It’s boom, not bust, for East Vancouver’s funk-soul band of brothers and friends The Boom Booms.
Fresh from playing Penticton’s Boonstock festival and Gatzke Orchards in Oyama this past summer, the six-piece indie-soul band is back in the Okanagan with new sophomore album, Love is Overdue.
Made up of siblings, childhood friends and family ties, the Boom Booms are on a western Canadian tour that stops in Vernon’s The Green pub Friday, Feb. 27.
The band has been receiving plenty of praise for its sophomore album, which includes some heavy hitters on the production credits including Grammy-award winner Chin Injeti (who has worked with Drake, Eminem, Pink, and Vernon’s own SonReal) and L.A.-based producer DJ Khalil (Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent).
Described as R&B, Love is Overdue draws more on the band’s childhood influences such as Bill Withers and Al Green
“If you listen to our first album and EP (2011’s Hot Rum) we had a mix of Caribbean influence, Latin influence, a very West Coast sound. This album we haven’t been travelling around as much but it is basically an R&B album,” said lead vocalist Aaron Ross, when interviewed by Black Press reporter Kristi Patton in the summer. “It is a matter of what we were feeling and we wanted to hone into one thing and not spread ourselves into too many sounds… It mostly stays in that funk-soul genre.”
Besides releasing their album in 2014, The Boom Booms were also featured on Aloe Blacc’s platinum selling single The Man, which became the feature track for the Beats by Dre commercial starring Kevin Garnett of the National Basketball Association.
This past summer, they not only played Boomstock, but headlined at the Vancouver Jazz Festival and appeared at the Pemberton Music Festival, as well as hosted their own music festival, the East Van Summer Jam, which was an evolution of the band’s charity block parties.
“We grew up in East Vancouver and this community is changing so fast, we just wanted to get money and be ambassadors in our own way. We want to make money to give back to the community,” said Ross. “It is all about supporting grassroots projects that involve youth. We also work with communities in Nairobi, Uganda and Brazil too.”
The band’s connection to Brazil can be seen in the 2012 documentary Boom Boom Brazil, which followed members on unpredictable adventures as they toured Brazil and were immersed in native traditions and customs.
“We long had the idea of doing a travel music show and pitch it to a television network, and we still do. We would like to do Haiti, Cuba, the Congo and learn about the music and also report on important social issues going on in that country,” said Ross.
The Boom Booms bring their Love is Overdue Tour to The Green in the Village Green Hotel Friday, Feb. 27. Music starts at 9:15 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the door.
