Neworleansmusicians.com Podcast

In January of 1979, The Ramones came down to Avondale, Louisiana to play back-to-back shows at Ole Man Rivers on the West Bank. Darren Hill and some of his friends were at that show. Though the punk genre existed for a decade at that time, it was an isolated spectacle this far south. It would serve as the genesis for the punk scene in Louisiana. Darren Hill and his friends would go onto form the R...

Well before founding Cowboy Mouth, guitarist and vocalist Paul Sanchez found himself amongst meager beginnings in New Orleans’ Irish Channel. There was no money for instruments. So, as a small child, he sang. He would stand atop the chifforobe with a friend and the two would put on shows for his siblings. Just before high school, when he could finally afford a guitar, he couldn’t afford sheet musi...

Radio was already heavily formatted by the time the 80’s hit. You had your classic rock, your country, your R&B stations and others, and they were virtually the same across the nation. Radio WAS top 40, with the exception of the far left side of the dial. There you could find, among other choices, college radio. These stations neither got their funding from, nor answered to, large corporations...

Kyle Thomas spent his formative years torn between several worlds. He attended a catholic high school while helping write an album titled Slaughter In The Vatican. He sang in choir but also sang for thrash metal band Exhorder. He simultaneously navigated a quiet life in the suburbs and a life in a band that lead him to the seedier side of New Orleans. During those years, his genre existed in a voi...

In an effort to address aspects of musicianship that are left unsaid, this interview centers around mental instabilities of a musician. Joey Carbo of current band WOORMS has agreed to talk about his battle with manic depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety. We cover a period of his life occurring from his late teens to present day. On a personal level, I can tell you this discussion took a lot o...

Hey everybody, thanks so much for tuning in. Today I’ll be sitting down with guitarist and vocalist Scott Guion. For Scott, artists like John Denver and Barbara Streisan were the only types of music in his household growing up. You see Scott was a product of religion, so rock and roll just wasn’t tolerated. But when his older sister began to sneak in rock albums, previously unseen and unheard visu...

Hello everyone and thanks so much for tuning in. Today I’ll be sitting down with Dave Jordan. Dave is a guitar player, songwriter, band leader, bass player, and singer.  He grew up in Mandeville, La., eventually settling in New Orleans. He is the anchor point for the Neighborhood Improvement Association. It’s what he calls an umbrella band that consists of a rotating roster of 50 or so member...

For this episode, I traveled to Morgan City to speak with an international session and touring multi-instrumentalist and vocalist from Morgan City, Louisiana, Ian Falgout.  Ian took up music back in grade school on drums and baritone. From there through high school, he went back and forth between Morgan City and Santa Barbara, California. Settling in on drums, guitar, and vocals, he would eve...

For this episode, I sat down with Producer, Engineer, and Mixer Chris Finney of Sound From Space Studio in New Orleans. In the past, Chris has worked at HOB and Jimmy’s Music Club, as well as owned and worked for several studios including Studio in the Country and The Music Shed. He’s a Grammy winner, and a Disney sound score producer and engineer. He’s worked at WYES television station filming Ja...

I was interviewed by Tim Tregle of the Getting To Know You Podcast. My name is David Trahan, and I am President of Neworleansmusicians.com. Host Tim and myself delve into the many ways my website covers the Louisiana music scene and the musicians within it. We also discuss several important points to consider for all content creators out there, including social media pitfalls, show formats, qualit...

Welcome everyone, and thank you for joining me today on another musical journey. I went out to Lafitte, Louisiana for this episode and sat down with guitarist and vocalist Theophile Bourgeois who founded and currently plays in Them Ol Ghosts. They’re a four piece, melodic, southern rock band with a catalog to which you can slow dance as well as rock out.  Theophile began early in music, start...

I sat down with Jake Kelston, a guitarist currently in bands Bakey’s Brew and Parallel Threads.  There’s a lot of valuable content in this one. We discuss his upbringing in music through medieval play scores and African folk songs. And how he cycled between drums, piano and sax, eventually focusing on guitar because it gave him the ability to be a soloist.  I know a lot of us would say w...

Grammy award winning percussionist Cyril Neville is known as a member of The Meters, The Neville Brothers, The Wild Tchoupitoulas, the Voice of the Wetlands All-stars, Cyril Neville & the Uptown Allstars and a former member of David Batiste and the Gladiators. We sat down to peel beyond those layers, to discuss who Cyril really is and what has shaped him over the years. Personal influences lik...

