Impulse Response should find a full grass dance floor at Willows Park Wednesday.
Victoria’s newest soul, groove and R&B trio Impulse Response – lead vocalists Shanna Dance and Alexander Ferguson and a rotating roster of drummers that features Sean Thompson – wraps the free Concerts in the Park series Aug. 10.
“We’re definitely going to bring our summer fun energy,” Ferguson said in a phone interview as the band road-tripped back from a tour of the Okanagan.
Popular performers at Swans, they’ve just released a first EP about 18 months out of the gate as Impulse Response.
“We’ve been writing originals for the last year or so, adding that into what we do,” said Ferguson. “It took quite a while because both Shanna and myself are quite busy.”
He recorded, mixed and mastered the four-track “very much home-grown” album that started in December and dropped just in time for the TD Jazzfest.
Their own music has a Motown-energy-meets-funk-pop vibe.
“We really enjoyed writing together. We were playing covers for a while and we said ‘let’s just try,’” he said. “It feels good because it feels like the sound of our band.”
Take Me to Summer is among four original songs they’ll offer during the Willows concert, along with a series of honed covers.
Ferguson also performs with Soul Shakers while Dance is known for her work with Shanna Dance and the Shady Blues Band
The Willows concert will be a return for Ferguson, an Oak Bay High grad who always hits the summer starting Oak Bay Tea Party and even performed it one year with Momentum.
“I did a lot of choir singing and jazz combo in high school. It got me started,” said Ferguson. “I definitely felt like being at Oak Bay was at the time – and I think it still is now – very supportive of the arts and there was a lot you could get up to. I went there into (music) already but it allowed me to keep going and have lots of things to try.”
The concert falls right in the middle of the second annual Oak Bay Arts and Culture Week Aug. 6 to 14. It starts at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 10 in Willows park. Get a taste of the music at reverbnation.com/impulseresponse4 online. Visit facebook.com/impulseresponse1/ to follow the band.
