Augmentasia is a six-piece band out of the Fort Wayne community whose unique sound combines smooth R&B vocals with the groove of funk and hip hop. Band members include Dave Ealy, Henry Jordan, Chris Rebellion, Tommy McLaughlin, Darest Williams Robbins, and Alex Cottrell.
The band will perform at WBOI's Live and Local at The Landing summer concert series Friday, August 29 at seven.
WBOI’s Brianna Barrow sat down with five members of the band to discuss what inspired them to make music together, their creative process and the influences behind the development of their sound, and what they love most about performing. You'll also hear their track "Danger."
Here is a transcript of this conversation:
Brianna Datta-Barrow: I'm joined now by five members of Augmentasia.
Henry Jordan: Hey. I am Henry Jordan. I play keys for Augmentasia and anything else keyboard wise.
Chris Rebellion: I am Chris aka Chris rebellion. I am rhythm guitar and second vocals for Augmentasia.
Tommy McLaughlin: My name is Tommy McLaughlin and I play guitar.
Alex Cottrell: My name is Alex Cottrell and I play bass guitar.
Darest Williams Robbins: My name is Darest Williams Robbins, and I play the drums.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Thank you all for being here. To start off, tell me how you came up with the name Augmentasia. I think it's a great name.
Henry Jordan: Bro. How do we come up?
Alex Cottrell: Yeah, how did we?
Henry Jordan: That's a Dave question, bro. Shout out, Dave.
Alex Cottrell: I think we just it was trial and error, just trying to find things.
Henry Jordan: We were trying to be different. We wanted our name to mean something, but also, we wanted it to reflect, like, the...
Alex Cottrell: uniqueness
Henry Jordan: the uniqueness and like
Alex Cottrell: Cause we just came up with a new word.
Henry Jordan: Yeah, like it was. We wanted our, our sound, to be sophisticated, but not too much. And so augment, augmented chords in music theory are a type of chord that sounds a lot different from everything else music wise. So, we just kind of put those things together and turned it into something unique. We don't even really know what it means, there you go.
Alex Cottrell: Sounds good.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: What inspired you all to start making music together?
Chris Rebellion: Augmentasia came through, like for real, just like automatic bro bromance. None of us really knew each other from, I mean, like groups of us in pairs, but none of us, like, all together. So, like, within days, having, like, mutual respect and understanding for how the music wanted to sound kind of came to be. And then other than that, I mean, it's just always a good hang, like, you know, from the beginning to end.
Henry Jordan: and piggybacking on that, obviously, like we knew each other in pairs before they moved in together, me and Dave were living together, and while they were kind of making this group, Dave asked me if I wanted to come. And it was funny. He was trying to learn a song that they were trying to write, and he called me into the living room. He couldn't figure out how to play it. He showed me. I played it in like 15 or 16 seconds, and we started messing around with it. And he was like, Man, I want you to join this group. Bro. Like, we, I don't know what we gonna turn it into yet, but we just kind of trying to see what we can do. And then that's when I met Alex and Darest, Chris and Tommy came along after a while, and we just, we just kind of turned it into what we wanted to make it and now we're trying to figure out how far we can take it, at this point.
Tommy McLaughlin: Chris made a post about, if anyone wants to come to the skate park, because it's go skateboarding day, do that, and I did that. So, I met him, and we got to talking about music and stuff like that. We realized we're both from Northeast Ohio, and he was like, Hey, I'm in this band. They're looking for a guitar player. I ended up joining in jamming with them a little bit. It went really well. We kind of reworked some of the songs that they had, and then it became what is now our catalog. Yeah, it's all been history. Since then, we've recorded our first project, like a three song EP.
Alex Cottrell: No, it's, it's super cool, like seeing what the band evolved from. Like when we first started, like we had a six-piece group, and we're doing a little bunch of covers and stuff just from, like, the selection that we picked from. And then by fall of last year, we finally started recording and getting content out. What was it? May 5, May 2. May 2, our first EP drop. Yeah. So we got three songs out right now, more to come. Plenty more being written right now, and I'm excited to share those with everybody. The whole band is excited to show our new sounds and whatnot to our audience and crowd. So
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Wow. So, you guys started last year in the fall?
Alex Cottrell: We started, um, recording, yeah. We started late summer in 2023, and we spent a long time, like majority of our time, performing shows and kind of building up a fan base, definitely just spreading our name.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Wow, you guys move quick. Then, I mean, to have an EP out that soon. You know what I mean? After just forming the group, that's really impressive. That's great.
Tommy McLaughlin: Yeah, I do want to say shout out to Sean de Leon and Caleb Priest on recording that album, The EP, and then mixing and mastering that album, they did a really good job, and they were super fun to work with. And that, I think since then, that kind of took us from, like a band that was performing out, kind of doing some songs that we had written into more solid arrangements and kind of like stuff where it was more recognizable. People were more familiar with our stuff because they had heard it, and they were like, it was a little bit more it sounded more like a set list of a band that has, like, recorded stuff. So, they were super helpful. So, shout out to them.
