Today we’d like to introduce you to Will Ruff.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Will. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
The Family Recipe started when myself and our guitarist, Nathan Hallman, met on a social media app for musicians called Vampr. We got together in September of 2017, and then in early 2018, added the remaining members of the band, Quentin Smith (bass), Jacob Selvaggi (Saxophone), and Josh Siar (Drums). Since then, we have been playing venues all over Athens and Atlanta, including the Georgia Theatre, 40 Watt Club, Smiths Olde Bar, The Masquerade, and Aisle 5. Though we originally intended to be a funk band, the eclectic musical interests of the band quickly took the music somewhere we did not expect. Focused on live improvisation, our two main genre influences lately have been jazz and rock.
But we do no choose to limit ourselves to genres and happily go in many directions that we feel, with secondary inspirations from bluegrass, metal, classic funk, jam bands, and even classical music. We just released our debut album, ‘Roads’, after what was over a year of prepping and recording. We are all extremely happy with the result and feel as though it represents our feelings towards music and the band very well. We had a headlining GA Theatre album release show planned for April, but for obvious reasons, it was delayed. We are just excited to keep writing and to play some shows once everyone is safe and grounded.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road has not been entirely smooth, but it has shaped us into what we believe is our best representation of the band. Writing music has both been natural and painful at times. We write everything in a very collaborative way, not one individual writes an entire song, so it takes the whole band’s focus and inspiration to make the music we want to make. When it works, its amazing, when it doesn’t, it’s difficult to break past. But both the good and the bad from that situation taught us a lot about our own music and workflow, both of which have made us the band that we are today. Also, we are all pursuing different majors and life paths, which has occasionally been a struggle, but in the end, it has united us over the music we love and the fun that we have making it. It takes effort from everyone to make it happen, so it really shows a lot of devotion from each band member and has made as all extremely close friends.
Perhaps our biggest struggle, yet also our biggest triumph, has been getting people to accept and see what we are doing with our music. We don’t have a vocalist, other than the few times we play with the very talented Amanda Rockenbach, so it is up to the instruments/solos to tell the story, and guide the listener through the sometimes hectic and explorative music. We have played a lot of gigs where the crowd just doesn’t like it and wants to hear a singer or songs they know, which is okay and we understand! But we have also played a lot of gigs where most people in the crowd really start to vibe with what we are doing and hear the different voices and stories we try to convey through the music, and that is what makes it worth it. It’s really hard to play a whole show and know mostly everyone did not like it, but that’s the name of the game for what we try to do with our music, and its an obstacle we are constantly trying to overcome, without jeprodizing the artistic ideas behind the band. We don’t expect everyone to like our music, we are just happy when the people that do like it, really like it.
Can you give our readers some background on your music?
The Family Recipe is a 5-piece instrumental fusion group. We specialize in improvisation, as well as complex song structures and ideas. We are known for our use of a wide variety of musical emotions to tell stories and convey feelings to the audience. We choose to not specialize in any particular genre but rather use a wide variety of the aforementioned genres to create a unique soundscape. We are also known for a unique instrumentation of Mandolin, Saxophone, Guitar, Bass, Drums, no vocals, and exploring the various timbres that that instrumentation can achieve. There is no frontman, no singer, and no obvious or dominant emotion/vibe we try to convey. Each song has a unique hierarchy of instruments and melodic ideas. We experiment with various forms, from typical song forms to classical forms, all the way to free-form improvisation. Though constantly trying to innovate the music, we also find it extremely important for the music to move, have solid rhythm, and, most of time, be danceable. Exploring that dichotomy between loose/explorative improvisation and tight/danceable grooves is something we are always trying to master.
We are also known for incorporating other musicians into our music/doing guest features. We have worked with jazz pianist and composer Kevin Day, who is just a phenomenal musician (he is on a live track on our debut album). We also have the very talented vocalist Amanda Rockenbach, who saves the day at our more commercial gigs by singing classic funk and soul tunes with us. We have also worked with the Atlanta-based hip-hop group Brown Paper Bag, specifically Nicx Alexander. We played a Mac Miller memorial concert at the Masquerade in 2019 with him. We have also worked with various local horn-players in the Athens area to fill out a full horn-line with our songs.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
The whole point of our band is that we do what we want to do and there are not any regrets, no matter how many wrong notes or bad shows. A quote from our guitarist just now – “Any effort to change the past is fruitless, that’s why we play music and eat bananas.” In all seriousness, though, we are all about working with the moment and moving forward, and I think we are all happy with what we have done so far and would not change it.
Contact Info:
- Website: familyrecipeband.com
- Phone: 7706338163
- Email: familyrecipeband@gmail.com
- Instagram: @familyrecipeband
- Facebook: @familyrecipeband
Image Credit:
Jason Born and Alan Selvaggi
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