As side projects go, Dragon Smoke is one of the more intriguing bands, not just for its endurance, but for the potent music force brought forth by each member of the group. Alas, the quartet only plays on rare occasions, including an upcoming five-date West Coast tour, which commences on December 12 at the The Mint, finds its way through Santa Cruz, San Francisco, and Sebastopol, before ending at Crystal Bay, Nevada, four nights later on December 16. Dragon Smoke consists of Eric Lindell on guitar and vocals, Ivan Neville on keyboards and vocals, and has been fronted since its inception by the rhythm section from Galactic—Robert Mercurio on bass and Stanton Moore on drums.
Mercurio sat down with Jambands.com during rehearsals for the upcoming tour to speak about the ongoing project and its rare live gigs around occasional discussions of a studio album, and the link between San Francisco and New Orleans, while also touching upon Galactic endeavors, the differences between international audiences versus American crowds, and the ongoing need for variety, in not only a musician’s art, but in one’s life, as well.
RR: Let’s begin with the genesis of Dragon Smoke.
RM: It’s the reason that the name is what it is. There is a promoter out in San Francisco from the Boom Boom Room, Alex Andreas, and he’s a big fan of putting people together that don’t normally play together, and trying to make a new group out of it, ala a supergroup, or Super Jam, or what it has been called for many years. I think in 2000 or 2011, he put the band together, and, originally, the band was Eric Lindell, Stanton [Moore], me, and Jon Cleary, who is a New Orleans piano player.
The gig took place at the Dragon’s Den, which is a tiny little bar down in New Orleans, which holds about a hundred people. It was a great success, it was really fun, and we did a bunch of tunes that none of us normally do. The next year, Jon Cleary couldn’t make it, so we called Ivan [Neville], and it’s become a yearly tradition since then, and we’ve stayed with Ivan for a number of years since then. I think it has been ten or eleven times doing it on the Tuesday in between the weekends at the JazzFest. But it’s moved. We did it at the Dragon’s Den for about three or four years, but it’s became too packed, so we moved it to another club called the Blue Nile, and, recently, the last four or five years, we’ve been doing it at a larger club called One-Eyed Jax.
About four years ago, we all said, “Why do we do this just once a year? Why don’t we do more than just once a year?” (laughs) So, I put together a string of shows on the West Coast, and I think the first time, we just played Santa Cruz and San Francisco. That has become another yearly tradition—to go out to the West Coast in December. For one, that seems about the only time the four of us have free time with our schedules. It’s been very difficult to get this band together. So, yeah, we’re kind of a band of tradition, even though we don’t really play too often. (laughs) But it’s a really fun time when we do.
We don’t play too much, so it is a very special time. We’re getting together today for rehearsals. It’s a band that we all just happened into, in a way, unintentionally, and we grew from there from the original Dragon’s Bend evenings.
RR: You mentioned the significance of a key player at the Boom Boom Room, which, of course, is across the street from the Fillmore in San Francisco.
RM: We have played there in the past after gigs. Stanton and I and a lot of bands have a long relationship with the Boom Boom. The Boom Boom Room’s Alex Andreas was also promoting shows in New Orleans. He put this thing together, and he definitely has an affinity for it. I know there are people who try to do these [collaborations] with bands or musicians, and sometimes it is a little far-fetched. But he has a good way…he’s done it, actually, twice with bands that I was in—there was another band that doesn’t play too much anymore, the Frequinox [a quintet featuring Mercurio on bass, Stanton Moore on drums, guitarist Will Bernard, keyboardist Robert Walter, and Donald Harrison on sax], and he put together five band members, which was really cool. Sometimes, promoters are not musicians, so they think, “Oh, this guy would be fun, and that guy would be fun,” but there is a chemistry that you have to look for in a band. He has an affinity for it.
RR: I want to follow up with what you just spoke about as far as chemistry. I also want to pursue a thread between the cultures of San Francisco and New Orleans. I’m from the Bay Area, and I’ve also spent some time in New Orleans, and it strikes me that there is some rather significant cultural similarities between the two cities. Do you find that same distinction?
