What the Funk?! Interview with GTRI

Every Tuesday night from 7pm to late, a menagerie of unconventional characters gathers at Woodhouse Brewery in Santa Cruz, California. A lustrous voice pours through the doors, riding an oscillation of synth and a staccato of drums. This is Funk Night.

Since 2015, musician and producer Gianni Staiano, has been blessing the ears of Santa Cruz with his funky swaying grooves – first as 7Come11 and more recently as GTri. A local Santa Cruzan through and through, Staiano has always been drawn to keys, eventually quitting his role as a popular football captain to pursue piano. His decision wasn't without controversy, he recalls being sent to a child psychologist to assess his sanity.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Staiano found fellow Santa Cruz local, Trianna Feruza through Instagram. A new school singer and rapper who got her start in musical theater, Feruza traces much of her inspiration to her family's deep roots in music. She distinctly remembers dancing atop a drum to her grandfather's tambur as her mother and sister belly danced alongside her.

Soon after joining forces, the two welcomed drummer Rowan Graves, who had played in the Cabrillo Jazz band alongside Feruza. Like his bandmates, Graves started playing music young – covering the Beatles on a secondhand drum set before branching out into jazz and funk.

Together they make GTri (or, as Feruza puts it, the Fellowship of the Ring).

Reflecting on on the band's first pandemic-era jam sessions Staiano says:

"The only thing that gave me hope through the pandemic was hanging out with this little bit of sunshine."

Funk Night has been skyrocketing in popularity, drawing a gleeful ragtag crew back every week to dance and sing along to GTri's swinging tunes. Over four weeks, I interviewed a rotating cast of old regulars and wide-eyed newcomers alike. First-timers, cheeks blushed rosy from the dance floor, were practically glowing:

"I'm telling every single fucking person I know about this place…I don't know, this music just scratches an itch in my brain that I didn't know needed to be scratched."

Their friends rampantly agreed, dissolving into a fit of smiles. Several attendees boasted perfect attendance since the very beginning – one showgoer told me they'd been coming since 2015 without fail.

Every attendee shared the same contagious excitement: lit up by Feruza's powerhouse vocals, Graves' driving beat and the smooth twinkling glint of Staiano's keys.

GTri puts it plainly:

"Our goal is to have an evening, where you can show up on a fucking Tuesday and have a really good time. And even if it's three minutes, you can forget all of your bullshit for three fucking minutes."

GTri expects to release an album to streaming platforms in late summer 2023, with new projects already on the horizon. But in the meantime, head to Funk Night every Tuesday at Woodhouse from 7 to 10pm – "every fucking Tuesday, I repeat, every fucking Tuesday" – and dance your worries away in a night of beautiful tunes and even more beautiful people.

Note: Due to the popularity of Funk Night and the city of Santa Cruz's sound ordinances, Funk Night at Woodhouse was indefinitely suspended in 2024.