Me, Sean, Scott, and James from The Smoking Section in the Seattle scene days, were funkier than a lot of bands around town for sure, and we got to record our album at the world famous Robert Lang Studios in Seattle, to when we recorded "Funky Shade Of Blue" in Jan '97. I as a guitar player wasn't trying to be like any of the other guitar players in Seattle when I got there as a kid from Southern California that loved mixing styles, having grown up on so much Hendrix, Eddie Hazel in Funkadelic, and 70's and 80's funk rock bands and players like Hillel Slovak and Dave Navarro not to mention Frusciante! Scott was an incredible bass player so the song really clicked!
When I was a kid I was into the late 60's early 70's blues rocker guys from England like Jimmy Page, Paul Kossoff, Jeff Beck, and American players like Joe Walsh in early James Gang & Hendrix, so I loved raw playing and production!
I had also spent a lot of time in the Bay Area Hard Rock / Metal scene in the mid 80's, and I mixed heavy riffs that were my take on heavier riffs, with the funky rhythmic style in a more minor way, and got what became Tim Erickson & The Smoking Section with the mighty Scott Ferguson on bass, and we recorded the "Funky Shade of Blue" album!
It was a really small slice of the really big setlist we had! I wish we had recorded a double live album to get a lot of those recorded, since they were a blast to play, and Seattle was very much home for me for an amazing decade! I'm back to that sound on the last two albums, and it's been as fun as it was back then!!