PREMIERE: New Doc Showcases Secret Formula Band on Its Biggest Stage Yet

Charlotte rock group Secret Formula Band is a ferocious musical force. With bandmates drawn from across the South, the combo summons swampy Louisiana funk, soulful Memphis blues, rustic Alabama rock and evocative Carolinas storytelling to conjure gospel-charged tunes that can amble like a rolling river or rumble like a runaway locomotive.

But when the six-piece took the Carolina Ascent FC Stage on May 3, the second day of the Lovin’ Life Music Festival in Uptown, they encountered an elemental force more powerful than their music: rain — a massive downpour, in fact, that spilled onto the stage.

The band members weren’t the only ones dealing with the deluge. Across the yard overlooking the stage, Nicholas Williamson, a documentary filmmaker known as Nick Will, was shooting footage of the group. A month before, Will watched Secret Formula Band win the battle of the bands that earned them this spot on the Lovin’ Life bill. 

Like the judges in that contest, Will was hooked. He introduced himself to the band and enthusiastically offered to produce a film documenting their journey from local favorite to festival player. That documentary, The Secret Formula to Lovin’ Life, debuts below.

“It poured down raining, and everyone got kicked out [of the festival grounds],” Will remembers of the May 3 set that followed. 

The 27-year old freelance filmmaker and animator, who is CEO and creative director of his production company, Mislabeled Productions LLC, doesn’t sound downcast when he recalls the downpour that threatened to wash out his passion project. 

In fact, Will seems so enthused about his documentary — as well as a host of other film and music projects he’s working on — that he makes the potential setback on that rainy May Saturday seem like an acceptable and exciting part of documenting the festival.

“I got footage of hundreds of people in these parking garages [waiting out the rain], just still loving life to the highest degree,” Will says. 

Creating the Secret Formula

Secret Formula Band member Andrew Miramon — one of three guitarists in the group — says his memory of the band’s battle win is a trifle hazy. He remembers talking to Will after the performance, but not many details, explaining that “everything was kind of in a whirl.”

Miramon remembers that Will’s pitch was to film the group for a documentary, following Secret Formula Band’s preparation for Lovin’ Life and culminating with the group’s set on the Carolina Ascent FC Stage. The band readily agreed to the proposal.

“I felt honored that someone was inspired by our story,” Miramon says.

Miramon’s own story with Secret Formula Band began when he was living in Virginia. He had played electric guitar throughout high school and college at the University of Mississippi in Oxford — citing Stevie Ray Vaughan and John Mayer as inspirations — but had since shifted his interest to bluegrass. He was searching for someone to plat with. 

Mutual friends put Miramon in touch with McArtor, who was working to assemble Secret Formula Band. Though McArtor wanted a guitarist for a Charlotte rock band instead of a Virginia bluegrass combo, Miramon signed up, thinking the gig could be fun and rewarding.

He was right. The band debuted in late 2022, gathering a fan base with shows at Visulite Theatre and Evening Muse. In addition to Miramon and McArtor, the band includes drummer Joseph Howe, bassist David Kirkpatrick and guitarists Alex Weir and Alec Hartman.

In February 2024, the band released its debut album Roll Them Dice, recorded at Charlotte musician Joe May’s home facility Alta Mira Studios. The studio is noted for its vintage analog gear, which imparts a timeless warmth to the LP’s ten songs. 

Several of those tunes, including the hard-charging syncopated Creedence-Clearwater-Revival-meets-Mountain rocker “Cajun Queen” and the gravelly yet stately gospel-soul shouter “Get Your Lovin’,” claimed spots on Secret Formula Band’s Battle of the Bands setlist.

Making the stage

Earlier this year, Lovin’ Life runners Southern Entertainment launched their second annual Battle of the Bands competition, inviting Charlotte artists would compete for the opportunity to play the festival. Nine local acts participated in the “battle,” performing at three different venues in the weeks leading up to Lovin’ Life. 

