About East Coast Soul

• Who We Are: East Coast Soul is a “collective” of full-time, committed, and incredibly talented musicians, organized into a small number of elite ensembles. We also happen to be close friends (yay!). We are very fortunate to have a fixed lineup of permanent musicians in these ensembles that are all indefinitely committed to East Coast Soul. Each ensemble strives to work with consistent players, musical directors, and vocalists. We take our “attendance” at each performance *extremely* seriously, and prioritize continuity in our performances and lineups above all else.
• What Sets Us Apart: Does ECS seem a little different to you than most wedding bands? If so, you’re pickin’ up what we’re puttin’ down, for sure. We have embraced a slightly different philosophy in our performance style and vibe; one based on authenticity in our musicianship, diversity in our personnel, and a truly empathetic overall approach to working with our clients. All our ensembles feature a consistent repertoire focused on a highly curated repertoire of the *best* classic and contemporary, groove based music ever made. Yes, we are a soul band, but you’d be more accurate to call us “soulful” – we perform music across all genres, and we do it in our style, with grit, funk, and a lot of spicy meat on the bone, if that makes sense, lolz — you’ll recognize all the music we play, but it’ll be the first time you’re hearing it performed this way. That’s our goal, across all ensembles!
• Who We Are *Not*: East Coast Soul is not an “agency” that “signs” large numbers of ensembles, as is the case with groups like Silver Arrow, Wilson Stevens, Elan Artists, etc. We do not work with the infamous “annual contracts” you may have heard about, that lock in typically young, inexperienced musicians in for a year or two (only to see them disappear shortly thereafter), or fill our lineups ad hoc with a random roster of otherwise unconnected musicians. We’ve heard some horrific, behind-the-scenes stories about how some of these gigs come together in large agencies — enough to make your stomach churn! We have instead chosen to foster close relationships with our players, who in turn commit to East Coast Soul on a full time basis. Because of this, we’re certainly not the largest operation in town in terms of “number of bands” by a long shot, but we feel focusing on a smaller number of ensembles allows us to maintain a truly elite performance caliber across the board.

Also, fun fact: The ensembles are nicknamed after classic Soul/R&B record labels, haha — kind of cheesy, but, we needed a way to refer to them that wasn’t a mouthful, and that’s where we landed 🙂

The first factor in selecting an ensemble will be, of course, availability. In our initial email communication, we would have hopefully (haha) shared with you an accurate list of our available ensembles for your date in particular (worth noting, this is often changing due to booking happen fast and furious for most of the year!)

Beyond the simple issue of availability, selecting an ensemble is truly a personal decision. We recommend first taking a close look at each ensemble’s video library to see which one resonates with you the most.

• Atlantic
• King
• Soulsville
• Stax

The most important things we can share re: picking an ensemble are:

• Except for extremely minor differences, each ensemble works off the same, core repertoire, so all East Coast Soul performances feature the same, highly curated material that’s been a big part of our success.

That said:

• Music is a personal and subjective experience. With that in mind, different combinations of vocalists and musicians resonate differently with different people. That’s totally cool! We understand that people arrive to East Coast Soul through different channels: referrals, videos, etc. Whatever ensemble you’re leaning towards at the outset, we understand.
• All our ensembles are highly in-demand, sought after, and elite in caliber. So, no matter what ensemble you’re leaning towards, you are guaranteed an epic performance — it’s truly a win/win/win/win.

Going a bit further, we can say that all of our videos are shot and recorded live (even the ones in the studio!) as opposed to the janky, over-processed “karaoke” style videos you might be encountering elsewhere. So bottom, line, what you’re hearing from each of our ensembles in the videos is in fact what you’ll hear at your wedding. Even though it’s far more involved a process, we’ve made this strategic decision to film all our promotional videos live, simply because we believe in our talent and musicianship, and want to be 100% transparent people about our sound. The “produced” videos you might encounter with other groups are neat (I guess?) but provide no context about what the band will actually sound like live. In fact, we’ve found in many cases those videos have the opposite effect, instilling doubt and making folks nervous due to being obviously “fake”. In our videos, you’re hearing how it actually goes down, live at the gig. This often helps make the decision of picking an ensemble much easier.