RM: Oh, yeah. I always have. From Galactic’s early touring when we first started going out there, I remember our singer Houseman [Theryl DeClouet] always saying, “San Francisco’s our sister city to New Orleans.” And I always thought that was so weird. When I finally went out there, I thought, “Oh, I see it.” It’s funny because it’s very different looking, and they are socially economically different, especially when we first started touring—the dot com thing was blowing up in San Francisco. There is just a general love for music that I notice out there, and clubs like the Boom Boom Room and stuff like that, remind me of New Orleans because they are small smoky clubs, and people playing long, exhaustive shows.
I think that a lot of people moved out to California in the 50s and 60s, certainly into Oakland and other areas, because there were better opportunities, and less racism, and Civil Rights were happening out there. I remember Theryl telling me that. But I still can’t quite put my finger as to why. It does feel like that.
RR: And Eric Lindell is originally from the Bay Area, right?
RM: He’s from San Mateo. Eric is the wild card of the group. Whereas Stanton and I have similar musical backgrounds and influences and we play similar music, Eric whips out artists that I’ve never heard of, and he’s definitely into the singer/songwriter world and comes from a whole different kind of background of making and playing music. He brings in a blues element and a singer/songwriter element that the three of us don’t really have, so it’s great and it makes the project a lot more vocal-oriented than any other projects that Stanton, Ivan, and I are involved with. Dragon Smoke is a very song-oriented band, which is refreshing for a guitarist.
RR: You go back pretty far with Ivan Neville.
RM: Ivan is the patriarch. He brings the knowledge, voice, and some badass chops to the band. He brings in a musicality and he’s also a great vocalist. He also has songs that we perform. In Galactic, we’ve toured with vocalists, but nobody in the band is a vocalist. It is exciting in that way—to be around people who are musicians and great vocalists, and so that stands apart from other projects as Eric and Ivan bring a vocal element that we don’t always have.
RR: And then there’s Stanton.
RM: It’s really cool that we’ve moved around together as a rhythm section. Every person that we work with, we get deeper together and learn more about each other. Even though we’ve been roommates in the band together and we’ve been touring together forever, musically there is always new ground to familiarize each other with. Being in Dragon Smoke got us so vocal-oriented that it got us playing to the song and to the singer, and it took us years to be able to play like that. When you first become a musician, I think, one of the hardest things that a musician has to learn is that it’s not about you, it’s not about your part, it’s about the whole. And nothing makes that more apparent than when you are playing a vocal song and you are supporting a singer. Being in Dragon Smoke has helped Stanton and I with that connection in that kind of way.
RR: On that note, Dragon Smoke doesn’t play too often, so when you do show up in a rehearsal room together to play, how is material chosen? Is it improv-based, where you setup the framework, and then the band sees what is going to happen?
RM: We probably have 30 or 40 songs that we’ve played, and every time that we’ve had a run of shows coming up, we try to pick another five, six, seven tunes. That is what we
are running over today. Eric has introduced another five of his original songs and Ivan has a couple of new tunes. Through that process, something else might come up—Ivan may say, “Oh, yeah, I forgot about this tune; let me show it to you.” So, he shows it to us, and we’ll add it to our repertoire. And then, within those songs, once we know the structure, there’s a lot of room for improvisation within it, or something else might happen, or we might go into a different song. We keep it as loose and open-ended as we can, but also within a structure, having some sort of focus.
RR: Is that still exciting for you as a musician—the unpredictable possibilities?
RM: Yeah, it is. There are so many because we don’t play that often. I don’t know what Eric has been doing. The last time we played was JazzFest. He was funny. I was just talking with him this morning, and he said, “I’ve become a lot better guitar player.” (laughter) He said, “I’m pretty good now. Get ready, man.” So, I don’t know. He’s learned some new stuff. If you look at music as a conversation, it’s like getting together with an old friend and “let’s talk about all the stuff you’ve learned over the last six months,” so that filters out throughout the show. “Oh, man, Eric’s learned some new licks, and Ivan’s got a couple of new things up his sleeve.”
It’s different when you see something every day. Conversations are a lot more immediate, and you don’t really notice how much growth there has been. It’s exciting in that way. We all get along so well. We try to make it a very low-stress environment and very healthy: “Let’s just have fun and make the most of it.”
RR: Nothing past these dates in California and Nevada until the spring?
RM: Yeah, next one would be at Jazz Fest. I try…I’m the guy that books and manages the band, and I’m constantly trying to get the band together whenever I see a window in the Galactic schedule, but it’s just super difficult because Eric and I also have really busy touring schedules, so (laughs) it’s almost impossible to get us together.
