Artist description When asked to describe his style, Peter refers to it as spoken groove, saying that you could probably characterize his writing by imagining “Dr. Seuss on acid taking a walk through the ghetto and deciding to become the white, jive king.” Take that slam poet, which by itself is highly entertaining on his solo, unaccompanied album, and combine it with a band that plays music to fit the mood of it in a funky, jazzy, Scooby Doo, spaced out, sometimes acoustic, sometimes all electric and raging style.

Music Style Spoken groove mixed with Scooby Doo funk/jazz

Musical Influences Herbie Hancock, Kool and the Gang, Church gospel, P.O.D., Medeski Martin and Wood, Phil Keaggy and many many more

Similar Artists Mix Gil Scott Heron/Jack Kerouac with a Medeski Martin and Wood/Pink Floyd/Acoustic Guitar Band feel

Artist History Peter Nevland didn’t even think of writing anything until he came to the University of Texas in 1993 to study Mechanical Engineering. When he did start writing, what came out ended up being somewhere between a song and spoken word, not tied to a particular beat, but improvising around the rhythms that are generated by his exploding imagery and creative word choice. His performance style and message is as wild and untamed as his writing portrays and is unique to the Austin open mic/poetry scene, which he has been involved in for the past couple years. In venues where the lack of censure is lauded, Peter’s work somehow combines innocence and joy with a gritty realization of and compassion for the tremendous amount of hurt and division in the world around him. But it’s more than that, whether it’s simply enjoying doing his laundry, or making friends with people of different races and backgrounds than the white suburbia he grew up in, there’s this continual longing for truth and the reality of a relationship with his Creator. It comes through in his first, self-titled CD with nothing but his voice on it. As entertaining as he is by himself, Peter also lives with music churning inside him. Thus, it seemed only natural to gather musicians with the intent of doing full scale concerts in February, 2001. Soon after, a keyboardist (David Nevland), bassist (Jason Peavey), and drummer (Eric Allen) joined the endeavor. Although makin’ music, they needed something more and were soon helped by the prodigious talents of guitarist Paul Finley, who has just released his own, first, solo album, A.D. The music’s driven by Peter’s writing, causing each piece to take on its own nature. The end result is a style that’s a cross between funk, jazz, Pink Floyd, acoustic guitar, and word groove. They played an encore performance in their first concert in July, 2001 for 120-150 expectant people and have been playing in Austin and other places in Texas since then. The response is constantly, "I've never seen anything like that! That's so cool!" It's that same energy that comes shouting out of their new CD, "Late Bloomer" to be released in May, 2002.

Group Members Peter Nevland, Eric Allen, Paul Finley, David Nevland, Jason Peavey

Instruments Keyboard, bass, guitar and drums

Albums Peter Nevland

Press Reviews None yet

Location Austin, TX - USA

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