Meet Clint Willcox and Jonathan Sadler of More Than Physics in Fort Collins

Today we’d like to introduce you to Clint Willcox and Jonathan Sadler.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Clint and Jonathan. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I met Jonathan at the drum store where I worked. He purchased a drum I made from a propane tank. In 2011 I was lucky enough to get my first handpan. I had to win a lottery just for a spot to purchase one. This was at a time when there were only four places in the world to get one. Pantheon Steel only built 200 instruments a year with a waitlist of 11,000 people. Shortly after, Jonathan was back at the drum shop to get a set of tabla. He was pretty insistent that we jam together and that’s when our friendship was transformed into a musical journey.

With a bit of practice and a little luck, we landed some gigs at yoga studios and art studios. Shortly after we started to play more and gigged in Denver. Boulder, and other areas surrounding Fort Collins. We began to put all the money made back into the band in order to further the project. In 2014 we recorded our first CD. As we became more known in the community through working hard to find and book venues that worked well for our instrumental acoustic music. Yoga and live music became a regular thing for us and FoCoMX, a Fort Collins Music Festival celebrating local artists and venues became a yearly gig for us. We started collaborating with Ben Gondrez and put on shows featuring the Dome Theater in the Museum of Science and Discovery. That show featured custom 360-degree visuals and live effects.

As we continued to grow as musicians and as a band were invited to perform at our first Handpan Gathering. So we packed thousands of dollars of instruments, handpans, tabla, and an antique marimba into my car and traveled to Joshua Tree, California for Pantasia, where we meet with 100 other people from all over the world who were also owners and enthusiasts of handpans. In 2015 we played Arise Music Festival to play our biggest show yet. For the next few years until we continued gigging and working on the next phase of music. We released our first hybrid acoustic/produced track with a local producer and DJ Two Scoops and began to explore more musically and really hone in on our sound. Jonathan got his first Handpan in 2017 and we began working on new material. In late 2018 we released our newest EP “Visitors” and are now just about to go into recording for our next release.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has been a journey. Jonathan has two children and we both have full-time jobs. Also, we have self-funded all of our endeavors up to this point, so it has taken a long time to build our foundation. One of the biggest struggles we have had is to find the right venues and concerts for our music. Playing acoustic instruments and original instrumental music is highly connected to the room and the listener. It’s tricky to convey dynamics and nuances in a loud atmosphere. A passion for our music and an amazing local, and global community have been a great support system as we navigate being musicians and artists in this ever-deepening ocean of sound.

Can you give our readers some background on your music?
We provide sonic atmospheres. We specialize in playing dynamic and engaging acoustic instrumental music as well as spacious and meditative soundscapes for sound journeys and yoga. We are known for our live performances, the shows at The Dome Theater with live visuals by Ben Gondrez, for playing with yoga classes and most recently facilitating sound journeys with “Gitali” Tania Alexandra Habenicht. We offer a very unique set of skills and we can engage a listening audience and we can provide serene and relaxing atmosphere. The uniqueness of the handpan as an instrument combined with tabla and marimba make for a special sound that we are known for.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We have been playing music for nearly a decade now and over the years we have been honing in on how our music best engages with the world. One of the things we are most excited about currently is facilitating “Sound Journeys”. It is a unique type of space where we interact with listeners on a deep and profound way and facilitate a unique healing and relaxing atmosphere. We are also planning to record our newest batch of original music very soon. We will continue to perform for handpan gatherings, concerts, and other music festivals locally and around the world and playing for yoga will always be a part of our repertoire. A few years ago we started providing live music and yoga with Gitali Tania Alexandra at Hollerween music festival in Fort Collins and we are really looking forward to next year’s event as well as continuing to produce shows in the Dome Theater with Ben Gondrez.

Pricing:

• CD’s are $10 and Download cards are $5 and they are available through our website and on Bandcamp.

Contact Info:

• Website: morethanphysics.com
• Email: logicalnonsense@live.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/morethanphysics
• Facebook: facebook.com/morethanphysics

Image Credit:
Solo pictures by Maria Levitov
Floating handpan by Darren Mahuron (Summit Studios)
360 picture by Ben Gondrez

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