Slightly Stoopid – One Loyal Cadre

Close your eyes.  Picture yourself on a sandy beach at sunset, on an island metaphorically between Southern California and Jamaica.  You feel the warm breeze against your skin as the neon pink sun drops below the ocean for the day.  The gentle aroma of marijuana smoke meanders near as your friend passes you a joint.  All is calm and all is placid.  A band is playing in the background, a band that you don’t really know, but as their set continues, they draw you closer and closer to the stage with their kicked back dub grooves, beautiful guitar melodies, and island-esque horn washes paint musical textures.  Your head begins to bob with the dub reggae beat, and before you know it, you have put your drink down on the table so your body can move to the music that is dancing through the air, providing the perfect soundtrack to this blissful summer evening. 

The band you are listening to is Slightly Stoopid.  This is the essence of their music—uniting people in a laid back party where all are dancing and moving to dubbed-out groove-based rhythms.  Somewhere between authentic dub reggae and California surf-inspired melodic structures, Slightly Stoopid has carved out a successful niche with an independent music model that is clearly more than slightly stupid.

Some bands are primarily studio bands that tour to support their albums, and some bands are live bands first and foremost, who also make music in the studio.  Slightly Stoopid is certainly a live band first, who values the dynamic energy exchange between the band and their live crowds, creating a communal experience of energy and groove.

 “I just think the energy of playing a live show is so much different than being in a studio where you are recording your jams,” explained Miles Doughty, guitarist, bassist, and vocalist, and one of the founders of Slightly Stoopid at age fifteen.  “At the live show you’re feeding off the people.  So it’s kind of like the crazier the crowd is, the crazier the band is.” 

This dynamic anchors the Stoopid live show, and is characteristic of band who values playing live as their primary form of expression.  Slightly Stoopid has been one of these bands for years.  “I think consistently touring is important,” explains Doughty.  “You can be playing in front of zero people or 20,000 people, and you’ve still got to rock the show….The most important part is being out there 200 days a year.” 

Through their focus on consistent touring, the band has developed a loyal fan base of “Stoopid Heads,” or “Ese Locos,” as they are affectionately called, who have been integral to the bands’ place as one of the most successful independent touring acts today.

In reflecting on the fans’ influence to the band’s success, Doughty is quick to recognize that the band would not have the stature they have today without the dedication of their fans.  “The fans are pretty much all over the country, and it goes from young kids to adults in their 50s and above.  It’s kind of crazy.  Everywhere we go, we see this reoccurring group of people, and it’s pretty sweet because when you travel as much as we do, and you’ve been doing it over the years, they kind of grow up with you as you are growing up.” 

In addition to the communal feel that this loyalty creates amongst the Stoopid community, the fans have also been integral to the band’s success.  “The Stoopid heads have really spread the word pretty fast for us, and have really helped us out so much as far as loyalty and spreading the word of Stoopid everywhere,” says Doughty. 

This intimate relationship with their audience has fostered a grass-roots success story for a band that has remained totally independent and done everything themselves since their inception.  “We just let people tape [our shows] and then you’ll see all over the internet that people do a lot of trading sets.  It’s all good.  You gotta’ get [the music] out there.”  The Stoopid heads are an integral part of that distribution, allowing the band to remain independent of industry contracts, turning down three major label deals while selling over a half-million albums without the benefit of traditional marketing and sales methods.

This rabid following truly amazes the band and drives them to continue touring hard year after year. As Doughty reflects on this phenomenon, he recognizes that what is going on with the Stoopid community is something special. “When you’re on stage and there’s a group of people out there singing your songs and dancing and going crazy—that’s pretty much the best feeling in the world.  If you can keep doing it, you can’t give that up for anything.”

The fans recognize the bands’ independence and authenticity, and it is this perception that seems to drive the intense following that Slightly Stoopid has developed over the years.  In speaking of the fans’ loyalty, Doughty observed, “I think they see that we don’t give a shit about that [commercial] side of the music.  They can see we are out there busting our ass[es] working and touring all year long—we don’t ever really stop, and I think a lot of fans appreciate that.  They see we are out here to play music for them and dedicate our lives to it.”  With the band and their fans in it for the collective musical experiences that result from such dedication, their scene has continued to grow without industry support.

Remaining in sole control of their career’s direction has allowed Slighty Stoopid to stay true to their own vision of their music and their lives without the corporate pressure that plague so many musical acts today.  “We’re not relying on someone else’s pull or influence to make it happen for us, and I think it has let us be ourselves.  As musicians we get to do what we want, and we are out there touring for the fans and ourselves; we’re not touring for this corporate identity that is only there to make money off you.  We are here to make music that will hopefully last forever, and already we have some of the craziest dopest fans there out there.  For us, it’s already been rewarding enough.”

As their fan base has continually grown over the years, Stoopid heads have toured with the band, hitting up multiple shows in a row, in the fan model of improvisational acts such as The Grateful Dead and Phish.  “You’ll see people multi-gigging up the coast or across the country and its just crazy!   Once you see them, you gotta’ get them some tickets because they’re traveling, you know?…We trip out.  It gives you goose bumps just because it’s so crazy that people would do that for your band,” explained Doughty.

