Festival fave Biomassive diving into ‘deeper level’ of electronic, heavy prog-rock

In its element from the get-go, Traverse City’s Biomassive lit up the main stage at Friday night’s Cowpie Music Festival near Caledonia with jam-fueled electronic rock glory – the perfect setting for the band’s dance-happy, psychedelic grooves.

For some ardent fans, it was clearly a spellbinding, even addictive, experience.

“We cut our teeth on music festivals and that’s kind of where we got our start,” said keyboard and synthesizer player Connor Lindsay. “That’s what we’re about.”

Biomassive also is all about blending funk and rock into a pulsing, hypnotic electronic panoply, something the band aims to reproduce for its third full-length album, now in its final stages of production.

“We’re really dialing in our sound,” Lindsay insisted. “This album is definitely more polarized to an even deeper level of electronic and heavy progressive rock. We’ve really been fine-tuning our vision and I feel like this album has pushed us to lean into what sound we want to represent even more.”

Formed in Traverse City about 10 years ago, the six-piece band features Lindsay, keyboardist Ben Wyler, guitarist Kalvin Cronn, bassist Trevor Pinney, percussionist Shandon Williams and drummer Troy Novak, with Wes Roberge serving as the band’s sound and lighting engineer.

The “bedroom project” soon morphed into a full-blown, live-show spectacle, something Lindsay describes as “a technicolor synth-drenched rock show.”

“We like to think of it as a concept band, using our mix of live and electronic instruments and elements to showcase the duality of man and machine,” he said. “We’re all about bringing guitars to the rave and synthesizers to the rock shows.”

Biomassive plays Encore 201 in Traverse City on Aug. 27, Big Fam Music and Arts Festival in Farwell on Sept. 3 and Billy’s Lounge in Grand Rapids on Sept. 9.

Lindsay credits the region’s robust music scene – with “so many great venues and so many great northern Michigan musicians” – for spurring the band’s success.

After producing full-length albums in 2019 and 2020, Biomassive released a five-song “Monolith” EP in 2021 and currently is putting the final touches on its “Digital Deity” album.

An official release date hasn’t been set, but the band plans an extensive Midwest and East Coast tour next spring to promote the new album.

“There’s some magic on this one, so I’m excited to share it,” Lindsay said.

— Find more Michigan music news and concert listings at LocalSpins.com. Email John Sinkevics at john@localspins.com.