BY EMILY JONES / VN STAFF WRITER
Have you heard of a genre called Brass House?
If you haven’t, don’t get yourself down over it because the group Too Many Zooz are the ones who invented it – and the only ones playing it currently.
Their style – which is coming to Ferndale Feb. 1 – mixes elements of electronic music, swing and Cuban influences into one big jumble that can make anyone tap their toes (at the very least).
The sound is infectious, akin to a marching band stripped down and on steroids.
The buildup and drop are extremely similar to traditional festival trap music, but instead of huge booming 808s you have Leo P (Leo Pellegrino) on baritone sax, successfully replacing what FL Studio might accomplish (but with more authenticity and style).
Matt Doe and David Parks are in the mix, as well.
Doe plays the role of melody maker and trumpeter extraordinaire.
And Parks, a.k.a. The King of Sludge, handles drums, rocking a traditional marching band drum with literal bells and whistles attached to it.
This already seems like an interesting spectacle, but it is even more so when you add Leo P’s dancing into the fray of it all.
He shuffles and grooves all while playing the sax with fervor, leaving the observer wondering how he could have so much energy.
It’s his dancing you might recall from the band’s viral subway youtube videos. They have been seen by millions.
The Varsity News recently called up Leo P to pick his brain about the tour, pre-show rituals and first instruments.
The tour is going well and he’s having fun, he said.
But people “don’t realize how stressful it is.”
“It’s a more grown up thing,” he said, noting the scheduling and responsibilities that come with touring.
Leo P prepares for going on stage by drinking a significant amount of water because he’s “constantly worried about the level of hydration” that he’s getting.
Check out his performance, and you’ll understand why. He’s in constant motion – not unlike the performers he admires.
One of his favorites, he replied with some hesitation, is Bruno Mars because his newest album “24k Magic” is “current yet retro sounding … and it’s freaking groovy.”
Leo P’s saxophone plays a key part in the Too Many Zooz sound.
But it wasn’t his first instrument.
As a kid, he had been playing his mother’s clarinet for a while before moving onto his first saxophone (which his mother ordered off eBay).
The interesting thing was that when the box containing the sax arrived on their doorstep, it didn’t hold just the saxophone itself but also “hundreds of CDs of different saxophone players.”
He began to listen to and learn.
You might catch glimpses of those influences when Too Many Zooz performs at the Loving Touch in Ferndale on Feb. 1. Doors open at 8 p.m.
