What have been your musical epiphany moments?
I feel like this has changed over time. I've always been a live performer, I grew up in theater. I've always been about the live show. Over the last few years, especially with this band, it's been all about crafting songs and crafting a live show that is going to inspire people, and make people feel good, and come back to see us. We’ve been building this family and atmosphere with our fans. I don't even like calling people our fans because it's weird, I feel like we build such close relationships with people when we tour. They become our friends.
We grow this kind of friendship base in this family everywhere we go. Crafting songs for the live experience, people are going to want to sing. I always try to write songs gender neutral because I don't want to write really girly songs, and then guys don't feel like they can sing along. It’s just an inclusive environment. That has worked, and that I feel like that's been the epiphany of our work
At one of our last shows on this last tour a woman came up to me and she said, “I really appreciate what you're doing.” She said “I feel like what you're doing is more than the music. You’re creating this really positive environment for the world. It’s cool that people are like us and that people want that. People are sensitive beings. This kind of relationship of kindness is attracting them, and they're getting it and more and more people, and bonding with this family.
Talk to us about the song-writing process for you. What comes first, the idea? A riff? The lyrics? How does it all fall into place?
It's random for me, probably less so of a riff because I'm more of a melody and lyric person. But my partner in life and in the band, Robin, is a guitar player. I feel like he often writes a riff. Probably for him it's a riff. For both of us it can be a hook or a phrase. I still love the album format, and I always want to craft a complete story.
We’re about to go into this process to record an album in December. This will be our first album since before the pandemic. The album we released recently we wrote before the pandemic, but we held on to it during those two years. And then we released it as we were coming out of it, so it feels new to people. But for us, for me, it's old, but for me it's my thoughts from 2019.
As I'm going into this album, I really tried to be aware of how I am feeling, how the world is feeling, how is everything gonna feel in six months from now when we release this album, and what kind of songs and what kind of story are people going to want to hear.
Who has influenced you the most?
I feel like we have to say, our parents. I think my mom and has influenced me the most just as a person, and not because she's raised me as a single mother most of my life. My dad too, by not being around, has influenced me as a person. I think those things come together in who you are as a person, and then how you're going to react to the world, and how you're going to absorb the other sources of information, and inspiration around you.
Where do you look for continuing inspiration? New ideas, new motivation?
I hate seeing the word diagnose, nut my doctor identified that I'm HSP, which is highly sensitive person. And when she first said that I was offended, I'm like, “I'm not sensitive.” What are you talking about? But it was also because I was going through extreme stress at my job. She told me “This is not the right job for you.”
I have a creative agency with my partner and husband Robin, but I also sometimes take full time jobs with other people. I was doing that in cannabis. I've been working in the cannabis industry off and on for a few years now. My most recent one was just crazy stressful. I would wake up every day, crying and then would come to this desk and have to lead a team of people because I was the head of marketing. I would be crying and then be like, “Hi everyone,” like it's fine.
Having to try to hold all your emotions and stress throughout the last couple of years of the pandemic, where a lot of people were working from home, and being forced to be in our houses for so long, it forced me to go outside more. I've never had a green thumb until the pandemic and now all of a sudden, I'm obsessed with gardening, and being outside and being in nature as much as possible.
We got a house with my mom in Riverside, and that house is on a corner lot. I was determined to this little bit of land and like make it an oasis. I have planted 17 fruit trees I've gone crazy. I'm still not done. I'm building it in layers.
Now I want to be in nature all the time. Now I want like a donkey. But I'm trying to figure out how to have a farm and I just feel inspired and immensely relaxed. It’s made me realize or decide that being outside, and being in nature, and being a part of like, what I call the real world is what my body and mental state need. I feel as humans, we get so far into these routines and technology and modern conveniences that we're not even looking at this world around us that functions on its own. It’s going to survive with our without us. I can just feel the energy and there's just something magical about what's happening in nature
We're all a product of our environment. Tell us about the band's hometown and how that reflects in the music?