With the band’s philosophy behind their concerts of “bringing a little party to the town [they] are playing,” fans have definitely responded, creating a traveling party held down by laid back grooves and dance music that unites the fans and band in one loyal cadre.  “You get to know [the fans] to a point.  You have a friendly occurrence with them every time you’re in town.  You end up blazin’ with them or having a drink with them just because you see them so much.  We like to cruise out into the crowd and hang out with everybody after the set and party with everybody.”

This traveling musical entity is about to embark on their largest headlining tour to date called “Tailgate 2008 Summer Tour,” supported by their good friends, Pepper, the surf-punk-dub outfit, and Jamaican dub legends, Sly and Robbie.  Hitting such historic venues as Red Rocks in Colorado, The Greek Theatre in Berkeley, and many other large scale amphitheatres, the band is taking a step up on the national touring circuit.  When asked for his reactions to this upcoming tour, Doughty responded, “I think it’s insane, man.  It’s kind of incredible to think about that it’s our tour and we’re playing these venues and the fans have been pretty much making it happen for us.” 

Teaming up with Sly and Robbie for the first time is something that is bringing a lot of excitement to the band for the upcoming tour.  Miles is quick to cite their musical genius, “Most of the dope reggae rhythms that you hear on a lot of the solo artists everywhere, that’s them playing.  It’s pretty bad ass, and I’m looking forward to getting to know the guys where we can all jam together at the end of each night.  Being with those guys, it’s pretty much gonna’ be like going to school.”

Not to be lost in all the excitement surrounding their upcoming tour is the July 22nd release of the band’s tenth studio effort, Slightly Not Stoned Enough To Eat Breakfast Yet Stoopid.  Anchored by heavy dub bass lines interwoven with catchy guitar melodies, “Slightly Not Stoned Enough…” presents a unique groove-heavy sound that can be traced back to Doughty’s childhood friendship with band co-founder Kyle McDonald, each of who switch off playing bass and guitar.  “We’ve been friends since we were two years old, “Doughty explained, “And we started the band together when we were 15 and 16.  We started playing guitar together when we were 13, so it’s pretty much that we have always played music together.”  Rounding out the band are east coast horn players, C-Money (trumpet) and DeLa (saxophone) who have been with the band for over two years; drummer, Rymo, 6 years; and percussionist, OG, 7 years.  Together, they have put together an album is largely representative of their live sound. 

In reflecting on their recording process for their forthcoming album, Doughty explains how the band has managed to stay true to their live sound.  “We’ve been trying of late to do more of the live jam [in the studio] rather than try to build everything, and in that way, you can get a more fluid feel.  That way it feels like a live take.  You get the energy of playing live rather than try to structure everything.  When we were doing Slightly Not Stoned Enough, a lot of the jams we did were just open and just like we play them live, with that loose feel to it.  Sometimes when you lock it down too tight it sounds too polished when a jam should just be rough and raw.” 

Comprised of some new songs, some live classics making their first studio appearance, and some takes from former studio sessions, Slightly Not Stoned Enough… presents a palate of groove-based music that features styles ranging from authentic dub, to melodic and breezy summertime California surf grooves, to covers of UB40’s “I Would Do For You,” and “Know You Rider,” popularized by the Grateful Dead.  “We explore a lot of different kind of music…there’s a little something for everybody,” said Doughty.  With Slightly Not Stoned Enough, we kept it pretty raw.  We didn’t really polish anything too much, and it ended up turning out good…With this record, we kept it pretty organic.”

When listening to their latest studio effort, the authenticity of their dub music is remarkable.  Often sounding like an act from the Caribbean, their dub has been influenced by their childhoods as well as their collaborations with such artists as Inner Circle, and King Tubby’s protégé, producer, Scientist.  Explaining where this genuine sound comes from, Doughty is quick to cite both influences. “I think working with those guys you’re going to inherit some of their ways.  I mean working with Scientist—he gets some of the best drum and bass sounds on the planet. It’s pretty sweet to learn from guys like that, but growing up, we were listening to a lot of reggae stuff.  When you grow up hearing that, you try to develop that sound yourself.”  Citing musical roots from old-school UB40 to Lee “Scratch” Perry to King Tubby, Doughty firmly believes that their musical tastes growing up has pointed them in a particular direction as a band and influenced the sounds they create.

Yet, as much as they dedicate their energies to their studio albums, many which have been well-received and critically acclaimed, the main focus for Slightly Stoopid remains on the live show.  “It just seems that when you’re at the live show, the energy is hot and it is something that is an experience really, because we’re up there having fun together, and then when you see the crowd having fun, it just makes for a good time for everyone,” noted Doughty.

 Having toured all over the US and internationally, the musical community of Slightly Stoopid continues to spread.  In reference to their few international tours, Miles observed, “It’s been sweet man. The shows have been killer and there have been people out every night.  Even if they don’t speak the language, they’re singing the songs—it’s crazy!”

Fifteen years into their career, Doughty and McDonald have created a band that has no appearance of slowing down, as their independence and creative energies continue to fuel their musical explorations  As Miles succinctly put it, “For us, the most important thing in the future is that we just want to stay busy and always playing music…and just have fun—without the fun part, it ain’t worth it.”  At this point in time, everything seems worth it for Slightly Stoopid.
   

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