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who was this really great drummer of the Funky Meters for like maybe over 15 years,
or something like that, before he passed away.

BiTS: That’s fabulous. How did you all decide to get together as a band?

SS: It was an experiment, and it has been a thing that I've been like letting gravity
do its thing on [laughs]. You know, it started as a band of sidemen, and it is still kind
of a band of sidemen, really. But like when I first started the band, it was eight years

ago. It's only been in this configuration for about two and a half years, or this specific
configuration for only about a year. But eight years
ago when I started the band, I was

experimenting with this. I was already in five
other bands doing a bunch of music that I was
happy to learn and explore and do, but I put a

band together with the idea that the five of us
that I put together, would each bring five songs
that we wanted to play that we didn't get to play

in our other bands that we were in.

BiTS: That's a great idea.

SS: Yeah, it was very cool. And the

other basis, premise of the
founding of the band was that
we would take turns calling

songs on stage and nobody
could say no, no matter
what. So if somebody in

the band wanted to
play a song that

everybody's played a
gazillion times, like
‘Brown Eyed Girl ‘by
Van Morrison or

something, we wouldn't
have this spite thing which

I had seen happen with so
many band leaders on
other gigs, and it kind of
went from there. That Smitti Supab

was the premise. So
the first five members we got together, we each had five songs, so we had a set list

of 25 songs instantly.

BiTS: Tell me more about the other musicians. Who plays what in the band?