In mid 2014, Scott Lindsey, aka Janky, accepted the RPM challenge, an online challenge to write, record and release a full CD of music within one month. Janky jumped on it in his studio and began writing and recording songs that sounded like and paid tribute to Parliament Funkadelic. Janky has always been heavy into funk music from the ’60s and ’70s. With this love as a foundation, Janky recorded about 11 songs in two weeks playing all instruments except drums, which are the virtual drummers within Logic Pro X. That’s right — the drummers are all virtual on this release. Logic Pro X comes with several drummers that will listen to your riffs and melodies and arrange beats and fills that mimic a real studio drummer. For vocals, Janky enlisted his old bandmate Rome Jones who currently lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the early ’90s, Janky and Rome were in a band together named Pet Rock, and played clubs around Dallas with music similar to Primus and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Rome and Janky were also close friends at the Art Institute of Dallas. Once Janky had everything recorded, he sent rough mixes to Rome to write lyrics and vocal melodies. In November 2015, Rome flew to Dallas to record vocals. Rome’s style is heavily influenced by Prince and P-Funk, which is apparent on this release. During college, Janky would stay at Rome’s apartment and the two would listen to P-Funk records, basking in the richness of the music. Once the vocals were cut, Janky began a very long, perfectionist mixing session. “I wanted to create a release like the old days when albums were a continuous story, not just a bunch of tracks. I wanted this to be a long, blended music composition that could be listened to in one long setting like Parliament Funkadelic or a Pink Floyd record. That’s back when music was an experience. I added a lot of samples and sound effects for depth.”
This music project is meant solely as a tribute to one of the best bands in history — Parliament Funkadelic. “[They] broke so many rules in the music world. They were also some of the best and most underrated musicians in the world. I have studied their music and it has influenced me greatly — especially the guitarist, Eddie Hazel,” Janky said.
The project name, Keep Runnin’, Mississippi, comes from the lyrics of Music For My Mother off the album Funkadelic, one of Janky’s favorite tracks ever.
This release took far longer than the RPM Challenge of one month but it is now complete and available for stream on your favorite audio platform or purchase at CD Baby or iTunes.
Frank by Pet Rock at Trees in Deep Ellum in 1993.
