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Digging Into Old Sounds To Create New Music

http://www.oldsmokeband.com/

Bloomington's Old Smoke Band takes its musical cues from southern rock, blues, and country.  Band members say they're attempting to establish a local and regional fan base in an attempt to move the band to the "next level."  Front man and guitarist Adam Humphreys says he looks forward to playing BerniePalooza 2016 at the Castle Theater tonight (March 10), and has been 'feeling the Bern' for quite some time now.

"I see him as an anti-establishment type of guy. I tend to gravitate away from politicians and government power houses."

Humphreys and guitarist Heath Brandon recently joined WGLT's Jon Norton in studio to talk music.  The duo says they  feel optimistic about the Bloomington Normal music scene. Humphreys says there's always room to grow, but things are looking good.

"We have a great group of places to play here, what we need to do is get more people to do what we're doing...it's an exciting time."

Humphreys and Brandon are hoping to create a regional fan base.  One way they have worked towards that goal is by putting covers on Soundcloud to help reach wider audiences, both geographically and in music taste.

"We're not just picking some song every one has heard, but we can only write original music so fast, so we want to keep pumping it out this way."

When the two "burned out" of pop-rock bands, they went back to the roots of blues to find new inspirations for their music.  Brandon says it was eye opening.

"I went back to this entire part of music I had missed, and I had a lot of catching up to do, but it was very influential."

In the future the band hopes to take that next step, including recording a studio album and continuing to tour between Chicago and St. Louis. Still, Humphreys says they can't treat it as a traditional full time gig.

"We're all working on families and jobs ... we found a bunch of really talented guys who were all on the same page with their commitments."

Jon Norton is the program director at WGLT and WCBU. He also is host of All Things Considered every weekday.