Local art provides a colorful backdrop for the band Garden Club playing at the September Art Premier. Dinorah Prevost | The Crow’s Nest
By Dinorah Prevost
What’s the one instrument you’d never think about in any band — the most sacred, classical instrument you could imagine?
If you thought a harp, you’re right.
Now think of its place in a vibey jazz fusion band, competing with a bass-drenched, percussion-pounding, keys-inflected sound. If you thought it was non-existent, then there’s a St. Petersburg band proving you wrong.
It’s called Garden Club.
Bassist and singer Savvas Savvindis said bringing in a harp player just happened.
“(Natalie) met Seth somewhere and then she texted me and said ‘Hey, we’re gonna have a harp player for our next rehearsal,’” he said. “We’re still trying to figure out how to implement the harp.”
Savvindis, a senior history major, formed Garden Club with Natalie Depergola last October. Depergola, the band’s drummer, has trained with the likes of former Prince drummer John Blackwell, who passed away last year. The two more recent members are harp player Seth Lynn and keyboardist Alex Merrill.
Savvindis, 24, and Depergola, 19, met while playing in another local band, Danielle Mohr and the Moonlight Madness (now called HoneyWhat). But they eventually realized the music they were making in the band didn’t satisfy them.
So they struck out on their own.
“Natalie and I both have an appreciation for mainly modern jazz … electro jazz. We like neo-soul and R&B music. So we thought we’ll just try to do our own weird future jazz project and see what happens,” Savvindis said.
Since forming Garden Club, they’ve worked with a handful of guitar players, keyboard players and horn players to find their sound.
In March, they recorded a early rendition of “Rain” in a studio jam session and posted it on YouTube. But it was “not necessarily the sound we wanted,” Savvindis said.
Eventually they brought in Lynn and Merrill. Now the foursome are writing and recording, hoping to put out a live EP by the end of the year.
Savvindis said that fitting both Lynn and Merrill into the band’s sound has been a learning process.
“We can play a set with either one of them and it’ll sound very good. We can play … with both of them and it’ll sound very good,” he said.“Sometimes when we have all four people in the band, we’ll strike gold and we’ll get certain sounds that are really cool. But at other times, it might sound a little busy.”
While the band finds its musical footing, they experiment in public with a handful of sets around Tampa Bay.
On Sept. 1, they performed at Black Crow with local singer-songwriter Kyle Knudsen. The set featured original material as well as covers of “Them Changes” by Los Angeles bassist Thundercat and “Electric Feel” by rock band MGMT.
Garden Club plays a series of shows throughout September at places like The Bends in downtown St. Petersburg and The Blueberry Patch in Gulfport. You can find them on Facebook and Instagram at @gardenclubmusic.
