Taking care of business with The Business People
The Business People, from left: Will Schoonmaker, Jack Schulte, Anthony Pugliese and Nicholas Robinson. Photo courtesy of The Business People
During their senior year at North Mecklenburg High School, Nicholas Robinson and Will Schoonmaker came together to start jamming and writing some new tunes. To form the band The Business People just a few weeks later they added their friend Anthony Pugliese and one other band mate who decided not to remain a part of the band after moving away to college.
“We started the band because we wanted to bring some of the music we loved to the kids at our school.
After our first show we did so well we decided to stay together,” said Robinson, a sophomore geology major at UNC Charlotte and lead singer/rhythm guitarist of the band.
The band played a few more shows together until they all had to split for college.
Their first summer back home they reformed the band, and added Jack Schulte, a junior political science major at UNC Charlotte, as the bass guitarist. The band finally felt like they had a complete lineup. “Since then we feel we’ve really started to find our sound,” Robinson said on the addition of Schulte.
The band has built a reputation around Charlotte as a great live act, as no two Business People shows are alike. Their unique indie dance rock sound is sure to entertain any crowd.
“We are really excited, we live show to show in our minds. That’s how we prepare. That’s why we feel every show is better than the last because we are more excited for that one than our last,” Robinson said about the band’s Sept. 25 show at After Hours at UNC Charlotte.
The band has always had a tradition of setting goals, the first being to play a show with Sugar Glyder, which they achieved a year ago as a 3-piece.
Back then the band was a lot different. “We had a handful of original music, we were borrowing our amps from friends, and Anthony didn’t have a moustache. A year later, we feel ready and prepared to play with a band that we really love,” Robinson said.
This last summer the band was chosen by Converse to record a few songs in a professional studio in Brooklyn, N.Y. with some high-class engineers. It was a great experience for them to work with some very talented producers and meet new people.
“The highlight had to be meeting Matt and Kim. They came into the studio and just shot the breeze with our engineers. They gave us a hint of the life and rise of a band. It was altogether one of the biggest eye openers we’ve had,” Robinson said.
Like many other bands, The Business People have had their own growing pains.
Their biggest weakness as a young band was networking and promoting themselves. But as the band grew musically, they learned how to book more shows and develop relationships with other musicians that could lead to more opportunities in the future.
Through all of their success and struggles, the band has always stayed close and committed to their music. Robinson says the band’s real strength comes from their commitment.
“No matter what we say to each other, or how frustrated we get with each other at times we never let that get out of control. It’s like a marriage. Sometimes you get frustrated and upset, but you always know who you want to go home to,” he said.
The band is looking forward to hopefully playing some shows at next year’s South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas and doing some more recording, so stay on the lookout for new things from this up and rising band.
The Business People will be performing Tuesday, Sept. 25 at After Hours with WooD HeaD and Lucky Five and on Saturday, Nov. 3 at Amos Southend with Sugar Glyder and HRVRD.
Category: Arts and Entertainment, Niner Times
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