Local funk/rock band Adequate more than ready for album release
By Al Beeber on June 9, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com Lethbridge funk/rock band Adequate isn’t letting a pandemic strike a bad chord with its plans to release an album.The local three-man outfit is releasing its first album to streaming services on Friday more than a year after it was recorded.
With bassist, guitarist and backup vocalist Josh Thorakson working in health care, he had to put other priorities before the band so the group had to put the record on hold for awhile, said lead vocalist, and drummer Kennan Pezderic Tuesday.
“We started a little over a year ago, right before that initial lockdown happened,” said Pezderic. “And then everything sort of took a standstill for us unfortunately when that happened just because we weren’t able to get together and kind of finalize all our mixes and do everything in the same fashion we normally would. It took a long time.”
The third member of the group is Scott Mezei, music director of and a guitarist with New West Theatre. Pezderic plays drums in New West.
“We really enjoy each other’s company and we like the way each other plays so that makes it really fun.”
Before forning seven years ago, the members of Adequate all knew each other from their work in other groups with Pezderic and Mezei performing together at various times in country and rock bands, as duos and as hired guns for other performers.
“We all hit a bit of a brick wall when it came to music….Scott Mezei and I travelled around and we started to find a niche playing with each other where we really enjoyed getting together and playing again and it started to be more fun and less work,” said Pezderic.
“I just decided I wanted to really start a band and play with my friends and have fun and just find something that’s fun to play that we enjoyed and people that we enjoyed playing with.
“I wanted to make a fun band, a band that’s not just fun to listen to but fun to play in.”
Pezderic and Thorlakson both grew up in Claresholm. Pezderic said he always wanted to work with the younger Thorlakson but the timing was never right,
“Then seven years ago we happened to be in the same place at the same time” and Pezderic was able to put a group together.
Over the years, the group has developed a sound that shows respect to their funk influences such as James Brown, the Motown side of Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye.
“Being rock enthusiasts, we all grew up on Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix we also have a bit of that in there, too.”
Their influences also include bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Grand Funk Railroad.
“My idea was to make something really fun,” said Pezderic Tuesday.
“Our idea going into the studio was to make an album that sounded live off the floor, similar to one of our shows with a little bit of room to fine-tune and tweak and make it a little nicer.”
All instruments were recorded live off the floor and then Pezderic added his vocals on top in the studio.
“It’s very odd to tie in those two together (drums and vocals) live,” he said.
With the album “we tried to take a bit of both genres we grew up with” while making each song sound different.
“You can really hear a little bit of variety coming through us … our main goal was just to make a really fun album, something that’s fun to listen to and fun to play.
The band is planning no special events to mark the album’s release but by the middle of next week, Adequate will be streaming a live front-to-back performance they did of the record, which will be available Friday on all the streaming platforms such as iTunes, Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud and Apple Music. Follow @albeebHerald on Twitter 4
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