GRIND • REMEDY

The R&B Group REMEDY, made up of its founding members Big Marcus, Tuck, Donald and Efrem, was born on the south side of Houston, Texas, out of equal parts intention, chemistry and a little bit of luck. Efrem, an aspiring singer, songwriter, and producer while studying audio engineering at Houston Community College, met a fellow classmate named Tuck, a soulful singer and writer whose tone reminded you of the late great Sam Cooke and who shared Efrem’s love for R&B and vocal harmony. The two hit it off, began singing together, and before long they were writing songs and developing a sound of their own. But Efrem had always been drawn to something particular about the great R&B vocal groups: the way completely different voices could maintain their individual identities while becoming something entirely different when blended together. Two voices were a beginning. He wanted four, so Efrem and Tuck started looking. A fellow audio-engineering student, an aspiring rapper himself, eventually told them about a friend named Big Marcus who, in his words, could flat-out sing his ass off. When Efrem and Tuck finally heard Marcus, they understood immediately what he brought to the equation. Marcus had an enormous vocal range, a distinctive soulful timbre and the kind of raw, church-rooted gospel delivery that made him a natural lead vocalist. Then came another unexpected piece of the puzzle. Marcus was already singing in a two-man R&B group with another vocalist named Donald. Marcus told them that if they loved his voice, once they heard Donald, the search for a fourth member would be over. He described Donald’s voice as a mixture of a jazz crooner and a gospel singer, and he wasn’t lying. When they finally heard Donald sing, it was like somebody had discovered the long-lost son of Donny Hathaway. Donald had that rare combination of warmth, control and soul, a voice that could sound smooth and conversational one moment and open up with the emotional weight of gospel the next. The four eventually met at Marcus’s apartment on the south side of Houston and did the simplest thing four singers can do to determine whether a group actually works: they sang together. The voices fit. The personalities clicked. And the four-man dynamic Efrem had imagined was suddenly standing in the room. They called themselves REMEDY. "GRIND" Out on all streaming platforms https://open.spotify.com/album/3hZ4pU...