Rothbury, MI- On Tuesday, June 25th, after the dust had settled and people had returned home from Double J Resort, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Marshall Todd, the vocalist of Flexadecibel. Flexadecibel is a Muskegon, MI-based 7 to 8 person ensemble that focuses on funk, soul, rock, and jam music. For 10 years, this group of friends have taken Michigan locals on a musical joyride. We talked about their journey as a band, their experience at Electric Forest, and much more. Take a look below to read our exclusive interview.
Interviewer (K): How are you doing today?
Marshall (M): I’m doing well. Just resting and recovering from the long weekend. And how are you?
K: I’m doing quite well! I’ve been following your music for years now, seeing you for the first time at a local festival in Muskegon. It was really cool to see your guys’ name on this year’s Electric Forest lineup. What a journey y’all have been on! So, I just wanted to sit down and talk a little bit about that journey, the band, and what it was like getting to perform at such a magical place in Michigan.
K: Now, this is your first time performing at Electric Forest, am I correct on that?
M: Correct. Yeah. I’ve gone a number of times. This is my fifth time, but it’s my first time actually performing.
K: What would you say is the difference between being an attendee vs. being an artist?
M: I mean, it was crazy. But they took such good care of the artists. Like, much more than I was expecting for, you know, someone as little as us at a festival that big. But, yeah, we really had no issues whatsoever. The staff took amazing care of us.
K: The staff is great. This is my sixth year. I don’t know, it gets a little hazy with those gap years from the pandemic, but I think my sixth year. This is my first year doing press, but I’ve worked it for a couple of years, and I’m always impressed with the staff and the team. It’s nice to hear that they keep that same level of treatment for all of the artists throughout the festival.
M: Yeah, it was wonderful. Everyone from, you know, the people that we were emailing to the sound engineers and the stagehands, artists’ transportation, and security- all of them were so great and so helpful.
K: How did you guys start? Tell me, what is the Flexadecibel story?
M: We were originally a three-piece horn section. And it just kind of grew from there. Our saxophone player had quit, and now we have Brandino. He joins us whenever he can, but he’s also a solo musician so he can’t join us for every gig. So if he’s with us, it’s eight.
A lot of the band members were originally in the Reeths-Puffer marching band. I knew Rob from high school. He had been trying to get me to sing in a band with him for years. I just was never really into the idea of, like, music as a job. Like when I was younger, it was always just me and my guitar and playing acoustic shows. I wasn’t ever really much into it.
Eventually, he convinced me to go to one jam session, and that turned into just one show, I was just immediately hooked after that. And yeah, ten years later, we’re still doing it.
K: Ten years. Wow. And now you’re touring with the likes of Desmond Jones and you’re on festival lineups like Electric Forest. What are some other things that you guys have been doing recently that you’re really excited about?
M: A few years ago, we had the pleasure of playing at the Beaver Island Music Festival for the first time, and we’re going back this summer. It’s the weekend of July 18th until Sunday. And we’re very excited about that.
K: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
M: You know, when people ask about the music we play, I think of funk, rock, and soul. It is, you know, a quick way to describe it, but really, we play whatever the fuck we want. When I’m listening to music, my shuffle and my playlists are just going from metal to, rap and hip hop, to like some country music to musical numbers from shows and musicals and stuff. And all the other guys really are the same way. So, yeah, we go all over the place, really whatever we feel like doing.
K: It sounds like it gives you a lot of room for musical exploration, for sure. Being able to appreciate all of the different types of genres and sounds and music, I think really helps bands become more well-rounded as well in their own sound and helps really evolve into something that you don’t come around all the time.
K: What’s one of the silliest things you do to get rid of pre-show jitters?
M: Probably just messing with each other. That’s kind of our thing. Yeah, well, they’re eight of my, you know, closest friends in the world.
K: When you’re working together for ten years, you gotta be able to be quite comfortable with each other and be able to give and take a joke here and there, you know?
M: One time we were staying in Ohio, and I had just fallen asleep on the couch-it was very late- and my face is kind of smushed up against the couch, and one of my eyes was open. William, our keyboard player, took a picture of my weird sleeping face with one eye stretched open. He woke me up and said “Marshall, unlock your phone so I can change your Facebook profile picture” and I don’t remember it, but I mean, I must have agreed. He said, I said okay, unlocked it and gave it to him. I woke up the next morning and sure enough it was my profile picture. I left it up for like a day out of respect for the prank.
K: Do you guys have any rituals or routines that help you get into a creative mindset?
