The six-piece Swampscott–Marblehead band B-Side Hustle takes mainstream songs and “flips them on their head,” according to bass player Michael Bourne.

B-Side Hustle always sends the audience into a groove, dancing and swaying to the funk, soul and pop classics that are given a bit of a twist that makes the song the band’s own distinctive feel.

“If there’s one top-line goal, it’s feel-good music for your body and your soul. We really want people to feel good,” vocalist Sacha Bodner said. “We want people to be in a good place and connect with one another. Our world is kind of crazy right now and there’s a lot of disconnection. It’d be great to get people together, and good music does that.”

The band formed in September 2024 and made its debut at Swampscott Porchfest. Three of the members – Bourne, drummer Michael Smerka and guitarist Jay Mahler – have children the same age that grew up in daycare together, Bourne said. Bodner added that most of the group also attends Shirat Hiyam synagogue, where they discovered they “all gelled together” during Shabbat services.

Bourne “recruited” keyboard player Michael McClung — also Swampscott’s town moderator — from their former band, The Distant Ships. McClung is also a part of Swampscott’s Blue Big Band.

“He’s a very musical guy,” Bourne said. “In addition to playing the keyboard with B-Side Hustle, he also plays a number of different instruments. He plays tuba and trombone. He’s a multi-instrumentalist.”

B-Side Hustle’s drummer, Smerka, also plays in a band called Better Than Nothing, which has played at the Marblehead Festival of Arts as well as yacht clubs in the area. 

Jesse Piascik is on saxophone. Bourne joked that the “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” noting that Piascik’s son, Berklee College of Music student Jacob Piascik, recently won Marblehead’s Got Talent.

To round out the six-piece band, Bodner is the vocalist and plays percussion and guitar. B-Side Hustle is Bodner’s first band, and he said he hopes it serves as an inspiration for his children to “try things and be okay in this world.”

“Life is about learning, and sometimes you just have to try,” Bodner said. “I think there’s a lot of this chasing perfection…But whoever you are, get up and give it a try.”

Bourne said he and Bodner “bonded over a shared love of Otis Redding and Sam Cooke and classic soul music that we grew up listening to.” 

“You’ve got neosoul and funk and dance. You’ve got roots stuff. You got some dub, and you got a little bit of reggae,” Bourne said. “You’ve got all these different genres that are floating out there, but nobody’s trying to cover a Sam Cooke or Otis Redding song, and if they are, they’re trying to do the Black Crowes version.”

So that’s where B-Side Hustle came in. 

The band’s name is a portmanteau rooted in both its musical influences and members’ lives. B-Side refers to the second side of records and tapes, while “side hustle” layers onto the additional professional careers – ranging from associate general counsel at Boston University to social work and software developer – and families that band members have.

“In the band, we try to listen to each other, we try to support one another’s ideas,” Bodner said. “The end result – you need each other, and it’s bigger than what you can accomplish individually.”

B-Side Hustle’s sound, however, is not going to be a straight-version of a popular song. Instead, the group works to make remixes by modifying the music, changing the tempo and rearranging the melodies. When the band performs the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” or Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer,” for example, it doesn’t sound like the radio cut. Instead they “put the ideas musically in a blender and we come out the other side with something way different,” Bourne said. 

“What we’re trying to do is not a straight up cover,” Bourne said. “We’ve all played in cover bands. We would rather be like a genre band.”

The group writes the arrangements themselves, taking inspiration from various genres and bands they listen to. 

“I’d say a big inspiration for us is Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. If we could be as tight as the Dap-Kings, we psyched. That’d be the best thing ever for us,” Bourne said, adding that B-Side Hustle has taken group outings to check out other bands as well, noting a recent trip to see the funk band The New Mastersounds. “We’re aspiring to get to the point where we’re using our influences and then adding our own music to it.”

In Swampscott, B-Side Hustle has performed at Porchfest as well as part of the Recreation Department’s summer series. They were in Swampscott for the town’s festival, which Bourne joked grew their children-fan base as “kids were getting out of summer camp and the whole front row was like screaming 5-year-olds.” The group made its Marblehead debut earlier this month at The Landing Restaurant. 

On Friday, January 30 B-Side Hustle will perform at Mercy Tavern in Salem, starting at 9 p.m. The group will also be a part of the SPUR Fling annual gala fundraiser on Saturday, March 28. B-Side Hustle even has some merch, if audience members want to come prepared, at https://bsidehustle.com/hustle-gear.

“We love participation. We love it when audiences sing along and are clapping along,” Bodner said. “Mercy is going to be our 20th gig in 14 months…People go to Mercy because they want to hear good music, and we love that. We’re really looking forward to being there.”