By Anthony J. Machcinski
As music continues to constantly evolve as years go by, one Bergen County band hopes to keep pace with that trend with their so-called electro-funkadelic hip-rock.
FiKus, a group of five 20-somethings, is one of the up-and-coming bands in North Jersey. Formed while the group was still at Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale, the band’s members have been together for the past eight years, bringing their new style with them wherever they’ve taken the stage.
“We always have had a problem when people ask us who we sound like,” said percussion player Pete Kozak. “It sounds stereotypical when I say this, but I really don’t believe that we really sound like any one band. That’s why we came up with the genre.”
Despite being together for several years, the band only started to taste real success this past summer when the band was able to play 11 festivals all over the area. It comes as no surprise that when the band first started out, that audiences all over the area were left bewildered at what they just heard.
“We’ve played like VFWs and stuff like that and people don’t know how to react,” Kozak explained. “Our music is very energetic and they get into it, but it creates an interesting dynamic.”
This new energetic music was not something the band had planned to put together.
“It kind of just happened,” Kozak said. “We were fortunate enough to find each other and inspire each other in the way that we do. We enjoy it thoroughly.”
Their love of their own music brought the band to Catskill Chill in Hancock, N.Y., one of the 11 festivals they played this summer.
“Catskill Chill was the best time I’ve had all summer,” said Kozak, who loved the show because of the amount of great acts the band was able to play with.
Their newly-created genre, electro-funkadelic hip-rock, is really that, its own genre. With elements of several different types of music, including jazz, rock, ska, and jam bands such as the Grateful Dead, no one band, so far, really compares to the style in which FiKus has thrived. The best example of this blend is the nearly eight-minute-long composition “Cool Refrigerator.” The song starts with a minute and a half of dark theatrical styling that is reminiscent of Broadway’s “Phantom of the Opera,” then simply reverts back to more of a jazz-flavored jam band, with vocals you could find on a 311 track.
It is this collection of styles that the band realizes is one of their strengths.
“We all listen to a lot of jazz, rock, and the whole jam scene,” Kozak said. “It’s a large part of what we do. I feel like that’s the strength of the band. We pull from so many influences that it comes out something very blended.”
As for the future of FiKus, the band hopes to keep growing and expanding its horizons.
“We’re working on getting to other markets,” said Kozak. “We want to do some work in Boston and Philadelphia, the soul spots like B. B. King’s in the city. We just saw Tool at the Izod Center and we were thinking how cool it would be to play there.”
Despite the beginnings of success, the band knows that there is so much more for them to accomplish.
“We feel like we’ve achieved a good amount at this point, but it’s not nearly what we want to be doing,” Kozak said. “We want to be traveling the world and the country, making records and having bigger experiences.”
However, in the meantime, the band has one goal that will signify their success.
“Right now, we’re trying to save up for a tour van,” explained Kozak.
After playing Donegal on Feb. 3, FiKus will play Tap and Barrel in Smithtown, N.Y., before playing Sullivan Hall in New York City. Their album “Plus+” can be found on their website www.fikusband.com.
