By Mary Reinesmreines@wickedlocal.com

 


Even after going viral with a video on Reddit and getting plucked to perform on Beyonce’s “Daddy Lessons” for her Grammy-winning album “Lemonade,” the acoustic jazz-funk-hip-hop trio Too Many Zooz still don't have a major label and remain unknown to many.

But all that could change with the next album, according to the group’s trumpet player, Matt Doe (real name Matt Muirhead), who grew up in Foxborough.

“We have all this music, but we don’t know exactly what our plan for it is, and if we want to work with a label, or if we want to keep releasing stuff independently,” Doe said.

In the meantime, Boston-area concertgoers will be able enjoy an evening of electrifying funky music that inspires all the flagrant bouncing of EDM without the turntables and computer screens when Too Many Zooz comes to The Sinclair Jan. 19 and 20.

The band formed in 2013 when baritone saxophone player Leo Pellegrino and percussionist David “King of Sludge” Parks met in a busking group called Drumadics and started jamming together in the New York City subway to make extra money. Pellegrino eventually recruited Doe, a fellow student at the Manhattan School of Music, to join them, and the group began playing together underground, crafting their sound and making money at the same time. In 2014, one fan recorded a video of Too Many Zooz practicing and it went viral on Reddit, with more than 2 million views to date, exposing them to the likes of Beyonce and the world.

Doe — who started playing trumpet in middle school and even got a chance to play at the Grammy awards as a teen — recently spoke about his connection to Boston, the band’s rise to fame, performing with Beyonce at the 2016 Country Music Awards and more. Interview has been condensed for clarity.

Do you still practice in the subway?

Not as much anymore, just because we don’t really have time. We’re always on the road and then when we’re home, we’re usually either filming videos or in the studio. We used to be down there every day. Now we’re probably down there a week or two out of the year, total.

Does it feel a lot different performing there now?

Back then nobody knew us, so we could just play and do whatever we wanted — it was more carefree. Now when we go down there, we’ll play one song and then we’ll have to spend 10 or 15 minutes talking to people or taking pictures or signing CDs. It’s great to connect with our fans, but it was just way more casual back in the day. It was almost this anonymous rehearsal where we were just jamming and people didn’t really care about us. So it’s bittersweet. It’s really nice that people are receptive to our music and care about it, but it also had this added layer; it turns more into a performance than it used to be.

How has your music developed?

Just naturally. We were all really into hip-hop and electronic music and all of these different things, and just trying do it acoustically became our focus. We did that for a couple years and then started hanging out in the studio all the time. When you’re in the studio, you can just do so much more sonically because you don’t have the limitations of performing something live. So you can lay down eight trumpets over themselves or five saxophones, or you can add different instruments and sounds and layers.

We’re always just trying to push the boundaries of what we think music should be. As we’ve gone along our music has gotten not different necessarily, but just more, more. On the most recent album [“Subway Gawdz”] you hear so many different sounds and instruments, so it’s just trying and experimenting with different things.

What was it like playing with Beyonce?

It was really really awesome. She’s just such an incredible talented artist and a wonderful human being, and I have nothing but nice things to say about her and her team and how they treated us. It was really an excellent experience.

I understand that when you were in high school, you played at the Grammy awards with Dave Matthews Band.

Yeah, I played in the Grammy band. They choose about 20 students throughout the country to come play for a week at the Grammys. You’d play Grammy after-parties and dinner events and galas. And then some of us were chosen to play with Dave. We played “You and Me” with him at the Grammys — it was really cool. I think I was 15, so it was super crazy for me then, and just a cool way to see behind the big Hollywood veil at a young age.

Is there anything that could top playing with Beyonce?

When you meet enough famous people, you realize that they’re people, not objects. When all you know is a CD of someone, then you view them as an object. But once you start meeting these people, and all your heroes and stuff, they’re just normal-ass people like you. You realize, “Oh, (expletive), you guys are just people.” But yeah, probably some sports people. I’d probably get really starstruck if I hung out with Lebron James or something like that. I’m really into sports and movies and a bunch of other (expletive) like that. So I’m sure there’s people in other worlds [besides music] that would make me super starstruck.

I really love the “Bedford” video [which was shot in the Bedford Avenue subway station in Brooklyn]. It seems like it was done all in one take, which is really impressive. Could you tell me about the process of making that?

Leo had this idea of doing one shot videos, like one take, all with a steadicam — that was the whole mission behind it. It was less even about what we were doing and more about, “OK, we’re going to start a video and end a video with no edits, and just (expletive) do it guerilla style.”

