When you initially put Orleans Avenue together did you envision the group playing your now trademark brand of Supafunkrock?

When I put the band together we were just doing what we were taught—we were doing a bunch of New Orleans standards and some jazz standards. Over time we developed into who were are now, and we just wanted to create our own style of music and not continue to do what’s done for all those years because we didn’t feel like we were helping the music by recycling it. Each one of my band members is influenced by different styles of music and a different cultural background, and we just all put what we’re influenced with and we came up with the sound naturally. It just shaped up on its own.

In New Orleans everything is like a gumbo so I was influenced by everything. I would spend a lot of time with Cyril Neville from the Neville Brothers, and I was influenced by that style of music by being around him. I was trained in jazz and had Rebirth Brass Band around as well. Then I would listen to KISS and Rush and all those different people. I was always trying to put my headphones on and trying to find a way to play over that style of music when I was younger. And my brother was really heavy into rap music so I would take his CDs. My other brother, Buster, he’s into that type of stuff so it is all a gumbo of music I was influenced by.

Your new album Backatown was produced by Ben Ellman and many of our readers first heard your name through your sit ins with his band Galactic. When did you first start working with Ben?

I’ve been listening to Galactic since I was probably 12 years old. I’ve known Ben longer than that—he used to play with the Little Rascals Brass Band which is a band that was based out of my neighborhood. He was the only white cat in the band. I worked on the last two Galactic records, and I liked what he had done. So by just listening to the albums and where they are now, I thought that Ben would be a great choice—he comes from the jamband circuit with the improvisation but he found a way to still make a good record for Galactic. I just thought that he would be the right person. He knows what I’m about and he’s right in New Orleans.

Backatown features a number of different guests. Can you talk a little about how these collaborations came about?

I got Lenny involved when I went down to play on his upcoming record. I did a bunch of songs for him, and I was listening to my record at his house in the Bahamas to hear the mix. He asked who I was listening to, and I was like “That’s me.” He liked the songs, and said he’d help me out, which was a true blessing.

Allen Toussaint plays on the only cover on the record, which is actually one of his songs. We changed it so much that I was afraid that he wouldn’t like it. I was still on tour with my band, so Ben actually met with him in New Orleans and got him to play the piano and sent the track to me. And Allen liked the song and liked what we’d done with it so he got on the record. He called and was like, “Man that sounds good, you brought it up to date, got a nice groove to it.”

Marc Broussard is a good friend of mine. The song that we did with him, “Right to Complain,” just sounded like I need him on there. It put me in the mind of him and I called him and sent him the files and he sent them back and that was it.

I wanted to work with people that I liked that I always looked up to—my mentors, artists that I’m a fan of. So my wish list came together. They’re the founders. It’s just a blessing to have somebody that has paved the way for some of the younger musicians in New Orleans to do what we’re doing. For Allen to be on the song that he wrote a long time ago, I mean, it’s just amazing. I’m honored that he played on the record and played on his own song. It makes it that much more interesting.

A whole new crop of bands seem to be emerging from New Orleans and mixing traditional brass band music with more modern sounds.

Definitely. I have a friend named Chris Royal. He’s a saxophonist and his band is smoking and of course there is Big Sam and different people. They’re really taking it to a different level. And I’m not here as much so I don’t really know what’s on the scene ‘til I get down there, but those two bands. Plus there’s the Soul Rebels, they’re eating it up out there.

Frenchmen Street is a different scene after the storm so there’s all these new musicians and I don’t even know a bunch of them. But they’re just out there playing in the streets, playing in the clubs. It’s like a new wave of younger musicians, younger than me, that’s just out there getting it in and just taking over, just making the scene with it. They’re making the scene. I mean I walk down the street and there’s a bunch of musicians on the scene that I’ve never even met before and I’m like, “Wow.” And they’re sounding good, man, I don’t think some of the bands even have a name, they’re just jamming out on the street. I told some of them, “Man, you know whenever y’all ready, I’m playing a show in town and we have some openings, you know, I’d love to get you all out there because people need to hear y’all.” Yeah, I mean Frenchman Streets—these bands are out there every weekend. I’ve seen some bands set up outside a club and play on the street with their little tip jar at ten o’clock at night and I can imagine what it’s going to be like for the Jazz Fest. You’re gonna have hundreds of people outside, nobody’s probably going to go in the clubs.

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