This is a big year for the popular 1970s funk and soul band War. On Oct. 14, the band is set to release a DVD capturing a vintage concert filmed in Anaheim, Calif., along with a greatest-hits CD.
We asked frontman and founding member Lonnie Jordan to chat about the band’s past — which includes hits “Low Rider” and “Why Can’t We Be Friends?”— and its present — which includes a concert at The Fox Hawgfest on Sunday.
On the band’s history: “We’ve never stopped playing. We took a leave of absence in the ’80s due to disco. Most record labels wanted a group to give them a heartbeat, which we had but they didn’t acknowledge.
“Other than that, we’ve always appeared live. There’s been a change of the guards but never a reform.”
On War’s live shows: “Every time we play live on stage we create new material. We just have to plan to take some of the new material on stage to the studio, or to a warehouse, and start writing to the musical creativity that we’ve created on stage while we played.
“It’s all a matter of time frame because now we’re busy with the DVD. We’re on tour. Maybe during the slow time of being on tour, which is usually the fall, but we seem to have a newer audience who are curious about the old school.”
On the sampling of War’s hits in commercials, movies and new songs: “I’m honored to know people are giving us the time of day. I believe the younger generation listens to their parents. I believe that the biggest part of communicating between parents and kids is in music. The only things the people listened to from their parents were from music. I think the kids are bouncing off of that, and they’re curious about how it created their parents’ frame of mind.”
On War’s staying power: “It’s timeless. They (the songs) came out of jams, and that’s what makes them timeless. That’s what I tell my band. When you play on stage don’t start thinking; just play. I don’t know the word rehearsal. I don’t know the word practice. When you talk about rehearsing War music, I don’t know what you’re talking about. That’s how I’ve always looked it, and that’s how it should be.”
War
Funk-rock. Winter Park Resort, U.S. 40 in Winter Park. Sunday. 1:30 p.m. $35-$60. 303-631-2369 or .
