We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Movmnt Band. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Movmnt below.
Movmnt, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
By far, the hardest project we have completed was our debut album in 2018. Not only did it take 2 years to complete, but we had a lot to learn along the way. Our first album made us better musicians and a better unit as a result. After all the hard work, the album catapulted us to another level in our genre and reach around the world.
The beginnings of the album started in the fall of 2016. We finally decided we wanted to do Jazz Fusion and began to work on our own sound. All of 2016, we practiced most Friday nights to come up with grooves and melodic ideas. Bouncing concepts off of one another was magic to us! At the end of 2016, we had a solid group of songs, finished and unrecorded.
Working through 2017 definitely made us better musicians and a better unit as a result . We all had recording experience, but had to take on roles we were not used to. Leslie “Zeke” Ratliff (music director/keyboard player) had to step into the role of engineering the album and leading the creative direction. Cornell Lacy (bass) had to handle logistics of where and when we would meet up. Paulo Calomeni (guitar) made sure that parts were completed with musical integrity. Also, Tony “Lil Katt” Reed made sure arrangements were solid and the recordings had energy. All in all, we individually went to another level which has propelled us as a group ever since.
After all the hard work, we FINALLY released our debut album “Movmnt Band” on February 5, 2018! In a time where they’re not a lot of Jazz Fusion bands, it still is incredible to see the results of our work! Since then, we’ve seen 15,000+ streams of our album from people in the U.S, Japan, South Africa, and more. With all the practicing and personal growth, we’re grateful for the process and results of our first album.
Movmnt, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Movmnt Band is a Jazz Fusion collective based in Dallas, TX. Having a mix of most urban genres, such as R&B, Jazz, Hip Hop, Funk, and Soul, we use our influences to make it an explosive music experience. The core members of the band are Cornell Lacy (bass), Leslie “Zeke” Ratliff (keys, drums, programming), Paulo Calomeni (guitar), and Tony “Lil Katt” Reed (drums).
In 2022, we are pushing forward towards our 2nd album. We’ve already released two singles, “XLR” and “Blue Chucks”, and are expecting to finish other songs for the album soon. We are still performing and have done incredible shows in Dallas at The Freeman, Three Links, and the Deep Ellum Arts Festival. All in all, we want to continue to give people a Jazz Fusion experience that enlarges their musical appetites.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Our social media strategy from the beginning has been simple. We look after the people who are fans by giving them great music and content to feel connected to us. Also, we continually bring awareness to the brand online through marketing terms. We make sure people we come across know who we are and that we have content for them to check out. This strategy is not to have overnight success, but this strategy allows us to continually grow our social media in a healthy way.
Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?
We don’t use ’em! Because our audience values the live experience and merchandise, we focus more on providing those things along with our music.
Contact Info:
- Website: MovmntBand.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/movmnt.band/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/movmntband
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk8bVrIz0MBKRrICzm-2QIw/featured
Image Credits
Geno Stephenson – @shotbygeno