SR: Steve Rogers, and I am the bass player and do a little bit of background vocals for the band.

AP: Andrew Portwood, and I play guitar and do some of the singing.

TJ: I'm Trevor Jones. I do a lot of the singing and play lead guitar.

ML: I am Mark Levy and I play drums and sing.

KOD: Tell me a little bit of your story as a band. How did you come together and what were some of your inspirations?

SR: We were all friends in middle school and high school when we were 15 and 16 years old, and we started to play in different projects, you know, those little cover/garage bands you play in around that time.

AP: Practice all year to play the talent show at school...

TJ: Yeah we were all friends back in high school, and we were all in multiple projects, different combinations of us four wound up playing together, everything was intermingling a little bit, and that was the root of the situation. We all went to college in different spots. I came here to Tulane, Mark was at New England Conservatory in Boston, Steve and Andrew went to Belmont University which is a music business college in Nashville. During college we did go on tour and record...during the summer, winter break, spring break...whenever weren't studying and we could get on the road and do it. When we graduated, we were in a position where we had a label set up, and we started touring...trying to do 10 to 12 shows a month. It grew from jam sessions in the garage to full blown touring.

SR: Its kind of interesting that we did grow up together in Colorado, and we were great friends before, but it took all of us meeting up in Nashville to really come together as a band. I was going to University of Colorado, and ran into...

TJ: Johnny Law

SR: ...a little disagreement with the administration there, and at this point it was right after Trevor had relocated after Katrina. Andrew called him and got him to go up to Nashville to attend Belmont which is a music business school, and he had other good friends that were going to Nashville also. Then they found out about my sticky situation and my need to find a new place to study, and got me out there too. So that ended up leading to us recording almost all of our first record out there.

AP: Adding to the story here a little, while we were at Belmont, that gave us the opportunity to record at RCA's Studio B, and get some actual inside information and do some recording with working producers who helped us very much...

TJ: A lot of the other guys that we played with before this band are all in three or four bands that play a good bit in Colorado, so there really is a small pool of musicians that play together and have a scene of good music coming out of there.

KOD: That reminds me a lot of the pool of people that I came up playing with here in New Orleans...The Frenchmen Street scene, Royal Fingerbowl, Klezmer All-Stars, Los Vecinos, Iris May Tango, All That, etc...we all played together and split up and found new combinations and continue to play now.

ML: We have always had the idea that music should be a communal thing, not just for the musicians, but for the people that want to hear the music too. That seems to be what this city is built on.

TJ: It is a great thing...like the other day, I sat in with your band, Kevin, and played with Papa Grows Funk last night. It is just that open atmosphere that makes New Orleans great.

KOD: So, it's perfect that you ended up here. Tell me a little about your music. What is behind it, what does it mean to you, and where are you trying to go with it?

ML: We come from a lot of different backgrounds, but the roots of what we play are coming from the same place, and the music is a nice place to bring those different elements together, and to come up with our own sound. The record that we just came out with, Tell Me True is really kind of a stamp in time when we were all in different places.

SR: There are a lot of different genres on the record. It is a diverse record.

ML: Yeah, I was studying Tabla (Indian Classical Drums) at the time, so there is some of that on the record.

TJ: There is some Meters style chanky guitar on there. Some bluegrass picking.

SR: The songwriting is almost from the time before we were a band, this is what everyone brought to the table, and the release of the CD coincided with the beginning of us touring full time.

AP: I am happy with the record, we have horns on there, we have good friends that are guests on a couple of tracks. Keys and good percussion. We recorded at a house in Nashville, and a little in Colorado, and we were able to take our time making the album.

SR: It makes the next record all the more exciting to do also, because we've played 120 shows together since then.

KOD: Would you say that you have achieved a synthesis of all your different styles now?

TJ: Yeah.

SR: We have developed our own sound now...

TJ: We are at a really interesting point in music where there aren't that many rock quartets coming up now. There are a lot of DJ's and electronic artists out there, and I think that music has a lot of value to it, but there is just something that you can't get without the music happening live. Without the vibrations coming through the strings and out through he amps...you know, not pre-recorded music. We are trying to do something different.

