You’re an accomplished trumpeter. Was music always a part of you growing up?
It’s in my genes and in New Orleans. My brother took me under his wing and he was influenced by my grandfather. Here, music is the heartbeat, and at one point everyone in New Orleans was playing some kind of instrument and everyone’s driven by music. If I grew up anywhere else I wouldn’t be playing the same music.
There’ll be some in the audience who haven’t heard your music before. What do you want to tell them?
It’s a collective experience of music from New Orleans, a combo of strong influences from hip hop and jazz. Just go to the show and check it out. People should just come out and see what happens and pass the experience to someone else.
You covered Allen Toussaint’s “On Your Way Down.” Why?
I wanted to cover someone from New Orleans and he’s one of the greatest songwriters from the city. I wanted to do a song with a good message in it more than anything, and I wanted to make it modern. I felt relieved when he said he enjoyed our cover, because we completely stripped the song down and made it our own.
If you had to give up either the trombone or the trumpet, which would it be?
Trumpet if I had to. The trombone is one of the hardest instruments more than anything else, the guitar, bass, keyboard; you can press your finger to a note. With a trombone it’s a slide so you have to be really accurate. I like the musical challenge that it presents.
We can’t wait to have you in town. What should we bring to the party?
Expect high energy music and bring your dancing shoes. I hope there won’t be any chairs, because we’re going to bring the funk from New Orleans!
Timbre Rock & Roots Music Festival is on Apr 15-16, 6pm at the Marina Promenade, F1 track behind the Singapore Flyer, 6338-8277. $70-200 from Sistic.
