Down the corridor from the side entrance of North End Studios is an unkempt room with dark maroon walls that one could only come across with purpose.
Black curtains cover windows wrapped up with Christmas lights, and the floor is tiled with plastic imitation marble that is coming apart. This is where the magic happens.
Every Thursday night, Burlington-based band Smooth Antics unearths unique spacious grooves that are so inherently effortless to each of them that they can’t help but smile.
The five parts of Smooth Antics – Stephanie Heaghney, Jake Mayers, Jacob Ungerleider, Chris Jordan and Mike Dondero – came together through their involvement in the Burlington music scene.
Aside from lead singer Heaghney – who was introduced by drummer Mayers who knew her from previous band One Over Zero – all members are current UVM students.
Smooth Antics came to prominence after their first gig at the Otis Mountain Get Down music festival in the nearby Adirondacks that took place early September.
“We didn’t really know how it would turn out. Going into it we didn’t have enough time to prepare … and [Quillan George] hit me up two weeks before saying that we’ve got to do it,” Mayers said.
Having finalized their set list and how it all sounded in Heaghney’s RV right before the show, the at-the-time nameless band went out there and killed it, according to Mayers.
“The energy was fucking amazing, and the feedback after that show, what people were saying – [it] just was so humbling and eye-opening,” he said. “I had no idea that our music could do that to people.”
Following Otis, the band members reached out to people who loved their music.
Mayers said that, at first, he dealt with outreach very personally and got as many numbers as he could. He labeled them in his phone as “fans.”
“A lot of bands play just for themselves, but a huge part of this is that we like connecting with people through our music and we want people to be involved in it,” Mayers said.
He encourages anybody to get involved however they like and to contact the band through their Facebook page, which is their central online presence at the moment.
“We all realize that the possibilities are endless with this group,” Mayers said. “If the timing’s right and we all commit to it, it would just take off.”