AP: I think now, about 96% of what we do now is play live. That for me is all about the audience, and watching them move and coagulate and shake their butts. We are starting to catalog all of our set lists, too, to make sure that we aren't playing the same show over again, cause there are lots of people that come time and time again, and they are sensitive to how we are doing our tunes, if we played the same song two nights in a row, or if we did an improvised section the same way twice. Very nuanced things, that actually help our musicianship.

KOD: What has the city of New Orleans given you in terms of inspiration and influence over the last few months?

AP: As a newcomer, from bouncing around the last few years, I have lived in the Mid-West where there ain't anything going on, and living in Colorado and in Nashville, where I learned about song structure and developing music, but here has influenced me the most. I have learned about extending my phrases, and advanced my writing, and there is a lyrical element here that people don't know about. The traditional songs, like "Iko, Iko". I think the city is doing to us what it has done to the people who have come before us. This city has the roots and we feel it. If you listen to Bob Dylan or other influential artists, how many times do they reference New Orleans in their lyrics?

ML: This city has the Ju-Ju.... and just seeing the music every night of the week. I have been able to hang with Johnny V. a few times already, and it is just amazing that you can talk to such world class musicians

TJ: And they are still a dude just sitting in your living room....

SR: You know that people talk about Nashville, New Orleans, and Austin as the best live music cities.  And after doing all three, there is no doubt that the best is New Orleans. In Nashville, it is all about, me me me, and can I sell you my song. And if you do talk to them, its like what can you do for me? And here, not only do you have the most talented musicians, but well, you can go see them for five bucks.....and get their number and they will actually talk to you and give you lessons, or sit down and hang out with you. Now in Colorado, with Big Head Todd and the Monsters, you couldn't go see them play for less than 30 bucks, and if wanted to talk to them, their management would be pushing you away within five minutes. Fagettaboudit.... down here, the music speaks for itself, and every player realizes that they got to where they are with help from someone else, and are willing to give back.

TJ: There is a common musical language...improvisation is the common musical language. Like when I first met Russell Batiste, he was like get up here and sit in with the band. I mean five minutes sitting in with people like that is better for your chops than 5 hours of practicing. This one particular night, I sat in with Russell, Joe Krown, and Walter Wolfman, and it was on a tune that had lots of changes, and I did alright, but I struggled a little, and afterwards, when everyone was out of the club, Walter came up to me and put his hands on my shoulder and said, "It's A flat, D, G, and C"....its all about the music.

SR: The cats you see hanging out at the Leaf are great and the only thing that holds me back from talking to them is just me being like damn, that's so and so.....

KOD: Cool. What do you have coming up where people can come check out your band?

AP: April 3rd and 17th, we are doing some happy hour shows at the Avenue Pub on St. Charles. 6 to 9 p.m. We are also playing Crawfest on Tulane's campus April 4th. and that night, we will do an after party with the TBC Brass Band at Handsome Willy's. Also every Monday at Banks St. Bar at 10 p.m. Also Mark, our drummer, will be at Dragon's Den Tuesdays in April. Twice with Frog Gone Fishin' and twice with Brandon Tarricone from Brotherhood of Groove. Brandon was very helpful to us early on in our career when BOG came up to Colorado and he talked to us and was encouraging as could be.

KOD: Tell me about the Mountainside Mardi Gras at Red Rocks that you are putting together.

TJ: That is going to be August 8th at Red Rocks Amphitheater. We are doing all of the organizing for it ourselves.

AP: Let me get the lineup here....top to bottom: Dr. John, Dumpstaphunk, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, George Porter Jr., Papa Grows Funk, Big Sam's Funky Nation, Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes, Soul Rebels Brass Band, or TBC Brass Band.

TJ: Next year, we are hoping to have two days of music.

KOD: That's really impressive y'all...all the best to you.

Check out the Frogs Gone Fishin' website by clicking here.

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