The multi-talented band led by drummer Zach Dubay lights up SpeakEZ Lounge tonight for the Local Spins Wednesdays series along with Traverse City’s The Marsupials. Learn more about the band and Dubay.
‘Endless Options for Creativity:: Drummer Zach Dubay and Pocket Watch’s jazz-fueled cornucopia. (Photo/Chelsea Whitaker)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Pocket Watch has since changed its name to Candid Antics. Scroll down for a video of the band.
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For drummer Zach Dubay, the jazz-fueled Pocket Watch has “always been about trying to push boundaries without sacrificing listenability.”
Inspired by the likes of Snarky Puppy, Miles Davis, Mars Volta, Dixie Dregs, Robert Glasper and Grand Rapids’ own Earth Radio, Pocket Watch’s diverse blend of funk, fusion and jazz has turned heads since the band was formed a couple years ago and won the 2023 Walk the Beat competition in Grand Haven.
“What started as Snarky Puppy-influenced writing has evolved into a comparison to Yussef Dayes and Dave Matthews Band for our more recently made tunes,” said Dubay, who also performs with several other Michigan bands, including Nathan Walton & the Remedy, The Verve Pipe, Distant Stars, Hannah Rose Graves, Cosmic Knot, Austin Benzing, Elijah Russ, The Blue Water Kings and Traverse City’s The Marsupials.
A Host of Influences: Pocket Watch (Photo/Chelsea Whitaker)
Indeed, Pocket Watch and The Marsupials — a funky rock jam band — play a double-bill at 7:45 p.m. tonight (May 8) at SpeakEZ Lounge for the Local Spins Wednesdays series.
With an arsenal of about 15 drum kits, Dubay has become one of the region’s go-to drummers these days, but has poured most of his creative and business energy into Pocket Watch, which also plays Holland’s Park Theatre on May 21 before heading out on a late May tour that hits Indianapolis and Nashville.
The West Michigan band also plays the Bus Benefit at Smiling Acres in Trufant on May 26.
VIDEO: Pocket Watch, “Cantaloupe Island” (Winner of 2023 Walk the Beat)
A JAZZ FOUNDATION WITH AN INJECTION OF FUNK
The band – Dubay, saxophonist/flutist/pianist Tommy Pancy, keyboardist Jarrett Holtslag, bassist Dale Bales II, guitarist Chris Murphy and fiddler Keala Venema – clearly has “a wide taste in music,” starting with its jazz core.
“The jazz fusion foundation is such a great canvas to start from and gives us endless options for creativity and improvisation, while the funk injection gives the grooves forward momentum to each different style and pocket we meld together,” Dubay suggested.
LISTEN: Pocket Watch, “Sparck”
He said the cohesiveness of the band makes it stand out from other projects.
“This is the first group where I really feel that we all have the same improvisational expression, and we all trust each other with the ability to take liberties on the songs,” he said.
“We feel extremely grateful to have that sense between us all, and in no small part to the Sunday afternoon ‘Jazz Jam’ at Turnstiles that has really let us get to know each other’s style and musical identity to use on our original jams.”
Nothing in the World He’s Rather Do: Dubay (Photo/Enrique Olmos)
Indeed, Turnstiles has become one of his favorite West Side hangouts.
“I’ve played here so much it feels like home. If you get this place packed out, it’s wild,” Dubay said in a previous Local Spins interview while eating his own signature “Dubay Burger” at Turnstiles.
Dubay conceded that his passion for drums is obsessive: “It’s that like, cracked-out, 110-percent mentality. It’s completely, like one-track mind.”
His parents, Kevin and Tresia Dubay, and brother, Jared, have long supported those musical endeavors, from the time he started playing drums as a young child until he “got serious at 12 or 13” and beyond.
Get more information about the SpeakEZ Lounge show online here.
Jazz Fusion and More: Pocket Watch on stage. (Photo/Chelsea Whitaker)
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