Bigwheel

When telling someone about a new favorite band, people usually start by describing the style of music played. Hip-hop, Soul, R&B, Rock, Reggae, or whatever your particular favorite might be. It’s most interesting when you discover a band that reaches beyond the boundaries of any single style. A crew who really doesn’t recognize the barriers defining different types of music; they just play.

Regardless of genre, truly successful music energizes the audience and brings the show to life. These musicians do it. Performing original songs with some of the best vocalist Denver has to offer and also keeping it live with renditions of Hip-hop classics like Nas’s, “One Love,” and, “I Can,” or Biggie’s “Juicy”.

DJ Checkone on the live drums, Charlie Mertants on the bass guitars, Jared Silo on keys, Dominic Lalli on keys and sax, and DJ Vajra keep the heads nodding in agreement and faces smiling everywhere they go. Denver (drum roll please)… Introducing Bigwheel!

Bigwheel stems from the intuitive mind of Dameion Hines a.k.a. DJ Checkone. Hines is not only a drummer, also a local DJ, and young prodigy. During the Democratic National convention, and through the presidential elections, Hines sold catchy t-shirts with the image of Barrack Obama using turntables as a DJ. His little idea sold 40,000 shirts.

So like a true business man, Bigwheel resulted from another one of his ventures, Dragonfly, falling apart. With tenacious commitment, he pulled some close friends together to continue making the bands scheduled gigs. What came of it was a funky fresh collection of flows, beats and sounds.

Don’t be fooled by the kind of music the band describes as Electrosoul; emphasis on Soul. The band has a live feel, similar to The Roots, and the energy of a Hip-hop show, smoothing it through with wonderfully strong vocals from local artist like Venus Cruz. The sound created can appeal to anyone who enjoys music.

“The coolest thing about it is that there are so many people that play in the band, we really don’t deal with much friction. The songs that we play for are most part different every time, because everybody’s so improvisational personality magnifies the stimulus of the magical transition… Do you know what I mean?” DJ Checkone reveals. The cohesive sound and style of Bigwheel shines through in each song and performance, utilizing different local artist and musicians who all connected.

The feel the band crafts is more like a bunch of friends just having a good time, “It seems like a house party every week. There's just lots of happy smiling people wherever we play, as cheeseball as it sounds,” Checkone says in response to questions about the vibe going on around the group and elaborates with, “Our fans are our friends, and everything has been great. It's your basic friendship. To the people that don't know us, we plan on becoming your friend pretty soon”.

Alluring is the fact, since they have no one style they are trying to stick with, crazy and ingenious collaborations of sounds and songs come together. An interpretation of Warren G’s, “Regulators,” is a fan favorite at a local gig Bigwheel performs at, and one imparticular song is ear-catching. The instrumental to a song by J-Dilla is combined with the infamous MLK Jr. speech of, “I Have a Dream”. The outcome is a fresh collaboration that is unheard of and is memorable and inspiring.

Hines stays hard at work coming up with bright new songs, and ideas. Hines work can be seen through Bigwheel performing every Tuesday at the Apalooza Grill from 10 p.m. -1 a.m. or you can check them out at Myspace.com/bigwheelcamp.