We ended up working with this guy Ethan Scarduzio who I actually went to high school with in Foxborough. We were working with all these directors and producers and stuff and bringing them this idea. Pretty much everyone was like, “Oh man, that’s too hard” or “That’s not possible because of the permits or the police,” or whatever, and all these people were just shutting our idea down, which was a bummer. And then we were like, “Man, maybe we should just find someone we know and try and make it happen.”

So I reached out to Ethan and explained the idea to him and he was super receptive. He was like, “Man this sounds super cool and totally doable, let’s (expletive) go for it.” We had no idea how it was going to turn out. We went there at like 3:30 in the morning on a Tuesday — we tried to find the quietest time, because police are so apt to stop that sort of thing. Obviously the video’s done in one shot, but we literally did it once. With a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work and preparation, we just banged it out.

So you’re going to be touring internationally for the next few months.

We’re going to New Zealand, and I’ve never been to New Zealand. So that should be cool. I’m a big “Lord of the Rings” fan, and they filmed a bunch of that stuff over there, so I’m super excited. Other than that I think most of the places we’re touring, I’ve been.

The Sinclair concert is kind of a hometown show for you.

Yeah, totally. I was born in Boston and then moved further and further out as my folks got older and better jobs. So yeah, it will be really fun. I’m super looking forward to it. I mean, it’s always fun playing in Boston. That’s where I hung out in high school and was always around Berklee [College of Music], and getting into stupid stuff around there. So, it’s always fun coming back and hanging out in Cambridge.

Growin up, where did you go to hear music?

I was playing and listening to a lot of jazz, so I was always trying to go to Wally’s and the Regattabar, and there was this place called Ryles Jazz Club. There was another one too, the something house — it wasn’t even really a club, it was a room that college kids could rent out and play in. But then I started seeing less jazz, so I started going to Middle East all the time and Paradise, stuff like that. Mostly in high school it was just jazz clubs like Wally’s. I was really into going to Wally’s … Regattabar, Sculler’s, Ryles Jazz Club, those were all places I was at least trying to be at all times.

Who helped you or inspired you as a musician?

There’s so many different people. Growing up, my parents, all my teachers ... I just grew up in a super musically rich environment from being surrounded by music at home. The schools that I went to were just really arts-oriented and very supportive of the creative arts, so all my teachers and my parents, family and friends — way too many people to name. I spent close to 20 years of my life there, so a lot of people in Massachusetts definitely helped me come up.

Who inspired you to play the trumpet?

Well, to be honest, I picked trumpet because all my friends picked trumpet. When it was time to go pick your instrument, all my friends picked trumpet and I didn’t wanna be the odd one out ...

Could you tell me about the “Subway Gawdz” album cover art?

That was drawn by Leo’s brother [Faustin Shea]. So there really isn’t like a story or a huge meaning behind it. We’re all really obsessed with his art and he’s such a talented artist, and has a really unique image and look. So, we just told him to have fun with it and do something that he wanted, and that’s what he came up with. I’m sure there is a deeper story to it, from him, maybe. But it was just something that we commissioned him to do and to have fun doing.

Any plans for a new album?

We’re sitting on a lot of music right now. It’s hard to know exactly when everything will end up coming out just because of where we are right now, with what we’re planning to do. We have all this music, but we don’t know exactly what our plan for it is, and if we want to work with a label, or if we want to keep releasing stuff independently. So it’s up in the air right now as to when we’re going to drop this album. But soon.

When you were playing in the subway every day, do you remember how much money you made?

On a good day, you might be able to walk home with a couple hundred dollars or something. When people ask me about making money in the subway, especially when people are trying to do it themselves, the thing I would say is, if you go down on the subway with the intentions on making money, you’re not going to make money.

Obviously we think about money, everyone thinks about money, but we were just going down there and having fun. And it was like, at the end of the day, “Oh wow, great, we have a bucket full of money, that’s awesome.” But it wasn’t like we were going down there being like, “OK, so, we can just do it for two hours and get enough money and we’ll go home.” We just went down and played music until we were satisfied.

Too Many Zooz will be playing at The Sinclair in Cambridge on Jan. 19 and 20. On Jan. 19, doors open at 8 p.m. for the 9 p.m. show. On Jan. 20, doors open at 9 p.m. for the 10 p.m. show. Tickets, $20, are available at www.sinclaircambridge.com. Learn more about Too Many Zooz at www.toomanyzooz.com.