I'm originally from a city called Covington in Louisiana. I'm originally from Louisiana, which is a very interesting environment. It's a cool place to be from as far as nature, it's a literal, a jungle swamp. Even though I'm from a more suburban city, what I call the Orange County to New Orleans, I just grew up around so much nature, for better or worse. My mom would be mowing our lawn, and you would hear a giant snake that will accidentally be like chopped up in the lawnmower. And it was like a water moccasin, which was like our deadliest snake in America, and I'm just playing in the yard. I used to go play in the woods all the time and be by myself, and I'm always think, how did I live? How was I not eaten by an alligator out in the woods?
I've also lived in California now for 20 years, basically half of my life. Half of my life in Louisiana half my life here. California is also a very magical place, we have so many different terrains and animals within one state. We go to England a lot for touring, and all of the UK is the size of California, it's like eight hours from the bottom of the UK to the top of Scotland. And we have that all within this one state. I love living in California, I think it's beautiful.
I grew up in theater, and I grew up with drag queens and all these things being totally normal, in Louisiana. If someone's dancing, and you don't dance, they're gonna look at you like you're the weirdo. Like “why do you think you're too good to dance to this music?” Whereas with California, people are a little bit more reserved, standoffish in LA and Orange County, maybe. But there's such beautiful culture here. I just love everything about Mexican culture and Mexican people. There's so much of that too in the New Orleans, the Spanish and the French, and just the native cultures all combined.
My partner and husband Robin is English. That’s one reason we go to England so much. It's also a smaller market that we're funding ourselves, we're our own label, we're doing everything. We had to pick a place where we could have the most impact. California is very difficult to break through, there's just so much going on here. So we go over there too, and there’s a bit of that over there too. I grew up with a lot of manners, you say yes ma'am and no ma'am to anyone, there's these rules of respect. With England, there's a lot of rules and traditions that they have grown up with. I always try to find the common ground between different people and cultures and what is the common ground between all of these things, and what people like.
Where'd the band name come from?
I wanted to give the band a Louisiana name. So it's called Beaux Gris Gris and The Apocalypse. I’m Beaux Gris Gris, been I born a boy my name would have been Bo Gregory, which is a fish because that's how my dad thinks. But Bo Gregory also translates to gris gris and Gregory is also a voodoo good luck spell. It’s become the generic like, New Orleans word because Dr. John used it a lot and people know what it is.
I try to use it as education and hopefully not cultural appropriation from the Voodoo culture. There's a way to bring people together through all these different cultures, and to be inspired by such beautiful areas. I feel very fortunate that I get to go to all these places, and I've lived in these places. There’s endless inspiration from these cultures, and with trying to connect with people.
You have one chance, what movie are you going to write the soundtrack for?
My own movie! I have a couple movies that have been on my goals list the last two years. I want to write a kid's film, a kid's horror film that is in Louisiana about a folk creature, but I don't want to give it away because someone's going to steal the idea., I think that's the goal with any kind of musician, you want an album to be people's soundtrack to their movie right now. Right? They're the main character. I think that's the most fun part about being a musician. I also moved to California to be an actress, I wasn't planning on being a musician. I was in musical theater, I was doing acting and all these things and then I got asked to be in a band. And then I said “Oh, well this is better and I get to perform.” But I also get to write a bunch of short films, that’s how I see it. Sometimes I have a music video idea, and I write the song based off of that.
You now write for a music publication (The Ripple Effect?). You're going to write a 1,000 word essay on one song. Which would it be and why?
When we started we got classified as blues. We were playing the blues scene a lot in the UK. I'll give some quick background on Robin. Robin was in a band called The Hoax, he’s still technically still in the band, they’re just not doing anything right now. But they were a five-piece, British white boy band. He was the youngest in the band, but he was also managing the band. He was like 14, so from age like 14 to 24 this band blew up in England. It was after the Stevie Ray Vaughan years of the blues. And they were on Jools Holland, they were assigned to tons of record labels, and they also inspired a new a new generation of British blues musicians. Now me being from Louisiana, and then meeting Robin and then going to England and seeing a bunch of white people tell me what the blues is, a bunch of those people being racist was very shocking for me. Not surprising, but also like frustrating. I moved away from Louisiana because of that.
The people that are aggressively racist are not just racist, they're misogynistic. They don't like anyone who's different. They don't like gay people, it's everything. The people that are that way, the Proud Boys or the really aggressively racist people, feel unsafe to be around. And I felt like I wanted to get away from that, and build a life where I felt like I could be myself, and have blue hair and not get threatened in some sort of way. So I went to England, and there's groups of people there in this blues scene that are very racist, and are fans of the blues. And that continues to blow my mind. We actually have a song about it on our last album that I have to explain because I didn't think that people would realize it was me being sarcastic or ironic.