Catching Low Groves playing at a Battle of the Bands iteration at The Music Yard, Will was blown away by the energy in the room. He went to a second battle bill at The Gin Mill on April 4. There he saw Secret Formula Band play for the first time and was astounded.

“I was telling everybody in the crowd, ‘These are the guys. They’re going to win!’” Will remembers. 

He ran up to the stage after the band’s blistering, crowd-pleasing set and talked to lead vocalist and keyboardist Mac McArtor.

“I said, ‘You guys remind me of some of the bands I really love,’” Will says. Knowing he wanted to film something with the band, Will handed McArtor his business card, but he wasn’t sure what form a potential project could take.

“I had no plans to attend Lovin’ Life — I couldn’t afford a ticket,” Will says.

The following morning, Will attended CreativeMornings/CLT, Charlotte is Creative’s free monthly breakfast lecture and networking series that celebrates creatives in the Queen City. The fact that the meeting was held in the city’s renovated and recently reopened historic movie venue, the Carolina Theatre, was an extra incentive for film-lover Will.

As it turned out, Will shared a ghost story he had experienced during his work with a couple of former Panthers players and in turn for the enthralling tale was given two three-day passes to Lovin’ Life. 

“What were the odds?” he asked later. “One night I discovered a band. The next morning, I’m given tickets to the very festival they just qualified to play. The message was clear: It was time to tell a story.”

A document of onstage triumph  

The Secret Formula to Lovin’ Life boasts a two-man production and post-production crew: Logan Harbin as sound designer and Will as director, camera operator and editor. For the documentary, Will squeezed into a crowded room with the six band members and recorded a two-hour practice session as Secret Formula Band prepared for the festival performance. 

He also interviewed four band members, asking them about their influences, their takes on Charlotte’s music scene and how the band got started. He wasn’t able to interview Weir and Howe due to scheduling conflicts.

Despite that disappointment, Will feels he got a sense of what makes the band members tick, and an appreciation for their ability to support each other onstage.

“They’re very comfortable together,” Will notes. “They let each other put their own style and individually into the songs, but also [let everyone] have their own moments.”

On the day of the band’s Lovin’ Life set, Miramon recalls seeing clouds of mist above the yard. 

“We were like, ‘We can handle a little mist,’” he says. “But then, right as we all walked up to get on stage, it was definitely not just mist anymore.”

As the audience started pulling on ponchos, Will remembers taking his place with his camera, ready for anything. Onstage, Miramon recalls a fleeting sense of doubt. Had he and his bandmates come all the way through Battle of the Bands to the biggest stage of their careers only to get rained out?

From across the yard, Will recalls hearing McArtor’s raspy voice announcing the group through the rumble of the storm: “We are Secret Formula Band!” 

The band launched into its set and, miraculously, people stayed, dancing and swaying in their ponchos, not caring if they got wet.

“The rain didn’t stand a chance against good music,” Will says. 

As the band ended its first song, the sun came out and people started taking off their ponchos.

“People who didn’t know us were walking in to see us play,” Miramon says. “It was just people hearing the music and saying, ‘Hey, I wanna be a part of that. Let me go over there and listen for a few minutes.”

Will says the high point of making the documentary was getting to know the six individuals who comprise Secret Formula Band. 

“They just welcomed me in with my camera,” Will notes. “They really trusted me and I appreciate that more than anything.” 

That trust has paid off in a warm and sympathetic document of friends pulling together to bring joy to other people on a far from ideal — and yet somehow perfect day.

Read more: Shelby Punks Y’ALL’RE Do It for the Love of Music

The band’s perseverance over the elements and their artistry in reaching listeners unfamiliar with their music is captured in the climactic moments of Will’s fascinating, uplifting documentary

The Secret Formula to Lovin’ Life combines keenly observed details and unobtrusive storytelling into a rare example of filmmaking alchemy where creator and subject seem completely simpatico.