Pleasant Drive

"Come with me to the unknown," the band Pleasant Drive sand in the first track of their new EP Realize. It's fitting, because the local jam band seem to bring listeners to another place above the stars. In this band's first studio debut, their myths swoosh with cloudy textures, their harmonies on the song "Dig" almost sound angelic, and some of their guitar solos rip like thunder. - Colin Smith

TAUK performed at the HopCat in Detroit on March 19th. Their opener, Pleasant Drive, a more jam than funk outfit out of Kalamazoo left a lasting impression with their energetic and well put together sound.

http://www.sound-andsilence.com/#!Event-Review-TAUK-at-HopCat-–-Detroit-MI/c112t/550dd2560cf23050bc88a869 - Kevin Nash

BENTON HARBOR - It's been a bumpy ride for Pleasant Drive.
In February, Cris Kauffman, keyboardist for the Kalamazoo-based multi-genre rock/funk band, died unexpectedly at age 27 from an epileptic seizure. The loss of Kauffman, who also was a solo artist and played in numerous West Michigan bands throughout his career, not only shocked his band mates but left a noticeable hole in Kalamazoo's music scene.
"That's because Cris had one of the biggest hearts I've ever seen," Pleasant Drive guitarist and vocalist Collin Pompey says. "Music was his life. He loved it, and touched a lot of people. ... But we knew right away that he would never want us to give that up. To stop playing, he wouldn't have liked that at all."
So, Pleasant Drive has continued on with keyboardist and guitarist Max Brown joining Pompey, Evan Kincaid (bass) and Matt Curtis (drums), who is the lone original member from the band he started with his brother, Jason Curtis, seven years ago.
"The band has gone through a huge evolution even in the past few years," says Pompey, who performs with his band mates Friday at The Livery. "That's kind of what happens when different musicians get tossed into the fold. We all have very wide and diverse musical tastes. I've always been into funk music, but I also like searing rock guitars. Evan and Matt have been into both punk and funk music. And Max is a jazz student at Western who brings this more educated ear to our music. So we have more guitar harmonizations that are a little unusual for a jam-funk band. We try not to censor what comes out, and somehow it works."
Pompey is also relatively new to the band, joining in 2013 when Jason Curtis left.
"I had been looking for a band for a while and actually put an ad on craigslist about the time Jason left," Pompey says. "When (the band) called me I literally lived five minutes from their house."
Since then, Pompey has split songwriting duties with Kincaid.
"I'll either come up with a guitar riff or chord structure or some lyrics and bring it to Evan first so we can make a foundation for it," Pompey says. "As a band, we then take it and jam on it and see where it takes us. Lately we have been exploring more of our instrumental capabilities. Evan and I are both lyricists and we do write songs with hooks, but our influences come from all kinds of music so we have something for everybody. The songs Evan writes tend to focus on more positive messages where I'll focus on something a little darker, which gives us a nice contrast. But we all work as a team. We just all have a different job."
Pleasant Drive is currently working on a five-song EP, which includes the Kincaid-penned song "Realize," which the band will play during Friday's set list.
"It's about how lucky we are to be on this planet doing the things we can do with the people that we love," Pompey says.
He also anticipates the as-yet-untitled EP will be released in September.
"It's hard to say an exact date right now," Pompey says. "But I'd say we are about 90 percent done with tracking for it, which we've done at my house."
Although the band is still finding its footing after the death of Kauffman, Pompey adds that it has also served as a rather profound wake-up call that has been coming out in their live shows.
"We've all really gone through so much change," he says. "But the one thing we can certainly say is that we give everything we have on stage every time we play."
Contact: jbonfiglio@TheHP.com, 932-0364, Twitter: @HPBonfiglio - JEREMY D. BONFIGLIO