With a name like Boombox ATX, you expect a band with the kind of music to boogie-on-down to. And that’s exactly what you get from this Austin-based 10-piece ensemble.
Headed by Carlos Sosa, member of The Scabs and a saxophonist who has played with Kelly Clarkson and Jason Mraz, Boombox ATX is like an all-star team. Along with Chaka Khan’s drummer, Edie Brickell’s bass player and Chamillionaire’s DJ, together, the group produces a jazzy, funky, hip-hop sound that’s in a category of its own.
The group hopes to win a wider audience with their independently released debut album “Feel the Boombox,” which manages to encapsulate their genre-bending sound. Just don’t ask them to define it.
“Our album is so diverse, there’s so many different styles of music on it and we don’t really fit into the mold of the hip-hop stations. We’re not a drum machine and a rapper, we’re a live band,” said Sosa in a phone interview. “It’s really hard to describe and to tell people exactly what it is. So that’s going to be our challenge.”
Sosa, the band’s founder, said the band began as an experiment during his time with musician Bob Schneider’s group. He and a group of musician friends began playing a small, mostly-empty club called Lucky Lounge in downtown Austin on Tuesday nights.
“We started writing our songs live. It was all instrumental in the beginning. I asked my friend MC Overlord to come and rap … and then we became this jazz-funk-hip-hop band and have been doing great ever since.”
The next thing he knew, they were filling the club every week said Sosa. Within a month, the club started selling out. The band has welcomed everyone from Cee-Lo to Blues Traveler’s John Popper on stage.
“I think one of the biggest parts of the live show that people always comment on is the energy. I guess when you have that many guys on stage at once it’s hard not to have a lot of energy,” said Sosa. “When you go and do a tour like Rob Thomas or Kelly Clarkson you have a month or two months of rehearsal. And they have people that pretty much put your show together and tell you where to stand and what to do. And we try to bring our experiences to do this and make a show. We want to make it visually exciting.”
Despite band members’ projects with other artists, Sosa said the group already has material for a second album and is excited to be a part of a project he and his fellow band members can call their own.
“We really want to have something for ourselves. When you tour with somebody else, you get paid well … but it’s their deal. You’re their hired gun. You’re a sideman. You go on tour, you get off tour and then that’s it,” said Sosa. “So, really to have any sort of longevity, we all want to have something that belongs to us. That’s what we’re doing now. We want to keep putting out records and start touring as Boombox ATX.”
Boombox ATX will play the South Padre International Music Festival on Saturday, Nov. 3.
