Shake Shake Shake: KC and the Sunshine Band Bring Five Decades of Funk to The Show at Agua Caliente – Coachella Valley Independent

If you want talk disco and funk, you can’t get too far without mentioning KC and the Sunshine Band.

If the band’s reign on dance floors everywhere in the ’70s—with hits like “Boogie Shoes,” “That’s the Way (I Like It)” and “Get Down Tonight”—wasn’t enough to cement their legacy, the countless commercials, sporting events and movies featuring the band’s music certainly did. It’s unlikely that people will ever stop shake-shake-shaking their booty to the timeless funk of KC and the Sunshine Band.

The band is heading to Agua Caliente Rancho Mirage at 8 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 31, for a special New Year’s Eve performance. During a recent interview with frontman Harry Wayne Casey, he expressed his adoration for the desert.

“I love it there,” Casey said. “I have a place in La Quinta, so I come there every now and then. It’s just always fun. What is there not to love about Palm Springs and that area? It’s just beautiful there, and I love the energy.”

Although the band’s biggest hits came in the 1970s, many younger fans are getting down tonight, and every night, to their long-lasting disco.

“We were just over in Europe, and for one of the shows we did, I don’t think anybody was older than 30, and they knew every word to every song,” Casey said. “It just blew me away. I had to just stand there for a moment and pinch myself. It was such a magical moment, and I love to see young people in the crowd. I love to see everyone in the crowd. That’s when I’m at in my happiest moments.”

The string of uplifting, happy party songs for which he’s known were created as an antidote to the times.

“I felt like music had gotten very dark, and the country was dark,” Casey said. “We were going through the first oil crisis here in the U.S., and stuff around the world, and I just wanted to create some music that was high energy, and from side A to side B, once you put that needle down, it just was nothing but high energy—and that’s all I could think of.”

Casey said he wanted to create songs like the ones he turned to for emotional support when he was younger.

“I think sometimes that those songs come from the darkest moments,” he said. “I think I write them to pick myself up. When I’m in the studio, I’m not thinking about energy or anything like that; I’m just thinking about what flows out of my hands onto the keys and the idea of the song. I’ve always loved dancing and up-tempo music anyway, even growing up, but I’m a word guy, so I really liked ballads that say something to me or soften me. When I grew up, you really couldn’t talk to your parents very much at all, and you had to kind of keep things down. Songs were a way of dealing with emotions and things that you were feeling without having to talk to anybody about them—and they still are. Songs help people heal in so many different ways, from breakups to things that are happening in general around the world or whatever. There’s always a song that you can play that’ll help you release that emotion and whatever you’re going through, and help you find an answer.”

Casey views the songwriting process as making art.

“When I’m creating a song, it’s the same thing as when artists are creating a painting, and it starts with a white canvas,” Casey said. “You’re going to do a landscape, or you’re going to do an abstract, and the only thing different from writing is you’re writing about feelings and emotions and stuff. A lot of times, they’re my own emotions, and I’m going through something, and it just translates to other people. We’re all so much alike—more alike than I think a lot of us would like to admit—so we all share the same feelings, the same hurts, the same happiness, the same good things, the same bad things.”

Casey continues to write, and he said he’s been branching away from the more radio-friendly aspects of his previous numbers, and pouring new energy into an upcoming mega-release.

“I’ve been working on a new project for the last 10, almost 12 years now, that’s going to be coming out soon,” Casey said. “It’s like 56 new songs, and my approach to writing them was a little bit different than some of the previous ways. I had people send me tracks, and I wrote the melodies and the lyrics to the track that was sent to me; some of the other things I created from scratch. I’ve always wanted to try to experiment, to do things like that. Back then, I think I wrote a lot more commercially, and probably not as lyrically as I’ve been writing recently.”

It’s taken a long time for Casey to change up the band’s commercial sound—but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t tried.

“A lot of times when I did try to change, people didn’t want to let me change,” Casey said. “… After I left one record company, I’d bring something, and they’d say, ‘That doesn’t sound like KC and the Sunshine Band,’ and the minute I make it sound like KC and the Sunshine Band, they say, ‘Well, that sounds dated.’ As I’ve gotten older, I’ve definitely felt like my songs are more lyrical than they’ve ever been.”

Casey said his upcoming string of new releases would begin sometime in 2024. While they may not be as chart-friendly as his past funk jams, the artist, now 72, is proud of them.

“I’m going to release eight albums—eight EPs, kind of—with eight songs on them,” he said. “My logo has always been the rainbow. … There are seven colors of the rainbow, so each one of the EPs has a different color, and then the final album is all the colors together. One will come out every month for seven months, and then the eighth month is the release of all of them. My engineer that I’ve been working with to this day is Bob Rosa, and he’s worked with Prince, Michael Jackson, Celine Dion and a number of amazing artists. We’ve kind of been remixing them for the third time, and they’re sounding really, really good. I’m very excited about it. I think I’ve never sounded better, and I think there are some great songs in there. There’s up-tempo; there’s midtempo; there are ballads, and I’ve done a couple of covers.”

KC & the Sunshine Band will perform at 8 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 31, at The Show at Agua Caliente Rancho Mirage, 32250 Bob Hope Drive, in Rancho Mirage. Tickets start at $55 and include entry to the Zowie Bowie Dance Party at 9:45 p.m. For tickets or more information, call 800-514-3849, or visit aguacalientecasinos.com.