Getting To Know: Gordon Sterling & The People

The DC-based soul/rock band Gordon Sterling & The People is forging out of the pandemic so fresh, like a cicada shedding its shell. Fronted by beloved guitarist, singer, and songwriter, Gordon Sterling and featuring a strong new lineup of players, the band has spent the past year crafting a magnificent album, Truth, due out later this year.

For now, they are playing a FREE, outdoor show this Sunday night at The State Theatre, which feels like the musical reunion we all need.  

I had the chance to connect with Gordon and Cliff Blum (guitarist) to learn more about how this band came together during the pandemic through some strokes of serendipity to create a body of work that feels like magic to them. 

Gordon and Cliff, thank you so much for connecting with me today! 

Gordon and Cliff: It's great to catch up with you, Nina!

Tell me about the name Gordon Sterling & The People. I feel like "the people" can envelop so many. There's the band obviously, but so much more—your crew, the community, the listener. 

Gordon: Exactly, there are many ways to look at it. Sometimes it feels like the entire conglomerate, the band, the crew, but for sure people who are listening are a part of the celebration. It's like, Gordon Sterling & The People, come be part of the party, be with us, let’s get down. 

And the band had other members in it before, tell me a little about that transition. 

Gordon: The previous core crew of TJ Turqman, Gena Photiadis, and Adam "Snaxx" Orlando were amazing. For a time, we also had Mary eL on backing vocals. With this crew the music was from the heart, we still feel every note.  But the reality was this band wasn’t the main band for everyone except me, and I wanted to go all the way. It was time to transition and was done on great terms, the core members were so gracious about it.  I said, “you know how much I love you, but I need to go all the way with this.” And they were cool about it.

So how did this new configuration come to be?

Gordon: The way it all kind of happened was when Cliff and I got together. It’s been a long time since I’ve taken guitar lessons and I wanted to learn how to teach at the beginning of Covid so I could offer lessons. That's where the spark started. Cliff and I started trading ideas for fun. Then we started putting music and context to it and felt like, "we're onto something here. Let’s put a band together on this."

Cliff: Yeah, exactly that. I offered to help teach Gordon how to teach, and he asked me what could I trade for lessons. I told him that I have so many song ideas but have a hard time finishing them. I asked if I could show him some riffs and chords, and then ten minutes later he helped me finish a first song. And Gordon said I might want to use this, and I was like, "cool, yeah!"

That next week we got together and instead of doing teaching, we wrote a song again. And that literally happened almost every week for about 2-3 months so we had a new idea every time. Around the 4th or 5th song we realized we had a synergy, a groove, and recognized how special it was.

Gordon: Yeah, and I had stuff written from before  Covid, and Cliff had stuff, and when we shared we found ourselves finishing each other’s sentences musically, it was effortless.

I wanted to put a band together around these songs. I’ve played a lot with Scott Clement and Dave Ray, they were working with me as a trio at one point. Those two have a hive mind and lock in so well together and are both masters at playing each exactly what the song needs.  We did that for a few months and the more it went down, the more the pieces fell into place. 

They sound like they connect like a rhythm section double helix!

Gordon: Exactly!

Cliff:  Around that time, I had a gig at Crooked Run and some musicians couldn’t make it. I asked Gordon if he could jam and play some covers, and Dave and Scott joined so it was the trio plus me. That show was pretty freaking magical, it felt effortless, amazing. Months later we invited Dave and Scott over to share our songs and they just played the exact right parts. The song just worked out perfectly, they just did the right stuff, and that kept happening over and over and over.

It's funny to think that the chance opportunity at Crooked Run was a window into what could be that we didn’t realize. Magical and serendipitous. 

Gordon: But there was still a missing piece and I knew exactly who I wanted to work with to round out our sound —Natalie Brooke.  She is such a dynamic keys player. I called her up, and then, funny story: When I met with her I was really nervous because I wanted to ask her to join in, and I know she's busy with her own band and other projects. We got to talking, I was asking questions trying to gauge her interest, and she looked at me puzzled and said something like, "oh, I was assuming I was already in it when you called!" Then we laughed and I was so relieved. And it's been amazing having Natalie, we call her "Kool Aid" because she busts into the room with so much energy like the Kool Aid man.

And the rest is history, the five of us are making this beautiful music, journey, and sound together and I’m loving it.

And it sounds to me like Covid was also a character in your story and played a role in this band’s re-emergence. It was an odd and painful year for sure on so many levels. How did you create this deep connection during the pandemic?

