‘The Emotions” have brought music to Texas for 38 years, and this Saturday they will bring music to the Brazos Valley Fair.
The group is a cover band with a revolving cast of members.
“If you want to find a career in music, [‘The Emotions’] is the best place to start really, for us, because it’s kind of like a stepping stone to the next stage,” said Justin Thompson, lead vocalist and guitarist for The Emotions.
As a cover band, Thompson said “The Emotions” play a wide array of music.
“We’re a walking jukebox,” Thompson said. “If you can dance to it, we can probably play it. In this type of work you have to hit every corner. If you just hit country music, you’re going to make one side of the place very happy. The other side is not going to be too happy to play country, so you know, you gotta mix it up a little.”
Keyboardist Calvin Drozd said he has played with the band since 1988. Drozd said the band’s style has changed dramatically over time to evolve with the music of the day.
“We went from covering all the new stuff to doing more party stuff,” Drozd said. “We’re getting people involved. [We] used to, in the old days, since with so many bands competing, the best way we competed was to learn a song, cover a song, a brand new cover song that came out, and we would do it better than all of the other bands.”
The band has also become more technological over the years. Sound engineer Pete Salinas said computerized sounds are now used to fill any musical gaps when the band performs.
“We might have a bongo part in there,” Salinas said. “Well, we don’t have a set of bongos on stage, so, therefore, we’ll track the bongos. If you want to stay in the game, you better have a little of that.”
Drozd said that over the years, the audience’s attention has been harder to maintain. In order to keep the energy going, adjustments such as classic party hits and medleys have been added to the band’s repertoire.
“You can play a full song, which is four minutes. It’s going to be boring,” Drozd said. “We play party music to where they can get involved in it and all of a sudden the time passes by. They’re all on the dance floor partying with us.”
