Ghost-Note: “The Crazier and Louder the Audience Gets, The More Fun and Funky We Play”
“We enjoy each other as musicians, we enjoy hearing each other play…we’re conscious musicians and the funk we play is conscious.”
Aussie audiences know Robert “Sput” Searight and Nate Werth as the dynamic percussion duo from Snarky Puppy. The pair’s jazz-funk project Ghost-Note is Melbourne in June for MIJF. We caught up with Sput and Nate ahead of their Australian debut.
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The band is an explosion of sound, catapulting funk into the future with a kinetic fusion of Afrobeat, hip hop, jazz, psychedelia and deep-pocket groove.
“We like the music to be an open current between us and the audience,” says Nate.
“The crazier and louder the audience gets, the more fun and funky we play. And the more focussed and listening the audience is the more we play with a little more finesse and more dynamic and we’ll take music into more intimate places.”
Two studio albums – Swagism (2018) and Fortified (2015) – have earned the group critical acclaim and a cult following. Both albums hit #1 on the iTunes jazz chats.
Central to the group’s airtight rhythm and vast musicality is the connection between Searight, Werth and bass wizard and Youtube sensation Dywane “MonoNeon” Thomas Jr.