The Motet are true funk. The seven-piece ensemble has steadily built a fanbase, bringing a dance party to venues and festivals across the country. Hailing from Colorado, the band has been riding high since their self-titled 2014 release, combining grooving originals with funky covers at venues and festivals alike. On the heels of their upcoming Mixtape 1975 show and performance at the Backwoods Music Festival, L4LM writer Jack Sheehan sat down with The Motet’s vocalist/percussionist, Jans Ingber, to talk shop.

L4LM:  What is it about the great state of Colorado that harbors such creativity, other than the recreational cannabis?

Jans Ingber:(Laughs) well hey; we’ll take the recreational cannabis, and all the recreation that happens there. It’s just one of the great hubs of music in the United States right now. And we’ve really gotten to see a lot of it happen. Not only by their amazing venues, Red Rocks, the Filmore, the Ogden in Denver, the Fox theatre in Boulder. There’s amazing venues, and then there’s amazing music industry. Madison House, and all these great bands came out. So when we were starting out, there was already a path laid out first. You’ll play this place first, you’ll talk to this person, this person is a great manager, and this person is a great publicist. So it’s just a special place and people have been flocking there over the last 5 years to make it one of the truly great hubs of music.

L4LM: Your fanbase is rapidly spreading across the country, and you’re about to debut at the Backwoods Music Festival. What part of the fest are you most excited about?

Ingber: Well for one, we haven’t been to Oklahoma for many, many, many years. And so we really want to make it to the Midwest/south this year. That has been a priority for us; to make our presence felt a little bit more there. We’re going to be doing Summer Camp and a bunch of festivals in the Midwest so we really want to make some friends out there.

L4LM:  That’s good to hear. Why would a fan specifically have to make it out to Backwoods this year?

Ingber: That’s a good question. A lot of these bigger festivals, there’s so many acts and so many stages. One of the great things about these smaller festivals is that when an act is performing people are there. Everyone’s there. The energy is there, the focus is there. People are there and we like to throw a party. A dance party, and to get into it, it takes a minute. Move the body, stretch it out, let the inhibitions go and that’s when the Motet funk dance party really gets going.

L4LM:  Cool! What makes shows out there a little different than the east coast festivals our New York City based readers are more accustomed to?

Ingber: Yea that’s a good one. East coast festivals have a different clientele, honestly. It’s the people and what they come for and what now. The New York area there is so much music. So people who come to these more jam band-y festivals, you know sometimes they come to party their face off! At festivals in the Midwest, at lot of times, all music lovers come to somewhere like Backwoods Fest. You’re going to see all types of music lovers coming out to see some good quality music that doesn’t always come through their town.

L4LM:  That’s great because that’s exactly what you guys are. You funk it up. You can do a damn good Grateful Dead cover. You get those horns in and sound like Fela Kuti, and then, you’re swinging!

Ingber:  (Laughs) I appreciate that. Yea there’s a lot of musicians who have a lot in their bag, and every band, every musician also does other things, plays other kinds of music. So there’s a lot of depth for where the music can go. To me that makes it exciting.

L4LM:  How did the “Funk Is Dead” concept come about? How do you bring such authenticity to those shows?

Ingber: Those shows really for us were times for us to learn and deepen our musical connection. So when we really dug in to the music of Earth, Wind, & Fire, when we really dug into the music of the Dead, Tower of Power, and Michael Jackson and got into some of the greatest players and the parts that they made up; it could do nothing but to add what we already had in our bag. So it’s really been our learning place; it’s like our school. So we take pride in putting our time and effort into it so when we perform someone’s music, of course we are going to put our own spin on it. But we are also going to take all the elements that we think are badass in that music and make sure it shines.

L4LM:  Mixtape ’75… how did you come up with the idea of playing a set based on a year?

Ingber: Its funny, it’s actually been a dream of mine to do this for a long, long time. Halloweens all started out the music of 1 artist. Prince, Tower of Power, Michael Jackson, Earth, Wind, & Fire. Then I put the seed out, “what if we did a whole year?” instead of being in 1 kind of music, what if we could do the kind of spectrum and we could recreate the year with the costumes and the whole deal. And once we did it for the very 1st time we were hooked. We’re going to keep doing these mixtapes; they’re so fun.

L4LM:  That’s really cool.  How’d you come up with that year specifically?

Ingber: Well we picked 1975 partially because our sound is electro funk. So funk came around with James Brown, Sly Stone, Funkadelic, Jimi Hendrix. This is all late 60s/ early 70s guitar oriented. Electro-funk brought in synthesizers. 1975 was some of the first years that that was really on the forefront of modern music where it was funk with synthesizers. So there’s so much great music from that era, all through 75-80. The golden age of electro funk.

L4LM:  Zigaboo Modeliste(drummer for the meters) is opening for you guys at the Jazzfest afterparty in NOLA. How’d that come about?

Ingber: Well that’s just one of the great parts about New Orleans. You get to be around some of the greats of music, especially of funk music. One of the greatest funk drummers of all time; we are so stoked to be a part of it. Look, they gig like 25 times over these jazz festivals, so we feel so graced that he would play with us on a bill.

L4LM:  Yea I hear NOLA is the Venice of the Americas, and musically speaking there’s been bands gigging there since before World War I who still kill it.

Ingber: (Laughs) Exactly. That’s funny. Yea New Orleans is just the 1 place in the United States musically that feels like another country. I’ve travelled to a bunch of other countries and played music but it is as uniquely its own culture, its own music that is to New Orleans. Even though its part of the United States, it’s really like “the republic of New Orleans”.

L4LM:  Well that’s a great way to think of it. Thanks for your time.