Henry Jordan: I could really agree with what he said about that, like taking us to another level, because it took us, it gave us a precedent, and it gave people, like, a reason or something to expect from us when they hear us, or when they hear our name, when they hear that we're performing. And it kind of gave us another drive to be like, okay, well, you know, we have way more music that can fit this like we want to. We want to have more stuff. We want to have more stuff out. And they really kind of pushed us into that direction. So big shout out to those guys,
Tommy McLaughlin: For sure. It's also been cool to be like received so well by a community where there's so many other good bands. So I know, for me personally, like just being in such good company with other people that are making cool music around here has kind of made us want to refine what it is that we're bringing to the table as far as that stuff goes, and we all do totally different stuff, like Chris is a rapper and beat maker in his own right. Darest also plays drums in a bunch of different contexts. Henry plays keys in all kinds of different settings, from church to with us to different groups, school writing stuff. Alex is also in multiple different groups. Dave is in multiple different groups. So it's a crazy dynamic environment out here, as far as music goes, and it's been cool for us to just kind of stay locked in like this. For me, was the first group that I really started playing with since I got to Fort Wayne, and we've really been like just developing as players, like all kind of getting to know where we come from. Me, Darest and Chris all, kind of are into heavier stuff, where it's more kind of what you'd find, because we all skate, so it's like punk music and kind of like metal and stuff like that. But obviously, like, what we play as a band is like, very like Neo Soul jazz oriented stuff. So it's kind of cool. Just like everyone's different influences, how they end up coming to the table, because obviously we have that sound, but then Chris will be rapping on certain stuff, and then it's been kind of just ironed out to the fact that it works, and it's kind of it fits into genre boxes to a certain degree. But it's also like we are trying to do our own thing, and just kind of like, let everybody do what they do, but under the general scope of, like, Neo Soul, R, B type of thing. So
Chris Rebellion: We started in like, 2023, and we didn't have anything, like, released until, like this year, in May. But like, we developed, like, heavy fan base, and that's just mainly because everyone, like, word on the street, like kind of thing, you know, like he was, it was just like a trust us, you know, like, we have a really good sound. And I think it took us maturing with each other and figuring that out, making sure we knew how to all fit our roles into it, which makes it so successful, successful right now. So, shout out to everybody in the room and Dave, who is away right now.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: For one, that's an awesome backstory. I'm happy you guys all came together, and I love to hear about how everyone brings their own influences, because I think that can really help develop that sound. So, do you have a specific creative space where the music just flows when you're all playing together, you get together, or is there a routine that you all follow when you're creating something new or working on the development of your sound?
Henry Jordan: In the past, a lot of our music has been us kind of jamming and figuring out what fits where that story that I told you about, where there was a song where Dave was trying to figure out, and I ended up putting my own twist on it, and he liked it, that ended up turning into danger. That was a song that we kind of all just kind of had our hands on. More recently, we've had a lot more set ideas, because we are trying to push into a certain direction. We'll have ideas. We'll sketch them out and then present them to the group. But most of the time it's just us, kind of, either we'll jam and we'll figure out something from there, or someone will have an idea and bring it to the forefront and let everybody kind of do their thing with it and see what happens.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: That sounds like it would be fun, fun to watch, too. Like, like someone just, you know, bring something and then see what everyone can add to it. You know, it sounds like you guys have a pretty cool process too, of giving everyone an opportunity to share what they can do with a song, so
Henry Jordan: I also want to, I also want to shout out Dave too, because Dave is a very big part of our creative process, and I don't want his absence here to be the reason why that doesn't get mentioned. Dave and his ability to create lyrics just off of asking us questions about what we want the song to sound like... It's pretty incredible to watch, and I feel like that would be like something that an outsider would look at and be like, how is he even doing that? Like they're not they're not playing any they're not telling him much. We're just playing at something. And he's just kind of feeling out the vibe, writing stuff down, and at the end of rehearsal, he'll have a song made like that just happened, like two weeks ago. So big shout out to him. He's a big part of our creative process, and at the end of the day, he's the head man, he's the singer, so.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Yeah, absolutely. It sounds like there's a lot of talent, though, in this group. Yeah, that's awesome. Is there a memorable moment or story behind a particular song on your EP danger?
Chris Rebellion: So memorable moment is, yeah, Grateful for You. We have a time at the end where everyone's screaming like, try, die, and that comes from us doing the song. When we were first fleshing it out, I was, you know, like, as the backing vocalist, I tried to do like, some, like, fills, ad libs and stuff like that. And, yeah, it just felt fun to do, like, to just scream it. Dave was like, yeah, you, you're doing that from like, now on. So, like, it just felt right to have everybody in the studio scream it. So, yeah, definitely a memorable moment.
