Midwest natives Groovatron have risen from the ashes of their dead forefathers to produce a sound “part funk, part progressive and all rock.” Having first opened a mere three or four years ago for such established jam acts as the Wailers and Blues Traveler, Groovatron hit a chord with the band’s idiosyncratic, schizophrenic sound. Dubbed the Best Breakthrough Performance of the 15,000-large Wakarusa Music Festival by voters at Jambase.com, Groovatron has both broken on to the summer festival circuit and been lauded by the jamband community. Nick Ferrer, the band’s guitarist and vocalist, took some time out of his groove-heavy schedule to chat with buzz about everything from Groovatron’s latest studio work to Ferrer’s current obsession with satellite radio.

In terms of the band’s origins, Ferrer explained how “it all started in middle school, where there were two competing bands. The best players got together and started collaborating. And basically, right out of high school, the band solidified into what it is today.” Beyond shared music production, Groovatron’s members also worked as backstage technicians at a local theater, whereupon they developed a tendency for “outlandish theatrics.”

For Ferrer, it is always appropriate to “add a certain amount of flair” to each performance. Two years back, at Central Illinois’s Summer Camp Music Festival, the band even went to the “shock-tactic” extreme of painting the entire surface area of their bodies a midnight black. Groovatron’s visual effect stands as a fusion of Blue Man Group-like intergalactica and visceral psychedelia reminiscent of Lips’ Wayne Coyne and crew.

However, when Groovatron’s “six-headed beast” rears its jam-infused head at the Canopy Club stage this Thursday, Dec. 4, don’t expect much in terms of theatrical extremes. As Ferrer explained, the focus of this show will be on the new, as an opportune chance for the band to test out and showcase their latest studio material. Performing on Canopy’s stage feels like second nature to Ferrer, who stated he feels most “at home” performing at the Urbana music club. Although band members originally found the venue’s open stage “scary and intimidating,” a matured Ferrer admitted that he uses the Canopy Club as a “reference point, to calm [him] down.”

Following this spring’s release of the fully instrumental, self-produced and self-recorded In the Machine, the band is busy working on their next, more concept-centered and vocally-based album. With the success of In the Machine expected to be covered in the next issue of jamband-touting Relix, Groovatron feels both encouraged and content to continue self-recording and producing.

To be one of the first to hear the band’s new work, as well as crowd favorites like “Star Biscuit” and “The New Mashed Tater Controversy,” be sure to catch Groovatron’s infectious jam-rock this Thursday, Dec. 4 at Canopy Club — a mere $6 at the door!