This is probably the most common question/concern we receive. Let’s jump right in!

• The Good News: East Coast Soul does in fact work with a permanent line up of elite musicians, all of whom are, essentially, indefinitely committed to East Coast Soul. In asking: “Will our musicians be the same as the ones in your videos”, we are proud to share the fact that we have a full time, permanent membership. We are not a “roster band” that you may have heard of, where young student musicians and singers are “signed” for a year or so, only to relocate soon after. This is a *band* that prides itself on consistency and committedness. We take our relationships with our musicians *and* our attendance at our performances *extremely* seriously, and our musicians consider their presence at all commitments to be of the utmost importance.
• Quick Reality Check: Although we do work with a permanent membership, it’s important to mention that no band (including East Coast Soul) is completely immune to serious issues such as personal illness/injury, bereavement, or just general “force majeure” type events. We work really hard to stay healthy during a long, demanding performance season, and do our best to work important personal events (like our own weddings, for example) around busy times of year to avoid any issues. In situations where an unforeseen medical or family problem may arise, we have the luxury of a deep network of elite musicians from within our collective that we can draw on to avoid any gaps in the lineup or performance. Personal emergencies are no fun to talk about or think about, but at this point, we feel confident that there is essentially *no* situation, however big or last minute the issue, that would severely impact an East Coast Soul performance. If we have advanced notice of these situations, we are happy to let you know, but barring that preference, you can count on a truly elite East Coast Soul ensemble, regardless of the circumstances.

The bottom line here is, barring something earth-shattering happening to one of our band-members, you can fully expect the band you see today to be at your wedding. We feel confident saying: if you’re concerned about consistency within your wedding band, then East Coast Soul is perhaps the best option around. Although every band in the world is subject to emergency situations, our close network of exceptional talent allows us to be consistent in our lineups, but flexible in the case of unforeseen circumstances. Feel free to ask us additional questions about this, as we find it to be one of the most important issues around the decision of booking any band.

If you’re planning your wedding, 12, 18, or 24 months out, don’t let anyone tell you you’re crazy! Haha — honestly, we find the timeline of wedding planning to be a little nuts ourselves, but it is in fact the way of the world, so we’re with you no matter how far away the date is!

We’re very lucky to have an incredible influx of interest in the band. The reality is that we’re often fielding multiple inquiries for virtually every weekend of “high season”, which for us stretches from April to December. This includes Fridays and Sundays as well. Holy moly.

All that said, our general recommendation is, and this applies to any wedding vendor (not just bands, and not just us!) is: don’t wait. If you like us, but need to talk to some other invested folks (like parents), mull it over, etc, and are waiting until “after the weekend” or “when you’re a little less busy,” don’t! Do it as soon as you can. We know we sound a little paranoid putting it that way, but we’re getting peppered with inquiries at all times, and although we do our best to keep people up to speed on interest that follows their own, it’s virtually impossible to stay totally on top of that. If you’re digging East Coast Soul, let us know as early as possible that you’re seriously considering the band. We’ll give you as much time as possible to go through the motions of course, but bottom line, we have to entertain the most serious inquiries in the order they come in, with a firm verbal commit being a critical part of the confirmation process here.

Just to clarify, this is juxtaposed with our own policy/feeling that we never pressure anyone to book the band before they’re ready, just because we want to work with them/you. What we’re mentioning here is, simply, we may not be available for any given date for very long, so if you’re interested, don’t hesitate. If it’s not the right fit, that is totally and completely okay. However, we’ve seen *countless* people miss out on the ensemble they were seriously interested in, or miss out on all of our bands entirely, simply because they hung back by even a few days, or even a few *hours*. So, while we won’t pressure you to book, outside interest does limit how long you can and should take to think things over. Bottom line, folks should be aware that our availability is changing by the hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Hopefully that distinction is clear!

If you are in fact interested, the steps to book the band include the signing of a contract and sending of a deposit. This can be done via snail mail or digitally, and we’ll of course walk you through those steps. Let us know know if you have any questions here!