Chicago-based R&B/soul group The Right Now is getting people dancing in the aisles with every concert they perform. Versed in jazz, funk, and then some, the septet just released their second album, Gets Over You. And it is hard to get over with Stefani Berecz’s dark and seductive voice, and the band’s electrifying instrumental chops. Composed of front woman Berecz, pianist/guitarist Brendan O’Connell, guitarist Chris Corsale, bassist Greg Nergaard, drummer John Smillie, and saxophonists Jonathan Edwards and Jim Schram, the band is currently on tour to promote the new record.
Gets Over You is a sultry, sexy compendium of songs built on funk grooves and ringing guitar riffs that back lyrics describing bad breakups, but healing and empowerment as well.
Berecz has stage presence beyond her years. At World Cafe Live in Philadelphia on April 24th, the group opened up with “I Can’t Speak For”, a song with bumping descending horn melody that immediately reeled in the audience. Berecz has instant charisma; she can belt like Sharon Jones one minute, and purr out sweet, head voice melisma the next. She really got lost for “Good Man”, with a chorus that is undeniably classic. The band slowed it down for “I Could Kiss You”, which was sadder than Susan Tedeschi’s downtrodden vintage blues ballads. They closed out the evening with “Nobody” from their first release, Carry Me Home, and it was sung more passionately than any other song in the set.
When the group plays in Philly, they have a tradition to go to El Bar after the show. “No matter what time we’re finished a show, we have to make a stop at this dive bar. We snatched an El Bar poster off their wall as a keepsake,” admits Berecz. Well, that secret’s out.
Even so, the band has been turning more than a few heads of late, considering their limited edition 7” “He Used to Be Me” b/w “Good Man” was just selected for Official Record Store Day this year.
“Just being in the long line of names, it was a tall order this year to get chosen,” says Berecz.
The band is very serious about their releases and making them exclusive for Record Store Day. The official release of Gets Over You is nine songs.
“Two of the tracks that we had originally planned to include on the record and were recorded during the same sessions, “He Used To Be” and “Good Man”, were released separately on an official Record Store Day 7″ that came out on April 21st,” explains Berecz.
The Right Now performed an intimate show at a record shop in Cincinnati on Record Store Day to celebrate.
“Any time we get to play and get up in people’s faces in a very personal setting is always very cool,” shares Berecz. “You get those two or three fans who have followed you forever and just want to see you in a different setting. Being on stage with a microphone is almost not as intimidating as being in a record store with four or five people staring at you. For me, that’s always more of a challenging environment to perform in because it forces you to connect in a different way.”
The latest record is quite different from the group’s initial effort in that it has a very raw, vintage sound. It was recorded in one week with the band playing together in the same room, laying down some songs in one take. The vocals bear some scratches and cracks from gusts of emotion. The tunes on this album are tight and passionate. They boast intimate yet soaring vocals, powerhouse guitar licks, groovy basslines and blaring horns- they’re off the hook.
“There were so many impurities on my voice, but I embraced them,” says Berecz of the recording process. “I knew it was OK not to have perfection out of this- [I just wanted to have] something that made people feel good. It was a moment captured.”
Very few bands these days strive to attain a live sound on a record, one that calls to mind vintage R&B and funk, and captures imperfections, crackles or finger-on-string slides. It’s so refreshing to hear a group of young musicians fall back on a traditional vibe and a classic sound.
“We wanted to get as live of a sound as we could get. We were so accustomed to playing live together, and we wanted to get that on tape. A lot of the music we wrote helped us to do that” says Berecz. “There was a really raw, gritty, nasty sound we were getting. We got more imaginative with this record where we told these really juicy stories- fiction or nonfiction. We expanded in that way. I think you’ll hear the record and think- that band has been playing together for a long time.”
In listening to this new album (as well as the first one), it’s obvious that the band has a plethora of influences. Clear-cut dollops of artists like Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, George Clinton (with whom they have shared a bill), and Smokey Robinson can be heard throughout The Right Now’s music.
“I grew up listening to artists like En Vogue and Boys II Men and Whitney Houston,” Berecz says of her influences. “With this new album I was listening to Sharon Jones and James Brown, and realized it was OK to show a moment or an emotion, if your voice cracks while you’re getting emotional. Being around the guys hearing all of their influences, I’m constantly being challenged.”
When releasing a new album, an artist never quite knows what kind of response they will get from fans and critics. So much can change from one album to the next, because when musicians play together, their writing evolves as well as their group dynamic. Listeners have had a stellar reaction to The Right Now’s new album thus far.
“The new album is a step in the right direction for us. We’re maturing. We were just getting to know each other when we started. When we dove into this particular project and how we wrote for it and prepared for it and recorded it was all so new. It felt more directed- we had a sound idea and we accomplished that. And the response we’ve been getting has been great- from people who have heard the first album, and from those who have just listened to the new one.”
The band keeps fans updated every few days by posting short articles on their website, one of which is a “Song of the Week”, posted every Sunday (more or less). It was Brendan O’Connell’s idea to do this news segment, in which a rotating member of the group chooses a song by another artist, includes a video, and writes a short blurb on why they like the song. It gives the band an opportunity to communicate to their fans about who they’re listening to.
According to Berecz, “A blog can be a very powerful network. I did a blog about my top releases of 2012 and it was cool because some people didn’t know certain albums were coming out. They got a taste of what I was listening to and what the guys were listening to.”
The Right Now plans to play a few festivals as part of their summer tour, including Pickle-Palooza in Woodstock, IL and Taste of Randolph in Chicago, and hope to get back to Summerfest in Milwaukee, WI. The band intends to keep themselves very busy in the months following the release of this explosive record.
“We almost feel that there’s going to be a wave coming, months after the record,” says Berecz.
Written by: Michele Zipkin