Alex Cottrell: That was, like, one of my, yeah, most memorable, like, favorite parts of the recording process was like, all of us getting in the booth and just, like, doing the shouts and stuff like that, and just seeing it on the screen, like all the audio waves and whatnot, and it's like, yeah, that's all of us. Like, that's we're a band, like.
Henry Jordan: They ended up working out. That's one of our best songs. A lot of people love that song, and I'm so glad that we didn't take that part out, because, as you can see, it's it's very memorable to us and hopefully to our fans.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: What do you hope your audience takes away from your set at live and local at the landing?
Henry Jordan: At the end of the day, like, you know, we I could talk about how I want you guys to hear how hard we work and how sophisticated our sound is, but we just want our music to make you feel good at the end of the day, like that's, that's the whole point of all of it. Our music makes us feel good when we're playing whatever emotion we're trying to convey. We just want you to feel that whatever it is.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Yeah, I love that, and that goes into my next question, too. So Live and local at the Landing is WBOI's way of celebrating the local music in our in our community, spending time with our community and just enjoying the summertime vibes. So, I'd love to hear what you all enjoy most about when you're performing.
Chris Rebellion: The way the crowd interacts with us. Because I don't have, like, a background in the music we play. So, like, I'm already enjoying it, because as a music lover, I love to be involved with like, different different genres, different sounds and everything. So to see how this one plays out with the people is really cool, because it's not usually like that with like the other like the hardcore music that I'm in and the hip hop. But yeah, no, I really enjoy how, like, everyone is involved with it kind of is like a you help me, I help you, type of thing.
Tommy McLaughlin: It's just fun. Um, I think everybody in this particular band gets a little bit more creative live, which is fun being able to interact with the crowd, because I think we hear our music all the time, and to see other people, like, be able to hear it for the first time, and, like, see how much fun we're having and stuff like that.
Alex Cottrell: I guess I was going to say that it's I like how adventurous it is. And every time we perform live, we always have great takeaways from our performance, and it just makes us more better and prepared for the next time we go out and play for an audience. And so, yeah, super cool.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Do you have any upcoming projects that we should be on the lookout for?
Henry Jordan: Oh, boy
Tommy McLaughlin: We've kind of started writing music around what we've been liking to do live. One thing we can do is, like, bring really good energy, get people dancing like that seems to be like, one of the things that we consistently are able to do. And so I think some of our newer songs that we haven't released yet, a lot of them are more like, geared towards dance type grooves and stuff like that, which is cool. I'm really excited for our next batch of recorded stuff to come out, because I think it's a little bit more representative of the current state of affairs. As far as, like, our style goes, which is a little bit more developed, because we've we've got to know each other a little bit better and know what direction we want to go. Like, our writing is a little bit more intentional. Alex, Dave and Henry have been bringing, like, some really cool ideas to the table that we've been like, kind of fleshing out recently. So, we're just kind of in a writing phase, trying to get more material out there and then get it all down to the ones that we want to record.
Chris Rebellion: And that's what I mean. Like, we make this like for the people you know, like, it's definitely like, how, how is everyone going to jam to this? Is everyone going to feel this when we play like this? That's the first and last, you know, thought we have once we're coming to the table with all of this, and that's just what I mean.
Henry Jordan: like, just music, just know, it's always-
Chris Rebellion: Yeah, just be on the lookout. All right, there's, it's just going to happen. You know, Meteor Shower type, type music, like, you know you're going to see it, you're gonna be like, you're gonna catch it, and you're just gonna be ready for the next one.
Henry Jordan: We got, we definitely have shows coming up where we are prevailing newer songs,
Chris Rebellion: Including WBOI presents live at local at the landing. We will like seven o'clock.
Henry Jordan: I think it's, I think it's safe to say we'll be, we'll be prevailing a new song there. Oh yeah. Say it's safe. Yeah, a couple, maybe a couple, yeah, I think there's
Darest Williams Robbins: The time frame we have there is not long enough for all too long for just three songs that y'all all know. We got so many.
Henry Jordan: We got new music coming, and all originals. I think, oh yeah, we're all, it's all originals at this show. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. So, we're stuff is coming.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: I mean, hey, we'll stay tuned. We are looking forward to it. I looked it up..."Augment" is defined as making something greater by adding to it. And I would definitely say that this is what this group is doing for the music scene in our Fort Wayne community.
[laughter]
Tommy McLaughlin: You really defined our genre and told us what our name meant.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Thank you all for speaking with me today.
Henry Jordan: Thank you for having us. Thank you so much.
Chris Rebellion: Thank you, Bri.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: WBOI Presents, Augmentasia, Live and Local at the Landing this evening, at seven, 7pm.
Chris Rebellion: Be there.
Henry Jordan: Come see us.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: And here is their new song, Danger, on WBOI.
