“We’re all trained musicians. We went to school for jazz. We all made it a priority to be educated and then do our best to ignore that education as much as possible.”
Since 2011, Naughty Professor has been steadily bringing the funk to the masses. Already exploding, this year they have embarked on another lengthy tour that will land them at Voodoo Festival November 1, New Orleans on October 31- November 2, and at the Tipitinas’ after show on the same evening, before finishing their tour in Knoxville at Scruffy City Hall on December 6.
Their music exemplifies the fun and exciting danceable feeling that, like vitamins, you don’t know how much you need until you feel the pangs of its absence.
Coming more and more into their own has been quite the adventure. Recently, we caught up with drummer Sam Shahin to discuss their musical voice, award nominations and an inside view of the life of a touring band.
Without words, a space is left to be filled. In music as in life, when this presents itself thought and feeling are forced to the surface from deep inside. Naughty Professor is exemplary at forcing just that. The result is a raging dance party and smiles from ear to ear.
“That enables us to fill space more with our instruments and to do a little bit more complex harmony with the horns and a little bit more complex rhythm and syncopation with the rhythm section and to have more interlocking lines, that if there was a vocal melody or some words that needed to be emphasized, then it wouldn’t be musically appropriate,” Shahin said. “Being an instrumental band allows all of us to have a strong voice and that is definitely what is enticing about it.”
Creatively, Naughty Professor tackles music with fervor. “We do full band rehearsals and sectionals. The horns will meet on their own and the rhythm section will meet on its’ own. For the most part the writing process is very communal,” Shahin said. “Somebody may bring in an idea, a bass line or a melody, and we’ll build songs around that. Sometimes someone brings a song in, for example, “Prune Juice” is one Noah (Young – bass) wrote.
“For the most part, we are writing all this stuff together. For the live show experience, we just try to put down what we’re feeling at the moment. Some of the stuff is very improvisatory and driven by spontaneous interaction, but we have our road map. We know where certain things are going and what certain things mean. Because we play so often and have such a high amount of respect for each other, all we need to do is listen and we know what each other are going to do. At a good show the audience really pumps that energy back into us and we’re able to lift that way above anything we knew we were capable.”
While watching Naughty Professor perform, you will notice the constant interaction of the band. They are all watching each other, allowing for the others’ voice, instrumentally, to be heard. This was not wrought from an overnight happenstance; years of work individually formed their seamless expression. “I grew up in Austin, Texas for my first thirteen years. My dad had a drum set that was given to him as a wedding gift by his brother. He never touched it, never really played it, but he wouldn’t let me play it either. He made me play on a drum pad for about six months. He wanted me to prove I had dedication and wasn’t just going to play and ignore it the rest of my life,” Shahin laughed. “Little did he know what he had sparked. When we moved to DC, I got involved in charter programs.
“I attended The Duke Ellington School of the Arts, which would now be considered a charter school, but at the time, we just called it a magnet. That opened me up to ten schools. I was taking three private lessons a week: one on drum set; one on classical percussion; and one on melodic percussion. I got to do multiple types of ensembles at the school, not to mention all the bands I was in outside of school. That got me interested in New Orleans and the idea that a drum set came together here; that it was the epicenter of everything I had fallen in love with over the past eight years.
“New Orleans was just it. Nothing else was in my head. You go to the place where drums were created, where jazz was born, where you feel this weird passion and oddity about the city that exudes out of the sidewalk. It’s incredible. I couldn’t get away from it. Looking back, that’s how all of us felt. We’re all trained musicians. We went to school for jazz. We all made it a priority to be educated and then do our best to ignore that education as much as possible,” Shahin said.
Earlier this year, along with Trombone Shorty and Dumpstafunk, Naughty Professor was nominated for best band in New Orleans by The Gambit Awards. This is their second nomination in two years.
“That one was a huge surprise for us. They didn’t even tell us what was going on. Last year we got nominated, by the same award association for Best Upcoming Band in New Orleans. They let us know a few months in advance, they wanted us to take some pictures, get some stuff together and bring by some materials,” Shahin said. “We had no idea what was going on. Apparently they asked out manager and he never told us, I guess as a surprise. One day our saxophone player, Nick Ellman, is reading The Gambit and sees our name in there and sends it to our group text. Everybody was like, ‘this is amazing. You’ve got to be kidding.’ It’s really humbling to be put in that circle at all, especially when those musicians are exactly the reason we all zoned in on New Orleans like a magnet.
“They’re the ones who created the community that we were so crazy about. They were the ones who created the eye popping cool performances that drew us here. The idea that we would not only be able to be in a room with people like that, but actually in the same category is definitely a huge honor.”
Who wouldn’t want a party thrown to the soundtrack comprised of their music? Recently, Naughty Professor did just that with their “Open House” video series. “We’ve got to give sole props to our manager, Max Benano. Since then, we’ve signed with a management team, but at the time, he was the only guy. He came to us and said ‘here’s what I want to do. Let’s see if we can make it possible.’ He said, ‘who do you want here?’ We gave him a list. He invited everyone. He got a keg. He got food. He got everything going. He put the lights up. He got the camera crew to come.
“Basically his idea was this; the best way for Naughty Professor to be felt is live; the best way to be heard is controlled. That’s the best combination. You get the feeling of a live show. We’re in our home in a studio like setting and we got a polished sound out of it, more of a polished sound than you would get from a live show,” Shahin said.
“We’re doing what we love to do. We got our friends together. Those are not stock actors; those are people we wanted there. Those are people we love and love us. We had some fun. We like to party. We like to drink. We like to have an interaction with our audience. There is nothing more intimate than bringing that interaction into your home and to rage doing it. I hope everybody as a good a time as us doing it. We had a blast,” he said.
In the face of growing success, Shahin and Naughty Professor remain utterly thankful for the chance to give the gift of music to an ever increasing audience. “We try to keep ourselves honest. Overall we try to put down stuff we believe in and give our attitude, our mindset and our being through what we’re playing. I think someone can learn far more about watching me play than talking to me for 90 minutes,” he said. “I think you’ll learn far more about who I am as a spiritual entity through playing. I thank Naughty for giving me the freedom to express those characteristics.”
For all things Naughty Professor, check out https://naughtyprofessormusic.com, and be sure to catch them at Voodoo Fest and Tipitinas for the after show on November 1. For those of you in the Knoxville area, they will be appearing at Scruffy City Hall in Market Square on December 6.
