Eau Claire band Sweater People played Saturday, Nov. 19 at The Cabin in Davies Student Center.

Sweater People is made up of pianist Hans Fuerst, drummer North Skager and bassist Will DeBlaey who all come together to create their music, according to Skager.

“A lot of what we do, in fact most of what we do, is original music,” Skager said, “(Fuerst and DeBlaey) are very good composers and we all write together, too, while we rehearse. It is our voices that we are bringing to the scene. Just working together to make music.”

The band was looking to bring energy to The Cabin through their performance on Nov. 19 according to DeBlaey.

“A lot of what we do is trying to be really energetic,” DeBlaey said, “trying to keep music that has improvisation — really energetic and fun.”

Not only does the band bring vivacity, but according to Fuerst, they are also looking to infuse softer moments into their music. 

“(Our music has) energy with artistry where it is not just loud noise the entire time. We do get loud but we have the capability to get quiet,” Fuerst said.

The band members work closely with each other while maintaining improvisational elements, according to DeBlaey. 

“We try to be one voice with three instruments. We are trying to speak together,” DeBlaey said. 

According to Fuerst, the band’s music is improvisatory jazz meshed with their own inspirations like video games.

“(We are) drawing from all of our influences, what (DeBlaey) brings, what (Skager) brings and what I bring and allowing that to come together. It’s a mixture of a lot of things and individual influences like jazz and funk and video game music all meshed together,” Fuerst said.

Not only is the music improvisational, but the name of the band was also improvised, according to Fuerst.

“I was being wacky and I named a song ‘Sweater People’ because it had the vibe of sweater people. The name came from nowhere and then we were figuring out band names and we were like, ‘Why don’t we just name it that?’” Fuerst said.

According to Skager, the name seemed to fit well given the band’s Midwest location.

“And you know we live in the upper midwest where every fall and every winter is sweater weather so it fits thematically,” Skager said.

In the future, the band will be releasing an EP. The release date is unknown, but listeners can watch out for the EP drop and an album release show in January, according to DeBlaey. 

The Sweater People members can be found playing with other bands and musicians around the midwest including Eau Claire’s very own Uncommon Denominator. 

According to the Sweater People website, “We also are a recording and production team that has worked with Midwest artists to bring our touch to their recording projects. We also serve as the backing band for live shows of the artists we have recorded with.”

For updates on the band, you can visit the Sweater People Instagram page @sweaterpeople. For further information, stickers and other merchandise visit the Sweater People website.

Becker can be reached at [email protected].