My Inspiration
The Goal
My main goal when writing and recording "River's On Fire" was to use as much of my musical background as I could in order to paint a more complete picture of who I am as a musician.
Autobiographical
Evolution of the Neighborhood Party
In the 1930s and 1940s, there were neighborhood house parties with friends and families gathered around a piano in a living room or a brass band in a backyard. They had a fish fry or a potluck, where everyone brings a dish. In the '50s, these migrated to bars and...
Russ Broussard
Russ Broussard, the drummer on "River's On Fire", has a deep relationship to the song he's playing. And it changes every time he plays it. So everything he plays always sounds fresh and energetic. Every take was new and fresh. At the rehearsals, every idea was new and...
The Power Of Music
To me, music is joy and happiness, which can also be found in the saddest of emotions. I was at a friend's funeral. He was loved by many, and an inspirational person and musician. The brass band was playing the slowest, saddest dirge, which would be the first part of...
Different Each Night
You can play a song the same way every night. The composer wrote the songs, wrote the notes and the goal is to recreate it every night as it was originally written. This comes from the classical music tradition. Our approach comes from the New Orleans jazz tradition,...
A Rewarding Process
The process for recording my vocals on "River's On Fire" was to record each song a bunch of times -- 10, 15, 20 times — then figure out what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong. I would practice the song for a day or two, then re-record it another 10, 15, 20...
Voice Work
Towards the end of Papa Grows Funk, I started working with a vocal coach. I knew that my throat was a complete wreck. My vocal cords were shot. I needed to learn how to sing so my true self could be heard. So ever since PGF ended, one of my personal goals was to...