But we have a line in it that says, “Let's blame the immigrants” because I'm commenting on Eric Clapton and all those sorts of people that are playing this music, and not thinking about where it came from. It's the same in rock music, we have a rock band as well. It’s people not understanding the history and being ignorant in the scene. So with that said, there is a song that I heard called “Alabama Blues!” by J.B, Lenoir in 1979. I would write an essay on that song for all the reasons I said, but I feel like it's the most honest blue song The lyrics are, “I will never go back to Alabama / This is not the place for me / I will never go back to Alabama / This is not the place for me / You know they killed my sister and my brother / and the whole world let them peoples go down there free.” It’s only four verses, but I feel like it just says everything that needs to be said.
Come on, share with us a couple of your great, Spinal Tap, rock and roll moments?
Because we go back and forth between countries, we've been through a lot of drummers. So like Spinal Tap with the drummers exploding. On this last tour we realized our keyboard player Sam, who is young and a baby at 24, has not seen Spinal Tap yet. But of course, he's also a musician, so he's heard like every quote, the “turn it to 11” line and all that and all that. On this last tour, one of our older band members Mark, who is filling in on drums for us, is trying to tell Sam how funny Spinal Tap is, which never works. It’s like a movie that you have to watch, and you need to watch in context because it's all inside jokes. It’s all improv, so I just took some footage of Mark trying to explain to Sam how funny Spinal Tap is. And Sam is trying to be so polite, but it's just glazing over it. Being in a band is Spinal Tap and you're constantly going between taking yourself too seriously and then also just complete ridiculousness when things happen, and you have to just adapt to them. Like the six-inch Stonehenge
Tell us about playing live and the live experience for you and for your fans?
I love playing live. I grew up in theaters, and Robin grew up playing in bands as well. I think we are the type of band that doesn’t want any show to be the same as the other show. We’re all about trying to give fans and people and whoever's there, whether they know us or not, a good time, and to keep people you know, engaged and excited. I think we do that by making sure we're having a good time ourselves. We're not just playing the songs how they are on the record, we have a lot of improvisation. And the songs we're choosing to play, a lot of them are really upbeat and have a lot of different influences mixed in there. In New Orleans we have what I would call small pop, which is the 50s-60s, so it's kind of the blues and country meet kind of the new formation of rock and roll. So you have you some influences from Hank Williams or Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, that era of artists, but then you also have Creedence Clearwater and some 70s rock, and you also have us trying to bring something new to it, and being inspired by new music all the time. Music that's going to get people up and dancing and feeling good and forgetting their cares and their worries. To me, that is the spirit of New Orleans and what I grew up with. We’re here to have a good time and we're gonna have a good time. And we’re living in this moment.
What makes a great song?
What makes a great song is truth. It’s like connecting to something that feels real. But that could be everything from a serious song, something that makes you maybe cry or you connect to it in a personal way, but also just something that makes you shake your ass. I feel like it could be contrived, but it doesn't feel contrived, it’s what I relate to. I relate to Jason Isbell’s new album and also Amanda Shires, his partner, I love what they're doing. I think they're making some beautiful music, but I also love a good dance pop song that will make you feel good. I love all the stuff right now from Penrose Records out in Riverside. All The Altons, The Sacred Souls, and that kind of music, the soul retro stuff brought from a new perspective, and people writing about what inspires them.
Tell us about the first song you ever wrote?
I remember writing songs in the playground in elementary school. I had one that I wrote, was I used to sing it all the time. And then in hindsight, I realized I ripped that off from a Tina Turner song, there's a bridge in a Tina Turner song that I heard later, and I was like, “oh, that's probably where I got like that concept from different lyrics.” But the melody was too close. I don't count those but I would say the first song that I wrote and released is a song called “Baby Baby,” which is out.
We put it on the first album for Beaux Gris Gris, then that song and is taking on its own life. It's really cool because that song has been a hit for some people, I think it's just evolved and got better and better as we're doing it live, and it's now on our live album and grown men cry to the song! I think it's so magical to see that happen because I just wrote it on acoustic guitar, it was when I was in a troubled relationship, one of my first long term relationships. I had another friend who was going through a divorce that I wrote about, and I used to always sing it for them.
