Fatty Lumpkin sounds like "the abstract images of the mind that only music can depict". These are accurate words for a band celebrated for their diverse mix of funk, reggae, experimental styles. Fatty Lumpkin is Matt Dixon on drums, Seth Myers on lead vocals and bass, and Kelyn Crapp on guitar. Last Saturday they played a gig at Fred's Texas Cafe in Ft.Worth, and I had a chance to sit down and chat with the members of the popular Denton jam band.
You guys have been playing a lot of shows around DFW. When are you coming back to Denton?
Kelyn: Our next Denton show is December 3rd at Andy's.
Matt: We're headlining, and the opening band Spank goes on around 10pm.
What about your upcoming album?
Seth: We're still working on it, but our EP is available.
Kelyn: It's still a work in progress, but we're going to release it sometime this spring.
Matt: We're pretty particular about what we want it to sound like, and we don't want to release it before we're all sure it's finished.
Seth: This is our first full-length album, something creative and original that we've been working on for a long time.
You guys currently live together in Denton, but how did you first meet?
Seth: We met in high school, but I've known this guy (points to Kelyn) since elementary school.
Kelyn: Yeah, we all grew up in Grapevine and started playing together in high school.
Where have you toured?
Seth: Around Texas, mostly. We've played in Austin, Waco, San Antonio, Lubbock.
Kelyn: We'd really like to tour outside of Texas, like when we did the Wakarusa festival in Kansas last year.
Matt: Yeah, that was fun. It was definitely one of our best shows and the festival was ridiculous.
Who else was playing there?
Matt: Flaming Lips, Galactic, Sound Tribe Sector Nine.
Seth: Cake was there, Emmylou Harris.
Kelyn: There were a lot of great jam bands there too, lots of relatively unknown musicians.
Wow. That sounds like an incredible lineup. Where else do you like to play?
Seth: Lubbock.
Really?
Seth: (laughs) Really. They're so starved for good music, you know?
Matt: Yeah, they're some of our biggest fans. They go a little crazy for us, so we always have fun out there.
Kelyn: We've had some great shows in Austin, and of course in Denton.
You guys do have a pretty big fan base in Denton. How do people usually hear about Fatty?
Seth: Word of mouth, mostly.
Kelyn: Yeah, that's usually the best way. We've been really lucky, because we have fans who come to our shows and enjoy our music for the live experience. We don't play our songs the same way every time, which is why people keep coming back to see us. We have a lot stronger fan base than a lot of other bands who have put out several CD's, which we're grateful for. We're sort of like...diamonds in the rough, you know?
Matt: We also have the Fatty Lumpkin Street Team, which is a group of our friends and fans that go around putting up posters and handing out flyers for our shows. In return, we can put them on the guest list to get into the show.
Seth: We feel connected to the people who come to see us play, because it's not just about us onstage. That's why we've added lights to our show, and why we have an artist paint onstage with us while we're playing.
Matt: That's our goal, to create more of an all-around sensory experience for the audience. We've definitely been inspired by bands like the Flaming Lips, whose shows are always more of a total experience than exactly as it is on the album. That's what music is about, a shared experience.
True words, and well put. Good luck to you Fatty, and we'll see you on December 3rd!
