I hope you don’t mind, but I’d like to switch gears a little bit and talk about Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. I know it was extremely tough on everyone, but could you share a little of your own personal experience with the storm?
Well, as you know Katrina was just a terrible time for everyone and we had a couple other hurricanes prior to Katrina, but nothing like that. My wife and I had gotten into the habit of evacuating, and there was no way we were sticking around for that. And of course I was always on the road so that left all of the packing up for my wife. God bless her, she always packed everything up, you know all our important stuff, and we would head up to her mom’s house in Opelousas, which is way just North of Lafayette, Louisiana well above the flood plain. And of course she had a kick ass generator, so we were safe and comfortable. But it obviously wasn’t that easy for a lot of other people. Actually, right before Katrina hit my wife’s dad passed away unexpectedly, so she was already up there, which left a lot of the packing for me. So I meticulously placed all our old family photos and crap into big Rubbermaid tubs. I also did the same with all of my Rads memorabilia, and then like a dumb ass I forgot it all and left it sitting on the floor. Well we had four feet of water in our house after the storm, so needless to say that stuff was all gone. It was all just a big pile of paper mache. So yeah that sucked.
What about all of your musical equipment? Did you or any other band mates lose any of that stuff?
I lost some stuff, but the really valuable stuff I either took with me or moved up to the second floor. As far as the other guys, I don’t know that any of them really lost anything too valuable. They all did pretty much what I did. I actually have a rehearsal space that we used up on the 5th floor of a building on Tulane Avenue, and all that stuff was safe. You know I was a lot luckier than most people. So many people just got displaced. Ed Volker got exiled to Austen. And everybody just left and got out. I don’t even remember where everybody went, but I do know it was a long time before we could even go back to New Orleans.
So let’s talk about the supposedly inevitable breakup of the Radiators that none of your fans saw coming. Was it an amicable split?
Well you know you used the word inevitable, and I guess that’s true, but were still blindsided by it. You know with Ed, it wasn’t just that he didn’t want to tour anymore; he just didn’t want to be in a rock band anymore. You know he is totally content with just playing piano music. I don’t pretend to even say that I know why Ed pulled the plug but I don’t blame anyone who says they’ve just had enough for whatever reason. You know we couldn’t go on without all 5 guys.
Let’s move on to Raw Oyster Cult. First of all, is this still considered “Fish Head Music?”
No, because Ed Volker is not in this band. You know in a technical level Ed Volker adopted the Nom de plume “Zeke Fish Head” and he wrote most of the Rad’s songs so I guess that’s where Fish Head music came from. You know I never really even cared for that term, but you know I couldn’t stop it. It was like trying to stop a tidal wave. But you know the fans loved it, and it doesn’t matter what I think, because it’s all about them.
[However,] Raw Oyster Cult is probably more Fish Head music than any other thing going on because there is still three Radiators in the band. Not only that this band has one of the guys that sang half of the Radiators’ songs and both of the Rads guitar players. You now people can call our music anything they want I guess. I just call it music. Maybe we’ll call it music on the half shell?
How is the chemistry with Raw Oyster Cult? Do you all get along, both personally and professionally?
Our chemistry is really phenomenal and for me it’s really special because now I can finally do vocal harmonies, which the Radiators were never really about. With John Gros playing keys and singing and Dave Pomerleau playing bass and singing things are really great. We’ve worked up a bunch of new songs that we plan on taking on the road this spring. So yeah, I love having the vocal harmonies, and we play really well together. You know we’re just getting started, but this will not be as much of a full time thing like the Radiators was. You know we all have other things that we’re doing and/or just don’t want to play as much as we used to. So we will have to see what happens.
What about a possible studio album?
Oh yeah! We were just talking about that the other day. We are definitely going to make an album. I just have to write a couple more songs and John Gros is also working on a couple of new ones.
How do you feel about songwriting? Do you enjoy it or hate it? Do you ever suffer from writers block?
I suffer from being my own worst critic. I have millions of ideas and cool lyrics and musical ideas and I am so self-editing that, out of every 9 or 10 songs that I write, I’ll only keep 1 of them. So I should probably bounce more songs off John Gros, because like I may have an old song that I pull out and play for someone and they say, “wow, that’s a great song! Why don’t you finish it?” And I’ll say, “Well, because I don’t care for it…” I really need to write more with someone else, because they tell me that I’m a dumb ass, and that I need to stop throwing away good stuff. But mostly I just need people to tell me that I’m a dumb ass (laughs).
No I am really hard on myself. Songwriting is enjoyable to me but it’s tedious because I’m so meticulous. I try to be about not only what the words are and what the words say, but the way they sing and the way the meter of the words fits in with the music. So sometimes I just let it roll in some ignorant song like “Where Was You At.” You know it’s tough work and it’s just a matter of getting to finish something I like. You know getting to it is a chore for me.
Don’t knock “Where Was You At!” That’s a great song; one of my favorites!
Oh I love it! It’s an ignorant song but I love it! (Laughs)
Well I must admit that I do love how you still play a lot of great, classic, cover songs like “Spanish Moon” and “Morning Dew.
Well yeah, you know I love doing that. I feel like I bring something different to those songs that I happen to really like. And I’m not at all interested in doing them the way most of the well-known versions are played. I like to take the songs that I like, and put my own little twist on them. You know I do that a lot, and I’ll even rewrite people’s lyrics, I don’t really care if they don’t like it.
Well that’s about all the questions I have for you today Dave. Last one: what are for plans for upcoming live shows?
We’ll have to see. Traveling is getting more and more difficult, but you know, what don’t kill us makes us stronger. It’s also tough because we all have other busy schedules. We would definitely like to come back to The Funky Biscuit in Boca Raton because that’s an easy trip. So yeah, well see what comes next.
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