Young Berklee musicians form band Geneva, with some Spokane roots

Over the course of recent months, new-wave funk band Geneva has managed to record their debut EP and book a full-length West Coast tour – all within a year of meeting and while attending the distinguished Berklee College of Music.

Although the Boston-based band has quickly taken off, the ongoing story of Geneva finds a portion of its origins in Spokane.

For lead singer Leah “Eve” Anderson, music as a lifestyle goes back to her youth. At age 5, she first began playing piano, was exploring drums by 8, and at 15, she began singing.

Yet, Anderson first truly fell in love while performing at an October 2021 Halloween show – the first from a band that would quickly become a mainstay in the Spokane scene: Monke Business.

From 2021 to 2023, the band formed by four Lewis and Clark High School students played show after show, garnered a loyal local fanbase and recorded three albums (two studio and one “Live at The Knitting Factory Spokane”).

Monke became known for their unique funk, indie and psychedelic sounds, perhaps something that shouldn’t be too surprising given the group was made up of jazz musicians.

“We got really innovative and ambitious,” Anderson said. “And when other people started to like what we were doing, it gave us the vision that we could all do more later on and in college.”

This vision would begin to come to fruition as Anderson and bassist Andrew Atkison applied and were accepted to the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Getting into Berklee was also a massive confidence boost for Anderson who auditioned as a vocalist, although she was primarily the drummer for Monke Business.

“It made me think, ‘Well, if I’m a good enough singer to get into Berklee, then hopefully I’ll be a good enough singer with a band,’ ” Anderson said. “It was really validating for one, but also obviously very exciting to get into your dream school.”

Once in Boston last fall, Anderson had worries about not finding close connections outside of Atkison and being unable to find a group to create music with. She would prove herself wrong quickly.

A few days into drawn-out orientation meetings, Anderson found herself skipping them to explore campus and jam with anybody she could find in practice rooms. Through this method, she found an immediate connection with drummer Tyler Tate and guitarist Haojin Song. After some trial and error, they would meet and stick with Jackson Kruger on bass, Angelina Daly on lead guitar, and Atkison on the keys. Thus, Geneva was born.

The name has actually been a point of discussion and theory among those outside of the group, but the band “literally just thought it sounded cool” and has no connection to any location of the same name – whether it be Switzerland, Illinois or Alabama.

Within a few months, the band had finished six songs. Soon after, Geneva was in Boston’s Cybersound Recording Studios.

The debut single “Irises” would be released Feb. 9, the full EP titled “WYD” soon after on March 1.

The project is host to a wide range of musical inspirations and individual styles. Although Anderson believes the band is best described by the term “new-wave funk,” each member comes from a different background – from heavy metal to jazz to psychedelic rock. With this, each member has their own musical heroes that have influenced the way they play, such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pink Floyd, Paramore and Rage Against The Machine, to name a few.

Anderson’s unique voice and honest lyricism match the sly licks and fills. With each track, Anderson explores the way she perceives things that “bother” her – from overthinking and depression to hookup culture and beyond.

And to say the process of creating the EP was faster than usual may be an understatement – the majority of the six-track extended play was recorded in an eight-hour session; the entire project was completed within a week.

Anderson credits not only the speed of recording the EP but also much of the band’s success thus far to two things: chemistry and honesty.

“We are all very passionate. We argue a lot,” Anderson said with a chuckle. “We have a lot of conversations about how to write, what to write about, who’s playing what, how much everyone is playing … but it’s all because we are very passionate about it and at the end of the day, we all love each other.”

The band played a handful of shows in Massachusetts in support of the project, but now Geneva is coming to the West Coast for a 14-show run throughout June.

“We’re all really excited,” Anderson said, adding, “Most of the cities are completely foreign to us.”

The “Geneva West Coast 2024 Tour” kicked off Saturday with back-to-back Seattle shows while tackling the Puget Sound area along with hitting Portland. They will go on a California run later this month with three shows in Los Angeles along with stops in Berkeley, San Luis Obispo and San Francisco.

But this weekend, Geneva will bring Anderson and Atkison back to their hometown of Spokane for two shows, one on Saturday, June 15, at J Bones Musicland and another on Sunday, June 16, at the Big Dipper.

The Spokane shows will create other moments of reconnection to the Lilac City. Saturday’s performance will bring Rose Peak, a new Seattle-based rock-fusion band of Monke Business lead singer and keyboardist, James Eberle, to the 509. On Sunday, Anderson and Atkison will play double duty as Eberle and guitarist Brandon Bosch fully reunite Monke Business for the evening (as they do from time-to-time). Atkison is Monke Business’ bassist. Fellow local mainstays Shady Angels will also join them once again on Sunday as they prepare for their final summer of shows.

From here, Geneva will return to Boston with music recorded and plans to release in upcoming months. Whether the group stays in Boston or eventually relocates to another city remains up for debate, but they have no plans of stopping their upward momentum any time soon.