Jonathan Scales Fourchestra trio brings undefined music (and steelpan) to Hamilton Studio

Growing up, Jonathan Scales was surrounded by music. His mother was a member of a gospel choir while his father studied music in college.

“It was just always around me, and I kind of gravitated towards trying to make music very early,” said Scales, who recalled a house filled with music theory textbooks and orchestral scores.

Scales learned the saxophone and had some percussion experience via drum line, but it wasn’t until studying at Appalachian State University in North Carolina that he found his true love: the steel pan. Scales joined a steel pan band as an elective course, and although he didn’t yet know how the instrument would alter his career and life, there was an immediate connection.

“As soon as I touched the instrument for the first time, I knew that there was some type of spark instantly,” Scales said. “The first time that I actually played the steelpan my freshman year of college, for me it was like an instant chemistry, where I knew that was what I wanted to do.”

Although the university didn’t have the steel pan as an option for a degree, Scales continued to study the saxophone while diving deeper into the steelpan as an extracurricular “on the side.”

With the steel pan now his primary passion, Scales wanted to achieve what he always knew was possible – having a band to call his own. Call it confidence or perhaps manifestation, Scales knew he had what it takes to make it in music well before the globetrotting and appearances on NPR’s “Tiny Desk” series.

“I was aware of all the things I wanted to do like have a band and travel around the world and make recordings and build a fan base and all these things,” Scales said. “So yeah, I actually did envision this, is what I’m saying. I think that’s the only way I was able to have the confidence to work towards it is because I could see it happening in my mind’s eye.”

Scales wanted to treat his “band” like that of a small orchestra, one that pushed the boundaries of their instruments while working as a collective to create one unique sound.

With that came the formation of the Jonathan Scales Fourchestra in 2007. At the time, the band was a quartet that has since become a trio with Scales on steel pan alongside the electric bass and drums.

Early on, Scales used “keywords” such as jazz to describe the group’s sound and land gigs. Anymore, Scales avoids defining the band with labels such as genre and, to put it simply, just makes music. Fourchestra plays with a wide array of bands and genres, from Prague metal and bluegrass to hip hop and Tuvan throat singers.

“I don’t want that to sound like an egotistical thing or something like that, but I feel like it just is what it is,” Scales said. “I’ve found that I don’t call it anything, I just let it be what it is. And I let people call it whatever they call it, and some people like it, and some people don’t like it for whatever reason.”

This intentional lack of definition is exactly why when the Jonathan Scales Fourchestra comes to Hamilton Studio’s Listening Room on Monday, the audience can “expect the unexpected.” Although many associate the steel pan with traditional Caribbean sounds or that of the “beachside” and “margaritas,” Scales and the band certainly don’t align with those assumptions.

“What we do is so not like anything that people typically imagine,” Scales said. “And then, I’m surrounding myself with players who are kind of pushing their instruments in ways that people typically don’t hear bass players play or drummers play.”

This will be Scales’ first time in Spokane. While in the Lilac City, he will be holding a workshop with the instrumental music students at Rogers High School, thanks to funding from local nonprofit Hillyard Built, and working with the Rodgers’ Steel Pan Ensemble before the performance as well.

“Playing this instrument and playing this music has definitely taken us on a journey around the world,” Scales said. “It’s always special to be able to break into new areas, so very happy that we can finally come to Spokane.”