 Playing for us today right now is going to be the Mekula and Surprisingly, they're not from Temecula. They're from Sacramento. Have you ever been introduced like that before? I have never had anyone get the Temecula reference. Oh So at first right here on live radio These guys are from Sacramento. They've been playing for I guess two or three years now Yeah, I think it would be like about three and a half almost four coming up Would you mind just introducing the group? Yeah, this is So my name is Nick Benz Back here on the drums is Peter Bell on bass Andrew Mearns and with us today is Levy Silua on alto saxophone Very good, and you're gonna be playing four songs for us. I believe today, which is gonna be awesome We're gonna ask you to play two in a row and then we'll talk a little bit and we'll we'll do it again, but before that You've been on my radio show listening lyrics community radio is all about Sharing what's going on in the community whether it's music Politics schools whatever in all sorts of music even a gardening show if you can believe it or not Could you just tell me a little bit one of you might want to say something about how important community radio is for budding artists young or old I mean any opportunity that folks get to come together as a community and share something whether it's music arts education is a valuable and important opportunity For folks to get to learn something from one another To see what's happening in our community around us to connect with one another so yeah, I mean absolutely I'm for every opportunity that we get to connect You know, I think maybe you can take over as host and I'll beat the drums for a little bit. How's that? What's the first song you're gonna play for us? This next tune is called Miko Miko and after that I jump to the top jump to the top Okay, we're gonna have the macula playing Thanks for listening and we'll hear you on the other side of the second song Let me ask you a question. What drew you to jazz instead of one thing for me specifically, you know Was I discovered jazz and got really into it when I was in high school and I an opening happened in the jazz band kind of randomly And I they asked me to play and I think I love the communal or like the community nature of it It's a kind of genre not that other music doesn't do this But jazz I think specifically draws a lot of people together. I like that everybody is always working on songs That everybody could always play together like jazz standards and stuff Everybody knows all these different songs and we can just come together and without even saying a word Be like experience in something together. It's cool. You're listening to KDRT 95 7 We're in the middle of a band-a-thon the macula is playing right now They're gonna play another couple of songs for us. You mentioned the community aspect of it Of course, that's a nice segue into this whole community radio a group now But in the near future, you're gonna be going to different schools. I believe what's what's gonna happen to the band Or you just take a recess for a while Right. So in a couple in a month or so, I'm gonna move away But I think we're kind of seeing it as a temporary hiatus, you know to me We're not really sure what's going on You know, we we have some recordings that we've been working on and stuff like that that You know, even as I am kind of moving away We hope to be putting out and sharing with people and you know, we not really sure what's gonna happen in the future But yeah, who knows right who knows and the next couple of songs. So what are they called? this next one's called Strength and this one has a little bit of a story to it was one of the first songs that we kind of wrote as a band together and Really we we kind of them as we started writing this song We realized that it had a story to tell us and it was sort of us up to us to sort of figure out what that story was But what we ultimately kind of settled on was that the story really is kind of out about our brothers and sisters Who are experiencing homelessness and our inner communities now? And almost go unnoticed and sometimes maybe even silenced or pushed aside or forgotten about so this this song kind of kind of drops us into the perspective of someone who is maybe in mental health crisis or is certainly experiencing some form of homelessness and Is just feeling alone and isolated and as people pass by You'll hear these shushes that come from us and they sort of signify Society or people just kind of silencing this person either Actually, or just with by just ignoring them or passing them by and so this is kind of what that song is about And you know the first time I saw you guys perform was at lunas and You explained just as you did now the meaning of this song and I can remember sitting there listening to it And I was just taken away because walking into lunas I was approached by a homeless man, and I ignored him, you know, I was on my way to buy a beer and I kept seeing his face while you were singing this so It it did stir something up in me, and I hope the listeners will pay attention to there's no lyrics But but the music self speaks loudly the mecula. Oh, thank you guys unbelievable what a beautiful beautiful set with sound effects Amazing amazing sound effects. Who comes up with these ideas? Well, I've written like a lot of the tunes for like, you know putting together the charts But I mean really it's a collective effort amongst everybody, you know They wouldn't be the same if everybody didn't bring some, you know, their own unique Personality and playing to the table. So I really say it's a collective effort So you're not writing in there that the bass players to tap on the bass. Oh, no. No, yeah, that's all Yeah, it's yeah, it's very loose. I mean, you know, it's it kind of almost looks like you know Just like a standard lead sheet that you would just like print offline or find in a fake book or something like that But then we kind of build them into these it's just like a skeleton, you know, we put all the Well, we want to thank you guys for for doing this it was a beautiful set if this is your kind of music it doesn't get any better and I'm almost ashamed to say we can't pay you guys you're contributing this it's just we're sitting in the audience It's just awesome. So thank you