The Design says it’s done with ‘cover music’

Rated by Gigmasters — an entertainment booking service — as one of the top party bands in the United States, The Design announced today that it is done playing cover music.

“As of Nov. 1, The Design will no longer play cover music,” the band said in a statement. “It’s time to move on, and I’m very excited to concentrate on my own music. It’s time to regroup, and come out swinging.”

Formed in 2006 as Sugar, the only common thread from the band’s origin as a cover band to its current place among Triangle musicians playing original tunes is frontwoman Katherine Robichaud. Since then, the rest of the band has been a rotating cast, with the most recent players — drummer Jonathan Fleck, guitarist Robbie Dooley and bassist Keith Lewis — being the most promising configuration.

“I am the soul-surviving member of Sugar and of The Design,” Robichaud jokes in the band’s bio. “And I, along with my troupe of misfits, will continue to fight the good fight.”

Until now, the band played only a handful of cover sets anymore, and those were usually at special events and occasional gigs at Wild Wings Cafes along the east coast.

As Robichaud points out, the shift has been a longtime coming since she began writing her own songs. After changing the band’s name from Sugar to The Design, Robichaud released her first collection of original tunes, Laziest Perfectionist, in 2008 and a sophomore LP, Young America, in 2011.

The name change came out of necessity — after all, there was already the Bob Mould-fronted power pop trio from the early ’90s called Sugar — but “The Design” also represented a sort of rebirth apart from its cover band roots. The name, Robichaud explained, represented the best possible outcome.

“Before I went to school, I always thought the best idea has to come from just you. You have to be a lone wolf — don’t let anybody distill your ideas,” Robichaud, who graduated from the College of Design at N.C. State, said. “But then when I got to school, I realized that it was really all about collaboration. The best possible outcome is going to come from people working together.”

While Robichaud is leaving the cover tunes to her past, those years will always be a big part of The Design’s current and future success. That is, after all, how they built a following that has led them to consistently pack the 800-capacity Lincoln Theater — including their debut show as the newly knighted “The Design” in ’08.

As for The Design’s future, Robichaud says she’ll continue to “write music that makes people feel good and happy and ready to rock.”

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