RR: With the status of the schedules of the current quartet, would it also be nearly impossible to say, “Why don’t we spend two weeks and bang out a studio album?”
RM: It’s not impossible, but I’ve tried and it’s just become something really hard. Every time we get together, everybody says, “We’ve gotta do this. Why don’t we do this? We’ve got to record an album.” And it would. It would come together quickly, I think, because Eric is a really prolific songwriter, and I think the rest of us are quick players that can help sculpt the tunes. We all would love to do it, but it’s just so hard with our schedules. Sadly enough, it’s a side project, and everybody has to put their main projects on the front burner. It’s hard to find the time. It’s a bummer.
RR: Let’s talk about those conversations you have with musicians you don’t always see all the time. What’s it like to have a conversation on stage with Corey Glover?
RM: (laughs) He is awesome to have a conversation with. He is completely entertaining, and he is having a conversation with each one of us throughout the show. It’s hilarious. Lately, he’s been having a lot of conversations with Stanton on stage. (laughs) He’s an amazing singer, and he is probably the singer that I really never know what is going to happen when he gets on stage. He has moments where we leave complete improvisation up to him, which rarely ever happens with a singer where they feel comfortable enough to make up whatever they want. Every night, he comes up with something uniquely different. He just blows us all away. He’s just a beautiful soul and an amazing talent.
I am amazed at how egoless he is, as well. I didn’t know him before working with him. He’s reached a lot higher levels of achievement over his years, and he could be somebody with a much larger ego, or a been there, done that attitude, and he just shows up every day like he’s excited, and it’s like it is his first gig. It’s really cool to see that. I’ve recorded and performed with people that are way lower on the achievement level, and have way bigger egos.
RR: Speaking of unique perspectives, Galactic is about to return to Japan again for a series of dates. What has been your experiences there, and how do you feel your music goes down in that particular culture?
RM: Oh, it’s the best. I don’t want to dismiss America at all, but it really is an amazing audience over there. They are so listening. You can play a festival for 40,000 people there, and they are all paying attention. The percentage of them paying attention is so high compared to other countries. They really come to see a show. They want to be part of it. I think in the States, they are coming to a party. They are coming to see their friends, and they are coming to catch up or whatever. Over there, they see it, and they want to be a part of it. But it’s not too sterile. It’s not like they are very quiet. After every solo, and after every dynamic, they are so with you on every musical wave that you go through. I think that there’s something extra special—you’ve traveled that far to people 10,000 miles away, and they know the music. We might start playing a song from our first album, and the people cheer. Just to have people from this totally different cultural knowing your music feels so special.
RR: The band also played at Australia’s Caloundra Music Festival in September.
RM: Crazy. Crazy year. We were in Japan in July, too.
RR: Right, the Fuji Rock Festival.
RM: Yeah. Yeah. So, we’ve been really bouncing around. Australia was also super cool. I think it was our third or fourth time going over there, and this was a smaller, regional festival that we played last time, but we played three shows, so it was really nice to be over there and really settle in and meet some great people. We met some great musicians. It’s just such a beautiful environment over there and very inspiring to have a good time.
RR: How about playing at the reopened Capitol Theatre in October in New York?
RM: Oh, yeah. That was cool. That night was just so special because Allen Toussaint opened up the show, played solo piano, and then, he performed a couple of songs with us. He did a duet with Corey Glover on one of Allen Toussaint’s songs called “What Is Success?” and it was definitely a musical highlight for me, and, also, the rehearsal before the performance. We had a two-hour rehearsal before the performance running over these songs with Allen Toussaint, and to see him in his musical director mode, and him kind of producing or directing the band in a way is his forte. He’s been doing that for years, and he’s the master of doing that, and to have him doing that with Galactic was so cool and inspiring—just to see somebody at his level and how and why he’s reached his level because he’s truly a master at organizing and arranging music.
The rehearsal alone, I would have been happy with that. The performance, when he sat in and he and Corey started riffing off each other and improvising vocally, was a musical highlight of my whole career. The theatre, alone, is so beautiful, and it’s so exciting to see something like that. It’s rare that you see clubs and theatres moving in that direction. Usually, it’s the opposite—either they are closing, or they are rundown. It’s great to see promoters still try to revive old settings like that.
RR: Absolutely. The variety of collaborations also touches a note with me. I saw Allen Toussaint play with Elvis Costello a few years back, and you’d think that may not work, but it certainly did. I think they elevated both of their musical contributions by what they brought to the experience. That was very inspiring, too.