Cliff: Covid was a weird, beautiful blessing in disguise but we were able to make the most out of it. I think it was literally essential for this band becoming a thing. It gave us the time and energy to focus on the writing and arranging and chemistry. We did it when it was hot out, cold out, didn't matter, we set up gear outside every single time. And we had the time to craft our music together, and for Gordon and I to spend time planning. We were pushing to start gigging before lockdown but then focused on writing and rehearsing and that gave us the room to write the songs, to record an album, and feel like we're ready to go now that things are opening up.   

This past year had so much going on obviously even beyond Covid with BLM, the election, and the feeling that the world was at a tipping point. It's amazing you found something so special despite everything. 

Gordon: It’s strange, in some ways this has been the best year I’ve had, and in obvious ways it's been rough.  As a Black man in this country, I had to wrestle with some shit, but on a more personal level. In the band, we are doing what a lot of people are doing —with BLM, LGBTQIA+, there’s a new civil rights battle every day — and our music reflects that. Some of our music is social. We are about the human experience.

Tell me more about the magic that was happening at the practices specifically, let me more into the process.

Gordon: First off, it has to be said, we were careful. We practiced outside at Cliff’s house in his driveway. 

Cliff: It was kind of great, half the neighborhood would hear it and loved it, neighbors brought chairs over up the long driveway and would hang out. 

Gordon: And for real, one Sunday we had an eight hour practice, everyone in the band was all in, so committed. It always felt like that from day one.

Cliff: The specialness, cosmic-ness, it’s not lost on any of us. We would get together and talk a lot, just sit back and feel like, "damn, this is incredible." It’s mind blowing, and everyone feels that way in their own way. We all are gushing together, on each other.

And can you share more about your songwriting process?

Cliff:  Gordon and I have a lot of overlap, we complement each other well in our playing and writing.  I could show him something  and he would put his spin on it and make it sound unique and fresh and new because of the way we complement each other.

Gordon:  Yeah, and on the album, much of the writing happened between me and Cliff. There are a few songs I wrote in their entirety. And the title track, "Truth," the music was written by Scott. He had been working on it for a while before bringing it to us. And when he let us hear it, it was amazing. That song feels light, it moves smoothly, but it is a hard song technically even though it doesn’t sound like it, it has a lot of changes going on in it. 

And that title track, "Truth," touches on something so deep, so personal, moving, but still with that bounce and lightness. 

Gordon: The songs are about human experience, we are all in this together, and the album is named "Truth" for a reason, the whole theme of the record is about facing some uncomfortable truths, or glorious truths, or profound truths, or funny cheeky truths. I don’t think I want to write another way, writing honestly, moving people, speaking to people.

Cliff: Something I love about this band and every song we write, is that all of them are very different songs. All are unique, but we have found our sound, for sure, and we are excited about that.  And we are going to keep growing and expanding, we are constantly trying to find new and different ideas.

Gordon: Yeah, it's so important to have an identity, man. We aren’t the "next anything," we are the one and only us, we pulled from our influences and developed a sound we will continue to grow. 

I also was expecting a song with the name "Truth" to be hard hitting. And it was but in this inviting, uplifting, accessible way. I loved the vibe, the gospel elements. It felt like a welcoming anthem, and like a song of summer. 

Gordon: Thank you. Yes, there is a classic gospel, soul feel in "Truth."

And the songs in general on this incredible album, take this the right way, weren't exactly what I was expecting having seen you perform live so many times. I've seen you jam like it's no one's business. But these songs had maybe less jam, and more structure. An intentionality and a unique voicing for every song in the album. 

Gordon: I think you are keyed into something about the songs in general. This band is very song based. I want to make music that is good music, obviously, but also right at you, not to go over your head, not leaving you guessing. I wanted it to be like a warm blanket, something familiar and safe in the way it feels like home, it feels like you feel it in your soul, you don’t have to think too hard.

Bob Marley once said, "I write a song about complex issues in a way a baby understands." And his music is still in the hearts and minds of anyone who takes music seriously. And rather than try to approach it in how hip or crazy this is, writing straight at people in an honest way and not looking away, keeping that stare is what this music is about. And we achieved it, definitely. This music is supposed to be understood. Got. And relatable. And by no means it doesn't mean we won't jam. We write songs first. The jam just has to serve the song. 

Cliff: What’s interesting is the show I mentioned at Crooked Run was all jamming. And in this band, everyone has been in an open jam community, we've all been steeped in it, we all know we love to jam and that’s part of us. But because Gordon and I started this up by writing real "song songs" that captivated ourselves, that’s what we formed the band around. 

Gordon: Yeah, it's like that Jay-Z line, something like, "you're going to turn me back to my old me,"...if there's room for a jam in a song, you know we can go there. 

Cliff: Right, the capability is always there that we can open it up if we want it to. Best of both worlds. 

Gordon: I think to your point, Nina, people aren’t going to expect this but they will get it as soon as they hear it. 

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