Nine years. That’s a long time between grooves. But Huntington, West Virginia’s own The M.F.B. haven’t just been sitting still. They’ve been brewing, refining, and distilling their signature blend of funk, soul, and pure, unadulterated rhythm. Now, they’re back with “Honey Hole,” a long-awaited album that proves good things—especially the funky kind—are worth waiting for. Get ready to dive deep into the sweet, sticky sounds of a staple of the WV music scene as we talk to frontman Parry Casto about the album, the revamped lineup and what influenced “Honey Hole.”

BB: Parry, ‘Honey Hole’ marks M.F.B.’s return after a nine-year hiatus. What sparked the creative resurgence, and how has the band’s sound evolved or stayed true to its roots during this period of time?

Yes, it’s true that our last album release was in 2016, but in between, we released three singles officially, “PH Steve” and “Funkle Sam Needs You” in 2017. And in 2018 we released “Big Booty Judy.”

Click the album cover below to purchase “Honey Hole” on Bandcamp.

But you’re right, it has been a while since releasing a full album. It was the pandemic that sparked the creative resurgence back into the project. In 2020 when everything shut down, of course the band shut down effectively as well. But sitting around that almost nightly campfire that I would light in my front yard for a year solid, I was scheming and dreaming as always for the eventual return to normality and a full studio release for THE M.F.B. 

First, the “Big Booty Judy” music video idea was birthed from this COVID-era of seclusion. The entire video concept of getting sucked into the television world from start to finish was conceptualized. That song, in my opinion, never got the fanfare it deserved, so “better late than never” we released the music video in 2022. 

In early 2021, once the reality of the pandemic easing and returning back to regular life ensued, I knew that if I wanted to move the band forward, we would need new original material. With the help from a few friends, during the entire week of the ice storm when I was out of school for over a week, I recorded the initial demos of what would become ‘Honey Hole.’ Using some of our bass player, Stephen Harper’s bass recordings, and with the help of frequent creative collaborator, Alex McCoy, who created drum and synth sequences through the use of his Akai MPC, I wrote about 8 new songs, some good, some bad. This burst of creativity helped me envision the new sound for the album.

The new sound explored in this album to a certain extent, is really an homage to the mid-80s, big gated drum reverb and synth bass sound, so prevalent in recording artists of the time, such as Chaka Khan, The Pointer Sisters, Phil Collins, Wham!, and funk artists like Prince, Sheila E, and the such. This sound was very formative in my youth and have always dug this era of pop and funk hits.

Altogether, our sound as a band has evolved so much from when we released “Thrust if You Must,” yet still keeping that signature THE M.F.B. vibe and aura. Early on, our vibe was much risqué and pushed the envelope of what was appropriate and tasteful. As we all have grown and matured, that has been less of the focal point, and more about creating an experience where people can just release for a few hours of their life, think a little bit, participate a bit, and let go without inhibition. As a result, we have included this big, electronic drum sound into the live show, as James Hairston, our drummer, uses an electronic drum module with triggers to beef up the acoustic drums. Also, when we released ‘Thrust’ we were just getting trumpets into the mix with our productions. With the single releases in 2017 and 2018, we really made the trumpet and sax horn lines much more prominent. Those single releases are included in this album release because those songs never had a true “home” on an album and people could only access them through our Bandcamp as they weren’t available on streaming. With ‘Honey Hole’ being released on both Bandcamp and streaming services, I feel like the casting net of people hip to us and listening to us will be amplified. 

BB: The album title, ‘Honey Hole,’ evokes a sense of finding something precious or a place of comfort. Can you delve into the thematic core of the album and how it reflects your experiences and the band’s journey over the past nine years?

Yes, it is like finding something precious. A honey hole is often a personally discovered fishing spot where only you or a very few people know of where there are scores of fish to be found. Sometimes it’s off the beaten path or in a secluded pond or stream that very few people know about.

That’s what this album is about; it’s like, IYKYK. If you know, you know THE M.F.B. are going to deliver the goods. You know that this album is going to be chock full of funky delights and a few surprises as well. Some big daddies and some unique, strange catches as well. 

Also, I like it because there’s a slight entendre to the title, ‘Honey Hole’ that makes it sound suggestive, like many of the funk album titles of yesteryear. There’s always a bit of tongue-and-cheek referencing that our band is known for. And why not, it’s fun and a little exciting to make things a little off-kilter and risqué. 

‘Honey Hole’ is just that, a greatest collection of all the things THE M.F.B. been releasing and playing for about the last nine years. All of these songs have been road-tested, broken-in, honed, and developed for some time. 

