Jamming around the Bonfire with New Monsoon

Submitted photo

San Francisco-based jam band New Monsoon headlines the two-day Bonfire Music Festival this weekend in Birken.

Even though San Francisco-based jam band New Monsoon is playing two nights in a row at this weekend’s Bonfire Music Festival in Birken, those who see both sets won’t have to hear the same songs twice.

Jeff Miller, who plays electric guitar, mandolin and sings in New Monsoon, said the band is planning to “dig deep into our archives of material.” The group’s catalogue goes back to 1999, and the band is also set to unveil some brand new material on festivalgoers.

“We’re going to pull out all the stops,” he said.

While there’s no shortage of material to fill two headlining sets, New Monsoon is also known for the diversity of its sound and how no two shows are quite the same. One minute the band is riffing on a funk groove, the next it’s a Southern rock sound with three-part harmonies, and then it’s a bit of reggae flavour — sometimes all in one song. Genre influences range from psychedelic rock and world music to bluegrass and funk.

Miller said New Monsoon fits well into a music festival because of its danceable vibe and full sound.

“Right now our lineup is five guys but I think our sound is pretty big,” he said.

The combination of acoustic and electric lead guitars also contributes to the band’s unique sound, Miller said. The band aims to write melodic songs with depth and flair, he said.

New Monsoon is set to headline both Saturday and Sunday nights (July 24 and 25) of the Bonfire fest, which gets underway on Friday (July 23) at the Moon Farm on Pemberton Portage Road in Birken. The festival is billed as three days of music, camping and fun.

Miller said it’s been at least a few years since New Monsoon has been to the Sea to Sky area.

The band gets its name from its beginnings during the El Niño rains in Northern California in the late ’90s. Co-founder Bo Carper would say to Miller, “every day is a new monsoon.”

The two musicians had jammed together before, but it was when Miller moved from Boston to San Francisco (where Carper was living) that the band got started. In the early years New Monsoon was a seven-piece with two percussion players, but when they decided to focus more on family life, the band continued with five, Miller said.

The band’s most recent physical release is last year’s New Monsoon Live, a two-CD set. In recent months, they’ve also offered an exclusively digital release of another live show — Live at Hopmonk Tavern.

Miller said the band is currently writing new material and hopes to get into the studio later this year.

When it comes to the live improvisation aspect of New Monsoon, one reviewer said the band is not prone to drawn-out, aimless jams. “The jam or solo always serves the song, not the other way around,” wrote Rob Johnson of Hittin’ the Note magazine.

Miller said the solo sections vary with each New Monsoon song, but the band members recognize that they don’t need to do “something extravagant” on every song. The group as a whole has a good sense of when it’s time to move on, and they don’t let the groove get stale, he said.

“We tend to manoeuvre together in the jams,” Miller said. “We try to take it somewhere.”

Other acts at the Bonfire Music Festival include Acorn Project, We are the City, Outlaw Social, Redeye Empire, and local acts such as The Release, Kostaman and the Good Vibrations Band and G Willy.

Tickets are still available for the Bonfire fest, with advance weekend passes selling for $80 including camping and parking. Youth 11 to 15 are $50 and kids 10 and under are free. Day tickets are also available but don’t include parking or camping. Tickets can be purchased at Hempire in Whistler Village, Pemberton Bike Co or online.

Visit bonfirefestival.com for more info.

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