojoflo, she traded in the horse-drawn carriage for a shiny new flying saucer and went full-send thru the space-time continuum of groove and syncopation. After a collaboration with Chriscalli in the galaxy of hip-hop, the gas tank on the mothership hit ‘E’ and she landed in Portland for some fuel (and snacks). While waiting for the attendant to fill the tank, she found the fellow groove-seekers of Funkanalia in the back of the station throwin’ dice to find the time signature for their next song and has been funkin’ up ears with them ever since.
Guitarist, Dave Hurt is an up-and-coming writer in the Portland metro-area with inspiration from his Minneapolis-based upbringing in the 80’s – 90’s (i.e. Prince) and sense bound lyrics that stray from the tired clichés of yesterday to put you in the music (like that supernatural board game ‘Jumanji’) and send your derriere into hyperspace – who knows, you might even spot The Rock and Kevin Hart in there …
The rhythm section is comprised of a booty-movin’ duo of Ben Kindsfather and Derek Darby. Ben, a native-Portlander, lays down the bottom-end with some phat, but technical basslines influenced by a combination of prog and contemporary jazz/funk (i.e. Rush, Vulfpeck, Thundercat).
Derek likes his toast cut into squares and well-tuned drums. He comes from a family musical lineage of chick singers and a father drummer. Raised near tough fields of corn and Lake Michigan (in Indiana), his influences come from everywhere in music including the percussion of a Concert Band, the snare drum in a Canadian drum corp., videos on MTV, Art Blakey, Primus, Funkadelic, and a stack of vintage drums in every closet.