BB: Given M.F.B.’s West Virginia origins, how does the landscape and culture of the region influence the music and lyrical content of ‘Honey Hole,’ and are there any specific stories or local inspirations woven into the songs?

It’s hard not to incorporate the landscape and culture of West “By God” Virginia and greater Appalachia into our music. For the longest time, I wanted people to imagine that THE M.F.B. were not from this region, or of this planet for that matter, but from some strange debaucherous land where we lived on ambrosia and nectar from the funk gods. It’s not that I was embarrassed for this region, I just wanted people to think we were from somewhere else. 

Now that we’ve played this region for over 13 years, it’s hard to run into people who haven’t seen us perform. So even though I try to elicit an alternate-dimension funky persona, there’s some homespun familiarity that always comes with it. In one song off the new album, “Funky Bunz,” we really dive into bit of an Appalachian drawl and sensibilities on some of the affected vocals and even do a group, “Party!!” vocal at the end of the song, which is a staple of our shows when Randy Gilkey screams it mid-set randomly at any point of the show. 

‘Bro Embryo’ without getting too much about its meaning, I had a music festival in West Virginia in mind as the backdrop for the song. 

“Funky Bunz” was a song title suggested to me by one of my best friends, Jeremy Hopson, as a good song title for a new song. And that same friend’s wife, who was his girlfriend at the time, was the inspiration for “Karaoke Casualty,” a true story about a ski-trip with good friends to Canaan Valley in the winter of 2018. The weekend had barely started when our friend had an unfortunate karaoke accident where she slipped on a rug while getting loose and singing karaoke on a karaoke machine. A subsequent trip to the ER the next day revealed her broken ankle. So what better way to memorialize the event, but write a song about the mishap that very weekend with our friends, Ben Coll and Brad Kinder, of The Yetti and Jeremy. That song idea’s audio was stored away on Dropbox for at least three years before I dredged up the raw audio of us singing the song and lyrics.

BB: After such a significant break, what are your expectations and aspirations for ‘Honey Hole,’ and how do you envision reconnecting with existing fans while introducing M.F.B.’s music to a new audience?

But that’s not what motivates me with my creative projects. Although it has been a significant break between album releases, THE M.F.B. has been performing steadily since our last release. We have played multiple festival appearances, Live on the Levee twice, 9th St. Live three times, numerous private functions, and a few weddings. The saw is constantly being sharpened creatively with although the output hasn’t been there just yet.

My expectations and aspirations for ‘Honey Hole’ are realistic but always optimistic in that we can reach a wider audience that “gets” what we’re doing. 

THE M.F.B. has always been a conceptual and dynamic project that presents this exaggerated, reflective view of America known for its excesses and distortions. I am completely immersed as Funkle Sam onstage; the funky, ringleader that orchestrates this cacophony of images, movements, and feelings with the ultimate aim to assault your senses. But it’s not just the show that’s important. I want our show to sound just as good as what our stage show presents conceptually and theatrically. 

That’s why, I feel like we have the best of the best. Not to mention our new lead guitarist, Wes Hager from Fletcher’s Grove, who is one our region’s masters on jam guitar, we also have Stephen Harper on bass, legend Randy Gilkey on guitar and synth, and James Hairston on drums, who are each respectfully, the best of the best on their respective instruments. I am truly blessed to share the stage with these friends of mine. For them to follow me “down the rabbit hole” and explore these ideas to the fullest, makes me thankful to have such talented friends that I share the stage with. When we are “on” and “locked in” there’s very few who can hold a candle to our performances, in my opinion.

The best compliment you could possibly give us after a live THE M.F.B. show is “What was that?” “What did I just experience?” “I’m not sure what that was, but I genuinely liked it.” Most people who leave our shows leave with a smile on their face, eager to catch us again. I feel like it’s partly because the visceral, frenetic experience we bombard them with challenges and tests the limitations of what a live show can be. 

I imagine reconnecting with existing fans while introducing THE M.F.B.’s new audience as I always do right before every show we put on. I imagine in my mind that if they’ve seen us before, it’ll be like reconnecting with a best friend that they haven’t seen in years and it’s like never missing a beat. But also if they’ve never seen us before, I imagine in my mind that they don’t know what’s about to funkin’ hit them. It’s like watching tourists on a beach before a tsunami hits, not realizing what’s about to hit them in the moments to follow. I relish that in that in their astonishment and revelry, hopefully new fans will be made throughout the course of the show and sustained afterwards. Although we’ve been doing this for 13 years, I think the band is in a better position than it’s been for some time. We’re leaner and meaner and, in some ways, think we’re just getting started. 

You can check out The M.F.B. at The Loud tonight along with New Tuck Band at 8 PM. Click the banner below to get your tickets.