The progeny of a long line of Zydeco musicians, Chubby Carrier has centered his life around bringing his family's style of music to the world. He began on drums in his hometown of Church Point, Louisiana. At 17, was playing with Terrence Simien and opening for Fats Domino all over Europe. Breaking away to form his own band, Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band was born. Years of hard work and p...

Originally a resident of Metairie, Louisiana, Brian Patton can recall his fascination with music watching musicians like Roy Clark and Jerry Reid on Hee-Haw. His childhood stints with piano and clarinet were interrupted and forever changed by KISS. Guitar took hold, as did Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and others. And this began Brian Patton's ascent to an otherworldly thrash metal legend. Beyond his...

Jorge Pesantes (currently of The Dreadfields) dabbled in percussion and harmonica, but life repeatedly brought being a vocalist to his doorstep. Drawing inspiration from life and grooves from the many bands in which he's been, his rhetoric has been light but his presence has always been loud. To the table, he's brought a different style each time, a cadence that complimented the band's work, and a...

Born in Brussels, Belgium, singer/ songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ghalia Volt was a music enthusiast and free spirit growing up. The more she sought out and found music, the more she wanted to learn. From psychobilly to jump blues, the quest became of greater pursuit than following the crowd. We get a glimpse of European culture and her experience emigrating to the U.S. to eventually tour th...

Keyboardist, Vocalist, and band leader Mikey Burkhart grew up in Arabi, Louisiana. He'd played in a punk band prior with I.D.S. But nothing prepared him for being called up on stage with the late, great Eddie Bo. This was his beacon in the New Orleans sound. He would go onto lead a caver band at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville as well as playing in Sweet Pea's Revenge. We walk through some of the me...

Scott Frilot has been a great many number of things over the years. A guitarist and vocalist, true, but Scott’s also been a drum programmer, an advertising designer, and a booking agent. Driven by a recent viral digital advertising campaign, his new album, 45, has landed in a multitude of countries across the globe. He shares insight into the mechanics of that campaign here. Playing Jimmy’s Music...

Philip Doty is a vocalist for Jawa Command, Man vs. Bear, and Closure. We jump right into the mechanics of a band, from promotion to performance to forming its identity. Major label positions during the death of glam metal/ birth of grunge formed a distinct impression in Philip's mind. And he describes his life in terms of a genre spectrum, including Anthrax, Megadeath, Run DMC, Cinderella and Def...

Melissa Crory, aka Kym Trailz, fronts goth rock band The Tomb of Nick Cage. Her early experiences in music were attending punk shows in New Orleans. We delve into the essential elements of what made that scene so raw and alive. She touches on her previous bands through Igor Kitty and eventually on to her current band. Sonic qualities and instrumentation are pointed out here as we learn of what's t...

Nicole Brice is editor and founder of Mixed-Alt Magazine, an online international music magazine focused on independent arts and entertainment. Her fixation, at its' crux, is on circumventing curated, spoon-fed pop ideals to showcase a hot bed of talent that has become sub-culture. She hopes that through coverage at her magazine and on her Youtube Channel, she can help promote a cohesion amongst l...

Grammy Award nominee and Louisiana Music Hall of Fame inductee Julian Primeaux speaks of a childhood isolated in the bayous of Lafayette, Louisiana. Without internet or cable television, he clung to music magazines and instruments, becoming a singer/ songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He grew to love the creative experience and collective nature of band life. Today he tours the world doling out...

In part two, Guitarist and songwriter Chris Vincent decides to flee New Orleans on the forewarning of his girlfriend, "Chris you're gonna die here.' His time in New Orleans had not been for naught. His music was featured on The Real World New Orleans on MTV. He headlined The Tattoos and Blues Festival in Santa Rosa, California. And he enjoyed playing gigs both in New Orleans and across the country...

Born in Bayonne, New Jersey, guitarist and songwriter Chris Vincent spent a lot of time sorting life out with his fists. Although it taught him much about life, he benefitted from his family moving when he was thirteen. Monroe Township, New Jersey served a more peaceful setting, conducive to creativity. And it's where he picked up a guitar and began to play. His present day choice of blues wasn't...