It's kind of a comforting song saying everything's gonna be alright, so I would say that's the song that's been the slow growth success, and it has taught me a lot about songwriting. trust in my instincts in what I'm writing, and to stay honest and truthful about what I'm writing about.
What piece of your music are particularly proud of?
I would say that one. Usually I get bored, or I am never happy with the way things were recorded. That one's where when I hear the original recording that we put on the album, and I'm like, “It's okay.” But I feel like every time we do it, it gets better and better. And I just get prouder of it.
Who today, writes great songs? Who just kicks your ass? Why?
Jason Isbell because of his lyrics, they seem so obvious and easy, but they're just so beautiful. It’s a simple story, if you have anything remotely related to kind of that scenario, whether he's singing about being a kid of divorce, or about his mom, and the way he's describing a look or the room and it's just beautiful storytelling.
I don't know if you saw their documentary. It made me such a fan of Amanda Shires as well because she's in this and kind of calling him out in the documentary for being fake. They’re in the middle of recording stuff, and she's like, “that's fake.” She’s saying, “you can do better.” I just love their kind of relationship, and two artists pushing each other to be better. I just love great songwriters like Ryan Tedder and those commercial songwriters.
Vinyl, CD, or digital? What's your format of choice?
Vinyl just sounds so cool. I just love the way old and new vinyl sounds. It’s still so weird how it even works, to me the science of scratching on this resin disc and somehow my recording got there that is reverberating in the speakers and into my ears. It's just such a cool technology. I love vintage things and old things and I just love the way old things worked. I feel like we built things to last.
Whiskey or beer? And defend your choice
Specifically Scotch. I know that's not technically whiskey and the Americans might be upset at me, and there are some better American whiskies now. But I like the distilling in the cask system. I like a sherry cask. I like adding the sweetness to the distilling process. I think it's really interesting. Beer brewing is also cool. But with beer, I feel like I can't drink beer. It fills me up, I'm a little person. I can only drink a sip of beer. Whereas a Scotch I can have one scotch and I can like sip it and savor the moment.
We, at the Ripple Effect, are constantly looking for new music. What's your home town, and when we get there, what's the best record store to lose ourselves in?
I don’t know what the record store in my original hometown would be. But I consider Orange and Riverside my hometowns currently because I live in both places. Orange used to have a great record store that closed called Pepperland. Now if I had to choose, Penrose Records just opened a record store last week in Downtown Riverside, and I have not been there yet. But I've seen pictures, I'm going to go this weekend. They have all my favorites. They have Little Richard and all these classic albums. I already know that's going to be my favorite record store. And I'm gonna try to not spend too much money there.
What's next for the band?
Our last show of the year is the Making Memories Festival. We’re really excited to be playing this festival for many reasons, not only getting to play LA Historic Park and getting to play with all these cool artists that they have booked, but also for the cause itself. My personal connection with Alzheimer's is that my aunt passed away about two years ago now from Alzheimer's, or complications from that. I'm at the age where our parents are starting to get older, I'm seeing a lot of people having to deal with this where parents are starting to get dementia, and stress and the kind of the toll it takes on people. I'm an only child, my mom lives with me and Riverside. I’m trying to be prepared in case this sort of thing happens to her as well. She just went through it with her sister, and it was very traumatizing for them to see their loved one become someone else.
I think it's one of those things that everyone's used to hearing about as far as a cause. Or they hear about Alzheimer's, but they don't really pay attention until it affects them. So hopefully this helps people be aware of it, and it’s still important to support these causes and the awareness around it, and how to be prepared and help other people, or a loved one with Alzheimer's. To learn more about the different types, the process of helping and taking care of people who are affected.
Any final comments or thoughts you'd like to share with our readers, the waveriders?
I would just say cherish the time with your loved ones and with people around you. Let’s not get so busy and so wrapped up in this kind of go-go-go life that we're not spending time with our people. You have these little moments, and I feel like that's all life is right? It's what we remember from these little vignettes of things that meant something to us. Take time and enjoy music, discover new music. And spend time with your friends and family, and with things you love and care about. A job is only a job.
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