RM: Yeah, they did that album together right after Katrina. There is a reason that [Toussaint] has done it, and has been so successful over the years. He’s been working with a lot of different artists. He did his thing with Robert Palmer, and he did his stuff with so many R&B legends, and then you have somebody like Elvis Costello. He knows where to slip in and how to direct.
RR: Galactic collaborated with various musicians from various backgrounds and cultures on the latest studio album, too, Carnivale Electricos .
RM: Yeah. With any album, afterwards, you always feel like there’s something like “I would have done this differently,” or “if we had had more time.” There’s always something I might have done differently here and there, but I was happy with it. I was the main producer on the album, so it was exciting for me to accomplish that—to make the album and have it done. To tell you the truth, we’re just moving on, and working on the new album now. Stanton and I have been in the studio every minute that we’re home to try and produce the next album.
RR: When can we expect the new Galactic studio album?
RM: We’re trying to finish it by mid-next year, so, sadly enough, probably the beginning of 2014.
RR: After the Japan tour, Galactic plays at Tipitina’s on New Year’s Eve.
RM: It’s funny. We used to go to San Francisco on New Year’s Eve. We started to play New Orleans for New Year’s Eve right before Katrina, but, then, the New Year’s we played right after Katrina, the storm had just hit in August, and it was just kind of getting back together in November, and New Year’s Eve was Tipitina’s first show, and that night, in particular, was just amazingly special that had this feeling that “we can do this; we all can come together to make this happen; the city can come back.” I remember before that New Year’s, in October and November, I was wondering if it was really going to even happen. Were people even going to be in town? And the show went off and it had such a special feeling. It’s such an important night at the beginning of a new year that it’s become really important for the band to be here, and to be with our families. It’s just so nice to spend it in your hometown.
RR: And then you leave town to head out onto the open seas on Jam Cruise.
RM: (laughs) Yeah. Such crazy stuff going on. I love Jam Cruise. A lot of our trips are working vacations, but Jam Cruise, in particular, is, as the schedule is really easy, and it’s such a great time of year to get back together. It’s like camp, in a way. They tend to hire a lot of the same bands year to year, and a lot of them are people that I’m friends with, and even ones that I am not friends with, I tend to get to know over the five or six days. I’ve created a lot of great musical and friendship bonds from my experiences on Jam Cruise.
Usually, at a festival, you’re there for a few hours, and then you have to go wherever—back to the hotel, or head out and grab a flight somewhere, some place. On Jam Cruise, you’re at a festival for five days; there’s nowhere you can go. And that’s a good thing. It forces you to go see that band that you’ve been meaning to see, or go sit in with this band that you’ve been meaning to sit in with, so it’s a great experience just on the musician level. For the fan, they get to see all of that stuff happening—the sit-ins and collaborations. I’ve actually made a lot of friendships with fans over the years, too, because there really isn’t any sort of backstage. Everybody is around the boat and very approachable, so I’ve made a lot of lasting relationships on the boat. I’m happy and amazed and we’re the one and only band that’s been on the cruise every year.
RR: That feeds into my final thoughts, which are getting around the feeling of being burnt out, whether it is playing with other musicians on Jam Cruise, or with the occasional gigs with Dragon Smoke, or playing with Galactic in various settings—on stage, the studio, or otherwise. One never really knows when burn out will appear.
RM: Yeah. I never think that it is so hard. It might just be like…I think the key might just be variety, changing it up a little bit. Not too much—I don’t want to be in a new band every week. Pushing forward—with the Galactic album and the Galactic music, I personally love working in the studio. I love the feeling of accomplishing new music. That is so inspiring to me. Some days, in the studio, like you are saying, there is a kind of burned-out feeling like “Oh my God, how are we going to do this?” And, then, you have other days where you have huge breakthroughs. You are just searching for those breakthroughs, and, hopefully, they come sooner rather than later. I think collaborating with new people all the time is a key thing that has kept Galactic going. We’ve been a band for around 17, 18 years, but we’re always searching for new influences and new inspirations and new collaborators that bring in new juice to the project. I think that has all been a really healthy thing that has broadened the band and everyone’s musicality.
I think that just translates into life, too. I think there’s a phrase that variety is the spice of life, and I think that translates the same way in music.
