“Relax,” “Chill out,” “Take it in stride,” “Whatever happens, happens.”

Cavernous words to many. Elixir to a sacred few. These phrases are hard to master in our world of toddler patience. Road rage is reaching plague proportions, bartenders and waitresses are never fast enough, and there’s always deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. It’s all about stress and how to schedule it into the daily naugohyde planner. Imagine if everyone practiced the art of flow - “Gee even if I cut off that tractor trailer, I’ll only save five seconds,” or, “I’m going to melt my cellular phone and my watch.” These statements look to the now, not the worrisome future. I’ve always thought that swimming against the current was a bitch, but almost everyone prefers the upriver stroke.

The five-man band, Sound Tribe Sector 9, has found a log going downstream and they’ve latched onto its patient progress. They’re sort of like a cosmic ventriloquist’s dummy - they allow the music to channel though their body and spurt out of their digits, creating a rich sound out of thin air.

Newspapers have tried in vain to label them — jam, jazz, neo-classical, and even techno has been attached to STS9. Their current lable is trance-fusion, which is a melding of jam improv with music usually reserved for the rave scene. Even this moniker can be a touch off kilter when describing this quintet. Think of them as an organic sound reminiscent of a mystery orchid. The care is tedious (all five member are musically and spiritually sound) and they only add “water” when needed. Once their sound flowers, a venue is filled with layer upon layer of blossomed notes. No song is ever the same and each crafted framework allows for thousands of interpretations. One fan even remarked that their newest album, “Offered Schematics Suggesting Peace,” was almost “the perfect soundtrack for life.”

“A holistic healing aspect of music is medicine,” said percussionist Jeffree Lerner. “Vibrational healing is trying to understand more about the human body, vibrations, and what goes on with that whole experience.”

STS9 sprouted when teenagers Hunter Brown (guitar) and David Murphy (bass) found they had musical and spiritual twinnings. Drummer Zach Velmer joined in 1997 and was followed by keyboardist David Phipps in 1998. Their first studio release was recorded in two days in the spring of ‘98, and it harnessed the band’s live sound. Atlanta radio DJ Jeff Dunham took notice and spread the religion of the band that could fluently speak to the soul with no lyrics. Lerner, the newest addition to the band, actually spent time in Asheville with some local bands before Leftover Salmon hired out his services for almost two years. Lerner also got to learn under the percussion guru Jeff Sipe (known to fans as Apartment Q238). Lerner was introduced to STS9 through a mutual friend, and he was added in 1999. The quintet swiveled many southern heads from their homebase in Atlanta and Athens. Southern rock was a granite fixture, but STS9 was able to do it their way. The respect for the little band that didn’t rely on 20-minute hairdo solos was expanding. However, the siren call of the West beckoned, and the five-piece ventured out to the Bay Area last year to take up residence.

Sector 9 is a unique band because the music harnesses them, and not vice versa. Individual emotions do spill out, but it’s done hand in hand with the sound.

“We all strive to drop the ego,” said Lerner. “We all have them, but we try to come from a place that services the music. We definitely heal ourselves by releasing those daily stresses. If I’m angry, I don’t necessarily feel comfortable expressing that anger ... I just let it flow.”

This cruise control has become infectious. The band recently sold out the Fillmore West for two nights and folks walked away each night with a new sense of spirituality. Smiles are acres deep and everyone is your best friend. This all goes back to the band’s attitude. By sticking with the now, STS9 is able to let their music take shapes that are full, instead of choppy entities that form haphazardly when music is forced. The only future planning that STS9 adheres to is set lists.

“In the last eight months, we’ve started doing (set lists) religiously,” said Lerner. “The space is still open for all the interpretations of the now, but I think we’re trying to come in with a little more intention. From a larger scope, when we’re trying to plan out an evening, we make sure that all the vibrations are represented. It gives us a map and we can veer off the trail anytime we want.”

The band has an open-door policy of allowing a sixth member on stage to perform with them. STS9 believes in every form of expression, and if someone has the urge (and a heap of guts), they can jump onstage. Sometimes it’s an instrument of the stringed variety, other times it’s of the brush family, and there’s even a chance you might see a typewriter keeping rhythm. Jeffree can explain.

“We haven’t had too many guest musicians of late, but we’ve been inviting people up on stage to paint. We also have a friend who’s a writer here in Santa Cruz. He writes on an old manual typewriter. He just came up one night and started typing poetry.”

Was it hard to keep a beat?

“We worked around it. When the music came down, you could hear it on the tapes Jeffree imitating the typewriter]. He actually made a pamphlet of poetry from that night. That makes it special. Our intention in music is to be inspired and to be a source of inspiration for people to realize their own creative outlets. The more forms of art that are represented, the more inspiration people can draw from the show. Music’s a large part of getting people together, but it’s not the only way to show expression. There’s many different ways to express yourself.”

Much of STS9’s spirituality resides from the ancient Mayan culture. Sound Tribe stands for the whole crew, everyone that’s involved in helping create the art form. Sector 9, also known as The Ninth Baktun, is a period of time from 435-830 A.D., at the height of the Mayan civilization, where caring and an open consciousness about the Earth and its people was prevalent in the society. The band also tries to reflect their lives around the Mayan calendar, which is based on an entirely different system (13 moon cycles) from the one the modern world follows. Many believe it’s the natural way to record time, and the 12-month calendar we follow is false (cynics of the Mayan calendar need only look at our leap years to know this is true). The members of STS9 try to follow these Mayan guidelines because it gives them a natural timing, a way to flow through the debris life throws at them.

“The main focus with that is really the 13 moons,” said Lerner. “By acknowledging that it exists, it has an effect on our conscience.”

The increased demand for STS9 has not gone to their heads. There’s no quest for MTV Beach Party, nor is there a thirst that can only be slaked by money. The pressure of becoming the next hot commodity doesn’t even register a blip.

“It feels like an honor. The stage is the safest place in the world for us. I can definitely get butterflies when there’s a lot of people, but it’s in a good way. But once we’re there in the moment, everything falls into place.”

Being the epitome of chill doesn’t mean the band can go without practicing. STS9 is always changing, learning new avenues of music, while brooming out any unnecessary cobwebs.

“Most of ‘Schematics’ (their latest album) was putting ourselves in the studio, rolling the tape and playing,” said Lerner. “From those basic structures we built over them. But now, things are a lot different. We are creating music on personal sequencers. We put together ideas on the road by making CDs for each other to learn songs. Then we come together and play them live.”

So how does STS9 keep it up in the stratosphere night after night? My wee brain came up with all sorts of theories — maybe they make secret pilgrimages to the Mayan civilizations of Copan and Tikal, or perhaps they really spend their off time stalking unsuspecting shamans. I was blatantly wrong on all fronts. Lerner applies a lot of the credit to the pixies that lurk backstage.

“I would really like to shout out to our crew. These are seven guys that are really working their asses off. When you come to see our show, you’ll really see the quality of our production like the light show and DJ Saxton Waller, who does a lot of our spinning as well as the lights. These guys are the most crucial element to the whole thing - the traveling road show. They deserve all the props they can get.”
This may be the hottest ticket in town on May 4. However, if you’re trying to live in the now, then it might be impossible to plan for the future since buying a ticket requires some look ahead planning. Me? I went ahead and bought in advance. I still have a 12-month calendar in the house.

(Hunter Pope can be reached at whpope@worldnet.att.net)

 

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