The Yukon funk ensemble will be presenting a string of disco dance parties
“I always had a pipe dream of doing a giant Major Funk disco show, we were chatting about it and we collectively decided to just put the idea into stone.”
Etienne Girard
Major Funk has outdone themselves once again. The Whitehorse-based ensemble is well-known locally for their energetic, over-the-top and often themed live shows, but it wouldn’t be an entirely accurate statement to say anyone has yet seen the likes of the newest massive-scale event the group has been cooking up for the past year—a disco dance party featuring a 13-piece band dubbed the Major Funk Orchestra.
“We’re known for coming up with crazy ideas and often following through,” says frontman and trumpeter Adrian Burrill. “We’ve done themed shows in the past and big shows with lots of collaborations with dancers and guest musicians. Our music has been lending itself more towards the genre of disco, with our production elements leaning more towards disco, which is making a comeback in mainstream music, too.”
With the whole band sharing a love of disco music, they began to work on some classic cover songs and take more disco-style approaches in their playing on their original tunes. When they tossed around the idea of putting on a disco-themed performance, there was one clear caveat: if they did this, they had to make it huge. They first enlisted the Screen Production Yukon Association (SPYA), who now run the former Yukon Convention Centre as a studio and presentation space, and set to work building the rest of the team they needed.
“We have connections with the Problematic Orchestra members and some musicians, in general, in town, so we started recruiting people for this crazy idea and it just snowballed and got bigger and bigger with more musicians on board,” Burrill says. “We got SPYA on board for using their convention centre space, the SPYA Studio, which is awesome; we got the [Yukon] Arts Centre onboard; and we realized it was going to be a big undertaking and require some funding so we did an application to the Yukon government’s Arts Fund, through the Tourism and Culture department, and so it turned into a very big production over the course of almost a year.”
Major Funk certainly had their work cut out for them. Between securing funding, finding musicians, charting out all of the orchestra parts and recreating the atmosphere of a 1970s discotheque, tasks had to be delegated. But with a shared vision and a driving passion for this project, the band members were ready to step up to the plate, taking a divide-and-conquer approach.
“I always had a pipe dream of doing a giant Major Funk disco show,” says bassist Etienne Girard, who has led the band since its 2014 inception. “We were chatting about it and we collectively decided to just put the idea into stone.” Girard says the original plan was to present the show last November, but the band quickly realized it would take them a long time to put the show together the way they envisioned it. They gave themselves a one-year time frame.
“Then we got a little excited and said we were going to do it in April,” he continued. “Even though we were able to accomplish our goals, the funding wouldn’t come through until after the show and we wouldn’t even know if we had the funding. It’s a very intensive production and we just can’t do it without support from grants and from sponsorships and from all of these alliances we needed to make.”
Major Funk consists of singer and keyboardist Seline Heyligers-Hare, guitarist Brent Gallant, saxophonist and flautist Tobey Moisey, and drummer Anders Grasholm in addition to Burrill and Girard. Though the band has covered disco songs in the past, Heyligers-Hare, who sings and plays keys for the band, says they were never able to fully bring them to life.
“All these songs we play, we’re never able to cover all the parts,” explains Heyligers-Hare. “We never have a full horn section, and there are always a billion piano and synth parts as violin parts on top of everything. It was always a want that we had, and it’s just nice to be able to cover all of your bases and play the song how it was written, which is really cool and such a privilege.”
The band will be joined in the Major Funk Orchestra by an array of local and flown-in guest musicians including Sarah-Jane Poirier, Katie Avery, Ellorie McKnight, Andrew MacKelvie, Michel Vallieres and backup singers Lindsey Walker and Anneky Kenny-Robichaud, with dancers Valerie Herdes and Marcy Mills.
The events will also feature sets from DJ Jon Gelinas and DJ Katabatik. The stage set was designed by local artist Tara Kolla, and countless people have worked behind the scenes on the technical and logistical sides of the show as well. To fulfill their mandates with SPYA and Music Yukon, Girard will be leading a week-long series of technical workshops in the SPYA space based around the show, covering topics such as live multitracking, show setup and in-ear monitoring operation.
“A show like this doesn’t come up very often, and it presented itself as a good opportunity to provide some training workshops through SPYA and Music Yukon about what it takes to put on a show of this calibre,” Girard explains. “This also helped us get those partners on board, so it was a win-win for everybody.”
This run of shows also marks a bittersweet turning point for Major Funk, ending one chapter and beginning another. These shows will be Heyligers-Hare’s last with the band, as she will be stepping down from the group to focus on her own music project, Hendrika.
“It was a weird choice for me; it’s a hard decision,” she says. “I really love being in this band and it’s been seven years of my life, which is crazy. It’s something that holds a special place in my heart and in my life and allows me to have a different level of expression and energy release as a frontperson and a boisterous big-lead singer.
“Obviously, the friendship and connections made over these many years is really important to me, so it was a really big decision. It really just came down to scheduling conflicts and struggling to manage my time as I ramp up Hendrika. I feel like I have to give that my all.”
Girard and Burrill both express support for Heyligers-Hare and show excitement for her future, while also standing firm on the fact that Major Funk will continue. They even have plans to head into the studio this winter to begin their next full-length album.
“We love Selina and she’s just crushing it with Hendrika,” says Burrill. “We’re super proud of her and super appreciative of all of her contributions to Major Funk over the years. We’ve had some turnover since 2014; we’ve been a band forever so that’s kind of inevitable, but she’s been a huge part since the pretty early days. It’s bittersweet, but I’m happy for her moving on.”
While the band spends a lot of time on the road, it’s special for all of its members to be able to bring the biggest shows of their career, so far, not just to their home of Whitehorse, but to other northern communities as well.
“These communities don’t often get a big production like this,” says Heyligers-Hare. “To be able to enrich the communities and engage folks is really such an honour, and I’m really happy that we can do that for people.”
The Major Funk Orchestra’s Disco Dance Party series takes place Oct. 3 in Whitehorse at the SPYA Studio (formerly the Yukon Convention Centre); Oct. 4 in Haines Junction at the St. Elias Convention Centre; and Oct. 11 at Diamond Tooth Gertie’s Gambling Hall in Dawson City.Major Funk thanks the Yukon Arts Fund, Yukon Arts Centre, Music Yukon, Yukon Rendezvous, SPYA, Northern Vision Development, Jazz Yukon, Junction Arts and Music, Klondike Visitors Association, and Integraphics for their support. Visit majorfunkmusic.com to get tickets for any of the shows.
