Published 2009-09-02T00:00:00Z”/>
Nathan Collins
On the train station-like platform behind Empire Coffee’s train car, Chico’s one-man cosmic-funk, spacey-scape band Yestin Rowton &- better known as Dr. Yes! &- opened up a wormhole of warm, electric-piano key sounds on a transfixed audience of about a dozen smiling, toe-tapping people.
He may not always draw a big crowd, but the doctor doesn’t discriminate. He will pick up anybody on his cosmic-music trip.
The windows of the train car became the portholes of a passing spaceship as the key-wizard vibrated the wooden boards under the audience’s feet like xylophone keys.
The party was guided through the space-time continuum by Dr. Yes’ token “Magic Jesus Man” &- a psychedelic picture lamp featuring a classical depiction of Christ surrounded by continually rotating, color-changing lights. There hasn’t been a Dr. Yes! show played without it.
“We play soul music, you know,” Rowton said. “Somewhat spiritual, in some sense.”
Through a series of new and old keyboards, synthesizers, effect modules and looping equipment, Rowton has been building his blend of multi-layered, beat-funk, space-out music on the Chico scene for about two years.
With one full album, “Live!..From Your Head” released last May with his live band, The Soulgazers, he’s currently working on a solo record, “The Body Electric” slated for release in December.
“It’s a pretty kind of dancy, kind of funky album,” Rowton said with a trademark, stubble-faced smile.
But everything isn’t always easy and smooth in the Dr. Yes! universe.
Playing with so many electronic devices can be rough on the nerves, especially as he builds most of his loops live &- going into a show without much pre-recorded material. He turns every little sound, beat and loop on and off himself. No tricks.
“It’s really easy to screw that stuff up if you’re not paying attention,” Rowton said. “You have to be really, kind of, focused when you’re playing loops and beats.”
And focused he is. So much so that he hardly moves at all during a performance &- at most shaking his shaggy bangs with the beats. It is the hardest part about performing, he said. He just feels like a detached figure behind his equipment, so he tries to get other performers &- such as live drummers &- in on the music to get the audience into it.
Opening act Boy Eats Drum Machine also known as Jon Ragel &- an almost-famous Portland trip-hop sensation, was impressed with the doctor’s set, he said.
Others come to Dr. Yes! shows just to hear how he will mix it up &- he never plays the same version of a song twice live &- due to the fact he’s usually playing for the same people, Rowton said. He often plays new songs he has been working on, or sometimes even just written.
“He played some Soulgazer tunes,” said Scott Barwick, a Chico State computer science graduate student and member of the local band, Joybook. “I thought it was cool &- the different version &- hearing it a different way. I was stoked on the new songs.”
But where does Dr. Yes! get his sound? His lyrics often deal with feelings of loneliness in the void, like the primordial man singing into the empty darkness of space.
“That’s me, man,” Rowton said with a laugh. “I guess that’s my life in a nut-shell. I’m kind of a hermit &- a solitary kind of guy.”
In addition, he draws a lot of inspiration from the old soul singers such as Otis Redding &- the “eternally heart-broken kind of guys,” he said.
“You got to sing what you know,” Rowton said.
Nathan Collins can be reached at<a href= “javascript:void(location.href=’mailto:’+String.fromCharCode(110,99,111,108,108,105,110,115,64,116,104,101,111,114,105,111,110,46,99,111,109)+’?subject=re%3A%20Cosmic%20Funk%20lights%20up%20Empire%20Coffee’)”>[email protected]</a>
