Motown band Nu Jack City began 20 years ago as the passion project of band leader Max Daniels and his sister Monee Hamm. Over the years, the band has grown to 10 members, including another sister, and plays at a variety of venues around the Inland Northwest.
Daniels recently spoke to The Spokesman-Review about the band, diversity in Spokane’s music scene and what’s next for Nu Jack City.
Q. How would you describe your sound for someone who has never seen you perform?
A. Motown. It’s difficult to say R&B because R&B in Spokane is not what we would look at as R&B in the South, so I always just use the word Motown.
Q. What would be your dream venue to play?
A. I don’t have a dream venue … I just enjoy wherever we play, you know? We play from casinos, to backyards, to nightclubs. I enjoy just the people themselves, it’s not really about the venue.
Q. What are the biggest challenges and biggest rewards of playing music?
A. Coming from the South, it’s very challenging because there’s not a lot of diversity in Spokane. That’s the challenging part for a band like mine, we get excluded from like Pig Out in the Park, places like Valleyfest. We get excluded from those things, and I tend to believe that’s just because we are a diverse band. Every year, the same band plays at Pig Out in the Park. So that’s the challenging part that my fans don’t understand. And me personally, I try not to let myself indulge in that atmosphere because it makes me pretty sad. Then I think the most rewarding part that we have is that we get repeat customers every year; we’ve been doing the same places, the same people, the same venue and they consider our band because we are a very unique band, so the reward that we get is having that word of mouth and everybody talks about it.
Q. What are your favorite songs to perform or which songs appear to be crowd favorites?
A. We’ve got Bruno Mars, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, those are some of our favorites. But we have a big, wide range, a wide range of times in history. We do everything from AC/DC to Motown, country, Chris Stapleton. We do everything.
Q. Do you have any passions or hobbies other than music?
A. Me personally, I like to be with my children. That’s really important to me. My passion is to be with my children and I also teach them music, so it goes together.
Q. What advice do you have for any other Spokane locals who might be interested in pursuing music or starting a band?
A. Don’t give up on their dreams whether it’s here in Spokane or whether you gotta take it out of Spokane. Don’t give up on your dreams because sometimes your own backyard might not be the place that’s gonna make you who you need to be … Keep doing what you love to do, and hopefully it will take you where you need to go.
Q. What’s next for the band?
A. We just recently got in contact with the Davenport Hotel. We just recently had a meeting with their big team and they want our band to basically represent their conventions and all that so that’s something pretty big.
