The Dip and Psycodelics funk things up at River Front Concert Series

Savannah Stopover Festival and the Park at Eastern Wharf are teaming up to bring in Seattle, Washington's The Dip and Charleston, South Carolina's The Psycodelics for their monthly Riverfront Concert Series.

The Dip is a silky-smooth six-piece modern funk, soul and R&B band highlighted by the uplifting vocals of front man Tom Eddy and a dynamic horn section. The Dip was formed in 2013 by several jazz students and friends at the University of Washington. Eddy, Jared Katz and Mark Hunter were in an electro-pop band called Beat Connection, while their neighbors Brennan Carter, Levi Gillis and Evan Smith played jazz together as the Honeynut Horns. The two trios came together to form The Dip.

"We were playing some pretty heady jazz music at the time, so the origin of the band is just wanting to get together and play some stuff that had a different purpose and social aspect,” explained Smith over the phone. “We started out mostly playing covers and then started writing our own music and jamming, playing house parties.”

The Dip manage to draw inspiration from classic R&B and soul sounds but put their own flavors on it for a modern sound that gets audiences swaying and dancing.

“It’s a big amalgamation of a lot of different stuff we listened to and some classic recordings,” said Smith. “The jazz influence plays a big element, too. You’ll hear more of a focus on improvisation that you might hear in classic 3-minute soul and R&B tunes that were meant to be put on a 45. Our band sound comes from having six or seven people and everybody bringing their own influences and inspirations into it. Everybody does a little bit of writing and arranging, and that’s how we end up where we end up.”

Forthcoming record will surface this summer

The band's last record, 2022’s Sticking With It on Dualtone Records, went to #1 on Billboards’s Current R&B charts. Their success has led to sold-out shows around North America and internationally, as well as a number of electrifying festival appearances. Their latest single, “Love Direction,” and upcoming album of the same name, shows The Dip’s continued and consistent growth as musicians and songwriters.

“I think the new record over all has a lot more breadth and variety in sounds,” said Smith. “We opened up with some different instruments and recording processes. Our first record we did in three or four days. I think we’re all excited to have some different sounds on it. Having ‘Love Direction’ as the first single showcases that right off the bat.”

Previous albums were recorded in their homebuilt Mustard Studio, but The Dip approached the new record differently to find new sounds.

"We wanted to do something different,” said Smith. “This is our fourth studio album. As you grow as a band you want to explore different sounds, different processes. We thought from a time perspective, we should record things more expediently. Mustard Studio is our own studio and more of a practice space. It doesn’t have isolation rooms or even a control room. So, if you want to record something and change it, you have to play live, then listen back, make adjustments, and play it live again. It’s a little bit of a labor of love. We decided we wanted to work with other people and get other voices in the room.”

Although Love Direction does not come out until this Summer, audiences at the Park at Eastern Wharf will get to hear some of the new material, as well as some oldies but goodies.

In with the new and some of the old, too

"We’re going from both extremes,” said Smith. “Most shows we’ve done four or five from the new album, which is kind of a lot, so we’ve brought back older songs from our first record that we haven’t played in a while just to pair some old old with the new new.”

“To go back and play our old songs, we’re trying to arrange them differently, come up with different elements, and showcase them in a different way. I think that’s what keeps the live shows fresh for us. If they’re enjoyable for us, hopefully they’re enjoyable for the audience. There’s always a different spin on the arrangements.”

The Dip have chalked up over 200 million career streams and currently have over a million monthly listeners on Spotify, so it is extremely exciting that Savannah Stopover Festival and the Park at Eastern Wharf are giving fans a chance to see them for free. Bring your lawn chairs.

“There hasn’t been one breakout moment,” said Smith. “It’s just been a natural climb up, and we’re really lucky that we have people that will come see us…anywhere.”

The Dip will be joined by The Psycodelics, who were awarded City Paper’s Soul/R&B Act of the Year in 2021. The Psycodelics rock Black American music with an emphasis on danceable funk, disco, and blues.

If You Go >>

What: The Dip w/ The Psycodelics

When: 6-9 p.m., April 25

Where: Eastern Wharf, 101 Port St.

Cost: Free

Info: theparkeasternwharf.com

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Seattle-based funk band, The Dip, headlines free Savannah concert