Badfish singer-guitarist Pat Downes has lived on Maui since 2011, but he knows what Cleveland winters are like and sympathizes with our situation. It’s one reason why the group regularly comes to Northeast Ohio in the dead of winter.
This year, the Badfish’s Blizzy Tour includes a Feb. 6 stop at House of Blues.
“We do an annual winter tour and just cover a ton of ground from mid-January to spring,” Downes says via phone from his Maui home. “The only time we are slow is October, November and December. So, we like to start the new year fresh. It’s a good time to get out when it’s cold and people need some good summertime vibe entertainment. The holidays are over, and we’re ready to light it back up and hop in the van and hit the road. We love coming through Cleveland. We have grown that area so much. We’ve been coming there for more than 20 years. It’s great to come back and see familiar faces and places.”
Initially, the group formed in Rhode Island in 2001. In the wake of the death of Sublime singer Bradley Nowell, the band decided to do a one-off set of Sublime songs, paying tribute to the influential SoCal band that mixed rock, rap, and reggae.
“The place packed out, and it was a party,” says Downes. “The thinking was that if it worked in one place, it would work in another. That steamrolled into what it is now.”
Downes wasn’t part of the first lineup. At the time, he was in another band based in Boston. He grew up playing saxophone and joined the group after finishing high school. That band opened for Badfish at a gig in Northampton, MA, and he got on stage with Badfish guys and jammed on the Sublime tune “Date Rape.” Badfish needed a keyboardist, so Downes pivoted instruments and joined the group.
“I took over sax and keys, and our singer wanted to part ways,” he says. “I said I could play guitar and sing. I’m one of those multi-instrumentalists. We booked a tour, and the chemistry was really good with the band, and we started touring really heavy.”
At the time, the group jammed a bit during rehearsals but exclusively played Sublime tunes at the shows. Over the years, it’s started to include original material.
In 2023, it released “High with You,” a Sublime-like tune that features guest artist Little Stranger.
“It’s self-explanatory,” says Downes when asked about what inspired the track. “We just wanted to write a fun reggae anthem. It was our first go. We didn’t want to get too weird with it. We wanted a big simple song with a simple chorus and this marching heavy reggae vibe that we enjoy. That’s really it. When you are in the studio creating music, we want to do it for you. Without that, there is no authenticity in it. Danny [Torgersen], who is our fourth guy on keyboards and trumpet, wrote it. We jump all over the place. I play sax on it a bit. He’s been doing writing with other people. Our chemistry was really good.”
The band continues to develop its new material, and it recently released the whimsical “Bad Things,” a track that features a guest appearance by DJ Hoppa, an L.A.-based artists who’s released several solo albums. He effortlessly adds turntable scratches to the tune, a woozy reggae number with a 311 vibe.
Downes says the group is inching toward a new album.
“I come up with basic chord structure and melody and meet up with Danny [Torgersen],” he says. “We call him the Lego Man. He’ll take my pieces and arrange them into more of a song. We don’t have to hire a horn section or a percussion guy. We are schooled in all of that. We will be the backup band too. I can be the singer-songwriter. We don’t have to find some guys who understand it. It’s a fluid way of doing things. Danny is going to come out here after the holidays, and we’ll do some writing before the tour. We have stacks and stacks of ideas at the moment.”
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