M: For the longest time, the guys would come up with the instrumentals and record it, and then I would write music or vocals to it on my own. But recently we’ve been trying to change that up as a way of experimenting and trying to come up with covers more often. So, we’ve been writing it all—like the instrumentals and the vocals—live at once and recording the whole session. A lot of times we’ll just kind of go for it. And if we do something cool while we’re just kind of making shit up, we’ll go back and listen to it like right then, and then at the end, come up with a draft of that song and save it for recording so nothing gets forgotten.
K: How do you balance staying true to your artistic vision while also trying to innovate and push boundaries?
M: I mean, really? I know that it is a business, and I want to progress and do bigger shows, but the moment it stops being fun and starts feeling like work, then why do we even do it? Creative freedom is number one. We all have jobs and lives outside of Flexadecibel, so it’s been beneficial for us to be true to ourselves and what we feel like making, rather than what’s popular. I think people appreciate that.
K: How does performing at Electric Forest compare to other festivals and venues you’ve played?
M: It’s different, in some ways better in some ways not. There’s a lot of music festivals that they’re not as big as Electric Forest. Festivals like Shagbark or Pond Jam are very intimate. All of the local festivals are really special. And it’s a lot of the same circuit of people there. Electric Forest felt like a vacation, right? Whereas all of these other festivals kind of feel like, like a cookout with your family, right? Like at different times, you want a different thing. But they’re both great in their own way. Electric Forest and Summer Camp/ Solshine , those are really the only two bigger music festivals that I’ve ever gone to. I really enjoy the intimacy and familiarity of the smaller ones.
K: Can you describe a moment on stage where you felt completely connected with the audience and tell me what that was like?
M: I think the most prominent example of that was when we played Parties in the Park in Muskegon. And this was one where it was, it was a really, really busy day. There were a lot of people at this particular one and a lot of people right in the front row, and during our song May 15th, which is, you know, when it’s played live, it’s one of our songs people really get down to.
It started raining. And most people did not leave. It was still so crowded. Everybody was just dancing and singing along in the rain. That will forever be one of my all-time favorite memories in the world. Not even just of shows, but ever. It was incredible. That was probably like the most connected I’ve ever felt with the audience any time we’ve played.
K: What’s one of the weirdest things you’ve ever seen in the audience while performing?
M: During a soundcheck for a festival, there was a very drunk lady who kept telling us to just, like, “finish a whole song.” She came up and was badgering us a little bit, I eventually asked her to go away and she responded with, “Oh, you think you’re SOO important, don’t you? You’re just a million people!” And that’s been a joke with us for a long time now. When the other guys want to tell me to chill out, or if they want to make fun of me, they’ll say that I just think I’m a million people.
K: What is a hidden talent or skill that you have that your fans might be surprised to learn about?
M: I’m pretty mechanically inclined. I work in heating and cooling, installing air conditioners and heaters. I do a lot of work on cars. People are usually surprised when they find out because of my long hair and high-pitched singing voice and usually in a Dungeons & Dragons t-shirt.
K: What is the best piece of advice that you have ever received? And how has it influenced your musical career and just maybe life in general?
M: When it comes to music careers, one of the things that I quote the most is actually from a cartoon that I really like. I watched it with my son, it’s called Steven Universe. I love Steven. I was actually just watching it with him. Steven’s dreaming, and in his dream, he’s playing chess and talking with this cartoon dog called Dog Copter. You know, he’s got a propeller on his back?
Anyways, he asks Dog Copter “how do you do it? Like, what do you do to make your art so successful” or something like “how are you so talented”—something along those lines. Dog Copter comes back with, “Steven, you’ve got to stop worrying so much about success and talent. Just be true to who you are. Create what feels right and people will appreciate your honesty.” And I’ve always felt that.
When I’m writing a song- it’s really about whatever thing I’m thinking about or feeling in that moment. Regardless of how weird it is, whether I want to write a serious song about, you know, how if I’m feeling sad, or if I’m in love, or something like that; or I can write a song about fighting vampires, or a Dungeons & Dragons campaign that I was coming up with, or, you know, traveling through space, whatever weird thing is just. Whatever my mood is that day, you know, that’s what I’m going to write about.
K: Marshall, thank you so much. Is there anything else you want to plug or anything?
M: Definitely. There’s the Beaver Island Music Festival, Shagbark Music Festival, and Dunesville Music Festival. All of those small festivals, they’re amazing. If you haven’t had a chance, go check them out!
Be sure to check out Flexadecibal’s upcoming shows and festival appearances!
