A good musician can make you feel the rhythm in your body; a good vocalist can make you feel the words in your soul. A good band can make you feel a song deep in your core, like a symphony welling up inside you. But pair a good band with good, original music, and you feel like you’ve been punched in the gut.
Until now, no group has defined itself with the emotion it evokes. But “The Band Feel,” a St. Louis-based group, will get up in, well…your feels. By the time their set is over, you are left feeling like you’ve been beaten up by the tremendous sound coming from the stage.
“I was thinking about how I feel about the band and how I feel about music. If that’s how I feel about the music and artistic image, then that’s how I think others will feel,” said Tyler Armstrong. “The word ‘feel’ kept coming up, and I figured that’s exactly what we are.”
Tyler, the 29-year-old lead guitarist and co-founder of the band, has been playing with drummer T.J. Steinwart (also 29) for about 10 years. But it was only within the past few years that the current formation found the right “feel.” A California barefoot boy, Garrett Barcus, is the 27-year-old lead singer.
The newest member and baby of the group is bassist 21-year-old Kadin Rea from Indiana, who started playing bass about half his life ago. “I was 11, whatever fourth grade was – we’ll call it a decade,” he said.
“I was part of another band in Indiana, and we were gonna play a show with these guys, but it didn’t work out,” Kadin explained. “But that’s how I got to know them, and I’m glad to be where I am.”
It’s impressive that four guys under the age of 30 can evoke the aura of a ’70s rock band. From vintage equipment and clothes to music that sounds like the Black Crowes and Led Zeppelin had a baby together, you feel as if you’ve been transported to a 1970 music festival.
Another popular vintage band they are compared to is Greta Van Fleet. According to frontman Garrett, “listening to Josh (Kiszka, of Greta Van Fleet) helped me learn how to sing high. I especially like his voice when he starts hitting the gravelly stuff up there.”
Garrett developed his style of singing by experimenting at home, “I listened to a lot of 70s’ R&B – a lot of Ray Charles. I didn’t start music until I was 20, about seven years ago.
“I only started feeling myself, finding my own voice, within the last three years,” Garrett added. “I lack confidence a lot, but you always want to work on that; just be yourself when you’re on stage, not put on a persona.”
T.J. started playing drums at the age of 10. “That’s about 20 years ago now. I have a degree in audio engineering, but I went to school just to play,” he said. “I was dialing in to be a session player, like a hired gun. Then me and Tyler started to play together in a few bands, and that’s where I felt like I could be myself on the drum set.”
“I’m glad people can’t say that we sound like just one band,” said Tyler. “We have whispers of Zeppelin, Yes, Rush, and Curtis Mayfield. We should be thankful there are so many rock bands that are prominent right now that don’t sound like each other.”
Tyler started playing guitar “around 7th grade – somewhere in middle school,” he said. “With each new level, I find something I need to work at. There have been different periods of time when I feel like I excel at something more than others. Just this year, I was like, ‘man, I really need to work on my tempo and my meter.’”
At the Dallas International Guitar Festival on May 3rd, The Band Feel took the crowd outside in front of the main stage on a trip back in time. Those who had witnessed the 70s firsthand were rooted in place, giant smiles on their faces and hands in the air.
They impressed Jimmy Wallace (owner of DIGF) so much that he had them come back to Texas to play a special event in Garland. “They are FIREEEE,” he exclaimed, “old souls with big heart!”
Just in the past two months since that day, the group has been touring all over the states playing to bigger and bigger crowds with each gig. Like a pandemic, they have spread feelings all over the USA. You only need to follow them on Instagram and Facebook to see how quickly the “Feel fever” is spreading – their follow numbers on both platforms have skyrocketed this summer.
On July 9th, they began a West Coast tour that ran along the coast through California. In August, they will be opening for the Black Crowes in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
See a list of all tour dates here: www.thebandfeel.com
As a group, the band is being introduced to audiences everywhere, but individually, there is little information available on the World Wide Web about these four young men. Even during this short interview, very little data was forthcoming.
If this were 50 years ago, one might guess this is a group of long-haired hippies who dropped out of school and left home. The reality is quite the opposite. They evoke the 70s in all ways, except for the drugs, alcohol, wild sex, and hotel room destruction.
All four of them are beyond polite and personable. They are self-effacing, easygoing, and have a great sense of humor – again, reminiscent of the Liverpool Fab Four.
Power vocalist Garrett honed his style in California – find the Greedy Lion’s album 90 Days on Spotify. His influences include Robert Plant, Ray Charles, and Jimi Hendrix. His onstage choreography suggests hints of Joe Crocker and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith; his sound could be mistaken for Chris Robinson.
Guitar Virtuoso Tyler claims he’s obsessed with the Beatles and draws on his college experience to conquer performance anxiety.
“Anxiety is just trying to protect us, and the only difference between anxiety and excitement is, literally, nothing. So, you’re just excited,” Tyler said about the pre-show jitters, adding, “I took two years of psychology, so I’m just trying to put that money to good use now.”
Tyler explains that the comparison to other bands is a result of them being influenced by the music they are influenced by – including Whiskey Myers, Blackberry Smoke, and The Faces of the ’60s (fronted by Rod Stewart). The original songs they perform are infused with elements of all the above groups, forming a spectacular blend of old and new.
The Black Crowes aren’t the only established band to sit up and take notice of this young group. The Band Feel has already had some great gigs opening for the Cheap Trick, 38 Special, Rival Sons, and John Waite.
Even their videos have a vintage feel reminiscent of the pre-MTV era. In The Garden offers an explicitly nostalgic vibe, reminiscent of an old Beatles Super-8 mini-movie set to music.
. “We’ve been trying to build what this band is for the past 10 years,” said T.J. “It’s been a long journey, but it’s starting to feel good where it’s going.”
